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 think it's reasonable to refuse to reissue vouchers - but only if they can't be stopped. In this case, neither the OP nor the thief can spend the vouchers, but the store has the benefit of the £500!

If the company wasn't going to reissue the vouchers, it was wrong of them to stop them.

OP, I really hope you get a better resolution. It sounds bonkers.

Thank you all so much for your help and encouragement - I have responded to the Waitrose twitter response with a short outline of what has happened and will let you all know if/when I hear back. I'm off now to draft an email to the CEO to see if that will help.

Will definitely keep you all updated.

This policy sounds ridiculous, JL can't be allowed to trouser all that money, surely. Cancelling the stolen cards means transferring the money from the car thief to JL so JL effectively becomes the thief. You lose whether you cancel them or not. Bastards.

Yabu. You shouldn't leave valuables in your car, the police have been saying this for years. You're incentivising theft and pushing up insurance premiums because presumably you're making a claim for your negligence. Just remove all valuables from your car and lock it, simple. It isn't a retailers fault that you were careless. Sorry that you had a crime committed though.

It isn't a retailers fault that you were careless.

Yes, you’re right: here we all were blaming JL for the OP’s car getting stolen. I now see that it wasn’t their fault at all. Thanks for that.

Do you always spectacularly miss the point, or is it only when you’re sticking the boot in?

It was locked MrPotatoHead2 the police think they have wifi intercepted the key - it'a new mechanism thieves are using. I do agree about leaving valuables in the car but I have explained the circumstances.

Surely if retailers didn't take this ridiculous stance and didn't withhold money then insurance claims and premiums would be lower.

Besides please read the thread - there is no point claiming on my car insurance I am covered for £200 and the excess is £200. I am not a serial claimer - in fact I have 9 years no claims on my car insurance.

The company I work for would block if you have proof of purchase and 're issue if not spent, if spent we get cctv at stores to make available to police 3rd.

The CEO is on ceomail. It won't allow me to attach the screenshot.

I really hope you get the money back x

Wow SlummyMummy that is brilliant thanks so much - that is a brilliant website

Its awful but why in earth did you leave them in the car.? Round here that like leaving team on the doorstep to be taken

Good luck op. I fully support you here. Why should JL get to keep your £500? They should not get to benefit from your loss! I am so sorry this happened to you. You were being kind and helpful taking on this task for the teachers. Any of us could get caught on when the car is parked outside our home briefly!

Life that has been explained by the op already!

Potatohead is a bit of empathy too much to expect ffs? I swear there are people loitering just dying to come on threads with their sanctimonious comments and tendencies for stating the bleeding obvious, I'm sure the op of all people realises her error but sometimes shit happens.

Op I really can't see John Lewis doing this, their customer service has gone down hill a bit recently but this must be a mistake, it can't be legal for them to stop the cards and not refund the money. Hope you get it sorted soon.

Sorry this has happened, so awful and so close to Christmas. As other posters have said, take it to social media as this is outrageous. Considering nobody has used them, you'll have a police report as proof the car was stolen, you even have receipts to prove that you bought the bloody gift cards. Take it to FB and Twitter and get the money back! I'm very disappointed in the companies, I'm sure others will be!!

Life Challenges, I am staying with my sister for Christmas and had to take all the presents for Christmas morning to her house. The Children (my son included) were still awake and so I locked the car with all the presents in the boot and the vouchers in the glove box for one hour right outside the house until it was safe to get them in the house without them seeing them - they are only little and I wanted to ensure they didn't see them. I have never had a car stolen before but have learnt my lesson now. But in all honesty, I would be surprised if others haven't done the same at some point when they have little ones. I'm not saying I shouldn't take the blame for it - quite the opposite, it's just it seems to be madness that Waitrose can't help here when they know those vouchers can not ever be used.

nobody can cancel paper vouchers!
They can if they know the voucher number - otherwise you could use the same voucher over and over to pay for stuff online. Hope you get your money back, op, what an awful thing to happen

Aw, OP, you were trying to keep the surprise and you paid a very heavy price for it. I'm sorry this happened. Definitely keep up the pressure on JL, it's outrageous Waitrose initially said they would pay and now won't.

