Evoucher problem 12 November 2022 at 9:35PM in Consumer rights 7 replies 182 views

richpoortyke

Just wondered if anyone has experienced this before. I purchased a 50 pound voucher for a well known discount store Friday evening to use first thing Saturday morning. It was purchased from on the perks at works style sites where you save a few percent. When I came to pay the amount due the member of staff at the till scanned my barcode bringing the cost from 67.00 to 17.00. Paid this with my credit card which confirmed payment then when I was asked if I wanted a receipt the assistant said her til had crashed. When the supervisor checked her till it came up on the screen saying I needed to pay 50.00 still. Obviously this was the voucher i'd already used. The supervisor then tried to put it through but said there was nothing on the evoucher which obviously now there wouldnt be as I'd just spent it. The store manager came along and said I had to pay the outstanding 50.00 otherwise I couldn't take the items home. I told her that wouldn't be happening as id already paid for the goods. She said I could only take 17 pounds of goods with me which I thought was a bit ridiculous and as I'd already spent nearly an hour going through this with several members of staff I asked for the 17 pound to be returned to my card to keep things simple. However I left the shop with no shopping and 50 down. I've been told I'd get a phone call about it but now I'm wondering if anything is going to really happen as I didn't have much faith in the management there and what happens next? They apparently couldn't get hold of their technical dept and the evoucher providers aren't open til Monday. Any helpful thoughts appreciated.

DanDare999

Wait until Monday?

richpoortyke

Really could do with this resolving asap. Unfortunately I work throughout the hours they are open with only 30 minute lunch and I'm thinking a) it might take a while to get through b) the query might not be a simple one and x) I don't know if they will just send me back to the shop. Just no idea who is really responsible in these circumstances. 

ThumbRemote

The voucher company provided a voucher as they were paid to do. The voucher worked when you paid the shop. Therefore the shop is responsible, because they've got your money and provided nothing in return. 

Personally I'd have walked out of the shop with the goods. You'd paid for them, they were yours. 

Unfortunately I suspect the shop are going to do next to nothing to sort this out. 

richpoortyke

I was very tempted to do so. I've emailed the company tonight in addition to taking the names of those involved. I would hope there is some form of locating what's happened to the voucher. Either its been used in which case there should be record of it being used by me at the time the good were bought by me or it's not been used in which case it should be useable to pay for the goods. If there isn't then I think the company are fraudelently taking money and I will be calling them out on this 

Aylesbury_Duck

All you can do is wait until the retailer is able to check their records.

I doubt the voucher provider will be able to do anything.

Alderbank

ThumbRemote said:

Personally I'd have walked out of the shop with the goods. You'd paid for them, they were yours. 

No.
You might have offered to pay, you might have tried to pay, but that's not how it works.
There is no contract, and the goods do not pass to you, until the retailer has accepted your payment.
The manager was very clear saying that at that time he only had confirmation that you had paid for £17 worth of goods.

Software fails sometimes. It's a fact of life. You yourself are used to Android, iOS or Windows which are very modern and well maintained but even they crash now and again. You would be shocked if you knew how flaky and outdated is the software used by many large retail companies, often dating back to before the millennium and full of patches.

They're not fraudulent, they didn't have your money because something went wrong. Give them a little space (not too much though, a few days from Monday should be enough).

ThumbRemote

Alderbank said:

ThumbRemote said:

Personally I'd have walked out of the shop with the goods. You'd paid for them, they were yours. 

You might have offered to pay, you might have tried to pay, but that's not how it works.
There is no contract, and the goods do not pass to you, until the retailer has accepted your payment.
The manager was very clear saying that at that time he only had confirmation that you had paid for £17 worth of goods.

If they have debited the voucher they HAVE paid. 

It is not the consumers responsibility to deal with the retailers flaky software.