gift vouchers going out of date. Is it legal?

annieapple453

Twice we've had difficulties with these gift purchases.
My husband purchased an "activity" day for his brothers 50th birthday last year with a year's expiry. An attempt was made earlier this year to arrange a suitable day but it didn't happen and was then forgotten. So with 3 weeks to go, I rang to arrange another. All they would offer was the next available date but we were on holiday. The response was take it or leave it as we had a year in which to arrange it. The cost was £180, a lot to leave.

2ndly I bought a "makeover" for my sisters 40th supposedly with a years expiry but when it came it had only six months. The company said Sorry but they could not extend it but try neared the time and they would "see what they could do".

I know there's a lot of savvy people on these boards (I've been reading a while and saved loads) so I thought I'd ask what others think. Is it legal and should there be more information given before purchase?

dangeroussports

Were you told that it had an expiry date BEFORE purchase? If not then go to trading standards. If yes, then errr.....no brainer!

I guess its similar to those people who have a winning jackpot lottery ticket but have only 180 days to claim it otherwise its cancelled.

hollydays

Yes and No.

Sooler

A lot of companies seem to do that with their gift vouchers – outrageous, for the consumer.

Something we need to be more aware of.

Perhaps people should just avoid vouchers altogether, they are not really a MSE savvy thing as in that respect it would be better to keep the cash in the bank until you want to spend it.

May be it would make a good article for MSE, I wonder how much money is lost by consumers due to vouchers expiring.


May be there are other ways to present money to people as a gift – can’t think of any myself.


Although your vouchers were for a product/service rather than money.


May be a way around that would be to give a print out of the product/service and say you will pay for it for them when they are ready to take it.

grannybroon

A few years ago my husband surprised me by handing over a hand made voucher someone had helped him to make on the computer. It entitled me to return flights to Hong Kong. He then just paid for the tickets when I booked the flight the following year. I think I kept the voucher but doubt if I can pull a fast one by producing it again!

GB

RadoJo

It is just the same as buying a ticket for an event - you buy the voucher in place of the actual activity, and have a certain length of time to redeem it. If you fail to redeem it within that time, then you have forfeited your right to use the voucher. There is certainly nothing illegal about it unless there is no mention of an expiry date on the voucher or packaging, or if you were misled at the point of sale as to how long the validity would be.

Most of these companies have information included in the packaging about voucher validity length and booking lead times (in other words, how long you need to leave in order to secure a booking). Plenty of people do not read them and instead make assumptions about when it can be used.

I may be making assumptions about you though, and you may well have been misled, but you don't mention whether this information was included on the voucher itself? If not then it is definitely worth pursuing as you would have had no way of knowing how long you had to use the voucher. When you say 'supposedly a years expiry' - was this how the product was advertised? Some companies use stock which is closer to the expiry for special offers etc as the dates are more limited, but again, you shouldn't have been lead to believe there was a years expiry if there wasn't.

annieapple453

thanks for your thoughts and yes there was expiry dates but I suppose at the time it didn't sink in what it actually meant!!!

I suppose it made me think about the cost to the company just like bank charges. After all, have they spent money in the anticipation of someone ringing up to book three weeks in advance of any date within that year? And are they entitled to keep all of that money if they have not incurred a loss. or can that be called a service?
I could understand if they had to have extra staff or even extra food which had to be paid for but they require 3 weeks notice and even then you have to fit in to their dates not them into yours.

Any thoughts? Another campaign?? only joking.

By the way we solved the problem by giving the 1st voucher to someone who could make the available date so the company would not get the money for nothing and I gave the 2nd one to my sister in advance of her birthday to give her plenty of time to arrange a suitable date and I'll get her something small for the actual date. Maybe a homemade voucher for a meal or something (thanks for that idea).
Ann

nealallen

I use needapresent.co.uk to buy my vouchers. A few years ago I brought one it had a 1 year valid date.I forgot all about it and called them to be told, don't worry, we will send you another. In a week another was through the door and valid for another year :-)

Mrs_B_12

I can see why such things are dated. If they are selling a voucher for say £100 and the activity costs that at the time that's great, but if someone pulls it out 4 years down the line and the costs have risen and it's now £150 why should they be expected to effectively give it at a major reduction?

When you get a voucher with a cash value it's different, you get the something of equal value.

fudgeukraine

Surely the Voucher is like a ticket for a sporting event and is covered by similar laws. In that, you have a certain date that the ticket can be used for (ie, the date of the sporting event) and after that time it's over.

Afraid it seems like your out of luck, though that's my opinion, not sure on the exact laws but I'd imagine they're pretty watertight, given that vouchers/tickets with expiry dates have existed like this for decades.

C_Ronaldo

I had a voucher given me for xmas once, it was for a shop that isnt in the local town but in the next town and due to the distance its a long way to spend a voucher so i put it to one side and 4 or 5 months later i came across the voucher and i looked at the back and noticed that it had an expiry date on the back, i wrote a letter to the shop saying how i wasnt pleased with the voucher having a date on, the reply i got back was that they did a trial with putting an expiry date on the vouchers, and when i wanted to use the voucher i was to take the letter with me to the shop to show that i had brought it up with HO