Argos won't give me my item paid for with gift cards

timbstoke

That is indeed in the T&C's, and if they felt he was in breach of them, that would have given them the right to decline his trade ins at the time. It doesn't give them the right to revisit that transaction afterwards and rescind the contract.

dan_l

timbstoke wrote: »

*sigh* Change "gift cards" for "cash" and you'll understand. Where he got the gift card credit from is irrelevant, just as it would be had he traded the games in for cash and tried to use the cash to buy his iPad. The OP did nothing wrong here - he provided games in return for value from Argos. Argos were happy with that arrangement. If he'd bought a cheaper item with the gift cards, they wouldn't have batted an eyelid. They don't get to change the rules just because the OP wants to use the cards for a large purchase.

In Argos's eyes the OP possibly did do something wrong though. Their T&Cs state this isn't to be done on a commercial basis. Although very small, buying something at a price with the sole purpose to sell it on at a higher price is probably classed as commercial in some peoples eyes. Espeically in the eyes of Argos I would have thought whose trade-in scheme it is the OP is using for this.

I think people are being a bit naive to think that once these gift cards have been given, companies are never going to invalidate them no matter what the circumstances.

dan_l

timbstoke wrote: »

That is indeed in the T&C's, and if they felt he was in breach of them, that would have given them the right to decline his trade ins at the time. It doesn't give them the right to revisit that transaction afterwards and rescind the contract.

But what if this didn't come to light until afterwards. By the OP's own admission they went to different stores to cash all these games in so what he was doing may not of come to light straight away.

If they had taken all the games at once to one store then it's possible this may have been flagged up straight away.

NCISROCKS

timbstoke wrote: »

*sigh* Change "gift cards" for "cash" and you'll understand. Where he got the gift card credit from is irrelevant, just as it would be had he traded the games in for cash and tried to use the cash to buy his iPad. The OP did nothing wrong here - he provided games in return for value from Argos. Argos were happy with that arrangement. If he'd bought a cheaper item with the gift cards, they wouldn't have batted an eyelid. They don't get to change the rules just because the OP wants to use the cards for a large purchase.

You can sigh all you want. We are not talking theoretically about what if it were cash. You don't even know if Argos give cash for games and then say what if it were cash? We are talking about gift vouchers not cash. Cash is irrelevant here It appears someone/something at Argos has flagged up a problem re. the vouchers and they are investigating it.

NCISROCKS

timbstoke wrote: »

That is indeed in the T&C's, and if they felt he was in breach of them, that would have given them the right to decline his trade ins at the time. It doesn't give them the right to revisit that transaction afterwards and rescind the contract.

Sigh They haven't rescinded the contract. They are investigating a percieved problem with the vouchers.

timbstoke

If they've accepted the trade and given him the gift card, then that's an end to the matter, just as it would be if they'd given him cash - the use of a gift card makes no difference. The contract, in relation to trading in the games, has been concluded.

dan_l

timbstoke wrote: »

If they've accepted the trade and given him the gift card, then that's an end to the matter, just as it would be if they'd given him cash - the use of a gift card makes no difference. The contract, in relation to trading in the games, has been concluded.

You are looking at this in a very black and white way. By your logic if for whatever reason these games came back as being stolen (I'm not for one min saying they are OP just using as an example), do Argos still have no right to invalidate these gift cards?

Likewise if somebody goes into a shop and buys vouchers with a stolen credit card, if this comes to light before the vouchers are spent, are the shop still not allowed to invalidate the vouchers.

I know these are extreme examples compared to possibly breaking a term in the terms and conditions but if you accept that vouchers can be cancelled in the 2 examples above, then surely this throws your theory of Argos not being able to cancel the vouchers after the games have been traded in out the window?

texranger

dan_l wrote: »

In Argos's eyes the OP possibly did do something wrong though. Their T&Cs state this isn't to be done on a commercial basis. Although very small, buying something at a price with the sole purpose to sell it on at a higher price is probably classed as commercial in some peoples eyes. Espeically in the eyes of Argos I would have thought whose trade-in scheme it is the OP is using for this.

I think people are being a bit naive to think that once these gift cards have been given, companies are never going to invalidate them no matter what the circumstances.

if this is the case then argos should return the original games back to the OP.

dan_l

texranger wrote: »

if this is the case then argos should return the original games back to the OP.

I Completely agree, Argos shouldn't be left with the games and gift vouchers but at this stage it is possible they are looking into it with a view to still giving the OP the vouchers, or they believe they have another reason to keep hold of the games.

I get the impression the OP doesn't want the games back so it's possible the OP hasn't actually asked Argos to give him the games back.

timbstoke

I see where you're coming from, but in the examples you gave, the person receiving the vouchers would not have had good title to them - they either gave goods that were not theirs to give, or they paid with currency that was not theirs to use - and in both cases, Argos would lose their part of the bargain - either the stolen goods or the recovered funds. In this case, if Argos decided to revoke the vouchers, I'm confident the OP would win if he then started proceedings to recover them. I'm looking at it in black and white because, as far as I can see, it's a black and white situation.

However, I think we're in danger of straying off the point of the original question. As NCIS says, at the moment there's no question of them invalidating the vouchers, so all this speculation is a little academic. I'm going to back out here and let everyone else disagree with me :-)