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?

@WombatChocolate

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.

On your question about how long - I think businesses should be obliged to honour vouchers for a minimum of five years.

No one forces anyone to sell or deal in vouchers but they are good business for sellers - you get the cash immediately which can be saved/invested and therefore earning a return on investment. It should only be in the most exceptional and egregious of circumstances that vouchers should not be honoured - not honouring them is always a business pocketing a customers money without delivering goods or services to that value. There is no cost to a business honouring them and the law should compel them to honour them for a lengthy period (at least five years).

Yeah, OP, you had a choice - you should have just had the immediate refund and put the restaurant out of business.

@LondonDadToBe such a law does apparently exist in Ireland by the looks of things...nothing in the UK though (yet!)

@PuppyMonkey

Yeah, OP, you had a choice - you should have just had the immediate refund and put the restaurant out of business.

Should have stuck to the good old Toby Carvery shouldn't I! 😆

Oh yes, slag them off on SM & ruin a small struggling businesses reputation for not using the voucher before it expired.

How will it ruin their business? According to you, the restaurant has done nothing wrong. Therefore it doesn’t matter what the OP might put in a review. The only people who would be put off by the review are those who agree with her - and if the restaurant is in the right, there won’t be many of those, will there?

I'd send one more email to ask if they could give you a £35 voucher instead. They can only say no.

Wombat. You are completely missing the point. If you book for a big occasion, be it Christmas, birthday, Mother's Day, you maybe wouldn't want to go on any old day, for replacement.

Yes, not everyone has that money to spend on just any occasion or has the capacity to pull a group together for a random event.

The restaurant was the party that reneged on the initial booking, not the OP. The OP did them a good turn by not asking for their cash back and now they are told that they have lost their money.

The restaurant have really not done well here.

Oblomov, well if that was the case, you really would be better taking the money, rather than a voucher with a 1 year expiration, which expires at the point of the next celebration, wouldn’t you!

If this restaurant had misled the OP about the expiry date or left it open ended and then not honoured it, of course that would be wrong. But OP was told the date and took the voucher on that basis.

I imagine lots of places did extend vouchers when someone range up and asked before it expired or even possibly shortly after. But this is a year. It will have gone through their accounts 2 years ago.

And presumably Op wasn’t to go on Mother’s Day, which is a peak time of the restaurant. Perhaps they can fill their tables three-fold and really don’t want to be using one for a group who won’t be paying full whack. It’s not unreasonable.

The thing is, you can hope for generosity and going beyond what is required when you mess up with this kind of thing. But you can only hope….and not really have any sense of being cheated etc, if they stick to the rules which you engaged knowingly with.

Customers can be cheeky buggers. They want it all ways - a larger gift voucher instead of a refund…..and still the flexibility of cash. They want businesses to refund them on clothes which have been worn, when items are out of warranty and when the customer not the business has made a mistake. Each business has to draw its own line on how far they will go beyond what is required. Threats of reviews on social media and often just like a child throwing their to us out of the pram. Perfectly reasonable when something wrong has actually happened. But it hasn’t here.

Sometimes we all make mistakes….and we just have to own them, rather than making them someone else’s fault.

@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.

Yes this ^^ The OP didn't cancel the booking. They accepted a voucher on the understanding they would be able to use it for the same family meal the following Mother's Day. OP wasn't fo know that we would be in lockdown again. That they could have used the voucher on another random date is irrelevant as they wanted to visit the restaurant on Mother's Day. Not sure why so many posters are insistent that it's tough and she should suck it up.

I actually think this is really poor form from the restaurant. At a time they were struggling you did not ask for a refund and took a voucher instead. I understand lots of hospitality businesses struggled and some handled it better than others. It would be commen sense on their part to honour it, happy people spend lots more money and leave good reviews. I cancelled things I booked and took credit for a later date and none have put restrictions in place like this. If you live locally most would have honoured this by now. For the sake of £70 and potentially a much larger end bill it seems crazy on the part of the restaurant. However you are trying to book a lucrative day so I suspect they feel the trade off is worth it.

Yes, it is Mother’s Day and they can fill their table with another family who will be paying the full bill and not £70 less. You are not a great loss to them…you haven’t been at any other time.

Possibly if you’d asked to go at a quiet time, they might have been more flexible.

You can email again if you want to. You can say you’re disappointed and acknowledge your own mistake about the dates, but ask if there can be some compromise. You could ask if they would honour the voucher at an off peak time (and then just go with one or two others so the bull is fully covered) or if they could credit you with half - £35. Being charming and polite is more likely to result in a positive outcome than moaning about their customer service.

It’s worth asking again. The worst you can get is another outright no and you won’t be any worse off.

