John Lewis won't reissue £300 gift card

timbstoke

Undervalued wrote: »

The card came from a bulk promotional deal offered by Neff. They will have paid JL far less than the face value of the cards as they would have bought hundreds or possibly thousands of them in one job lot. How much exactly will be confidential but I would be surprised if it was more than two thirds of the face value.

Well yes, but that transaction has already happened completely separately. OP has (well, had) a gift card which can be redeemed for £300 of goods. So JL's liability is £300 of stock. If JL reissue the card, their liability for the old card is £0 (because they cancelled it), and their liability for the new one is £300 of stock. So they're in no worse position than they were to start with, and if they apply an admin fee to replace the card, they're actually better off, since the replacement will only be worth £290 or so.

Undervalued

timbstoke wrote: »

Well yes, but that transaction has already happened completely separately. OP has (well, had) a gift card which can be redeemed for £300 of goods. So JL's liability is £300 of stock. If JL reissue the card, their liability for the old card is £0 (because they cancelled it), and their liability for the new one is £300 of stock. So they're in no worse position than they were to start with, and if they apply an admin fee to replace the card, they're actually better off, since the replacement will only be worth £290 or so.

Yes and no.

One reason retailers love gift cards is that a very substantial proportion of them are never redeemed. Of those that are many are only partly used. Generally they have a "life" of a year or maybe two at maximum which seems to be perfectly lawful. Unlike cash, the buyer has swapped it for a voucher that can't (lawfully) be turned back into cash, can't be used anywhere else and becomes worthless after a relatively short period of time.

Makes you wonder why anybody buys them really.

Here the OP has, by their own admission, breached the terms and conditions by selling it. To be honest I am amazed JL got involved and stopped the card. What proof did they have that the OP had actually been scammed? It seems unlikely they had enough information quickly enough to make that judgement. Now that the card is worthless the OP has no civil claim against the (scam) buyer. There might still be the possibility of a criminal charge but it seems the police aren't interested. Even if they were it doesn't help the OP.

As I said earlier by getting involved JL may possibly have taken on some liability they didn't have before. Unless, that is, their terms and conditions are legally watertight enough to allow them to void a sold card and "pocket" the value. I don't pretend to be expert enough to know the answer to that. I wonder if it has ever been tested in a high enough court to set a precedent?

alumende27

Undervalued wrote: »

Makes you wonder why anybody buys them really.

i wondered that until recently. My employer has a health insurance scheme that comes with some additional unrelated service called "Perks". One of the said perks is the ability to buy gift cards for various shops at a discount to the face value. (usually between 3 and 12% depending on the shop).

Undervalued

dsdhall wrote: »

i wondered that until recently. My employer has a health insurance scheme that comes with some additional unrelated service called "Perks". One of the said perks is the ability to buy gift cards for various shops at a discount to the face value. (usually between 3 and 12% depending on the shop).

OK, then that is an obvious saving / benefit if you know you are going to use the card.

Equally I can fully see why a company (Neff in this case) would buy them at a significant discount to use in a promotion.

What I really meant to say is "It makes you wonder why any private individual would buy one at face value?" I suppose it is because of the rather strange notion that it is somehow wrong to give money as a gift. However giving something with a price on it and lots of restrictions attached is somehow OK?

We are strange creatures sometimes!

alumende27

I agree that there is little sense to buy them at face value. The power of marketing I guess. You see them at the end of the supermarket aisles and people buy them at Christmas as presents