Gift Voucher - refunding/selling

sapper

Hi

My mother retired recently from her job and the "whipround" from her colleagues amounted to EUR1,000. One of her colleagues was given the money to buy a present - and we don't know if it was out of malice or thoughtlessness, but the colleague proceeded to spend the entire EUR1,000 on a voucher for a photographers studio.

The voucher expires in 10 months time.

My mother is in her 60's and we just spent thousands on a photographer for my wedding last year (so we already have a recent family portrait). A studio session only costs about EUR200. My mother really has no use for the voucher but is very upset at letting EUR1000 go to waste.

My mother, father and my cousin have all contacted the photographer about this and either is not available or he says that he will think about it and call us back. He never does...And I think that we will be waiting a long time to hear back from him...

Do we have any recourse about this? Can we expect a refund? Can you sell a voucher on and expect the vendor to honour it? (it is in my mothers name)

We were thinking we could sell it on weddingsonline.ie, but if the photographer doesn't honour it we would have to re-fund whoever buys it the full 1,000 worth of photography bills....

mikemac

sapper wrote: »

Do we have any recourse about this? Can we expect a refund?

You make it sound like you are going to sue the photographer.

And three people contacted him?
The guy probably is feeling intimated and no wonder he won’t take your calls.
He has done nothing wrong-the money is his and I realy doubt you’ll get it back.

Sell the voucher on but you won’t get close to €1,000 for it.
The weddingsonline website is fairly busy, that’s a good idea.

sapper

No not going to sue - as you say he made his money fair and square....Three people have contacted him intermittently over the space of 4/5 months, and they haven't hassled him - my Dad called back twice thats it...ideally would like to get something less, like 700 back from him

I'm worried that I sell the voucher for 700 on weddingsonline to "bride A", then the photographer doesn't accept the voucher from "Bride A" and she has to pay EUR1,000. Bride A will come to us looking for the EUR300 she didn't expect to pay....

wyndham

sapper wrote: »

Hi

we don't know if it was out of malice or thoughtlessness,

Could it be something like this?:

http://www.gumtree.ie/dublin/04/15155104.html

http://www.giftgallery.ie/home/business.aspx?bid=16#426

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Just happened across this today and remembered it when I saw this thread.

sapper

Yeah - but EUR200 is do-able ...you could get a nice portrait or something. But 1,000 on a photo-shoot? My parents are astounded that it's even possible to spend that kind of money on photos. They would be ridden with guilt if they "frittered" that kind of money away

wyndham

sapper wrote: »

Yeah - but EUR200 is do-able ...you could get a nice portrait or something. But 1,000 on a photo-shoot? My parents are astounded that it's even possible to spend that kind of money on photos. They would be ridden with guilt if they "frittered" that kind of money away

I think you are missing my point. Photographic studios regularly have this offer on so that those who buy them as gifts for weddings, christenings,etc can appear twice as generous as they actually are. The person who bought the voucher for your mother, imo probably paid only 500 for a 1000 voucher. 500 may have been the amount collected or she may have pocketed half the money(probable). Why else on earth would anyone buy something like that?

subway

seems like a very odd present to buy someone.
anyway, i dont think you will be getting your money back from the photographer.
maybe he will allow you to transfer the voucher - get that in writing.

if i was you i would get permission to repost this in the photgraphy forum, the guys over there may know more about what is going on in terms of the real "value" of the gift.

mcaul

There's something fishy about this - maybe talk to one of the other colleagues and see if the agreement was for this voucher.

If things still don't add up, you could approach the photographer and let him know that a fraud may have taken place and you'd like the details of the purchase.

The other thing could be that the colleagues only collected €500 and thought that giving the €1000 voucher would look better?