Beautician voucher - AIBU?

[Peanut3]

I live in a small village and in the centre of that village is a beauticians. My friend and I recently celebrated our 40th birthdays and our very generous friends bought us each a £100 voucher for this beauticians.
When I went to use my voucher I discovered there was only £58 on it. Strange amount so I queried it with the owner. Turns out the other birthday girl may have turned up at shop for treatments without her voucher. The therapist probably asked what day was it bought on and subsequently took the amount due from my voucher in error. Upon returning to the shop with her voucher she probably discovered that it still had £100 on it and if she questioned it was probably told strange, but there’s £100 on it now. She probably didn’t question it any further - to be fair I wouldn’t have either.
So back to me discovering this today. Owner worked it out and told me that my friend owes me £42 and that I need to take it up with her. As far as I’m concerned it’s not her fault and I’m not even going to mention it to her. I was annoyed with the owner as they shouldn’t be taking money off vouchers that haven’t been presented.
All of us (including the owner of beauticians) have children in the same class at school. I would have thought that the owner should have held her hands up and said sorry our fault and honoured the full amount of my voucher as a gesture of goodwill.
AIBU?

You are definitely not being unreasonable and it's not your job to deal with this. She should obviously just honour it as it was her mistake.

Another who agrees you are not being unreasonable!

Did your friend not realise though?

Very strange your friend didn’t ask how much on the voucher before paying!

Yanbu!

She needs to honour your voucher and take it up with the other lady! The beautician shouldn’t be out of pocket though. Surely it can be sorted out easily enough. Not your problem though!

I would tell the gift giver friend, not the other friend with the voucher. Just to let the gift giver know how poorly the beautician has handled this, so they won’t waste their money on vouchers again etc.

Just as a “fuck you” to the beautician, I wouldn’t go back there at all. I wouldn’t even use the voucher, I’d just completely sever the business relationship. Can’t be giving your custom to places that treat you terribly.

You may need to involve the friend who purchased the gift vouchers. There should be terms & conditions of the voucher which would be either on the voucher or given with it - this is the first place you should check. I would imagine that there is a condition which states the voucher needs to be presented in order to complete the sale and if so then the retailer has breached their own terms.

In any case return to the retailer/salon owner and tell her you are not satisfied with this outcome and she needs to make good on your voucher or you will take the matter further - you may wish to take the purchaser of the voucher with you as the contract of purchase is between them.

The retailer should restore your voucher and either take the hit or contact the other party and inform her that the £42 payment still needs to be applied to her voucher.

If you meet further resistance from her, trading standards will be able to advise - there are laws around the retail of vouchers and gift cards and it is likely she is in breach of these.

So has your friend used all of her £100 plus the £42 or does she still have credit on her voucher?

What would the beautician do if you two weren’t friends? Would she tell unrelated customers to just deal with it between themselves? She’s essentially deducted money from your voucher without your consent.

She should have topped yours back up. The beautician can alter the amounts on vouchers without physically having the vouchers present - she could take the £42 off from your friend’s voucher if she really doesn’t want to be out of pocket, and top yours back up. She handled this unprofessionally

YABU calling it a “beauticians”

Beauty Therapist, Beauty Salon.

YANBU, the salon should sort the vouchers out. Not leave it up to you. Even if it leaves them out of pocket.

Actually more I think of this the more I think how odd your friend was

She didn’t ask how much on voucher
And after paying she didn’t ask how much left

Or did she...

So your friend has spent £142 of the money gifted?

@DobbyTheHouseElk

Beautician
Noun
a person whose job is to give people beauty treatment.

She should be able to track any transactions back and establish what happened. Absolutely disgraceful behaviour on the owner’s part and very short sighted of her. Businesses in small communities rely very much on good relationships with customers to survive. I’d have a word to the gift giver, and also go back in and give the owner once last chance to fix this. If she didn’t, then the whole tale would be spread far and wide.

Just use up your credit and don't go there again.

@Changeembrace NO.

It’s a very derogatory term.

It is very far from being a very derogatory term

The owner is not doing herself any favours with this carry on especially in a small town. People talk and this will not be good for her business.

Firstly it was her mistake and secondly for the sake of 50 quid she is doing a great disservice to her own business and obviously to you.

Since when was beautician a derogatory term and for what reason????

I'm going to go against the grain here. Whilst I can see that the owner could have handled it differently, at the end of the day your friend has purchased £142 of beauty therapy services. She must have had an idea when she returned to the shop that she didn't still have £100 on her card and whilst you surmise that she questioned it, equally she may not have and just kept quiet thinking they mistakenly hadn't deducted the first sums due to them.
Small businesses have a hard time and in theory should speak to your friend who presumably planned on paying the £42 difference for her treatment but got off.
But you expect the business owner to be the loser (when her therapist on your theory tried to do your friend a favour if she turned up without card). This business supplied the services to your friend, and if they are the losers that doesn't sit right with me. You shouldn't be the loser but your friend does need to be involved and pay the difference she should have paid.
Agree it's not your problem, it's the owners, but your friend shouldn't just get a £42 freebie from a small business.

In other words, yes, if you make a fuss the owner should honour your full value, but your friend really ought to be told that she taken £42 from a small business and do the right thing.

Do you know for sure that your friend has used all of her £100 voucher?

Also, if I was good enough friends to hold a joint birthday celebration I'd feel able to say to friend "oops I think you've spent some of my voucher". Not leave her to benefit at the shop's expense. I agree they haven't behaved great but I don't accept your friend hasn't taken advantage of this, even if unwittingly which seems unlikely.

I agree that your friend needs to offer the amount from her voucher, is it still available on her voucher? If not, she has spent £142 of the birthday gift and this needs pointing out to her.

Beautician it’s a very derogatory term.

WTAF

Please do tell us why?!

It’s a noun.

Dietician
Physician
Beautician