Lost gift voucher?

WhiteWalls

100 euro voucher lost and shop says tough luck. Is this common?

Nino Brown

Yes

coylemj

What did you expect? The person who finds it can simply walk in and spend it so why should the store reimburse you?

You can claim that you lost it at home so it either got accidently dumped in the black bin or it might be down the back of the sofa but either way, why would the store believe that story and hand over a replacement voucher?

WhiteWalls

coylemj wrote: »

What did you expect? The person who finds it can simply walk in and spend it so why should the store reimburse you?

You can claim that you lost it at home so it either got accidently dumped in the black bin or it might be down the back of the sofa but either way, why would the store believe that story and hand over a replacement voucher?

Wouldn't kill any retailer to take note of who bought what vouchers. I know its partly my fault for losing it but its clearly a money making scheme for them. This is not in a city or anything, just a town and they would recognise me. I'll speak to the manager tomorrow and see how I get on

Sofiztikated

And if you give it to me, and I give to to coylemj, and they give it to someone else, any one of us could say it's lost.

Vouchers are like cash. You lose them, tough. Can you imagine walking into Dunnes, and saying, "Oh, I want to buy this here, but I lost the cash I was going to pay with. Can I have it anyway?"

davetherave

WhiteWalls wrote: »

Wouldn't kill any retailer to take note of who bought what vouchers. I know its partly my fault for losing it but its clearly a money making scheme for them. This is not in a city or anything, just a town and they would recognise me. I'll speak to the manager tomorrow and see how I get on

What is to stop you giving it to a friend and then telling the shop that you lost it and getting a replacement voucher?

salamanca22

WhiteWalls wrote: »

Wouldn't kill any retailer to take note of who bought what vouchers. I know its partly my fault for losing it but its clearly a money making scheme for them. This is not in a city or anything, just a town and they would recognise me. I'll speak to the manager tomorrow and see how I get on

Do you go to the bank and demand more money when you lose a score on a night out?

You lost the voucher, it's ALL your fault. Not partly.

Lau2976

Anything they decide to do will be good will TBH. Even if it is noted who purchased them, people usually give them as gifts, so would both names need to be noted? Or if you re-gifted would you have to tell them? It just isn't viable for a business.

berger89

Was it bought for you? I know in some shops they take down certain details for situations like that. Bit ****ty, sorry for your troubles! My ma had vouchers stolen out of her car one Christmas. not pleasant at all

Slippin Jimmy

Have you had a good look for it? Checked all coats and wallets? Unfortunately you have no rights under consumer law. A gift card/voucher is like giving someone money, if they lose that money that's their fault. I can't see the retailer doing anything for you, nor should you expect them.

Paulw

WhiteWalls wrote: »

Wouldn't kill any retailer to take note of who bought what vouchers. I know its partly my fault for losing it but its clearly a money making scheme for them.

Isn't everything a shop does a money making scheme for them?? :rolleyes:

Some retailers do taken note of who a voucher is being purchased for, some don't. But, either way, you have no consumer rights. You lost it. It is not their fault that you lost it. If, a big if, they do help you out, then you have found a very nice retailer. But, if they say that there is nothing they can do, then you need to accept that and move on.

jimmii

Who did you speak to in the shop? If it wasn't the owner/manager they may not have had access to enough to be able to see if it had been used or anything like that try email see if you get through to someone who will be able to look into it more.

We had a regular customer who was moving house and said they lost them in the move so just issued new ones with the same number and just said that if they had fallen into someone elses hands some how then it was a case of whoever used the voucher number first! If they know you then they could surely do the same it should be easy to track down the voucher number on any decent gift voucher system.

_Brian

We sell vouchers online, obviously we have a record of who paid for the voucher and so could easily replace a lost voucher, and cancel the code on the first one..

Equally I bought a voucher in a local clothing store for my wife for Christmas, they took note of the code, my name and who the voucher was for specifically to cover if the voucher is lost and needs replacing.

I think its bad business on the store not to have a system in place to work this out..

Vouchers are good business, only about 50% are ever redeemed anyway.

ben.schlomo

_Brian wrote: »

We sell vouchers online, obviously we have a record of who paid for the voucher and so could easily replace a lost voucher, and cancel the code on the first one..

Equally I bought a voucher in a local clothing store for my wife for Christmas, they took note of the code, my name and who the voucher was for specifically to cover if the voucher is lost and needs replacing.

I think its bad business on the store not to have a system in place to work this out..

Vouchers are good business, only about 50% are ever redeemed anyway.

Not possible for large/busy retailers, fine for small town SME's.

Lau2976

_Brian wrote: »

I think its bad business on the store not to have a system in place to work this out..

I disagree. If I lost cash I wouldn't complain to the shop that I lost my cash. As other posters have said for all we know OP re gifted and is trying to trick the shop (not that I think you are!) but that's the reality if the situation.

L1011

Vouchers need to be treated like cash in this regard (and like something potentially poisonous with a best before date in any other sense - use them ASAP). If the retailer won't replace a lost one, there's nothing you can do to compel them.

