Rights for a cinema discount voucher that is invalid

ndf9876 · 22 October 2019 at 12:20PM

Hi folks - hoping someone can steer me in the right direction here as I'm not sure how to proceed with an admittedly small (in money terms at least) problem.

So...

My employer offers a "rewards portal" (MyRewards) and one of the benefits is a discount on cinema tickets at Cineworld, by means of a voucher code. You pay MyRewards for the voucher, then apply the voucher when booking on the Cineworld website. I've used this many times in the past with no issue.

However...

I bought a voucher last night in anticipation of booking Star Wars with some guys from work. When we came to use the voucher on the Cineworld website, that site crashed. Afterwards, my code came up as invalid when I tried to use again to repeat the booking process (and I have just tested it again, still invalid).

I went and bought another voucher code which worked just fine, but I am in the position now of being left about £11 out of pocket.

I contacted Cineworld who didn't want to know; there was no booking therefore nothing for them to check or look up. They told me to go back to the supplier (MyRewards). MyRewards state that they won't issue refunds on these vouchers.

As a result, I'm left out of pocket through no fault of my own. I'm wondering if a chargeback is possible here (I paid by debit card) or should I be pursuing Cineworld instead?

Or is it a case of "tough luck" and I'm £11 down and that's that?

bris · 22 October 2019 at 12:38PM

Looks like the code went through on the website. The crash was unfortunate, as the code will no longer work as they think it's already used.

The question is was it your comp or the Cineworld website that crashed? If it was the cineworld site then you could try explaining the situation to their customer services. If it crashed it should be logged.

Manxman_in_exile · 22 October 2019 at 6:37PM

Is your employer's rewards portal separate from your employer? (Sorry - not familiar with the concept!).

I'd complain to your employer's HR department as employees losing money in this sort of situation is, presumably, contrary to the whole idea of an employee rewards scheme. (If it's not your fault, I don't see this being a problem for you if your employer is reasonable...)

JJG · 22 October 2019 at 7:33PM

Contact myrewards and they’ll do some investigating. I had the exact same issue once, and contacted them. They’ll contact cineworld and should eventually provide a refund. I was logged into my cineworld account when the site crash, which I think helped them see I hadn’t used it.

steampowered · 22 October 2019 at 7:47PM

The logical next step is to keep complaining to myrewards.

You can ultimately take them to small claims court if they don't investigate.

ndf9876 · 22 October 2019 at 8:57PM

Thanks all for the replies - I pushed MyRewards back and asked them to investigate further and they'll see the code is unused and no booking is attached to it (as Cineworld confirmed to me!).

To the poster asking what it was - it's a separate employee "perks" provider not directly affiliated with my employer. I'm sure that if they investigate they'll get to the truth of this and at the very least, issue me a duplicate voucher (although I'd prefer the refund!).

Rights for a cinema discount voucher that is invalid

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