Gift Card

annicka1

To all

I paid £50 for it by credit card  

tightauldgit

Alderbank said:

I agree no claim after 2 years but the point is that this is before 2 years. The defect was not visible and has only become apparent when attempting to use it after eg. 23 months. 

Defective = having a fault or faults; not perfect or complete; broken; not made properly; not working properly.

I thought the term 'Non-returnable but eligible for refund if damaged' is weird. If I decided I didn't want it after a week, I could simply damage it. I would then be eligible for refund! Perhaps they meant to say 'free replacement if damaged...'?

If YOU damage it (or Amazon decide YOU damaged it) then it's not eligible for a refund anyway. 

I tend to agree with your view though - if the item was bought with a 2 year validity and within that time it doesn't work then it's defective and should be eligible for a refund. 

Gift cards are just weird though and the rules around them are always a pain. Give people cash - which is effectively a gift card for any shop you want with no expiry! 

To the OP - I'm slightly confused as to why the card has expired. Are H&M saying it wasn't valid for 2 years as advertised? Have they changed their terms? 

born_again

annicka1 said:

To all

I paid £50 for it by credit card  

Makes no difference. 🤷‍♀️

screech_78

Are you absolutely sure it hasn’t been used? 

Our gift cards will show to the customer as expired if the balance has been redeemed in full. 

annicka1

I'm absolutely sure I haven't used it.  Besides it should say zero balance and it shouldn't say expired before the expiry date as you can top up these cards before expiry. 

Alderbank

The T&Cs on Amazon are different from the T&Cs on H&M's own website.

H&M's site implies that the cards never expire. H&M say that each purchase or activation resets the clock for a further 2 years.
They don't define 'activation', perhaps it means the act of checking your balance or how long until it expires, which you can do in store or online.
It seems that the gift cards sold by Amazon are different from those sold by SVS (such as those sold in H&M stores), or it could simply be that Amazon carry stocks of cards in their warehouses and 'activate' them as they send them out, hence their '2 year rule'. The OP's card could actually have been activated a few days before they received it

https://www2.hm.com/en_gb/customer-service/gift-card/terms---conditions.html

OP, during the 2 years you have had the card have you ever checked the balance or expiry?
Feedback on Amazon from several purchasers is that when they checked their balance it was zero.

annicka1

I never checked it until now, that's when the pin  was scratched to reveal and purchase something

annicka1

To all
Result!


They didn't admit that it may have been a defective card, but after a lot of persistence and subtle threats of Martin Lewis and Watchdog, they have given me a refund!

Thanks everyone for your messages.