Argos refund method.

MarvinDay

freezin76 said:

MarvinDay said:

WhiskersTheWonderCat said:

I feel like it's definitely a little shady to refund the gift card balance as a priority. I feel like it's done purely to ensure that you have to spend more money with them. You ended up with a £30 spend, and clearly would have used that gift card towards that. Argos have always been very customer-unfriendly though. 

And why wouldn't they do that?
After all, Argos are a business and not a charity.

I don't understand that sentiment.

They've not given away or donated anything. They have been paid directly or indirectly (via a GC) the value of the goods they're selling.

They're locking in additional income by not refunding to the traditional payment mechanism. 

The gift cards have to be manufactured, sold, and the payment processed and when goods are purchased using that gift card, the transaction has to be processed and yet again when goods are returned, someone has to deal with it.

If a gift card was sold to someone then goods sold and paid for with a gift card and later returned with the payment given back in cash or paid by another way apart from back to a gift card, Argos would basically have carried out all of the above and not made a single penny from it.
This is why I stated that they are a business as they have to cover their costs card and they do this by ensuring that money spent on gift cards is not swopped for cash by customers returning items.

WhiskersTheWonderCat

I'm pretty sure that the huge amount of money in gift card balances that never get redeemed, more than makes up for any losses that Argos have from discounted gift cards. 

freezin76

MarvinDay said:

freezin76 said:

MarvinDay said:

WhiskersTheWonderCat said:

I feel like it's definitely a little shady to refund the gift card balance as a priority. I feel like it's done purely to ensure that you have to spend more money with them. You ended up with a £30 spend, and clearly would have used that gift card towards that. Argos have always been very customer-unfriendly though. 

And why wouldn't they do that?
After all, Argos are a business and not a charity.

I don't understand that sentiment.

They've not given away or donated anything. They have been paid directly or indirectly (via a GC) the value of the goods they're selling.

They're locking in additional income by not refunding to the traditional payment mechanism. 

The gift cards have to be manufactured, sold, and the payment processed and when goods are purchased using that gift card, the transaction has to be processed and yet again when goods are returned, someone has to deal with it.

If a gift card was sold to someone then goods sold and paid for with a gift card and later returned with the payment given back in cash or paid by another way apart from back to a gift card, Argos would basically have carried out all of the above and not made a single penny from it.
This is why I stated that they are a business as they have to cover their costs card and they do this by ensuring that money spent on gift cards is not swopped for cash by customers returning items.

Brilliant!

That basically flys in the face of literally every other justification on this thread about:

A.) Organisations purchasing them in bulk at a discounted rate so the vendor is out of pocket if the consumer is reimbursed with a cash refund.

B.) The amount of unspent giftcards where the vendor is paid upfront and goods never exchanged for them. 


This is a new angle. 🤣 I can picture someone sat in a cave in Argos towers shaking their clenched fist at folk, due to the mammoth administrative task of sorting refunds. How very dare they 🤦🏻‍♂️.

I never realised there was such a cottage industry in processing everyday but seemingly onerous and expensive commercial tasks.

Manxman_in_exile

WhiskersTheWonderCat said:

I feel like it's definitely a little shady to refund the gift card balance as a priority. I feel like it's done purely to ensure that you have to spend more money with them. You ended up with a £30 spend, and clearly would have used that gift card towards that. Argos have always been very customer-unfriendly though. 

Yes!  It is!  And there is nothing wrong with that...

Manxman_in_exile

freezin76 said:

MarvinDay said:

WhiskersTheWonderCat said:

I feel like it's definitely a little shady to refund the gift card balance as a priority. I feel like it's done purely to ensure that you have to spend more money with them. You ended up with a £30 spend, and clearly would have used that gift card towards that. Argos have always been very customer-unfriendly though. 

And why wouldn't they do that?
After all, Argos are a business and not a charity.

I don't understand that sentiment.

They've not given away or donated anything. They have been paid directly or indirectly (via a GC) the value of the goods they're selling.

They're locking in additional income by not refunding to the traditional payment mechanism. 

If you thought my last reply had condescending undertones I'm not sure you'll like this one any better...

You wanted a cash refund of £29.99 but you only got £9.99 cash and a £20 credit on the gift card.

That's because Argos would rather give you a £20 credit on your gift card and keep that £20 cash in their bank account rather than give it to you so you can put it in your bank account.

The only "sentiment" that you need to understand is that Argos are in business to make money for their shareholders and it costs Argos less to put a £20 credit on your gift card than it would to refund you £20 cash.  Argos have already been paid for the gift card (possibly at a discount but that doesn't matter) and they aren't really giving any of that away when they put a credit back onto it.  But if they give you £20 cash they are giving that £20 away to you.  Why would they just give you £20 cash when they don't need to?

Think of it the other way round.  Just as £20 cash has a higher value to you than £20 on a gift card, so £20 in their bank account has more value to Argos than putting £20 credit back on your gift card.  That's why they credit the gift card first rather than refunding it all in cash.

I'm not really worried if you find this condescending or patronising as I'm not sure how better to put it.


==========================================================

Talking about gift cards, fairness and customer service, I'll tell you a story...

Up to few years ago my older sister was in the habit of sending me M&S gift cards for Christmas and for my birthday.  That was OK so long as M&S sold stuff I wanted to buy, but they stopped doing that several years ago, so I told my sister thanks, but stop sending them to me.

But that left me with two gift cards adding up to a reasonable amount that I couldn't redeem, and they both expired.

I contacted M&S customer services, explained the circumstances and asked them if they would extend the expiry date as obviously my sister had already paid them a not insignificant amount of money to buy them for me and if they didn't extend the dates they would effectively have taken my sister's money but given nothing in return.

