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 would have thought that even as a gesture of good will they could have offered you something even if not the original full amount. Especially as it looks as though you will run up a substantial bill

@Vitani

I don't really understand the expiry of vouchers and gift cards tbh. If they are willing to offer them, what difference does the date it is used actually make with regards to somehow negatively impacting the restaurant? If you are willing to offer a £70 voucher, why would it being used in 1, 2, or 3 years even matter.

Because people will turn up literally decades later with vouchers trying to use them. It's unreasonable to have no expiry on a voucher but a year is quite short.

A couple of years ago, a friend gave me a 10 pounds Starbucks voucher which I've mislaid. I'm sure I'll find it one day and may or may not be able to still use it, but that's on me not Starbucks.

I've lost out abut £100 with vouchers due to covid and lack of travel, but no one I know died or became destitute and so it's fine.

"OP had a whole year to use it, not just for Mother’s Day."

That's true.

Tbf Op, none of the others who were also supposed to go mentioned it either?

Including the person who has the voucher!

Could you contact the restaurant and remind them you took a voucher as a gesture of goodwill to them rather than take the refund and that this is the first MD not in lockdown and ask if they will honour it?

They might make more effort for regular customers but people who only come on one particularly busy day really isn’t worth it. The OP doesn’t say they go there every Mother’s Day even.

WTF. Of course they should honour the voucher. The fact it was expired is irrelevant, because covid is exceptional circumstances, so it couldn't have been used in the timeframe because they were still closed because of covid. I would be writing politely but firmly that you expect them to honour it.

I think they should honour it, because of what were circumstances beyond the OP or anyone else's decision. Even though I think the government's response prolonged the periods of restrictions, both the 2020 and 2021 Mother's Day would have been restricted in some way.

If they don't, go elsewhere. There is two weeks to book somewhere else, hope you find somewhere.

"That money will have been included in their accounts years ago now, to honor it now would potentially mean they would probably be giving you the meal at a loss".

That is factually incorrect, per accounting terms. Their accounts in 2020 would show that they had received a deposit, for services pending.

I disagree with nearly everyone on this thread. Being a weekly, monthly or annual client is irrelevant. If you booked a special meal for valentines or Mother's Day, you wouldn't/could not want it till the following Mother's Day/ Valentine's Day, big event. Not he forced to use it on any old day.

@MoiraNotRuby

Hospitality has been really badly affected. I totally understand where this small business is coming from.

I don't. They've had £70 of OP's money for nothing!

@YetAnotherSpartacus

You paid for a service that the restaurant was not able to deliver, they gave you a voucher that you were unable to use and now they have kept your money?

Fuck 'em.

I'd post a bad review personally.

Yeah, small businesses are having it had but so are a lot of individuals.

Everyone else apparently used their vouchers.

I though there were loads of opportunities to eat out in and out of the lockdowns?

From the restaurant’s point of view though, what do they gain by honouring the voucher? The OP and her family clearly aren’t regular customers, so future loss of custom from them isn’t an issue. Yes, it means the OP’s family will go elsewhere on Mothers’ Day but again that’s beneficial for them - instead of them having OP’s family paying £70 less than their full bill, they can be fully booked with people paying their full bill and will therefore make more money.

If the OP and family were regular customers then the goodwill argument might hold some weight - but then if they were regular customers they would have used the voucher sooner!

And the restaurant doesn’t just have OP’s money sitting in their bank account - as others have said that money was likely spent immediately on food which had to be thrown away, so the restaurant will lose out by honouring the voucher now. They have clearly made the decision that it’s not worth it to them.

@Enough4me

I've lost out abut £100 with vouchers due to covid and lack of travel, but no one I know died or became destitute and so it's fine.

Not everyone can afford to lose £100.

If they did not inform you that the gift voucher would have an expiry date of one year before you accepted their offer of a voucher in lieu of a refund, then the expiry date is probably unlawful.

Possibly not worth enforcing, but you aren’t in the wrong here, OP, the restaurant have taken your money and given you nothing in return. However hard it is for business owners, that’s not a fair or reasonable exchange and if they didn’t make the expiry date crystal clear upfront it was deceptive of them too.

if they didn’t make the expiry date crystal clear upfront it was deceptive of them too

Sorry but this is rubbish. They are a small independent business trying to stay afloat. They offered OP a full refund.

I was given a voucher from a national chain and had to chase up their Ts and Cs myself online. It was not 'crystal clear upfront'. Are people not able to google terms and conditions?

