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'm not being goady it's clearly stated in their tandc's that gift cards are to be treated as cash once purchased. It's also a very clear choice to leave unattended in a car and it's a conscious decision to have insurance that limits your cash to £200. If JL refund this money they have to treat ALL gift cards as suspect and check them their IT systems would have to have instant updates or a thief could report card stolen and use it within five minutes AND claim £200 from car insurance. I have always found JL to have excellent customer service there is a reason they tell you to treat gift cards as cash.

Sorry, just realised Mr Collins is for Waitrose. My advice is to contact both of them OP.

They are not choosing not to refund,
it's in their t&c's, it's not something the branch manager has decided "not to take the hit on" it says in black and white on the website...
"Please protect your card (gift voucher) and treat it as cash; we cannot replace lost, stolen or damaged cards."
So whether you agree or not I'm afraid there's nothing you/they can do.

Also not being goady just stating the facts.

Sounds like a misunderstanding error. You were a bit quick to leap on MN, Twitter and emailing the CEO I think. You called the helpline, they told you they'd refund. You went into the store and after some confusion they said no. Why didn't you then re-call up the helpline?
Having Tweeted and had a response, why not give them a chance to sort it before writing to CEO?
You seem very keen to make a fuss.

And I know this doesn't help now, but whilst I can understand leaving your children's presents in the car so you didn't spoil the magic, leaving gift vouchers in the glove compartment doesn't fit with this. Seeing the teachers gift card presents wouldn't have spoilt the magic for children. There was no need and no excuse to have left these in the car.

More to the story?

Just send your email OP. He'll have someone checking his emails anyway. Worked for us when we had problems with BT.

OP, remove the bit at the beginning about being a loyal customer, love Waitrose etc. They don’t care and won’t read beyond line 3 if they think it’s too waffly.

I wouldn’t even explain too much about the car. I would say ‘shortly afterwards my car was stolen’. They don’t need to know any more than that: then make it clear you need the cards refunded.

If you waffle for too long you’ll be written off as a chancer.

it's clearly stated in their t&c's that lost or stolen cards won't be replaced. It's similar with e.g. Mobile phones - if you lose your iPhone apple can disable it so that it becomes unusable to the person who steals it but apple won't replace your iPhone with a new one just because the one you had has been lost and is now unusable even if you get it back.

It's not victim blaming to suggest that leaving over £500 worth of vouchers and presents in a car is a bad idea. That doesn't mean that you are to blame if they are stolen - you aren't, but at this time of year thieves will actively go after cars because of the goods that are often left inside them, in the same way that thieves often break into cars specifically to steal the sat nav etc. You're not to blame but you can minimise the risk of falling victim to this kind of thing if you remove valuables from the car.

They will refund you after seeing this thread and the CEO Twitter stuff.

What a shit thing to happen. I'm hoping that this is just some cock-up between the JL and Waitrose bits of the company.

And yes, try your contents insurance - I have £2ks worth of cover for stuff outside the home, because we often have a lot of kit (tablet, laptop, cameras etc) in our motorhome and it's just not practical to take it all with you every time we take the dog for a walk.

I have successfully tried a bit of a sneaky ruse in similar situations, which you may care to try:

Ring JL head office and ask for their head office.

Tell them you're a freelance journalist specialising in consumer stories.

Say you have been approached by Mrs X of town Y who can't get stolen gift cards replaced, even though they can be blocked.

Ask for their comments.

I've done this three times for friends who've had problems with insurance companies, and every time the company has backed down and sorted it out!

Sorry, ask for their PRESS office, not head office!

if you lose your iPhone apple can disable it so that it becomes unusable to the person who steals it but apple won't replace your iPhone with a new one just because the one you had has been lost and is now unusable even if you get it back.
Presumably your phone provider will let you transfer the calls part of your contract to your new handset though? I.e. the bit they are no longer supplying you due to the theft. Whereas the handset couldn't be recovered. The only bit of the gift card the thieves still have is a small plastic card costing a few pence, not a phone worth hundreds.

