Help with wayfair closing my account with an active balance

HillStreetBlues

I have to say I'm at a loss why there is still any talk about Amazon!
Amazon sold a gift card that was valid and been redeemed.

The issue is with Wayfair not letting OP spent the credit.
Once the card was redeemed and credit issued there is now a contract between Wayfair and the OP

Alderbank

HampshireH said:

Unhelpful post I expect but The terms and conditions Limitations section of Amazon terms and conditions say you can't use a gift card to buy another gift card. (I intended to do this over new year before reading I couldn't).

How did you get around this? 

I think you might have misunderstood that term.
You have to read the whole page in its entirety.
At the top of the page where they define Amazon as "us" they also define Amazon.co.uk Gift Cards and Gift Vouchers (including products branded as Gift Certificates) as "Gift Cards". In other words wherever the page says gift card it is shorthand for Amazon.co.uk Gift Card.
The T&C means you can't use Amazon gift cards to buy other Amazon gift cards. 
I suppose that is so that you can't exchange gift cards near their expiry date for fresh new ones.

ETA:
HampshireH, before buying more gift cards please consider MSE's advice to think carefully whether that is the best thing to do.

sheramber

While Wayfair may be correct in not issuing a cash refund they could issue a gift card for the value held in the account.

The OP could then pass to someone to buy on his behalf ( if the wanted to buy from then again) or sell it.

sheramber

from the Terms and Conditions

• Gift certificates are not redeemable for cash and cannot be returned for a cash refund, except to the extent required by law.

Anybody know what law applies?

Manxman_in_exile

sheramber said:

from the Terms and Conditions

• Gift certificates are not redeemable for cash and cannot be returned for a cash refund, except to the extent required by law.

Anybody know what law applies?

Surely all that term means is that in the normal course of use you can't exchange a gift voucher for cash so long as you can use it to buy items from Wayfair.  But the OP can't buy anything here because Wayfair have closed his account and told him the gift voucher is "redundant".  (Whatever they mean by that.  I suppose they mean is no longer valid or can no longer be used).

I'd suggest that if Wayfair have received payment for the gift card, then they can't arbitrarily tell the OP both that they can't use it and that they can't get a refund either.  That would be an unfair term.

(I can see a flaw in that argument, but it applies to all gift cards bought form 3rd parties... )

Ectophile

sheramber said:

from the Terms and Conditions

• Gift certificates are not redeemable for cash and cannot be returned for a cash refund, except to the extent required by law.

Anybody know what law applies?

Consumer Rights Act 2015.  Unfair contracts is in Part 2. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/part/2/enacted

See also Schedule 2 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/schedule/2/enacted

Ectophile

sheramber said:

from the Terms and Conditions

• Gift certificates are not redeemable for cash and cannot be returned for a cash refund, except to the extent required by law.

Anybody know what law applies?

Consumer Rights Act 2015.  Unfair contracts is in Part 2. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/part/2/enacted

See also Schedule 2 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/schedule/2/enacted

Ectophile

sheramber said:

from the Terms and Conditions

• Gift certificates are not redeemable for cash and cannot be returned for a cash refund, except to the extent required by law.

Anybody know what law applies?

Consumer Rights Act 2015 Part 2 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/part/2/enacted and Schedule 2
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/schedule/2/enacted

tightauldgit

Manxman_in_exile said:

tightauldgit said:

... I suspect as unreasonable as it seems that you might just be caught in a bit of a trap legally on this one...

... 2. They've probably complied with all the T&Cs on the gift card...

I know what you mean, but I find it hard to believe that the law would consider fair any term that allowed a trader arbitrarily to take away a balance from a consumer's gift card if the consumer had paid good value for it.  I would have said that any term that allowed a trader to do that was blatantly unfair under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

The fact that Wayfair might be entitled to close the consumer's account for other reasons not connected with the gift card* doesn't mean they can just pinch an existing balance on there that the consumer has already paid good value for.

(As an aside, I often wonder if the law would consider the time limit/expiry date imposed on gift cards etc to be fair).


*In this particular case it's not clear to me if Wayfair might have closed the OP's account because of some question marks over the use of the gift card?

Yeah but the issue here is they HAVEN'T taken away the balance. The balance is still there on the gift card. It's just that wayfair apparently won't let them place any orders whatsoever. 

If you have a £250 gift card to use in the pub but they bar you from the pub do they have to refund your gift card - I'm not convinced they would. That's why I'm saying it might well be that they haven't broken any rules, it's just potentially one of those annoying cracks.

HillStreetBlues

tightauldgit said:

Yeah but the issue here is they HAVEN'T taken away the balance. The balance is still there on the gift card. It's just that wayfair apparently won't let them place any orders whatsoever. 

If you have a £250 gift card to use in the pub but they bar you from the pub do they have to refund your gift card - I'm not convinced they would. That's why I'm saying it might well be that they haven't broken any rules, it's just potentially one of those annoying cracks.

They can't not honour the gift card (buy refusing a purchase) and refuse a refund, that would be clearly unfair.
They will have to do one or the other.