Anyone had really old store gift vouchers honoured?

[nickEcave]

I was going through some old cards and photos from my wedding 18 years ago and found £25 of M&S vouchers which someone had given us in a card and I guess we never spotted at the time. I wondered if anyone has successfully redeemed a gift voucher that was that old? £25 would have been worth quite a bit more 18 years ago!

[nickEcave]

Yes they are paper vouchers. No expiry date on them but they look really old fashioned.

[NannyR]

I found an old paper m+s voucher for £10, inside an old purse. No idea how old it was and it was very crumpled up and tatty looking. I asked at customer services and they said it was fine to use.

[hannnnnnnxo]

I don’t think you have any chance if they are 18 years old unfortunately!

[Daisymay2]

I wrote to Burtons when I found a gift card my son had received as a present and put to one side. They issued a new one as a gesture of good will- but i did say that if grannie had sent a £10 note it would still be valid.
Might be worth a try.

[nickEcave]

If there is no expiry date on them and the company has continuously traded during that time (which obviously M&S has) I don't really see on what grounds they could refuse them?

[adaline]

My workplace accepts old-style paper vouchers as they don't have expiration dates on them.

[Mumof1DS]

I had some really old w h Smith vouchers honoured. I thought I would try my luck because they specifically said that they had no expiry date. They were accepted with no questions asked, which was great as it was £30 off the cost o f Christmas presents last year when money was very tight!

[CountFosco]

Boots refused to let me spend a gift card that was 2 years old. I know someone who complained and was 'allowed' to spend it but it's ridiculous that a present from 2years and 1 day ago can't be spent but a present from 10 years ago can.

[Omgoap]

This happened to my granny a few years ago - we contacted customer services and they told us to send them the vouchers and they then sent new ones as replacements. So I would get on to customer services...

[SeamstressfromTreacleMineRoad]

DS & DIL had a lot of John Lewis vouchers as presents when they got married in 2001. They used them to buy a sofa in 2015...! No problems at all 🙂

[Cindersdonegood]

If there's no expired date then they haven't expired. Give M&S a quick email first though and they may offer replacements first.
If you just go in, the shop workers will likely have no idea, they'll need to call a manager over who may then need to call corporate... all very embarrassing.

[LadyKilbarron]

I found a Boots voucher for £10 that had been given to my husband and his first wife who died 27 years ago. It had no expiry date and Boots honoured it.

[nickEcave]

Thanks for your replies - I will try customer services rather than taking them to a store. I know that most gift cards now have small print somewhere saying they expire after a certain amount of time but paper vouchers with no expiry date are a bit different so its useful to know that other people have managed to use old ones.

[LadyKilbarron]

Presumably as you didn't spot them at the time you never thanked the voucher givers. I bet they've been grumbling about your lack of manners for 18 years!

[melj1213]

I work in retail and provided they don't have an expiry date then I would accept them.

Having said that, I would definitely go to customer services first to check there won't be an issue redeeming it at the checkout as it's much less embarrassing and uncomfortable to wait at the customer service desk on the offchance they need manager approval than it is to stand at the end of a check out while the queue glares at you until the manager strolls down 10 minutes later because they've had to wait 5 minutes to buy their Percy Pigs.

I work in customer services so I am aware of all the different vouchers/gift cards our store accepts as I see them more regularly than individual checkout staff do. This means I am much more comfortable accepting an "unusual" or "old" voucher as I know exactly what to look for and have the authority to accept it or not whereas our checkout operators are trained to check with a supervisor/manager if it is something they don't recognize.

If you have checked with customer services then they can either advise you to return to their desk to make your purchase so they can handle the transaction or will advise you to go through the checkouts but, as they are already aware of the situation, they can either tell the checkout staff ahead of time that it is valid or if there is an issue you can tell them customer services oked it and they can back that up.

[nickEcave]

I know lady . They fell out of stack of cards so even now I don't know who gave them so I can't send a belated thank you!

[PeggyIsInTheNarrative]

Monsoon accepted a really old paper voucher but the manager had to come to the till to ok it. As pp said there was no expiry date on paper vouchers.

It is only the plastic gift cards that expire after 2 years. Robbing gits.

[Rememberallball]

We found out recently that, with John Lewis voucher cards, if you swipe them to check value they reset the 2 year expiry time. If you have one which hasn’t been swiped, or used, for over 2 years they officially expire but by contacting customer services with the gift card reference numbers etc they will usually send you a replacement!!

[FoodGloriousFud]

Get the balance of Next ones checked and the expiry resets to 2 years