@GreenFingersWouldBeHandy

if they didn’t make the expiry date crystal clear upfront it was deceptive of them too

Sorry but this is rubbish. They are a small independent business trying to stay afloat. They offered OP a full refund.

I was given a voucher from a national chain and had to chase up their Ts and Cs myself online. It was not 'crystal clear upfront'. Are people not able to google terms and conditions?

The size of their business is irrelevant.

They offered OP a full refund and an alternative that allowed them, to their benefit, to keep hold of her cash. They made the extra percentage they were offering to encourage her to take that deal clear, if they did not make the negative aspects of the offer clear - only telling her the good bits and hiding the bad - they were being deceptive.

See, lots on here seem still to be talking like OP bought a gift voucher and then just didn’t use it, so suck it up.

But this was OP doing the restaurant a huge favour at the start of an unprecedented crisis etc etc and saying “no I won’t insist on my refund and add to the likelihood you’ll go out of business, you hang onto the £70 deposit until another time.”

OP finally finds a year she can do her Mothers Day thing and the restaurant won’t honour the deal. Bad form however you look at it I think.

They should accept the voucher. It's the first mothers day they have been open since you booked for a mothers day celebration.
As has been pointed out though, they have nothing to gain and £70 to lose if they accept it, so I'd probably put it out there on social media. Many people suffered during covid not just the restaurant and ultimately they have been unable to provide you with what you booked, which was a mothers day lunch/dinner.

TBH I'd write it off - as others ave said don't slag them off for your error. Chalk it down as one of those things.

The OP’s already said the expiry date was very clear. Why not just read the OP’s posts if you don’t want to read the whole thread?

@PuppyMonkey

See, lots on here seem still to be talking like OP bought a gift voucher and then just didn’t use it, so suck it up.

But this was OP doing the restaurant a huge favour at the start of an unprecedented crisis etc etc and saying “no I won’t insist on my refund and add to the likelihood you’ll go out of business, you hang onto the £70 deposit until another time.”

OP finally finds a year she can do her Mothers Day thing and the restaurant won’t honour the deal. Bad form however you look at it I think.

I think you've summed up why there is this part of me that feels so disappointed! It's that sense of it being a bit unjust because we feel like we did them a favour in the first place by letting them keep our money.....and now we've asked for a favour back there's no room for negotiation. I had a look on their website and there's no Ts and Cs on there at all. The voucher very clearly has the expiry on though so I can't argue that 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

feel like we did them a favour in the first place by letting them keep our money.....and now we've asked for a favour back there's no room for negotiation.

But they offered a refund or voucher. You chose voucher. It was valid for a year. I think they have negotiated adequately.

You had a choice at the time - voucher or refund. Therefore, you didn’t have to be out of pocket. In 5is scenario, it’s usually better to go for the refund. It’s impossible to know the future, but at least if the money is back in your pocket,you then choose what to do with it.

You accepted a voucher with additional al value added..but it came with strings attached. You knew that.

As others have said, it could have been used by you and your party multiple times when lockdown restrictions had been lifted. As it neared expiry, you could have made contact with them. But you didn’t use the voucher and you didn’t contact them.

For those saying OP isn’t being unreasonable and the restaurant should honour it…..well for how long? It’s now a year after it expired. Would you still apply your logic in another 6 months? Another year? Another 3 years? Whenever Op fancies it?

Businesses had a hard time. This restaurant is still going. Op hasn’t been cheated and she was offered a cash refund. This isn’t a situation where she was only ever offers a voucher. She had a choice and went for the higher value.

It was worth asking and some businesses might choose to reinstate the voucher…but that’s entirely their choice and it would be extremely generous.

Op, I think you can feel a bit disappointed but it’s yourself you should be kicking and not them.

Restaurants aren’t just open for Mother’s Day. They are open all year. There are multiple times to go for a meal and spend a voucher. It really wasn’t the case that the only opportunity was last Mother’s Day (when closed) or now.

Lots of people will have lost out over this. In fact lots of people lose out every year through unused gift vouchers. Op never needed to have a gift voucher though did she..the offer of a refund was always there. And as she says in her first post, this would have been the better option.

Lots of people relaid that now, with things like holiday vouchers still hanging around or expiring. Cash is king.

Honestly, would people be suggesting the restaurant honour it if she rings in the autumn, Christmas? When exactly do you draw the line? There’s a date for a reason. The terms were explained when she opted for the voucher.