Shelflife

_Brian wrote: »

Vouchers are good business, only about 50% are ever redeemed anyway.

Maybe in your business, Ive been doing vouchers for 20 years, not a huge business for me but the redemption rate is approx 98%

womandriver

ben.schlomo wrote: »

Not possible for large/busy retailers, fine for small town SME's.

I recently had a €150 voucher replaced by Brown Thomas. The person who bought it had used a credit card to pay for it, BT traced the transaction and the voucher number using this, cancelled the unused voucher and issued a new one.

A Dub in Glasgo

This is one of the pitfalls of buying gift cards/vouchers (the major one though is the date!), I could never get my head around how popular they are, I just give cash if cannot think of buying something

OP you lost it, you pay for it

ben.schlomo

womandriver wrote: »

I recently had a €150 voucher replaced by Brown Thomas. The person who bought it had used a credit card to pay for it, BT traced the transaction and the voucher number using this, cancelled the unused voucher and issued a new one.

All well and good but its not what i was replying to in my post.

My point was its not fair to expect someone in a very busy retail environment, with a queue to be taking the customers name, address, phone number etc, then adding the voucher number/code and then asking who its for, all the while Biddy in the queue is getting wound up. Its easy for the buyer to take the number of their voucher/giftcard when at home and keep it as a record, any good business will then be able to see if its been used or not and where and when and rectify accordingly.

womandriver

ben.schlomo wrote: »

All well and good but its not what i was replying to in my post.

My point was its not fair to expect someone in a very busy retail environment, with a queue to be taking the customers name, address, phone number etc, then adding the voucher number/code and then asking who its for, all the while Biddy in the queue is getting wound up. Its easy for the buyer to take the number of their voucher/giftcard when at home and keep it as a record, any good business will then be able to see if its been used or not and where and when and rectify accordingly.

Well what you said was that it wasn't possible for large retailers. It's reasonable to assume gift vouchers are more likely to be the swipe card type in large retail stores which negates the need for taking names addresses etc while biddy is waiting in the queue as the transaction details will be automatically saved. This can be searched and retrieved in the event of a lost voucher if the customer has a receipt or the cc that was used to purchase the voucher.

Not that I think it's the retailers responsibility to sort out your lost voucher but the days of larger retailers using paper vouchers are nearly gone.

ben.schlomo

womandriver wrote: »

Well what you said was that it wasn't possible for large retailers. It's reasonable to assume gift vouchers are more likely to be the swipe card type in large retail stores which negates the need for taking names addresses etc while biddy is waiting in the queue as the transaction details will be automatically saved. This can be searched and retrieved in the event of a lost voucher if the customer has a receipt or the cc that was used to purchase the voucher.

Not that I think it's the retailers responsibility to sort out your lost voucher but the days of larger retailers using paper vouchers are nearly gone.

Yes, its not possible for large, very busy retailers to take every minor detail as a result of people being careless with vouchers. There is no issue with cards but again youll have the dullards who lose them and come into shops causing delays and being awkward as they wont have receipts etc. Anyway this is going in circles so i'll leave it there.

Melendez

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jimmii

Beano wrote: »

but those people are usually clever enough to realise that it is their fault that they lost it and not have a go at the shop when they dont replace it.

Surely an intelligent person will see the value in at least trying though.

jimmii

Beano wrote: »

oh surely they will. But they wont bleat about it on the internet when the shop says that they cant help them.

Yeh for sure. Can't blame someone else if you lose something. When we were contacted about the lost voucher I would have felt incredibly guilty if I had said tough luck knowing just how easy it was for us to resolve it for them.

Bogger77

WhiteWalls wrote: »

<snipped>. I know its partly my fault for losing it but its clearly a money making scheme for them.<snipped>

Only partly your fault? Did someone from the shop knock it out of your hand, or hide it on you?

Melendez

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Melendez

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jimmii

Beano wrote: »

well that isnt the same situation is it? if the shop can do something for the person that lost the voucher then thats fantastic. but if they cant the person who lost the voucher shouldnt be complaining about the shop should they?

Didn't realise I said it was lol! Sure if the shop says no then obviously complaining on the internet isn't going to get them anywhere but I guess having a good old moan helps some people get it out of their system.

jimmii

Melendez wrote: »

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In all likelyhood they will be able to track it down if they had to but the problem is, as many have already mentioned, a person could easily have sold the voucher on and puts the shop at risk of having the buyer come in and then being told that the voucher is not valid. While the shop will have obviously not pulled the scummy move the buyer will often feel annoyed at the shop. How many threads have there been here about people buying phones that get blacklists a few days later so the seller can claim a new one on insurance you see a lot of vouchers for sale online and if reissuing lost vouchers became the norm then we would probably see this sort of scam cropping up more frequently.

Nonoperational

Melendez wrote: »

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Maybe said "dullard" should be more careful of what is essentially cash.