AIBU to expect Waitrose/John Lewis to give me back my £500?

[Clazzer1]

I had my car stolen last night. This would be bad enough in itself but Inside my car was over £500 of Waitrose / John Lewis gift cards that have been stolen along with all my children's Christmas presents.

As I still had the receipt for these gift cards I was able to give JL the gift card numbers and they were able to confirm that nobody had used them and they were able to successfully block anyone from from using them in the future. Sounds good - so you think they would issue new gift cards to me - WRONG.

Waitrose/ John Lewis policy is to NOT refund or reissue gift cards. This means they have my money, they have stopped anybody from using the vouchers I bought, they have confirmed that NOTHING has been spent from these gift cards but they are now withholding this money and refusing to give it back or provide a replacement. I am totally shocked at this response from such a respectable retailer. They are no better than the thief that stole them in the first place.

These gift cards were the school collection money that the parents had collected for a gift for several teachers and teaching assistants To withhold this from us is a true disgrace. AIBU to expect a multi million pound retailer like Waitrose / John Lewis to do the right thing and provide a replacement?

I won a voucher on here and went to use it a few months later and it didn't work. I esxalated it to HQ and "someone" i.e. "no-one" was looking into it. never heard another dicky bird. It was only £25 and it wasn't JL.

"If they give you your money back they’ll have to change their entire policy on gift cards."
Nope that why they use " gesture of goodwill" as a get out clause.

Can someone link the tweet so we can retweet it. Thanks

have not called her back yet as I think it is right to allow Waitrose to correct this situation - what do you all think? Should I wait on Waitrose or just call the lady at Martins Money tips back?

Phone the martin lewis lady back now, op

You don't want to miss the boat, there will be lots of people contacting him after Christmas with gift related problems so his team might be swamped, your complaint is gaining momentum at the moment on twitter so it is a good time to seek his input

And Waitrose have already had two opportunities to refund your money and refused both times, don't hang around waiting for a third time

Better for them to hear that Martin Lewis is investigating now whilst they are considering your complaint, that should persuade them to make a "goodwill gesture" towards you to try and shut down any negative publicity. If they refuse a third time they might be less inclined to change their mind later

Also they really won't want any negative publicity the weekend before Christmas when people will be doing last minute shopping (I bet gift cards are a popular last minute buy), it's an important time to keep up their brand image

Oh well done Coleen Rooney - had heard rumours that she's a Mumsnetter!

Oh yes... I've just seen she's retweeted it too now. Excellent. That should help publicity a bit...

Following this. I hope you get your money back.

Shame on you John Lewis. I often buy JL vouchers as gifts but I'll be sticking to M and S vouchers in future.

If refund policy is changed for everyone then great! but this shouldn’t be a one off just because this particular case is all over Twitter.
Gift cards are a crap present anyway and should be banned. How many of us never use them? companies must be making millions out of us. I’d rather give someone the money.

I never knew Capital were JL customer service - explains a lot - what are JL thinking of - their reputation is going down the toilet :(

Ok the subject of gift cards, does anyone else miss actual paper vouchers? They were just nicer. I don't like having to check the receipt to see how much the person has valued me at. The vouchers were a proper gift, they felt more like money.

Gifts cards are horrible.

I'm amazed that JL are taking this stance,, someone there is going to be getting a bollocking for making them look stupid when this is all sorted out.

I'm sure you'll get your money back OP, sounds like a classic "computer says no situation", no one could possibly think they should be able to keep the money.

I would be annoyed too. Yes, treat them like cash, but as they can actually be cancelled (unlike cash) I am a bit disappointed in them for not replacing them.

Personally I didn't like paper ones, they never fit in my purse very well without folding, and as straight as I try to get it, I never quite managed it perfectly and I hate wonky folding - yes, I'm weird

This is my local waitrose. The majority of staff are very unhelpful and rude although Sophie, one of the managers, is very nice. I returned a very expensive item that I received two of via click and collect (didn't realise until I opened the box at home) and didn't even get a thank you. I do hope you get a replacement card as that's a lot of money to lose.

@Clazzer1 a relative of mine works for JL in head office - showed him this thread and he says it sounds bonkers and has escalated it.

It sounds bonkers because it is bonkers, this is what happens when the machines take over, there's no scope for any kind of common sense or ownership of problems.

I hate it when I have to deal with big companies at my job as in most cases their customer service is rubbish if what you want is slightly out of the ordinary

Fingers crossed OP!

Yes they absolutely should give you this money back. So sorry this happens to you

We had stupidly let a JL voucher expire. T&C basically say “tough shit” but my DH who likes a challenge phoned customer services and they gave us a couple of extra weeks. Never hurts to ask

Sandy this is exactly what John Lewis used to trade on, stepping in and being helpful when out of the ordinary problems cropped up. This is why so many people shop there or used too. Frankly I would rather go to tk max now I prefer their buyers and products.

Sandy this is exactly what John Lewis used to trade on, stepping in and being helpful when out of the ordinary problems cropped up. This is why so many people shop there or used too. Frankly I would rather go to tk max now I prefer their buyers and products.

Their customer service esp in waitrose used to be the gold standard.

If JL have cancelled the gift cards... surely they should refund the money?

There is no 'goodwill' required its a straight-forward transaction.

I'll be surprised if you don't get a refund.

Sad that even JL seem to be going down the pan! Can't believe they'd profit £500 from a customer's bad luck! So disappointing!