Email the CEO and keep at it as that's disgraceful. I used to work for M&S and if you can provide gift card numbers and receipts, we'd have replaced them.

At boden when any gift vouchers sent, paper or card, a note of the code is taken so they can be cancelled and reissued if necessary. Im so shocked at john lewis' response and i hope u get your money back op.

Ok here is my draft email to the CEO - anyone care to comment?

Dear Mr Collins

I have been a long and loyal customer of Waitrose since I was introduced to the brand in 1999. I have always been impressed by the service levels, quality and focus on customer service that Waitrose delivers and have enjoyed both instore and online shopping over the last 18 years.
On the 18th December I came to my local Altrincham branch to purchase some gift cards. I had taken the responsibility to organize a collection for my son’s school teachers with the other parents who have children attending the school. Many parents contributed to a sum of £535.00. I split this amount between 5 gift cards for the different teachers and teaching assistants including 2 x £140.00 and 3 x £85.00 gift cards.

That evening after leaving my car locked but unattended for approximately 1 hour it was stolen with the gift cards and many other Christmas presents. At 7.00am the next morning (19th December), I immediately called the customer service line and over several phone calls and emails that day (your system was down for most of the day and you were unable to see if the cards had been used or able to cancel them) I finally managed to get the gift cards cancelled and a confirmation that they had not been used.
After much discussion regarding your policy to not refund or transfer balances from cancelled and blocked gift cards, one of the representatives on the customer service phone line informed me to present at the store in person with the receipt and have a member of the Stores customer service team call the customer service centre, then they could arrange to have the unused balances of the cards transferred onto new gift cards for me.
I attended the store at approximately 5.00pm on Tuesday 19th December. After much discussion between the staff both in store and on the customer service line, it was determined that the “good will” gesture of transferring the balance would impact the finances of the Altrincham Waitrose store and as such this was deemed not acceptable by Waitrose head office. The store manager informed me that it would not be possible to offer any solution and that Waitrose would not offer any form of refund or re-issue new cards to the value that had been cancelled.
This means Waitrose are now holding £535.00 of gift card funds that can never be spent yet refuse to refund or transfer the funds to another gift card.
As I feel responsible to the other parents involved in the collection, my moral compass will allow me no other alternative than to purchase even more gift cards to replace those that have been stolen and are now cancelled. This is at a time when I can least afford it and also have to find some way to fund the other lost Christmas presents and provide some sort of Christmas for my family.

This policy seems to be significantly behind the rest of the market. Many other retail outlets are fully able to block and cancel gift cards and will happily transfer balances when gift cards are lost or stolen. Waitrose’s policy is not in line with best practice and certainly not in line with your brand and the normal outstanding customer service experienced by Waitrose customers.
I am appealing to you to review this outdated policy. In this day and age the technology most certainly exists to correct this issue. In fact, it appears that you do have the technology, just an outdated policy that reflects the times of paper based gift vouchers. I would be most grateful if you could respond to this email and help to address this situation with a more just approach and a little Christmas spirit.

Yours faithfully,

Clazzer1

Also... Regardless of. JLs policy and if monies are ring fenced in some way...

Would have thought your contract is with them?? If they've cancelled them JL or agents are up 500£...and have.given no good for such?

Any legal folk to correct??

I think people comparing it to cash are missing the point. If the police are able to recover cash following a theft, you get it back. This "cash" has effectively been recovered.
Great email OP. Good luck.

How awful for this to happen so close to Christmas. Have you checked your home insurance? It should provide cover for at least some of the gifts and vouchers - there will be a limit for goods away from home but I'd be surprised if there was no cover at all.

Your email is far too long and waffles on about all sorts of unneeded crap.

The circumstances of it being stolen from car isnt needed. Nowt to do with you issue now.

Stick to basic relevant facts

• stolen
• cancelled
• not transferred/ reimbursed- fix this