No longer required

murta

No longer required - thanks all for advice

Swoosh84

You will need to speak with your previous employer if you have any hope of receiving a refund. I work with Cycle2Work often and I have seen cancellations beyond the 14-day period. But it will need to be requested and pushed for by your old HR team if there is any hope, although I think it’s going to be unlikely.

Cycle2Work's contract will be with your employer as opposed to yourself. Your employer at the time of taking your bike order would have paid this in full and in advance with a view of taking this from your salary on a monthly basis. There will also be tax implications for both you and your employer, will be a messy process as NI would have been saved by you and your employer which would have been reported in last years tax period.

cymruchris

You originally had the voucher to get a bike - as you wanted a bike - so do you not still want a bike? There is a Halfords superstore on the IOW - they may not refund it - but they may extend it to allow you to get the bike you originally were trying to get your hands on?

Aylesbury_Duck

Sadly, I think you're stuck when it comes to a refund.  I think your two options are to ask for its validity to be extended so you can get a bike, even if that means waiting/ordering from Halfords, or just writing the money off. I know which I'd choose.

Could you buy a bike - any bike - and immediately sell it?  It would raise some funds quickly.  You wouldn't get RRP for it but you didn't pay the full value of the voucher in the first place, so you might end up about even.  That's way better than your current position.

sheramber

If Halfords had had stock you would have spent the voucher. So you would still have had the amount deducted from your salary.
Financially, you would not be any better/worse off but would have had a bike.

eve824

Just get a bike, for the value of the voucher, and sell it. It doesn't matter that it's not your size as you won't be using it. Yes you will lose some money but you are the one that entered into the contract so some of it you will have to chalk up to experience (i.e., wait til after the probation for any such schemes).

Manxman_in_exile

murta said:

Oh and I found this on their site for COVID-19 related updates, which would suggest it's easy enough to extend them.  My LOC had only expired on 04/04:
"What happens if my LoC expires?

Our Letters of Collection are valid for four months, so you should have plenty of time! If it does expire, just give our team a call on 0345 504 6444." - cycle2work.info/news/covid-19-updates

But apparently Cycle2Work have responded to my former company's HR (via their employee benefits provider) and told them it can't be refunded.

A company just refusing to refund money in this nature seems like a scam/theft even at the best of times, but especially after a 3-month lockdown severely limited the 4-month window I had to even use the thing...

 But you are conflating two different things there.  The way I read it, cycle2work are saying an expired voucher can be extended to allow you to purchase a bike, they are not saying it can be extended for a refund after expiry of the refund period.  So you can get an extension to buy, but not an extension to refund.  Two different things.

It's not really a scam.  I'm a keen cyclist and I have previously looked at the c2w scheme but rejected it because I thought it was too restrictive and generally didn't like the scheme.  Like many tax avoidance schemes (even those approved by HMRC) there are too many potential pitfalls.  In particular, committing to it while still in a probationary period probably was not wise.

As others have said, your best bet may be to buy any bike from Halfords on IoW and sell it.

Manxman_in_exile

OK.  Good luck