Gift cards

25Teapot

The work and advice you give is fantastic, thank you. I think gift cards are a scam. I have located 3 M&S gift cards whilst clearing out my late mum's house. They are worth 90 pounds. But as they are over 4 years old, they can not be used. Her friends purchased them with love and gave M&S £ 90, but there were no goods purchased using them. M&S will not refund the money, stating they are out of date. Is there any way the money can be refund? 90 pounds is a lot of money for anyone. Many thanks Lydia

Flugelhorn

you try explaining that she was perhaps unable to shop etc and see what they say - maybe a goodwill gesture

TBH shops like gift cards because this happens a lot - people get them and don't spend either any or all of it and the shop does well.

la531983

It isnt a scam, by the way.

Brie

Many of them have expiry dates on them so presumably the recipient would know they are time limited.  But if mom's vision wasn't grand she may not have been able to read the tiny print.  That's another point you might make to M&S.  Assuming they actually have a date on them.

la531983

Brie said:

Many of them have expiry dates on them so presumably the recipient would know they are time limited.  But if mom's vision wasn't grand she may not have been able to read the tiny print.  That's another point you might make to M&S.  Assuming they actually have a date on them.

Surely any consumer rights here lie with the person who bought them.

Brie

la531983 said:

Brie said:

Many of them have expiry dates on them so presumably the recipient would know they are time limited.  But if mom's vision wasn't grand she may not have been able to read the tiny print.  That's another point you might make to M&S.  Assuming they actually have a date on them.

Surely any consumer rights here lie with the person who bought them.

I'm not arguing consumer rights.  I'm saying that the product is difficult for the recipient to use and perhaps M&S would show leniency on that basis.

la531983

Brie said:

la531983 said:

Brie said:

Many of them have expiry dates on them so presumably the recipient would know they are time limited.  But if mom's vision wasn't grand she may not have been able to read the tiny print.  That's another point you might make to M&S.  Assuming they actually have a date on them.

Surely any consumer rights here lie with the person who bought them.

I'm not arguing consumer rights.  I'm saying that the product is difficult for the recipient to use and perhaps M&S would show leniency on that basis.

But the person who gave the gift likely could have read it, yes?

"Here you go Madge, remember you have to get these spent in 12 months".

The recipient has no material loss. Like you said this is solely goodwill the OP is relying on.

In addition, the moderators really should clamp down on the use of the word "scam" in thread titles and/or opening posts. This clearly isnt one.

Flugelhorn

this definitely comes down to goodwill by M&S 

queline

Good luck with M & S they are notoriously reluctant to give out goodwill gestures.  My late mum received a hamper for Christmas a couple of years ago and wasn't able to unpack it at the time because she was rushed to hospital, and spent Christmas there.  However my sister subsequently opened the hamper when visiting our mum's house, to find that several of it's contents were missing, this was an expensive hamper in a proper wicker basket.  I contacted M & S as I purchased it, to explain that several things were missing and why she wasn't able to check the contents on receipt, only to be given a measly £5 refund, when the missing items were worth far more than that.  My mum died shortly afterwards so didn't get to enjoy any of it. 

25Teapot

I appreciate all of the responses.  The reason I used the word scam regarding the M&S gift cards is other stores honour vouchers regardless of their year of purchase.  Yes, my mum should have used them within the time limit but she didn't.  I did locate paper M&S paper vouchers, which were over 10 years old, these were honoured but the gift cards were not.  Thank you again for your feedback and have a good evening.