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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

378 replies

Clazzer1 · 19/12/2017 21:43

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?

OP posts:
HuskyMcClusky · 20/12/2017 09:56

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.

No, it is not. You can keep saying it until you’re blue in the face, but you’re wrong.

If you lose your iPhone and Apple replaces it, you have paid Apple for one iPhone and they have supplied you with two iPhones. They are down one iPhone.

If you lose your £500 JL gift card and JL blocks it and replaces it, you have paid JL for £500 one gift card and they have supplied you with...one £500 gift card.

WaxOnFeckOff · 20/12/2017 10:07

That's illegal under money laundering regulations.

No it's not. They may have to do enhanced diligence but it's not illegal. The rules are the same as if you use a bank. the difference being that the bank has conducted diligence on you when you opened the account and unless you exhibit behaviour that they deem suspicious then that's that. JL haven't conducted any investigation on the transaction where you purchased the cards as presumably the payment came from a bank account/credit card where you had already been through checks in order to take out the account. handing £500 back in cash could mean that there is a potential money laundering risk but maybe not, as they already know that the original source of funds was legitimate.

Jerseysilkvelour · 20/12/2017 10:09

Actually gift cards are accounted for in a different way than regular transactions.

It's common practise that you lose your gift card, you lose your money. Think about when a company goes into administration and the administrators don't honour the gift cards.

I completely sympathise with your situation, it's very unfortunate. But I've no idea why everyone thinks JL should be responsible for your misfortune. Their policy is very clear. You should have treated the gift cards like cash really.

soupforbrains · 20/12/2017 10:14

I really think taking this as public as you can is the way forward. I know you've already done Twitter, I suggest using facebook too, posting the complaint to their facebook page and then sharing it should help to spread it which will hasten their response. Also contact Watchdog and Which on either social media or email.

I want to share this story on Twitter and facebook to ensure it gets enough attention. @Clazzer1 would you be comfortable sharing your twitter handle here (or in a DM) so that I can retweet your post? or alternatively can someone suggest another way? I don't want to share the link to the full thread because a lot of people won't bother to click through and read it.

Discusting · 20/12/2017 10:20

Can you ask for them to be used over the telephone by yourself to repurchase your children’s xmas presents?

Eltonjohnssyrup · 20/12/2017 10:31

JL haven't conducted any investigation on the transaction where you purchased the cards as presumably the payment came from a bank account/credit card where you had already been through checks in order to take out the account.

She said she paid in cash. It would be illegal for them to refund in cash.

WaxOnFeckOff · 20/12/2017 10:54

Apologies, I didn't spot that Elton. I wouldn't expect them to refund in cash anyway tbh. I think the reasonable and honest thing in this scenario is for them to refund in gift cards, less any cost of admin, to the OP once they are sure that the value cannot be redeemed on the original cards.

I appreciate that this is not what the terms and conditions say but this is not a run of the mill scenario, presumably the OP has a police case ID number and it is a large value and I don't think that the terms and conditions for many gift cards are reasonable.

wherethevioletsgrow · 20/12/2017 10:54

I completely sympathise with your situation, it's very unfortunate. But I've no idea why everyone thinks JL should be responsible for your misfortune. Their policy is very clear. You should have treated the gift cards like cash really.

In that case, they should not be permitted to cancel or block the gift cards. But they have, so they have been unjustly enriched as to the sum of £535. They will suffer absolutely no financial loss by transferring the amount to a new gift card.

jellycat1 · 20/12/2017 11:03

wherethevioletsgrow Yes.* Spot on. That is exactly the point. I usually hate trial by social media but in this case I agree. First I would email the M.D. of JLP directly. If no joy, take to Twitter.*

jellycat1 · 20/12/2017 11:03

Oops. Sorry for the Bold.

Changebagsandgladrags · 20/12/2017 11:15

The point is, John Lewis has cancelled the cards, so not even the theif can exchange them for goods.

With a lost card, the potential is there for them to be used by whoever finds them.

There is no potential for this cards to be used in exchange for goods. Therefore John Lewis are £500 better off.

If they cannot refund lost/stolen cards then they shouldn't be blocking or cancelling them either.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 20/12/2017 11:22

Watching this and hoping that John Lewis will sort this out for the OP.

whiskyowl · 20/12/2017 11:24

They are basically profiting from theft! It's like they've nicked the OP's cards themselves. Outrageous.

