Waitrose gift card

Furbaby55

Hi.  I bought a £50 Waitrose gift card for my elderly parents at Xmas. On trying to redeem the card a code came up on the till which the staff did not recognise and would therefore not honour the card even though I had the receipt.  My parents had to pay in full for their shopping.  In contacting customer services I was told that this sometimes happens with their cards and an online balance check needs to be completed before the card will activate.  I asked for a refund of the £50 seeing as it was not my parents fault that the card was not activated properly.  There are no instructions on the gift card stating this has to be done.  They flatly refused.  My argument is that due to Waitrose/John Lewis fault, my parents had to pay in full for their shopping (£125) and then have to return to the store to use the gift card when it should have worked the first time.  They are both 79 years old and what was initially a nice Xmas gift has turned into a farce for them. Please could you advise what rights we have in asking for a refund.  Thank you.

elsien

Can they not just use it another time now that it’s been activated? Or was this a one off trip and they don’t normally shop there?

la531983

Furbaby55 said:

and then have to return to the store to use the gift card

None, given its been spent.

elsien

@la531983 How has it been spent if they were not able to use it?

la531983

elsien said:

@la531983 How has it been spent if they were not able to use it?

Well your reading is totally different to mine then. From the OP...

" My argument is that due to Waitrose/John Lewis fault, my parents had to pay in full for their shopping (£125) and then have to return to the store to use the gift card when it should have worked the first time"

This reads that they went in a second time and its now been used. 

Even if thats not what the OP meant, they now have a valid £50 gift card so even then I cant see what consumer rights exist here, at this point its "change of mind".

sheramber

Furbaby55 said:

Hi.  I bought a £50 Waitrose gift card for my elderly parents at Xmas. On trying to redeem the card a code came up on the till which the staff did not recognise and would therefore not honour the card even though I had the receipt.  My parents had to pay in full for their shopping.  In contacting customer services I was told that this sometimes happens with their cards and an online balance check needs to be completed before the card will activate.  I asked for a refund of the £50 seeing as it was not my parents fault that the card was not activated properly.  There are no instructions on the gift card stating this has to be done.  They flatly refused.  My argument is that due to Waitrose/John Lewis fault, my parents had to pay in full for their shopping (£125) and then have to return to the store to use the gift card when it should have worked the first time.  They are both 79 years old and what was initially a nice Xmas gift has turned into a farce for them. Please could you advise what rights we have in asking for a refund.  Thank you.

Who did you nut the gift card from?