Voucher Con

DrBeard

I'm sure everyone has suffered from a lost or expired voucher but why do we put up with this?

I don't see why retailers are allowed to keep what must be £100k's of free cash annually.

I can understand why there should be an expiry date, just for administrative purposes, but surely if the date passes the cash should be refunded to the person who purchased it in the first place (perhaps less a small admin fee)? Why should the retailer keep it despite the fact they haven't provided any services?

The tedious terms and conditions are of marginal relevance because they are agreed by the person purchasing the voucher not necessarily the person redeeming it (in the event of a gift)

I would be interested to know from a retailer how they actually account for vouchers. Do they take the profit at the time of sale or at redemption?

meer53

Retailers get their money when the voucher is redeemed. You buy goods, they get their money. There is no loss or gain for a retailer if a voucher isn't used.

If you don't spend it, the loss is yours not theirs. It's like you having £100 in your wallet then losing it.

p00hsticks

meer53 wrote: »

Retailers get their money when the voucher is redeemed. You buy goods, they get their money. There is no loss or gain for a retailer if a voucher isn't used.

I think the OP has mislead you by using the term 'voucher' when I suspect from the rest of their post that they are actually referring to what I would call 'gift tokens'.

If I go into a retail store (say WH Smiths, Asda, HMV or anyone else who sells these tokens) then I hand over the price of the token to the retailer at the time I buy it. When I later come along and redeem the token in exchange for goods then no furthe money changes hands - I'm effectively paying the retailer in advance for their goods.

If a token isn't used, then the retailer has gained the value of the token and not had to part with any goods - so they obviously gain.

Personally, I'm with Dilberts mum on the subject of gift tokens - I donlt understand why any one would exchange a piece of paper (in the form of a bank note ) that you can spend in any store at any time in the future for a piece of paper (in the form of a token) that you can only spend in one type of store, and then for only a limited period of time. It's madness !

Ectophile

I do understand why companies put expiry dates on their gift vouchers.

When you buy a voucher, it creates a debt on their books - they have been paid but haven't supplied the goods yet. Lots of vouchers just get lost. If there were no expiry date, then that debt would be stuck on their accounts forever, and over time these debts would grow and grow.

That doesn't help people whose vouchers have expired, though.