Sparklingbrook · 20/12/2017 11:26

I still worry this is all very outing with mention of the branch and quite a specific scenario. Hope the OP has managed to sort things out but could understand no update.

Eltonjohnssyrup · 20/12/2017 11:35

There is no potential for this cards to be used in exchange for goods. Therefore John Lewis are £500 better off.

Yes, but she went to Waitrose, not JL to obtain a refund. Having some experience in this type of retail accounting, where companies are nominally linked but have seperate accounting procedures, this is where the issue lies.

OP needs to speak to JL direct. They hold the funds and administer the card and they can make the decision to reissue the cards. This seems to have been poorly communicated to the OP by Waitrose.

Waitrose act as a third party seller in this case. Much as Waterstones or WH Smith sell book tokens, Waitrose will sell the vouchers and accept them, but cannot take control over the administration such as reissuing cards or refunds.

The OP has had lots of advice on this thread. But I honestly know something about this and think it could be pretty simply sorted out by the OP contacting the JL helpline direct.

MsJuniper · 20/12/2017 11:46

Your poor thing OP, that must have been a horrible moment when you realised what had happened. Bastards. Hope you get it sorted.

ButchyRestingFace · 20/12/2017 11:49

I think it sucks, no matter what JL may say in the small print.

OP has effectively just donated £500 to fucking JL. I like JL as much as the next person, but I think of better recipients for a £500 donation.

mummaCL · 20/12/2017 11:57

If you bought the gift cards with a credit card would you have purchase protection? Just a thought. Hope it gets sorted

mummaCL · 20/12/2017 11:59

sorry just saw you paid in cash

itsbetterthanabox · 20/12/2017 12:08

Tweet both John Lewis and Waitrose. Go on their fb pages too. All social media.
They will get back to you much faster.

StripySocksAndDocs · 20/12/2017 13:56

So, if you go to the bank, draw out £500 and are then mugged/burgled and that £500 is stolen do you think the bank should be obliged to replace it

Not the same. More like:

"So, if you go to the bank, make a new account put in £500 and get an debit card Then you mugged/burgled and that debit card is stolen do you think the bank should be obliged to replace it."

The answer is if they have blocked the card: yes. Otherwise you'll never get your €500. The bank keep it.

Even if Waitrose charged £1 to replace the plastic card (that's not cash) it wouldn't be so bad.

Goshthatwentwell · 20/12/2017 14:35

Stripey - er the money IS yours. In a bank account in your name....

Anyway I have already given my views.I think it's pretty poor people saying " claim on insurance". Why should the insurance company pay out for something that John Lewis are keeping? JL get £500 and insurance is £500 quid down.How does that make sense.

Insurance should be to cover the cost of irreplaceable goods. We know JL has the Op's money

catkind · 20/12/2017 14:42

The point of the T&Cs is that you should treat it as cash because someone could steal it and go straight to JL and spend it before you realise it's gone or get to a phone etc. Given they managed to stop them before it was spent, that cash has effectively been recovered. If you want to extend the cash analogy - your handbag was stolen in JL, but the JL security guard managed to stop the thief at the door and recover your £500 cash. Legally they now have to hand it back to you, they can't just keep it.

And it's rubbish about them having to "go to the trouble of checking it electronically" - they have to do that in order for someone to spend the money on the card anyway. Otherwise you could spend it three times over.

I don't think the length of the email is any problem. The team that deal with CEO complaints (it won't actually land on CEO's desk you know!) will be fast readers, it took me about 30s to read if that. And they would never skim the first few lines and then ditch a CEO complaint. Imagine the bad press if it turned out to be important after all.

StripySocksAndDocs · 20/12/2017 15:25

Yep, but you still can't have it Goshthat.

wherethevioletsgrow · 20/12/2017 15:31

So, if you go to the bank, draw out £500 and are then mugged/burgled and that £500 is stolen do you think the bank should be obliged to replace it

It's more like, you go to the cash point to draw out £500. However, you forget to take the money and walk off and it gets swallowed by the machine (as nobody else takes it in the meantime). The bank then refuses to re-credit it to your account, despite the fact that they still have it. Would that be fair?