Treatme.net voucher rip off

steve66 · 20 February 2009 at 1:37PM

Hi all

I am very angry with a company called Treatme.neteven though you could say im at fault there response is astounding:-

I received a voucher for Christmas from my good wife for a dirt buggy ride from the company Treatme.net

With our busy lives and all the excitement it got mislaid, but then was discovered and i looked forward to arranging my treat.

The problem was that these treat vouchers supplied by treatme.net have expiry dates and mine had just run out by a few days. I sent the following message to Treatme:-

My wife brought me a dirt buggy experience about a year ago from treatme.net

Unfortunately, i kind of forgot about it until it surfaced today.

The expiry date is 8/2/2009.

Is there any way i can still take it as i have a very angry missus..!!

Thanks

Steve

And awaited their reply, which came shortly saying:-

Hi Steve

Unfortunately once a voucher has expired there is nothing we can do.

Regards
Jenny

Very sympathetic huh?

Obviously a cop out and they have my wifes hard earned money! So i replied

Hi Jenny

OK, Just to make sure i have this right...

The money that was paid to you over a year ago and you still have is now
worthless because we are a few days past the year?

This is a complete fraud. The money you have taken has to be worth something
even if you needed a small topup to cover any depreciation in value.

As far as i am concerned this is theft. If you are unwilling to return any
of the my money then i will definately be pursuing this matter because it is
not right and not fair.

You have to know that to have a policy like this is ripping people off?

Please advise urgently.

Steve

This was replied to with standard company policy rubbish:-

Hi Steve

It is as I said once the voucher has expired there is nothing that can
be done. If you had any voucher which had an expiry date on eg. boots
argos next it is the same policy.

Regards

Jenny

I sent another message:-

Well whatever you say it is still wrong.

My wife worked hard to buy me a present and because i forgot about it until
just after the expiry date. You are telling me that her hard earned money is
now worth nothing.

I really dont care about 'your policy' and if it was Boots i would be having
the same conversation. If you think this is fair and right then we will see
if many people agree with you.

I will pursue this further and if you have the legal side of things
watertight then good for you. But the public will still think like me that
you are ripping people off.

The simple fact is that if you have received money and given nothing in
return. I have been in business for a lot of years and your attitude stinks.
The very least you should do is offer to extend it for a small fee.

Steve

which was totally ignored, so result is they have around £100 of our money and because of a voucher expiry date they now get to keep the lot complete with interest and i get nothing.

I even offered to pay for the privelage of extending this sell by date nonsense they use, but they were not interested! What a surprise!

If ever there was a case for legalised robbery this company treatme.net are it.

Is there anything i can do or have i just got to swallow the loss?

lindadykes · 20 February 2009 at 11:00PM

Not at all sure about the legality of this but surely they cannot put an expiry date on a voucher that you have bought and paid for. I may be wrong, but I don't think things such as book tokens and gift cards for Boots etc have expiry dates on them.

In January I discovered a gift card for WH Smith that was given to me as a gift the previous December and have been able to use it with no problems even though it was over 12 months old. I have also in the past used book tokens and HMV cards well over a year after reciept. I would look into this further, maybe contact trading standards? - It's a lot of money to lose, hope you eventually have a positive outcome, good luck.

RustyFlange · 20 February 2009 at 11:05PM

Gift cards do have an expiry date on them, they also have a small print which says that they can charge a fee for every amount of time the card has money on it.

Just from the first post though it sounds like you had the voucher for over a year as in one of your emails to them you claim they had your money for a year? ... I believe they are well within their rights to have an expiry date on their vouchers (they could put their prices up so they could lose money which is another reason for having one on) but surely if you had it for that long and not used it then you can't really complain about it.

lindadykes · 20 February 2009 at 11:26PM

I have a Boots giftcard in my purse and have just checked it. The (very) small print on the reverse of the card states "Any remaining value on this giftcard will be removed if it is not used for 24 consecutive months."

Don't know if that is any help?

Have to admit I had never considered that a time limit might apply to gift cards, I sort of regarded them as a sort of savings card. Now I am aware however, I don't think it is something I will puchase for anyone in the future, and I will be certain to make sure that I use any I recieve in the time alloted.

Ivrytwr3 · 21 February 2009 at 12:00AM

I really do sympathise with you. However, they are well within their rights to insist on an expiry date. So, if it were my situation i would be begging and being very nice to the company in the hope they would, as a gesture of goodwill, offer either the days events or a partial refund/discount. But the tone of your emails ie:

This is a complete fraud

- Fraud? NO!

Well whatever you say it is still wrong.

I really dont care about 'your policy'

because it is not right and not fair.

These comments just remind me of:

lilmoi1985lm · 21 February 2009 at 10:52AM

this has really lightened up my day! lol sorry to steve66 but the above quote just made me spit out my cornflakes!

steve66 · 22 February 2009 at 12:48PM

RustyFlange wrote: »

Gift cards do have an expiry date on them, they also have a small print which says that they can charge a fee for every amount of time the card has money on it.

Just from the first post though it sounds like you had the voucher for over a year as in one of your emails to them you claim they had your money for a year? ... I believe they are well within their rights to have an expiry date on their vouchers (they could put their prices up so they could lose money which is another reason for having one on) but surely if you had it for that long and not used it then you can't really complain about it.

I know that i had it for over a year, but the point that seems to be being lost is this:-

They were paid an amount of cash say £80 and produced a voucher for me to use.
A year goes by my voucher is now worth nothing and the £80. Well i guess thats in their profit account.

Why does the £80 become worthless after a year? Any decent company would say - You have been a silly boy but we still got your money so give us another £20 and we will reissue the voucher.

Doesnt that make sense? Or am i just being a cry baby?:rolleyes:

Ivrytwr3 · 22 February 2009 at 2:04PM

It becomes worthless because that was the terms and conditions you signed up to when purchasing the voucher. You cannot EXPECT/DEMAND the company re-issue. However, you can write a NICE email/letter and pray on their goodwill.

steve66 · 22 February 2009 at 3:04PM

Ivrytwr3 wrote: »

It becomes worthless because that was the terms and conditions you signed up to when purchasing the voucher. You cannot EXPECT/DEMAND the company re-issue. However, you can write a NICE email/letter and pray on their goodwill.

Well i certainly wont be doing that. The money and 'treat' itself doesnt worry me. The principle of vouchers and the attitude of the company are what i have an axe to grind about.

No wonder i read somewhere that WH Smiths love selling vouchers - A big percentage never even get spent, couple that with expiry dates and its a cash cow.

I will carry on carrying out the good fight even if im a lone crusader.

Treatme.net voucher rip off

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