What shit gift vouchers you’ve been gifted?

[IdiotInDisguise]

Not a thread about another thread, but what shit gift vouchers you’ve been gifted?

A voucher you couldn’t use unless you traveled a long distance, a £20 voucher for a £80 massage, enter your own (obviously, for the sake of peace at Christmas, nobody wants a gift like that)

I’ll start, a Cineworld £20 voucher, the nearest one is 40 miles away.

A mother and daughter photo shoot. I hate getting my picture taken.

The studio swapped it so my DDs could go instead, but the pictures costed me £££s.

A ferris-wheel voucher. I'm scared of heights.

She gave my Autistic, hates being touched, hates sents/oils etc DD a massage voucher.

She is part of the reason why we don't do adult presents.

My ds was given a gift card for his birthday. It could be spent in about four different places, none of which I used on a regular basis and none had branches within ten miles. I'd have had to travel 15 miles to spend a tenner on tat I didn't actually want.

MIL sent us two cheap vouchers plus catalogue for a certain store which she liked & we didn't.

And then wrote on the Christmas card, the page & item number of the more-expensive-than-both vouchers item SHE liked.

She didn't get it.

MIL used to ask DH what vouchers I'd like. I said (& he told her) book tokens or WHSmith, as I wanted to buy books.

Without fail, she sent me Boots or Body Shop vouchers. Presumably this was more suitable for a woman.

I got given vouchers for a Cinema, the nearest being a half an hour drive away. I ended up driving there, on a mission, and using the vouchers to buy bags of sweets with. I then donated the sweets to a worthy cause.

We don't eat a Nando's or Zizzi or Jamies Italian etc etc but ended up there just to use up the voucher.

The one where it wasn't accepted as it was valid for 3 months only. I had tried to make an appointment for a Shellac manicure but there was none available. 8 months later, after having the manicure, the voucher wasnt accepted as it was out of date. I hadn't seen the small print and had to pay up.
I won't be back.

One of my friend's gives me vouchers every year for a cinema in her home town which is 30 mins away from mine (so an hour round trip) as opposed to the local Odeon which isn't even 5 minutes from my house. Another was an afternoon tea voucher that was in a small cafe really far away from home in the middle of the sticks (so no where else to visit) when there at least 30 establishments that offer afternoon tea in my hometown. I asked her if it was a venue that she'd eaten before and recommended it and she said no and couldn't elaborate as to why she'd picked there. I now think it was a re-gift she couldn't use due to the distance or something she had won in a raffle.

Another one is that I quite frequently get given £5 vouchers for shops or a restaurant I never go to anyway where it is quite difficult to find anything to the value of £5 so I end up having to either forfeit the voucher or pay an extra £20 that I can't really afford to buy one of the cheapest things in the store or a meal. A £5 voucher for say Boots or even a supermarket would be better than one for Nike or Miller and Carter for example as I could get a nail varnish or a book or some fancy chocolate.

I'm sorry if I sound ungrateful. I put alot of thought into gifts and can't understand it when people buy gift cards that put you in a more difficult situation and end up costing you money.

I feel horrible writing this, but my lovely friend always buys me Waterstones vouchers as she knows I love to read. There’s no Waterstones nearby so it’s a special journey, and I don’t drive, but the main thing is, the sort of books I love, you can pick 3 for £5 in The Works. The same sort of books are £8 or £9 each in Waterstones. It breaks my heart to spend so much when I could get 12 books delivered free to my house from The Works for the same £20.

Got offered a birthday trip to a cocktail bar when I was 14.

Needless to say, deeply religious mother did not approve.

I had a Ted Baker voucher for £20. Its not my style and £20 doesnt go far there anyway. I ended up buying socks for the person that gave it to me.

I feel horrible writing this, but my lovely friend always buys me Waterstones vouchers as she knows I love to read. There’s no Waterstones nearby so it’s a special journey, and I don’t drive, but the main thing is, the sort of books I love, you can pick 3 for £5 in The Works. The same sort of books are £8 or £9 each in Waterstones. It breaks my heart to spend so much when I could get 12 books delivered free to my house from The Works for the same £20.

But the ones in Waterstones smell nicer somehow!!

Photo shoot where pics cost £££

My DM bought me a multiple choice experience vouchers when I was 16 - you could choose from a few nice options!

All of the locations were city centre and at least 45-50 min drive from our rural home with no public transport links.

We had very little money so DM had ordered the voucher on a ‘buy now pay in instalments next year’ catalogue and couldn’t afford the petrol for a special journey just to do one of these experiences.

It was a gift given out of kindness but badly thought out, frustrating and a bit pointless.

She found the voucher years later (it didn’t expire) once money was less tight and I’d left home. She used it for afternoon tea with my dad and transferred me the money 👍🏻

I was given a meal voucher for Christmas and had to be booked by Boxing Day!! Went to waste as we didn’t really look at the ts&cs until a few days - think it was a regift

Mostly experience type things won in raffles with a really short date as presumably said raffle organisers have written to companies a while before the event so the vouchers will have been sitting unused for months before being won.
Other than that, cinema vouchers (I don’t watch films but the dds made use of it so not wasted) and vouchers for Toby carvery - I would never eat there. Gave them to a neighbour who frequently eats there so again, not a waste.

An experience voucher for a manicure and afternoon tea. For one. I have to keep my nails short for karate and never have them painted as I'm always painting/doing DIY/mucky household jobs. It was from my XH, after we separated, which just showed that he never knew me at all.

The other one, which wasn't as shit, but still annoyed me a bit, was a voucher for 3 people to have a photo shoot. I took my 2 best friends, it was miles away, and on the day I was really poorly with a heavy cold. I hate having my photo taken at the best of times but went along with it anyway. Felt crap all day, then discovered you only got one free photo- I chose the one I liked, but was outvoted by my friends, and ended up with the one they liked best. As it was a gift for a milestone birthday I felt a bit miffed that I couldn't choose the one I liked but in the end I figured it was still nice to spend the day with them and counted that as as my real gift.

1 hour at Laser quest that was over two hours drive away in another country! So that was four hours travel for an hour plus the only place to eat was Laser quest which was nasty warm pre-made food at crazy prices (£1.50 fruit shoots etc)