Garden Vouchers - Expired!

Tom_Bradbury

I was given a garden voucher a couple of years ago which I've just discovered expired a couple of month ago.  I've tried to use it without realising in a garden centre at it was refused.  I've looked on the garden voucher website and it says they can't honour old vouchers because of an accounting regulation!  Is there any way to redress this?  Surely statute comes in here either Unfair Contract Terms Act or even Limitation Act, that gives up to 6 years for 'debts' to be recovered.  My voucher is certainly not 6 years old. Anybody ever been able to get National Garden Gift Vouchers to replace an expired voucher?

user1977

How old is it, if not 6 years? Weren't you told about the expiry date when you bought?

tightauldgit

If the voucher was time limited and it expired then no i don't really think there's anything you can do unless they are willing to replace it as a goodwill gesture. 

Nobody here has a 'debt' to be recovered. You have a gift card. Where the terms were presumably shown to the purchaser before purchase. 

Alderbank

You say the voucher was given to you.
If there is a breach of Unfair Contract Terms Act that would be between the buyer and the seller. You are not a party to that.

It is possible that there might have been but it is going to be difficult now after two years for the buyer to show that. It would have been enough for the retailer where they bought it to have a notice pinned to the wall displaying the T&Cs of gift vouchers at the time.
The terms applicable to your voucher are the terms in force on the day when they were bought.

Interestingly their T&Cs currently say:

 National Garden Gift Voucher gift cards have an expiry date 30 months (2½ years) from the date of purchase. Expired National Garden Gift Voucher gift cards cannot be exchanged, replaced or have their expiry date extended.

...but that might not have been the case 2 years ago. Some retailers extended voucher redemption times to allow for garden centres being closed during covid.

screech_78

Even if you did have redress, consumer rights lie with the original purchaser. Which I assume you’re not. 

It’s likely the terms were visible to whoever bought it for you or included with the gift card. It’s common for these to expire after a certain amount of time and you’d be relying on goodwill. 

pinkshoes

Tom_Bradbury said:

I was given a garden voucher a couple of years ago which I've just discovered expired a couple of month ago.  I've tried to use it without realising in a garden centre at it was refused.  I've looked on the garden voucher website and it says they can't honour old vouchers because of an accounting regulation!  Is there any way to redress this?  Surely statute comes in here either Unfair Contract Terms Act or even Limitation Act, that gives up to 6 years for 'debts' to be recovered.  My voucher is certainly not 6 years old. Anybody ever been able to get National Garden Gift Vouchers to replace an expired voucher?

Can you be more specific with dates? "A couple of years ago" implies you were given this post lockdowns. 

Most vouchers have an expiry date. Did it not have a purchase or expiry date so you could see when it was going to expire?

Aylesbury_Duck

You need to ask the person who gave you the voucher to take it up with the retailer.  The buyer holds any consumer rights relating to the purchaser, the retailer doesn't have to deal with you if they choose not to.

TELLIT01

According to the website, paper vouchers have the expiry date on them.  E-vouchers and Gift Cards expire after 2 1/2 years.

Tom_Bradbury

pinkshoes said:

Tom_Bradbury said:

I was given a garden voucher a couple of years ago which I've just discovered expired a couple of month ago.  I've tried to use it without realising in a garden centre at it was refused.  I've looked on the garden voucher website and it says they can't honour old vouchers because of an accounting regulation!  Is there any way to redress this?  Surely statute comes in here either Unfair Contract Terms Act or even Limitation Act, that gives up to 6 years for 'debts' to be recovered.  My voucher is certainly not 6 years old. Anybody ever been able to get National Garden Gift Vouchers to replace an expired voucher?

Can you be more specific with dates? "A couple of years ago" implies you were given this post lockdowns. 

Most vouchers have an expiry date. Did it not have a purchase or expiry date so you could see when it was going to expire?

I received it as part of a number of vouchers for my 50th birthday in 2021.  All my other vouchers I received expire in 2024 or 2025.

RefluentBeans

Tom_Bradbury said:

pinkshoes said:

Tom_Bradbury said:

I was given a garden voucher a couple of years ago which I've just discovered expired a couple of month ago.  I've tried to use it without realising in a garden centre at it was refused.  I've looked on the garden voucher website and it says they can't honour old vouchers because of an accounting regulation!  Is there any way to redress this?  Surely statute comes in here either Unfair Contract Terms Act or even Limitation Act, that gives up to 6 years for 'debts' to be recovered.  My voucher is certainly not 6 years old. Anybody ever been able to get National Garden Gift Vouchers to replace an expired voucher?

Can you be more specific with dates? "A couple of years ago" implies you were given this post lockdowns. 

Most vouchers have an expiry date. Did it not have a purchase or expiry date so you could see when it was going to expire?

I received it as part of a number of vouchers for my 50th birthday in 2021.  All my other vouchers I received expire in 2024 or 2025.

When you say ‘other vouchers’ do you mean other vouchers from the same company? Or other vouchers in general? 

Regardless, if they have a date of expiry on them then it is likely that the original purchase was aware of them. 

There isn’t a regulation per se, but in terms of accounting the ‘debt’. If someone’s lost their gift card, the debt can sit on the accounts for ever, if the gift card doesn’t expire. That number grows forever as people continuously lose their gift cards. The expiry date limits the debt. There’s nothing to say a retailer can’t reissue the gift card, but it’s a good will gesture the majority of time. This is likely not down to employees at a store level, and rather done at a ‘head office’ or accounting level. 

The only way it would be unfair is if the original purchaser wasn’t aware that there was an expiry. Given that it’s going to be in the terms of the gift card, I think it’s going to be on you (via the original purchaser) that the gift cards were not sold with the knowledge of the expiry date. This is especially true if the gift card has an expiry date written on the card or if it has a term like ‘valid for 12 months after purchase’ or something to that effect. 

There’s an interesting Which? article on this topic: https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/what-are-my-rights-with-gift-vouchers-and-cards-aCgOF7w7505Z#my-gift-cards-expired-what-can-i-do 

My advice would be to ask their central customer service team for a new gift card explaining that it was during the tail end of covid etc. Or ask if you can reactivate the card for a fee. That may be possible as well. 

Alderbank

Tom_Bradbury said:

pinkshoes said:

Tom_Bradbury said:

I was given a garden voucher a couple of years ago which I've just discovered expired a couple of month ago.  I've tried to use it without realising in a garden centre at it was refused.  I've looked on the garden voucher website and it says they can't honour old vouchers because of an accounting regulation!  Is there any way to redress this?  Surely statute comes in here either Unfair Contract Terms Act or even Limitation Act, that gives up to 6 years for 'debts' to be recovered.  My voucher is certainly not 6 years old. Anybody ever been able to get National Garden Gift Vouchers to replace an expired voucher?

Can you be more specific with dates? "A couple of years ago" implies you were given this post lockdowns. 

Most vouchers have an expiry date. Did it not have a purchase or expiry date so you could see when it was going to expire?

I received it as part of a number of vouchers for my 50th birthday in 2021.  All my other vouchers I received expire in 2024 or 2025.

Mystery solved then.
One of the vouchers was not new. Most likely it had originally been given to the donor for Christmas and they didn't use it so passed it on to you. Nothing wrong with that.

The real mystery is how someone had bought a voucher (they have expiry date 30 months (2½ years) from the date of purchase) in 2021 which would still be valid in 2025!

Time machine?