M&S customer services refused pointblank to extend the cards even for a very limited period of 30 days.

That's just one of the problems with gift cards.  Even supposedly reputable retailers like M&S are quite happy to bank the money paid for gift cards and offer no leeway when the cards expire*.

As it happens it had a happy - for me - ending.  I just went instore and renewed the cards at a till, no questions asked.  I renewed one card once and the other twice, so that after about 6 years I was eventually able to redeem them when they finally did have something in I wanted to buy.

The lesson here is don't buy gift cards, don't give them as gifts, and don't use them - unless you get them at no cost to youself or to family or friends, and then treat them as a windfall you would not otherwise have enjoyed.

*  And yes, I let the two cards expire, but it wasn't my fault that M&S didn't sell anything that I wanted to buy with them.  And that wasn't my sister's fault either.  Fortunately the staff instore helped me enjoy a better result than M&S customer services would have allowed me.

Alderbank

Manxman_in_exile said:

*  And yes, I let the two cards expire, but it wasn't my fault that M&S didn't sell anything that I wanted to buy with them.  And that wasn't my sister's fault either.  Fortunately the staff instore helped me enjoy a better result than M&S customer services would have allowed me.

Please continue - I'm intrigued!

You went up to one of the carefully balanced in-store displays and the staff lent you a cricket bat?

Manxman_in_exile

Alderbank said:

Manxman_in_exile said:

*  And yes, I let the two cards expire, but it wasn't my fault that M&S didn't sell anything that I wanted to buy with them.  And that wasn't my sister's fault either.  Fortunately the staff instore helped me enjoy a better result than M&S customer services would have allowed me.

Please continue - I'm intrigued!

You went up to one of the carefully balanced in-store displays and the staff lent you a cricket bat?

No!  

All I meant was that the instore staff assisted me to a more satisfactory outcome than their online colleagues would have allowed me!

In fact I've just checked what happened and the first of the two gift cards was bought in 2016, expiring two years later.  I renewed it instore in 2019 - four months after it had expired - for a further two years, and I renewed it a second time for another two years in 2021.  The second card I renewed for the first and only time in 2020, again after it had actually expired.  On each of the three occasions the instore staff were more than happy to extend or renew the cards without question - something their online colleagues told me couldn't be done.

I eventually redeemed both gift cards towards the end of last year.  But the story doesn't end there - it gets more complicated; involves a single transaction and payment by a combination of two gift cards and a debit card; and (wait for it)... a refund!

(If anybody is interested in knowing more I can tell the whole story later.  But I ended up with an even better outcome than I expected)

freezin76

Manxman_in_exile said:

Alderbank said:

Manxman_in_exile said:

*  And yes, I let the two cards expire, but it wasn't my fault that M&S didn't sell anything that I wanted to buy with them.  And that wasn't my sister's fault either.  Fortunately the staff instore helped me enjoy a better result than M&S customer services would have allowed me.

Please continue - I'm intrigued!

You went up to one of the carefully balanced in-store displays and the staff lent you a cricket bat?

No!  

All I meant was that the instore staff assisted me to a more satisfactory outcome than their online colleagues would have allowed me!

In fact I've just checked what happened and the first of the two gift cards was bought in 2016, expiring two years later.  I renewed it instore in 2019 - four months after it had expired - for a further two years, and I renewed it a second time for another two years in 2021.  The second card I renewed for the first and only time in 2020, again after it had actually expired.  On each of the three occasions the instore staff were more than happy to extend or renew the cards without question - something their online colleagues told me couldn't be done.

I eventually redeemed both gift cards towards the end of last year.  But the story doesn't end there - it gets more complicated; involves a single transaction and payment by a combination of two gift cards and a debit card; and (wait for it)... a refund!

(If anybody is interested in knowing more I can tell the whole story later.  But I ended up with an even better outcome than I expected)

Cool story bro.

I'm good though, no need to share any more detail. Glad you got sorted though. It's clearly where you've been able to draw your insight and unique brand of wisdom.

Sweet 👍

Blox55

Manxman_in_exile said:

Alderbank said:

Manxman_in_exile said:

*  And yes, I let the two cards expire, but it wasn't my fault that M&S didn't sell anything that I wanted to buy with them.  And that wasn't my sister's fault either.  Fortunately the staff instore helped me enjoy a better result than M&S customer services would have allowed me.

Please continue - I'm intrigued!

You went up to one of the carefully balanced in-store displays and the staff lent you a cricket bat?

No!  

All I meant was that the instore staff assisted me to a more satisfactory outcome than their online colleagues would have allowed me!

In fact I've just checked what happened and the first of the two gift cards was bought in 2016, expiring two years later.  I renewed it instore in 2019 - four months after it had expired - for a further two years, and I renewed it a second time for another two years in 2021.  The second card I renewed for the first and only time in 2020, again after it had actually expired.  On each of the three occasions the instore staff were more than happy to extend or renew the cards without question - something their online colleagues told me couldn't be done.

I eventually redeemed both gift cards towards the end of last year.  But the story doesn't end there - it gets more complicated; involves a single transaction and payment by a combination of two gift cards and a debit card; and (wait for it)... a refund!

(If anybody is interested in knowing more I can tell the whole story later.  But I ended up with an even better outcome than I expected)

Every time the gift card balance enquiry is done, the expiry date is automatically extended by 2 years. So to extend the gift card expiry date, all the customer has to do is to come to the till and ask how much is onthe card and ask for this to be printed on a slip/docket.

 This is so in M&S and in Waitrose but may be with other retailers who use the same gift card redemption company in the background.