I assume that they’re reluctant to replace it given the high value of the card. They may have replaced a smaller value as a goodwill gesture but £500? Their fraud alarm bells are ringing

Maybe you could give them a police report or something to substantiate the break in? And an email that appeals to their good nature

When I was a retail supervisor, we had a customer come running in straight to the tills. We had a massive queue and she was nonchalantly standing aside and talking to all the customers in the queue - it was weird. She eventually got to the till and was saying how her car JUST got stolen, and the thieves also took the clothes that she JUST bought; but miraculously she still had her receipt. She was hoping that we’d give her £200 worth of free clothes. Funnily enough she hadn’t called the police or her insurance just yet, just came running straight to topshop

apple won't replace your iPhone with a new one.

Yes, that is because an iPhone has value to Apple. A gift card is worth nothing to JL.

Do you really not see the difference??

Reduce the email by 80%.

Those that think it's the OP's fault, and so she should get replacement cards, for leaving the cards in the car. If she'd been mugged and her bag taken is that the same? House burgled?

Email is far too long. The stuff about it being Christmas and your car only being unattended for a short period is totally irrelevant.

YOU left the money (because gift cards are exactly the same as cash) unattended in your car, which was stolen. This is not Waitrose's problem.

I can only presume that the people who have never left anything in their cars are weightlifting octopuses. We had locked car stolen once complete with supermarket shop after entering house with one load of bags.

The fact that something is written in a retailer’s terms & conditions does not make it logical, ethical, or even (in some cases) legal. It also doesn’t make it set in stone.

Retailers can, and regularly do, choose to make exceptions to their terms & conditions.

Have you checked your contents insurance? It should include cover for personal items away from the home. Some providers even offer enhanced cover for presents in the couple of weeks before and after Christmas, although not sure if it's valid out of the home.

You should also take this as a lesson and review the cover on your car insurance - what if the cards had been used? Or it had been the cash in advance of you actually getting to the store to buy the vouchers?

With the iPhone. They have sold you the phone. If it's then stolen and blocked Apple are then not £500 better off since they don't have the phone either.

With JL they profit through this by getting £500 for nothing. No goods have left their warehouse (possibly they lose out 20p for the cost of suplying the cards).

If they cancel the cards then surely they should hand back the money? Some people seem to be at ease with the fact that JL make money out of this.

Well I'm not bloody shopping in either Waitrose or JL. Which is a shame as I was about to do my large Christmas shop.

I can only presume that the people who have never left anything in their cars are weightlifting octopuses

But we're not talking about heavy stuff, we're talking about vouchers in an envelope which OP could have put in her handbag/pocket but chose not too.

The obvious solution is to claim on insurance but OP says she's only covered for £200 cash. Again, this is not Waitrose's problem.

You're going to lose the £200 excess on your car insurance anyway as presumably you need to claim for new locks/damage/recovery/the other stolen presents etc? So therefore I would claim the £200 cash anyway.

Okay read the full thread now.

I would call customer services again and tell them what happened in store. If they agree that you’re eligible for a replacement of £535 worth of gift cards, then go in store, ask for management and get them to discuss this on the phone directly with customer services (management may need the affirmation from head office, and so they can sort their admin etc - this is an unusual occurrence). Ask for management and take names etc.

Or ask customer services to post the gift cards to you/online account credit? However do bare in mind that the second set of gift cards that you purchased will be non refundable- so essentially you will be out of pocket of the extra £535 regardless.

Hope you get it sorted

"Yes, that is because an iPhone has value to Apple. A gift card is worth nothing to JL." in the same way that items purchased with gift vouchers have value to JL. It is exactly the same. It is not the value of the pieces of card that is the issue here, it is what they represent - the ability to exchange them for goods of that value.

If you buy a phone from a provider that provider may issue you with a new handset based on your contract and the insurance you have under that contract. However if you buy a phone from apple, put your SIM card in it, walk out of the shop and the phone is stolen from your car apple will disable it and if you want another phone you will have to buy another one. In the same way that if you lose enough money to buy £500 worth of goods you will have to either claim on your insurance or buy new vouchers.

It really is that simple.

OP, despite the advice given earlier if you want the money back quickly you should take them to John Lewis.

I have previously worked for a retail company where they were under the same umbrella but actually run as seperate companies (think Accesorize/Monsoon or Borders/Books Etc).

The thing is, Waitrose will be effectively selling them as 3rd party seller so they won't have an effective system for transferring the money for the refund between them, so the £500 will hit the Waitrose store and take them a long time to get back plus administrating it would cost far more than the fee they get for selling them.

Do try JL if it's at all possible as I think they will be able to be more helpful.