Vouchers taken from account with Secret Sales. Advice required please

shapala

Hi all.

Hope this is the right place to post my consumer rights query.

I purchased £100 of vouchers with the online company Secret Sales in early January. These were then loaded on to my online account a few days later. When I checked their T&C's concerning purchased vouchers (before purchase), there was nothing to say there was an expiry date. I always read T&C's closely in case of any fraudulent activity, having been screwed over by companies a few times over the years.

Between the time of loading the vouchers onto the site and early March, I had spent and used £45, leaving me £55 of remaining vouchers.

In mid March I had a fright, since my e-vouchers were indicated as £0 (rather than £55). I got in contact with Secret Sales concerning this issue and they replied (by email) on Friday with the following:

''Dear xxxxx,


We have checked with our technical support team to establish how these vouchers disappeared.

We can confirm that the £55.00 of e-vouchers expired on the 8th of March 2011.

As stated in our FAQ’s under “shopping at secrersales.com”, “I’ve received an e-voucher. What is it and how do I use it” , that e-vouchers are valid for either 30 or 60 days depending on why they were issued.

Unfortunately we will not be re-issuing your vouchers as they have expired.

For further assistance please contact our customer service team.


Kind Regards,

Customer Services''

Note no name, just signed customer services. As aforementioned, when I bought the vouchers, there was nothing to say anything about an expiry date.

I am very angry and disappointed with Secret Sales. I have used them many times the past couple of years but I would like to know what my consumer rights are relating to this issue. Surely they are i) in breach of their own T&C's, therefore breaking a contract ii) committed theft (vouchers are surely money, so they have blatantly taken money which does not belong to them).

As mentioned, these were not vouchers I gained/won/received as a gift but vouchers I purchased with my own money less than three months ago.

Any help and/or advice would be greatly appreciated. This has grated me for a few days so hopefully fellow MSE'ers can put my mind at rest and tell me what the best coarse of action is.

Many thanks.

fiendishly

it does look very dodgy to me, see this from the faqs:

q My order arrived and it was damaged. Can I get a refund?
a Unfortunately, as we use a third party delivery company, Secretsales.com does not accept responsibility for items whilst they are in transit

more than enough to give them a miss, I'd say.

meer53

I buy from Secretsales, their terms and conditions state that if you spend less than the value of the voucher then no change can be given, maybe worth checking with them whether this is what happened in your case as you didn't spend the full amount ?