Wowcher

[Deleted User]

I purchased three BYOB pottery vouchers for a birthday present. We had yet to decide what date we would like to go so had not redeemed the voucher. I then noticed a week before the voucher was due to expire that i needed to redeem it. (When purchased I assumed we had ages.) 

So I looked on the merchants website (token pottery) and there was no dates available for that week. I contacted wowcher and they agreed to credit my account with the value of the voucher and the plan was to just purchase the deal again and book on the merchants website for a later date.


Wowcher confirmed via email that the credit would be back in the account in 24hours. I then went on to the website to repurchase the voucher. I was then trying to add it to my basket and I then received an error message or what seemed like a technical error. I tried for a few days and asked my friends to do the same. We all had the same issue. I contacted wowcher and asked what the issue was they said it was a technical problem that would be fixed in a day, then it was out of stock and then it was my internet that was the problem. After 3 weeks of these excuse and incompetent customer service I asked for a refund.

They had asked for my account details before but on this occasion, they contacted the merchant to confirm it was ok to refund me. The merchant then responded stating I had already redeemed the voucher. 

I have never once redeemed the voucher. I was then told the voucher was redeemed on the same day they informed me that I would receive the credit to my account. 

I am extremely baffled to what has happened. I’ve not once redeemed the voucher and my only logical explaination is that wowcher accidentally marked the vouchers as redeemed or there was a technical issue their side which has caused this.

I am now at a lose of £79 and do not know how this can be fixed.
 

I would appreciate any help of who I can contact about further help on this?

jon81uk

Never assume something will last for ages, always check dates and terms before purchasing.

[Deleted User]

How does that help me question? My issue really isn’t that it didn’t last for ages. My issue is I’ve lost my money

TELLIT01

All you can do is persist with Wowcher.  Ask them what date the vouchers were redeemed for, not on.  I actually think you were very fortunate that either Wowcher or the vendor agree to a refund in any form either extending the date or a cash refund.  It's entirely possible that they will now come back and say 'No refund' as they had an expiry date. 

jon81uk

[Deleted User] said:

How does that help me question? My issue really isn’t that it didn’t last for ages. My issue is I’ve lost my money

If the voucher lasted exactly as long as promised when purchased then you still got the product you ordered. Unfortunately by not checking the expiry date you have lost money.
I've just looked on Wowcher at an experience and in the fine print section it clearly states vouchers valid until 28 February 2023. Therefore in that example complaining on the 15th Feb that you need to redeem it isn't Wowchers mistake.

You will need to convince Wowcher that they made an error and you didn't redeem it, not sure how.

But next time put a reminder in the calender a few months before something is due to expire.

Aylesbury_Duck

All that's left to do is to keep pushing Wowcher, but I agree with TELLIT01 - Wowcher offered a goodwill gesture, more than they had to do, so they could just turn around and say no if you're too demanding of them.  

born_again

All you will get from Wowcher is a refund to your Wowcher account. They will not refund back to your card.
This is normal Wowcher process on refunds. 
You bought a voucher & they supplied it. In effect they do not need to refund as they provided what you bought from them 👍

Many threads on this very subject.

Manxman_in_exile

Never buy vouchers that have to be redeemed either for yourself or as presents for others.

There's too many things that can go wrong...

Aylesbury_Duck

Manxman_in_exile said:

Never buy vouchers that have to be redeemed either for yourself or as presents for others.

There's too many things that can go wrong...

Indeed.  It can sometimes be cheaper to book directly with the retailer, anyway, and you then don't break the consumer rights link as you do when introducing a third party such as a voucher provider.