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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

My friend kept dds money and used Tesco vouchers

791 replies

jammyjamjam · 03/09/2014 12:24

Hi, ds had inservice yesterday and a friend (a mum from school) offered to take her, her own dd and 2 others to an amusement park, entry fee was 25 pounds. When ds got back in the afternoon, we chatted about the day and it turns out the mum paid for my dd and the 2 other children with Tesco vouchers, ie, she had redeemed her Tesco points to pay for the 4 dcs and then kept 75 pounds form my dd and the 2 other dc. Surely she could have told us that this place took in Tesco vouchers and I could have used my own points and saved the money? I'm grateful that she took dd but surely she should have been upfront about her intention of using vouchers....AIBU?

OP posts:
CaptainFracasse · 03/09/2014 14:33

These vouchers ARE free stuff!! No one has done anything special to get them. It's just tesco 'rewarding' you to have shop with them. And it's clearly working as so many people think they are money and they had to work hard (ie spend a lot of money) to get them.

Personally I find that very unethical. The money the mum has now in cash is worth more than the two £25 vouchers they 'equate to'

DamnBamboo · 03/09/2014 14:34

OP, had you known if 1) you had bothered to check yourself or 2) if she had told you - would you have had time to purchase the vouchers for this particular park anyway.

If you knew well in advance that your daughter was going here, why didn't you check yourself?

alemci · 03/09/2014 14:34

theatre vouchers are different.

I think she should have used vouchers for herself and dd and your dd could have paid using the £25 you gave her. expensive day out,

I think you can print tokens quickly.

Subhuman · 03/09/2014 14:37

YABU. As DoJo points out, she didn't only use £6.50 worth of in store credit to get your child in, she used £25 of vouchers that she would have used on other activities so by using them on your child, she can no longer do that.

iloveanicecake · 03/09/2014 14:39

YABU. She couldn't have used your vouchers anyway as they all show your name and the park wouldn't have accepted them in different names from one customer.
Shemay have converted her vouchers prior to planning this trip, to use for her family, as most are simply Days Out and not restricted to one attraction. If she'd used all her vouchers on your children, charging you just 6.25, she would have lost out when she could have used her vouchers on a trip to the zoo (for example), but had none left as she'd given her earned savings through vouchers to ungrateful people.

CaptainFracasse · 03/09/2014 14:41

I would like to ask the question the other way around to all if those who think the friend did nothing wrong.

If the vouchers are money and she 'earned' them due to the amount she had spent at tesco, then why did she think it was ok to use them and keep the cash? Why using the vouchers instead of keeping them for another day out or to redeem them to buy school uniforms for example? Or keep them for Christmas?
The reason us that, as some of you said, she us very savvy. She knew she could save money that way but decided to keep all the savings for herself. Otherwise, why on earth did she not use the voucher for her dc and paid the rest with the money given to her??? Confused

treaclesoda · 03/09/2014 14:41

I've used Tesco vouchers at a theme park before with different names on them - my mum traded some of hers in for a ticket because we only had enough for two but there were three of us (my mum wasn't with us at the park).

whatsthatcomingoverthehill · 03/09/2014 14:41

Arrrghhh. This thread is so annoying! If she could have used the vouchers for something else then why didn't she? If I give someone money to buy something I expect that is what they do with it, not get some deal and pocket the cash.

Terrierterror · 03/09/2014 14:44

I'm still stunned that anyone was foolish enough to pay full price entry to a theme park.

alemci · 03/09/2014 14:44

it's not a nice thing to do and underhand.

DamnBamboo · 03/09/2014 14:46

OP gave her friend £25 to pay for entrance to a theme park.
The daughter got her day in the theme park.
If OP wanted to use Tesco vouchers, she should have got her own.

BarbarianMum · 03/09/2014 14:47

£25 for a days childcare seems fine, with free theme park trip thrown in (if that's how you want to look at it).

AgaPanthers · 03/09/2014 14:47

"I'm still stunned that anyone was foolish enough to pay full price entry to a theme park."

