Help! Any rights when can't spend vouchers?

elsiemo

Hi, this is my first post. I hope someone can help!
I was bought £150 of vouchers from the high street clothes store, Comptoir des Cottonniers. It turns out that you can only spend the vouchers in store, not on their website. The shoes I want are online but not in my local shop in Nottingham. Comptoir will not send the shoes up to Nottingham from a London shop. I emailed customer services and they will not help me at all. They suggested I go to London to buy them!! I was already angry about this but now i've learnt the Nottingham shop closed down today.
I now have vouchers that I can't spend online or by telephone or in store. I can't go to London to spend them!
Do I have any rights here? The company are being so unhelpful.
Thank you for any advice,
H

System

"Do I have any rights here?"

No

You can still spend the vouchers in store, it's just that you can't spend thenm on one specific item that you want. If the vouchers stated that they could only be redeemed on that particular pair of shoes then whoever gifted them to you may have had a modicum of recourse but you have absolutely none at all

wealdroam

elsiemo wrote: »

Hi, this is my first post. I hope someone can help!
I was bought £150 of vouchers from the high street clothes store, Comptoir des Cottonniers. It turns out that you can only spend the vouchers in store, not on their website. The shoes I want are online but not in my local shop in Nottingham. Comptoir will not send the shoes up to Nottingham from a London shop. I emailed customer services and they will not help me at all. They suggested I go to London to buy them!! I was already angry about this but now i've learnt the Nottingham shop closed down today.
I now have vouchers that I can't spend online or by telephone or in store. I can't go to London to spend them!
Do I have any rights here? The company are being so unhelpful.
Thank you for any advice,
H

To answer your question: no, I don't think you do.

Maybe you should hand them back to whoever supplied them to you - but I do understand why you might not want to do that.

elsiemo

Thank you for the help. I feared as much.
Now it's not just the shoes I can't buy, I can't buy anything! I am angry that the shop were selling the vouchers two weeks ago when they probably knew that they were closing down and therefore there was no easy way to spend them.
I have heard that there are websites where you can sell unwanted vouchers but don't know if they are any good…...

[Deleted User]

Just sell the vouchers on Gumtree or Ebay - someone will most likely pay close to face value for them.

kingfisherblue

elsiemo wrote: »

Thank you for the help. I feared as much.
Now it's not just the shoes I can't buy, I can't buy anything! I am angry that the shop were selling the vouchers two weeks ago when they probably knew that they were closing down and therefore there was no easy way to spend them.
I have heard that there are websites where you can sell unwanted vouchers but don't know if they are any good…...

Maybe the shop staff didn't know that they were going to close down - it might have been a massive shock to them, losing their jobs.

BykerSands

elsiemo wrote: »

Thank you for the help. I feared as much.
Now it's not just the shoes I can't buy, I can't buy anything! I am angry that the shop were selling the vouchers two weeks ago when they probably knew that they were closing down and therefore there was no easy way to spend them.
I have heard that there are websites where you can sell unwanted vouchers but don't know if they are any good…...

Why not direct some of the anger at the person who bought them?

paddyrg

Actually you have my sympathies, a shop selling vouchers a fortnight before closing is crappy. We won't know if it's a franchise or what ever, but it's certainly indicative of terrible customer service if head office aren't prepared to help.

Could you phone the London store (if that's the only other branch) and ask them to post the boots?

elsiemo

BykerSands wrote: »

Why not direct some of the anger at the person who bought them?

I'm not really sure why I would be angry at the person who bought them for me??
I asked for the vouchers for christmas to buy the shoes I had seen online. When she bought them she was not told that the shop was about to close or that the vouchers can only be used in store and that goods cannot be sent between stores.

It was a very generous present.

elsiemo

paddyrg wrote: »

Actually you have my sympathies, a shop selling vouchers a fortnight before closing is crappy. We won't know if it's a franchise or what ever, but it's certainly indicative of terrible customer service if head office aren't prepared to help.

Could you phone the London store (if that's the only other branch) and ask them to post the boots?

Thanks Paddyrg.
I too think it's terrible customer service. The staff there may not have known that they were about to lose their jobs but management certainly would have known and still allowed them to continue selling vouchers as christmas presents in the knowledge the store was about to close. In fact i see it as sharp practice.
I was told that I could call the London store to have them posted but i wasn't allowed to use a gift voucher over the phone either! It's the most stupid situation when i'm actually trying to give them custom.

I am continuing with my complaint and have now raised it with a more senior level of management. fingers crossed…….

glentoran99

and this is just one reason gift vouchers are a bad idea,


day trip shopping to London is whats needed