Hotel being awkward or am AIBU?

[peterrrabbittt]

I was gifted a voucher worth £50 for a hotel back in September last year. It was for a lovely 5 star hotel not far from where I live and it can be used in any part of the hotel e.g the spa, restaurant or towards booking a room. It was valid from September 2019 to February 2020 (although I thought it was March, not sure why I must of just glanced at it and read it wrong. I appreciate it’s completely my fault).

Anyway, I planned on using it last year in November and decided to take a friend. We decided to use it in the restaurant and have a lovely meal as both of us aren’t really fussed on spa treatments. After being told over the phone that we didn’t need to book a table beforehand, we just turned up, however we were given the wrong information. We were told that we would need to either book over the phone or online. Fine, I said I would ring up in a couple of weeks when I received my rota from work and knew when I’d be off.

Unfortunately I became very ill before Christmas with a stomach bug which lasted a couple of weeks so didn’t get a chance to go before then and then I was working a lot of overtime in January as they were very short staffed in work (I know this isn’t the hotels problem). I have no idea what made me do it, but I looked at the voucher yesterday morning and realised it had expired on Friday, literally 2 days ago. I decided to phone up the hotel and explained the situation and asked if they would make an exception given the circumstances. The voucher itself is worth £50 but as it’s quite a nice place we would definitely be spending a lot more on drinks and deserts as it wouldn’t cover the total (I didn’t say this on the phone though). I said I would be happy to come within the next week if they had any bookings available as I didn’t expect them to wait for months for us to use it. The receptionist took all the details and said she would give me a call back as soon as possible. I didn’t hear anything back last night but they’ve finally called me back this afternoon and said they can’t do it unfortunately, didn’t give a reason why.

I just feel like they’ve been purposely awkward. I appreciate it was my fault for reading the small print wrong but given that I’d already tried to use it last year but couldn’t due to their mix up, I thought that they might have made an exception just this once. It just feels like such a waste to me.

AIBU? If so please feel free to tell me that I’m being a spoiled entitled brat!

What a shame, OP. The hotel would have gained a lot of goodwill from you by allowing you to use the voucher (and benefit from the extra money you would have spent too) and goodwill is priceless, especially bearing in mind they already have the £50.

My experience was with a photographer company. I'd won a voucher for a 8 by 10 inch portrait with an April cut off (I'd got it at Christmas at a fair) but when I called to arrange to visit they told me not to worry and a date after April was fine. I got a wonderful pic of me and DH with no pressure to purchase any additional pics.

It looks to me like whoever wrote / printed out the voucher made a mistake , as they’ve only given you 5 months not 6
Try phoning on Monday as you might get someone with some initiative who can help

First time posting @DowntownAbby so definitely wasn't me 

It just saids 7/2/20 @CalamityJune

Will ring back in a few minutes I'm just eating my dinner, will update you with what they say.

Be strong!! Do not let them get away with this.

It’s a shame so it is worth tryIng again, emailing/phoning the manager by name. I booked a hotel for work deliberately choosing a flexible cancellation policy as my meeting was not 100% certain. Most hotels have a 12 hour cancellation policy. This one was 24 hours - useless if an email is sent late at night cancelling for a totally valid reason. Their choice to charge me for a night, even though I phoned them at 6am. My choice not to use that chain again.

There were a few threads around Christmas from people commenting that they didn’t like voucher presents. This is exactly why they don’t always work if the expiry date is quite short.

@peterrrabbittt

First time posting @DowntownAbby so definitely wasn't me

Well that confirms it then, I am going crazy.

@peterrrabbittt

You're much more likely to get the result you want by writing in rather than by phoning at this time of night on a Sunday. Get the manager's e-mail address and write a note.

I think it's disgusting a company would take £50 and return nothing!

Which hotel is it? I work with hotels. I'm surprised at this.

Id just call up in the week and ask to speak to the general manager. Don't say why.

Then when you speak to them just explain the above and I'd be very surprised if they didn't let you use it this weekend.

@peterrrabbittt you sjoile be able to extend the voucher at a fee

*should

That’s pretty shitty of them. And of course, the could make an exception. I would try shaming on social media.

I really think it should be illegal for vouchers to have an expiry date unless, on or after expiry, it can be returned for a refund (so a voucher for an experience rather than an amount couldn’t be stored up forever while the cost of the experience keeps rising).

They take the money and end up doing nothing for it, that seems inherently unreasonable to me and I wish our courts wouldn’t enforce it.

Tried calling them but their not picking up for some reason, probably because it's a Sunday (?)

I've sent an email (can't find managers details online) and explained the situation again. If their not picking up the phone I doubt they'll read my email tonight either.

Will phone back tomorrow when I'm in work if I've not heard anything back by the morning.

Honestly all this hassle is making me not want to use it but with all your support I will pursue it.
Fingers crossed

I think it's very short sighted. If they'd agreed, they would have done well out of you because you would have been more positively inclined. Very poor customer service and I hope they rectify it. I would wait until the week though, Sunday night isn't the best time for people to be available.

Donate it to a friend or a charity if you can’t face going. But don’t let it drop.
And I agree with others, this place sounds less that organised at best.

Utterly ridiculous advice that the hotel should be named and shamed. That is the adult equivalent of stamping your little feet and having a tantrum. They expired. Stop being so petulant.

Why shouldn’t you talk openly about bad customer service ? A random 5 month voucher and being turned away at the door because you were given misinformation which wasn’t rectified?!?

Where on earth did I say that I was going to name and shame them @midsomermurderess? That was the advice I was given, doesn't mean to say I was going to follow it. Rude

If they refuse to honour it, then can you ask your friend to ask for her money back? They have taken payment for a service not provided, due in a large part, to their mistake.

Is the expiry date 7/2/20 handwritten like that? If so forge it to read 7/2/2021.

In the US they can't expire for five years and most merchants will honor them forever.

@TroysMammy betters still 7/3 or 17/2

*better

Yabu, it was your mistake. The voucher had expired, end of. You tried and they didn't give you an outright no but then refused which would probably be as per policy. If they made an exception for you how many other people would they need to do the same for? To say they should be named and shamed on social media is ridiculous the voucher had expired! What is the point of having offers or vouchers with terms and conditions if customers can just get what they want anyway?

If you push further they might give in and honour it, it's up to you to decide if it is worth the effort.

they probably get dozens of people pleading to make an exception.
so what? they are happy to sell the vouchers in the first place

Utterly ridiculous advice that the hotel should be named and shamed.
Why ridiculous to write a factual review? If nothing else, warn people to check the dates on their vouchers. I wouldn't use a hotel who refuse a voucher 2 weeks after the expiry date. If they are happy about a certain policy, they won't have any problem about the publicity.