Well indeed, but if your friend has offered to take your kids, you are not necessarily going to tell her to find some 2-4-1 vouchers.

bakingaddict · 03/09/2014 14:51

We often boost IL's clubcard vouchers for days out vouchers, never had any problems with different names. It makes no difference to the theme parks they still get their money from Tesco, it's just a way for Tesco to keep track of what is issued to whom

If the mum as the organizer of the day out knew club-card vouchers can be used why didn't she inform the other mums. Totally agree with whatsthat

alemci · 03/09/2014 14:52

if it was my friend i would say about getting the vouchers and see if they could do the same. I wouldn't pocket someone else's cash.

SamG76 · 03/09/2014 14:55

Agapanthers - I only know about legoland, but if someone asked me to cough up £43 to take my DC to legoland I would say "don't be silly - use a 2/1 voucher". the difference is that a 2/1 voucher costs £2 for a cereal packet, whereas clubcard vouchers cost you at least £1K of Tesco spending.

I think it was up to OP to raise the issue and go to the trouble of sorting out entry vouchers.

irregularegular · 03/09/2014 14:56

Why are theatre vouchers different? I was given them for free (actually as a thank you present, but not sure how that makes a difference). So I got one of the tickets in addition to mine for free and pocketed the cash from one of my friends.

Maybe they had vouchers they could have used too. But evil me didn't bother to ask them because I clearly just wanted to make a profit on my vouchers.

whatever5 · 03/09/2014 14:58

These vouchers ARE free stuff!! No one has done anything special to get them.

They aren't free though as you have to give the shop a lot money before they give you the vouchers. You might think that you would spend the same amount of money anyway if vouchers didn't exist but I doubt that is true. In reality vouchers are paid for by higher food costs etc. There is not such thing as a free lunch.

Notso · 03/09/2014 15:00

Of course clubcard points are a bonus. You pay for your shopping and get the points as an extra. Tips about using points to pay for stuff are all over money saving websites because most people see things bought with points as being 'free'.
The Mum obviously thought it would be beneficial to her in some way to use all her points to buy the tickets and keep the cash or why bother wasting the points.

ChickenFajitaAndNachos · 03/09/2014 15:00

OP are you certain the lady used Tesco vouchers for the whole group and not just herself and her DC?

alemci · 03/09/2014 15:02

i take your point about theatre tickets but they were a gift to you, otherwise you would be treating your friend, you may have got a better deal on the tickets and went to the trouble of booking. she would have paid anyway. I see it differently somehow.

this seems calculating

RhiWrites · 03/09/2014 15:03

Maybe she didn't say that it was possible to pay in vouchers because she was worried the other parents would say (as others on this thread have) "oh, so it's free to you, I won't pay then".

Does friend have form for seeming mean with money? If not, then let it go.

Notso · 03/09/2014 15:07

Surely RhiWrites she could have said "I'm using clubcard points to pay for me and my DC because it's cheaper do you want to use your points to pay for your DC? If not it's £25"

whatsthatcomingoverthehill · 03/09/2014 15:14

"Why are theatre vouchers different? I was given them for free (actually as a thank you present, but not sure how that makes a difference). So I got one of the tickets in addition to mine for free and pocketed the cash from one of my friends.

Maybe they had vouchers they could have used too. But evil me didn't bother to ask them because I clearly just wanted to make a profit on my vouchers."

Because theatre vouchers are for the value paid for them (whether by you or as a present). Similarly if I had been given a restaurant gift voucher as a present and used that on a meal out with friends, I'd expect them to pay for what they'd eaten even though I'd got mine for 'free'.

The situation in the OP is more like the following: I have a discount card for restaurants that gives 50% off food for groups up to 4. I go out with friends without telling them about the card and at the end of the meal they all put in what they think they've spent. I go to the till and present my card, get the money off, and wahey I've got a free meal. Why should I tell my friends? They were expecting to pay for the food anyway so surely there aren't any losers?

SaucyJack · 03/09/2014 15:15

We're you using the theatre vouchers pound for pound irregular? Fine if you were.

If you made an actual profit from your friends (ie used a ten pounds voucher to buy a twenty pound ticket) then you're also a bit of a skank tbh.