Gift Cards, No Items and Poor Service. Refund?

A_Shields

I'm sure there have been many questions before related to getting a cash value refund from a gift card and the difficulties around that but does anyone know if there are any grounds to get a cash refund if the service so far has been appalling and i have 0 confidence in the retailer actually providing what I've ordered. Full story below:

As a leaving gift my previous employer gave me a £150 online gift voucher for a hobby retailer back in October 2019, with being out of the country for a period and starting a new job i didn't redeem the voucher till the end of December.

I ordered the items i wanted from them and spent £9.80 of my own money to complete the order. After 2 weeks and no items arriving i contacted the retailer to be told that the order was on hold because they "Lost the stock" of the item i was after during a warehouse move. They confirmed my request to refund the missing item and ship out the other item i ordered.

Again 2 weeks pass the other item still hasn't arrived and I've not seen the refund back into the account. Emailed them again and got no reply. tried again a few days later after another week or two chasing them... again no reply.

I emailed them under a new request to ask for a full refund and not bother sending the other item, finally got an answer and they have refunded the full amount of the voucher. But i'm still missing my £9.80.

Besides the fact i have to chase them yet again for the £9.80, are there any grounds that i can get the cash value for the gift cards and use them elsewhere. I'm loathed to leave them £150 up on the books or god forbid go through another order of items i no longer want and risk wasting another 4 weeks of back and forth.

custardy

You have no chance of getting cash for the gift cards

pinkshoes

The gift cards were a gift.

All you can do is spend or lose them... no cash alternative I’m afraid.

DCFC79

Unfortunately you have no chance of this, your going to have to spend it.

You say hobby retailer, is it something like Hobby Craft or a model shop/retailer ?

A_Shields

Thanks all for your replies, pretty much as I expected then. Seems like gift cards are one of the worst items you can ever have money spent on.

As for the question as to what type of shop it is is, it is an Airsoft retailer not a large chain.

I've still not had my money refunded so will be logging the 4th ticket with them to resolve this transaction before even attempting to order anything again.

Geodark

Gift cards are great through your employer, you can often get them discounted.