Lost money on expired gift card!!
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I don't always use gift cards bought for me straight away as there's not always something I want straight away. However, please can I advise people to use them immediately to pay for whatever especially if they are Vanilla Visa prepaid cards. First they take a cut to activate the card, then if it's not used, they take a monthly maintenance charge of £2. So if you have a £25 card which has a 5 year expiry date, its actually going to be useless to you in a year. My advice, don't buy them for anyone.
I'm not securespark; just giving my view.
The Post Office One for All giftcard (has a number of places you can spend it at) also has some charges eventually, so anyone with that should also be careful to spend it as soon as possible.0 -
The T&Cs can be irrelevant, of course - if they're unfair (UCTA 1977 & updated by the Consumer Rights Act last year).
Most large retailers will be aware of this so should have lengthy use
periods.
But I never fail to be amazed by how some PLCs even fail in this area.
There was an item in a paper last week, where a large bookmakers had said a customer had zero balance. He insisted he knew that he had funds in his account. So they investigated and said, "it had expired in line with our terms and conditions." From memory they stated this was 6 months without use [of the account].
Upon threat of legal action, they returned the 'expired' funds. How on earth a PLC thought they were going to get away with that is beyond me, ie it wasn't a free bet which had expired, it was actual £ the customer had deposited in the account just months earlier.
Although you still see the odd 'at your own risk' sign - and of course, you can't disclaim for personal injury either, even on small seasonal fairground rides.Please be polite to OPs and remember this is a site for Claimants and Appellants to seek redress against their bank, ex-boss or retailer. If they wanted morality or the view of the IoD or Bank they'd ask them.0 -
I went to the Carlisle Pandora shop on the 27th December to use a gift card I was given last Christmas. I was mortified when I went to pay for the items I had chosen and discovered my gift voucher had expired 3 days before. Absolutely no flexibility - just a sorry we can't do anything it's 12 months and that's it. Absolutely gutted!
I tried phoning the help line and was told the same thing.
I asked why this policy exists at the detriment of the customer and why there is no appeal process particularly only 3 days over the 12 month period.
This is the edited response I got from Pandora.
"With regard to the twelve month expiry terms, this is driven from a practical requirement to manage the programme efficiently. There is a twelve month expiry term on the Pandora Gift Card which is in line with many other Gift Card schemes across the UK.
Pandora as a company does not make any profit when a gift card is sold and so the programme is purely a cost to the business. However, the programme is in place to give customers even more choice to purchase the perfect gift.
Any funds that remain on the Pandora Gift Cards after they have expired are used to help meet the associated costs of running the Gift Card programme."
I probably would have used the voucher earlier but last year was full of ill health, bereavement and other stress, treating myself was not high on my agenda.0 -
I have jsut been told that my £100 of ticketmaster gift cards have expired! was given them 15 months ago by my brother, but due to having a baby, not had time to think let alone book anything. Trying to book lion king tickets for christmas and now told they have expired. Is there anything I can do? Surely they can't jut pocket £100 like that, especially after such a short space of time. If I can't get the credit back, can my brother at least get his money back.
Any ideas?
mr nobby
Hi.. did this ever get resolved? i'm in the same situation and i'm damned if they're gonna get away with it..0 -
Hi Mr Nobby,
Just wondering if this got resolved? i'm in the same situ and there is no way i'm going to let them get away with it, mine starts in 533 but the T&Cs cover them well..0 -
koullashaker wrote: »Hi Mr Nobby,
Just wondering if this got resolved? i'm in the same situ and there is no way i'm going to let them get away with it, mine starts in 533 but the T&Cs cover them well..
Your not going to get a response from Mr Nobby, the poster hasnt been on for like 5 years so unless you can contact him via telepathy then you wont get a response.0 -
koullashaker wrote: »Hi.. did this ever get resolved? i'm in the same situation and i'm damned if they're gonna get away with it..koullashaker wrote: »Hi Mr Nobby,
Just wondering if this got resolved? i'm in the same situ and there is no way i'm going to let them get away with it, mine starts in 533 but the T&Cs cover them well..Your not going to get a response from Mr Nobby, the poster hasnt been on for like 5 years so unless you can contact him via telepathy then you wont get a response.
In addition if the terms and conditions are clearly stated on the card or any accompanying literature, then there is absolutely nothing Koullashaker can do about it other than write a polite letter explaining the circumstances and hope for a goodwill gesture. Ticketmaster are under no legal obligation to refund, I'm afraid.
I fail to understand why such vouchers are ever purchased, to be honest.0 -
I think it's a bit of a scandal that many retailers are raking in money selling gift cards that get forgotten about until after the expiry date. Selling a piece of plastic for £100 can't be ethical can it? It should be legislated.0
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I don't think it affects many people, to be honest. Most will spend well within any time limit.Selling a piece of plastic for £100 can't be ethical can it? It should be legislated.
I agree there might be an argument for new legislation, but in the five years since this thread was posted there hasn't been any movement in that direction.0 -
I think it's a bit of a scandal that many retailers are raking in money selling gift cards that get forgotten about until after the expiry date. Selling a piece of plastic for £100 can't be ethical can it? It should be legislated.
We were given them from work as a bonus, there was some reason for tax purposes it was better than just being given it in your pay but I don't recall why. The ones we had were the ones you can convert to Amazon or spend in loads of stores so wasn't difficult to use, hoarding them is just asking for you to forget about them and they expire. It's also a bit less impersonal than money I guess0
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