Lost my deposit-AIBU?

[Outofpocket2022]

Not sure if AIBU to feel a bit annoyed by all of this….
My family and all live in different parts of the country, and although we all visit each other’s different houses etc at various points we try to get all together once a year for a meal out-generally on Mother’s Day.

We booked a restaurant (not a chain-small family owned type place) midway between all of us for Mother’s Day in 2020 but the pandemic happened and it got cancelled. We’d paid a pretty substantial deposit of £70, and the restaurant got in touch to offer either a full refund or that if we still wanted to visit then they would issue a voucher for the sum of the deposit plus a % extra per person as a thank you.
We accepted the voucher (perhaps foolishly in hindsight) and didn’t think anything more of it. Mother’s day 2021 came around and lockdown was still in place so we didn’t book anything.

Fast forward to 2022 and I booked the same restaurant again for Mother’s Day. They emailed asking for a deposit so we got back in touch to explain about the voucher.

Problem is, the voucher has expired.

I’m really annoyed with myself that I didn’t check in advance and also that I didn’t get back in touch with them perhaps the same time last year. But everything was still shut and it didn’t really cross my mind. The restaurant isn’t somewhere we’d pass so wouldn’t have been on the radar for us to visit earlier. I got back in contact with them via email to explain the circumstances and asked if they would be able to reconsider letting us use our part of the deposit (not the extra % they added on for goodwill) and it was a flat no. The response was from the owner rather than other staff so I’m pretty sure it’s the final answer. They said that everyone else who was issue a voucher has used it and they were a small business who had been impacted by Covid and they hoped we understood.

It’s not their fault that the voucher had expired-that’s 100% on us and we should have checked. But £70 is a lot of money to us and it feels a little bit snakey if I’m honest. Especially as they’d asked for our support in the early part of the pandemic by having a voucher issues rather than taking the refund.

So yeh, feeling a bit peeved but would be good to hear others opinions-AIBU?

I don't think the restaurant are acting unreasonably as such, but they are massively missing the bigger picture. If they agreed to still honour the voucher, OP and her party would be going to the restaurant, spending a lot of money (way more than £70 by the sounds of it) and be feeling wholly positive about the whole experience.

Instead they are going to be telling everyone that they were slightly disappointed in the restaurant's attitude, and not only never going there themselves but quite likely putting others off going as well. Leaving aside any question of legality or morality, it's poor business sense and very short-sighted.

@WombatChocolate

And regarding vouchers, OP did buy a voucher. At the point of being offered a refund, she chose instead to have her money transformed into a voucher. There was an alternative but she chose the voucher with its higher value than the cash she was offered.

A voucher is a promise to provide goods or services within the terms and conditions. All kinds of terms can be applied to vouchers. It isn’t wrong or a breach of the customer- business relationship to reuse to offer goods or decide outside of those terms. One of the terms is a time limit. Regardless or not of whether you believe vouchers should have time limits, they do and can in this country. If you don’t like that, you certainly shouldn’t buy them, but Op did. So, no it wasn’t dishonest of the business to have her £70 and not provide services. Services were available within the timeframe on the voucher, which is what the OP paid for when she turned down the offer of a refund and then chose to buy a voucher instead.

It isn’t wrong to refuse to provide services outside the terms of the voucher. It is, however, wrong to add terms to a voucher after it has been purchased. And this is what the restaurant has done. They did not tell OP that there would be any restrictions on use of the voucher. They only added those restrictions after sale.

I think the restaurant is being unreasonable and short sighted. I think you should leave a factual review as I'd certainly l'y want to avoid a business that behaves in this way.

As a compromise, would they honour the voucher on a day other than Mother's Day? Apologies if I've missed that you've already tried that. It could be the case that they're already fully booked on Mother's Day with 'regulars' who have been in since often since lockdown was lifted and don't want to lose their custom.

It's a tough one because a lot of small restaurants were affected by no shows when hospitality re--opened. If they don't really know you and think you weren't organised enough to contact them before the voucher expired, then they may think you won't show up for your booking. If they then could have given that to a booking to a party who would have spent in excess of £100, they would be out of pocket. Of course they could just be being greedy if business has remained slow for them.

What, morally, have the restaurant done wrong, exactly?

Oh come on. You disagree with my argument, and that’s fine - but please don’t pretend you need me to explain it again.

It would put me off going there. They had your money so I don't think there should be an expiry date, particularly as part of the time was closure due to Covid.