What's the point of gift cards?

pmduk

Mk14:37 wrote: »

I once received an incredibly generous gift of £80 of theatre tokens as a leaving gift from all my colleagues, but as I didn't realise that they only had a 12 month validity the tokens "expired" and the £80 is now lost to me and is pure profit for ticketmaster.

Sounds a brilliant gift, but what if the show goes dark (ie closes) early? (NB disclosure comment: my best mate of 35+ years works in that industry, so I can almost always get tickets for the asking)

arbroath_lass

lolavix wrote: »

Still a huge waste of money though as either way I won't get the face value!

I know but not as much of a waste.

Use them to buy gifts for others (birthdays, Christmas, whatever) then spend what you would have normally spent on them on yourself? IYSWIM :cool:

dacouch

In fairness HMV cards are not just for Xmas, they're for life

timbstoke

dacouch wrote: »

In fairness HMV cards are not just for Xmas, they're for life

Well they are now - you can't spend the bloody things!

railbuff

Faith177 wrote: »

Have you ever tried to spend a Scottish note in London??

90% of retaliers will refuse it as they don't believe it to be legal tender.

thats not the reason, as a retailer we dont accept them as for the last few years their has been a large amount of Fake Scottish £20 notes around and our banks advice is not to accept them. We even had a market stall at berwick and would get plenty of scottish notes, but still would not take scottish £20

chuckley

a bit like the loyalty schemes too... I got stuck with £100 on game. as soon as they came back I got rid.

malcumms7898

I think a lot of people get them as xmas or birthday gifts because it is an easier option than trying to pick a present. I am a bit annoyed that I have an HMV card that I cannot use. As Helix says people should be mindful of companies going under and not accepting them any more, which is fair enough. What I find annoying though is that HMV bosses must have known a couple of months ago that their company was about to go under and would no longer be able to accept gift vouchers or cards, and should have stopped letting people buy them when it knew its company was in trouble. I am more annoyed about HMV allowing people to buy gift cards and vouchers when their company was on the brink rather than their not accepting them now. Hopefully HMV comes out of administration so that I can use my gift card, and then hopefully it goes completely under after I have used my gift card. It is a shame that such an old established company will be no more, but I will never again spend cash in HMV (even if it survives).

System

HMV Gift cards can be used from tomorrow. I recommend you use them straight away!

zagubov

Faith177 wrote: »

Have you ever tried to spend a Scottish note in London??

90% of retaliers will refuse it as they don't believe it to be legal tender.

I've lived there for almost thirty years and spent plenty of them without anyone batting an eyelid.
I'd imagine that if you were out in the sticks maybe there might be trouble but anywhere with more than two houses/ and electric power/connected to the national road system seems to use them no problem.:D

NBLondon

zagubov wrote: »

I've lived there for almost thirty years and spent plenty of them without anyone batting an eyelid.
I'd imagine that if you were out in the sticks maybe there might be trouble but anywhere with more than two houses/ and electric power/connected to the national road system seems to use them no problem.:D

For a while I used to travel to Scotland on business and often came back with a Scottish note in change. On that experience, I think it depends on the size of the retailer and the person behind the till. Major chains are more likely than corner shops to recognise them. Only once did I get stuck with an RBS £20 - which I ended up exchanging over the counter at a branch.