sainsburys gift cards warning

go_cat

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

I found an M&S gift card in the back of a drawer that must have been two or three years old. There was no mention of any expiry date and I had no trouble spending it (although I half expected it to be refused).

.

M&S also have 2 year expiry on them although if you get a balance check that makes it another 2 years:D

NoSatisfaction

Despite what the T&Cs say, it does appear to be a bit of a rip!

However....
Companies need to accrue for unearned income and any liability generated from said income, so in their accounts somewhere it will say liability for unspent gift cards £x.

If the company kept them going indefinately then that liability would grow and grow which would impact the companies balance sheet ratios. Part of setting credit ratings for businesses is by using balance sheet ratios, so companies want the balance sheet to look as good as is possible.

Zandoni

DCFC79 wrote: »

Well i cant see what sainsburys have done wrong here, gift cards do have a set time limit on them, should have payed more attention to the t&c's, in any case what relevance does it have where the money went.

Another case of hiding behind T&C's and so many people on here accept it and say the shop has done nothing wrong.

Cash is the way to go, it doesn't expire and can be used everywhere.

System

I would assume that all sainsburies gift card numbers are stored on a database with the amount on that card registered against it. Then when a gift card is scanned the balance is checked against this database. If they don't have a rule about expiring cards then the database will become unwieldy and over time get bigger and bigger. I believe it is reasonably fair assumption to say if a card isn't used within 2 years then they can delete the information of that card. They don't want to hold this information forever as its basically a waste of time. money and resource. If you complain to Sainsburies they may reactivate the card, however its all going to depend on whether they have actually kept somewhere the information of how much was originally on the card.

zppp

Zandoni wrote: »

Another case of hiding behind T&C's and so many people on here accept it and say the shop has done nothing wrong.

Cash is the way to go, it doesn't expire and can be used everywhere.

Except in this instance it is printed clearly on the card.

There is no point in mollycoddling the OP. The OP has asked a question and has had their answer.

DCFC79

Zandoni wrote: »

Another case of hiding behind T&C's and so many people on here accept it and say the shop has done nothing wrong.

Cash is the way to go, it doesn't expire and can be used everywhere.

i accept it as i would go by the rules, whenever i received the old paper style vouchers in the past they had a date on and so would make sure i would use them before said date

wealdroam

Zandoni wrote: »

Cash is the way to go, it doesn't expire and can be used everywhere.

Agreed... cash is the way to go.

But Zandoni, how does that help the OP?

officeguru

Thanks to everyone who has responded. I will certainly look at gift cards in future. I was telling one of my friends about it tonight and she was telling me that she already knew about the 2 year rule as someone she worked beside has also had cards invalidated..

I am just glad that a few other people are now checking their gift cards. I accept the fact that Sainsburys can't store the details indefinitely, but they still shouldn't be able to just keep the money. I believe that you should be able to return the gift card to them and get a new one issued.

I was lucky in that I could afford to pay for the goods and that I wasn't totally dependent on the gift cards to pay at the checkout.

Thank you to everyone who responded... I'm off to watch the tv..

Cheers

Freddie_Snowbits

Thanks orifice priestess for coming back, I suppose if it was not snowing and the DnD being so inviting, you could have gotten the raff of Freddie. This time I think that by asking sensibly, we get what we wants.

Just one question as to those who think mega corporation should not have expiry dates, think next time the vicar asks you to bake the cakes for church fete, and you run out of the fairy cakes, do you give out vouchers? If you do, how long do you allow Mrs Gooseman to be able to use the voucher?

In this point, the Church roof would be repaired, but does this entitle Mrs Gooseman tonthe lead off the roof at sometime in the future?

In the end it is fair, it is a way to get you in there store, not a passport to a freebie on the future

worried_jim

When I worked in retail back in the '90s our "old style" paper vouchers had expiry dates on them so I suppose nothing has changed.