Brown Thomas Gift Card Exchange

saggycaggy

Just a quick question in relation to the Brown Thomas Gift Card Exchange promotion that they have at the minute. I read about it last Saturdays Daily Mail magazine-You.
In the magazine it's written that Brown Thomas will add on 20% of the original value of a BT gift voucher card if you bring your gift voucher card in and exchange it for the BT Limited Edition Gift Exchange Card. So delighted with that I brought a gift voucher card that I have into Brown Thomas today but was told that the 20% is only redeemable against the balance left on the card. I didnt want to argue or cause a fuss with the lady because I wanted double check that what I read in the magazine was right-and it definately says the original value in the magazine.
Have I any argument here or should I just be happy with my extra 20% on the balance! (anything extra free is good for me!)

Thanks!

jor el

Bring the ad into the store and ask the manager. It sounds like this was a printing mistake, and since you were informed that the bonus is on the remaining balance before the exchange was done, they have covered themselves.

saggycaggy

ok thanks for that. Think I just assumed I read it wrong so in a panic I told her to go ahead with it, oh well! Better than nothing!

Thanks again.

Oryx

Please be aware of the t&cs of this offer. The original cards have no expiry date, the ones with the extra credit do, and its a pretty short time, as well, afaik.

wmpdd3

I would read the 'original balance' to mean the remaining balance on the card when you present it to be exchanged for a card with 20% extra on it. The new balance including the 20% being the opposite to this original balance.

corkkitteh

Hi, I am a Brown Thomas staff member and personally I think this is a great offer. Every time that I have changed a customer over to the new Limited Edition 20% Red Card I have explained all the t&c's of the card. 99% of the customers are happy with it and go ahead. A small few decide not to take the additional 20% for whatever reason - they may have a gift card for €200 which they will not spend within the time frame.

I think it needs to be pointed out that the customer is under no obligation to upgrade to the new 20% extra card. You can hold onto the black gift card which has no expiration date for as long as you like and the balance will withstand. If you want an additional 20% you can upgrade but the whole balance on the card must be spent between the date you change over and the 5th of June. I have seen this be really rewarding for some customers - a woman was purchasing a table on the home-wares floor for €500 and had a black gift card for €400, therefore upgrading to the red card and getting an extra €100 put onto the card.

The whole point of the promotion is to try increase foot fall in the stores and try bring back the money spent on gift cards. As the black cards have no expiry date, the accounting department cannot write off that money until the card is redeemed. Brown Thomas have launched a new Gold gift card which will have an expiration date of 1 year. This means that the money spent on the gift card will either be spent or expired one year after the day of purchase therefore allowing better cash forecasting and budgeting for the company.

*I would stress that these are my own personal views of the promotion.

coylemj

That's fair enough, I can understand that the accountants want the vouchers/gift cards redeemed since with no expiration date they have to be carried forward on the books every year as an outstanding debt.

Getting people to spend the money removes the debt and the store makes a profit on the transaction. As long as people are informed of the change in Ts & Cs it sounds like a legitimate exercise.

eamonn4321

Thanks Corkkiteh - I am very happy to see that the black gift cards have no expiry date (as I thought all along, but got a bit of a fright when I checked on the BT site). I have a few hundred in 2 separate cards.

So I am thrilled that they have not expired.

Do you know is that promo still running?

Thanks very much.

dudara

The promotion expired before the summer sales started. Obviously BT wanted people to spend the vouchers in the sales, rather than leaving an open libability on their books.