But these things happen. You make a mistake and afterwards you feel a bit annoyed with other people, but also kick yourself. You live and learn. Probably in future Op you’ll take cash as a refund and if you’ve got any vouchers you’ll check the date. Probably you won’t book that restaurant again.that’s your prerogative. It’s theirs to stick to the terms you agreed to.

I would respond saying:

‘I understand you wouldn’t honour this voucher in normal circumstances. However, the last two years have been far from normal circumstances. I would have been within my rights to have demanded a full refund. My acceptance of the voucher was a positive for your business.

If you are prepared to reconsider, I will see you on Mother’s Day. If not, cancel my booking.’

A few years ago I cocked up a hotel booking. I booked a cheap, non-refundable room at the Stansted Airport Premier Inn… then when I checked in for my flight, I realised I was flying from Gatwick 😬

I rang customer service, pleaded stupidity and asked if I could just pay the extra (the original price had doubled) and move my booking to Gatwick. They would have been completely within their rights to say no - but they said yes. The agent I spoke to obviously had the sense to realise they had a choice - keep the £30 I’d paid for the Stansted room and piss off a customer, potentially meaning I book the Travelodge instead and never use them again, or get full price for the Gatwick room, resell the Stansted room for twice what I’d paid and, most importantly, keep a happy customer.

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.

Every regular customer was a new customer once. You don’t gain regulars by pissing off new customers.

Yes, it is Mother’s Day and they can fill their table with another family who will be paying the full bill and not £70 less.

They’re not paying £70 less. They’ve already paid the £70. The restaurant wants it twice.

I'm normally quite tolerant but I think the restaurant are being a bit cheeky here.

OP paid them £70 as a deposit for a mother's day meal that the restaurant cancelled. OP then agreed they could keep the cash and she'd accept a voucher for next year but the next mother's day the restaurant weren't able to provide a booking. This is the earliest opportunity for OP to use the voucher for a mother's day meal.

That the restaurant can book the table several times over is irrelevant. OP had effectively paid a deposit for a mother's day booking since 2020.

@WombatChocolate

Oblomov, well if that was the case, you really would be better taking the money, rather than a voucher with a 1 year expiration, which expires at the point of the next celebration, wouldn’t you!

If this restaurant had misled the OP about the expiry date or left it open ended and then not honoured it, of course that would be wrong. But OP was told the date and took the voucher on that basis.

I imagine lots of places did extend vouchers when someone range up and asked before it expired or even possibly shortly after. But this is a year. It will have gone through their accounts 2 years ago.

And presumably Op wasn’t to go on Mother’s Day, which is a peak time of the restaurant. Perhaps they can fill their tables three-fold and really don’t want to be using one for a group who won’t be paying full whack. It’s not unreasonable.

The thing is, you can hope for generosity and going beyond what is required when you mess up with this kind of thing. But you can only hope….and not really have any sense of being cheated etc, if they stick to the rules which you engaged knowingly with.

Customers can be cheeky buggers. They want it all ways - a larger gift voucher instead of a refund…..and still the flexibility of cash. They want businesses to refund them on clothes which have been worn, when items are out of warranty and when the customer not the business has made a mistake. Each business has to draw its own line on how far they will go beyond what is required. Threats of reviews on social media and often just like a child throwing their to us out of the pram. Perfectly reasonable when something wrong has actually happened. But it hasn’t here.

Sometimes we all make mistakes….and we just have to own them, rather than making them someone else’s fault.

OP has not said anywhere that she was told the voucher would expire before she accepted it. She has only said that the date is on the voucher - which was a home made pdf. It would be bizarre to assume the restaurant sent the voucher out and then offered it as an alternative to a refund.

I understand you wouldn’t honour this voucher in normal circumstances. However, the last two years have been far from normal circumstances. I would have been within my rights to have demanded a full refund. My acceptance of the voucher was a positive for your business.

OP would not have needed to demand a refund though; it was offered. So using 'I could have asked for a refund' doesn't really work.

If you are prepared to reconsider, I will see you on Mother’s Day. If not, cancel my booking.’

If I was manager and I received a message like this from a customer I would cancel the booking for them!!

If I was manager and I received a message like this from a customer I would cancel the booking for them!!

Then your business wouldn’t last very long.

I think it's really crap of them. You could have accepted refund and taken cash out of their business at a time when they had no income at all and didn't.
Also short sighted because presumably you will now be taking the other £200 you were going to spend elsewhere.

@WomanStanleyWoman

If I was manager and I received a message like this from a customer I would cancel the booking for them!!

Then your business wouldn’t last very long.

I did run a successful business for many years, I only closed because my DH became physically disabled and needs me at home with him. I would not be blackmailed or pushed by a customer into giving something i had told them no to already. It doesn't lose business, it's one customer. I prided myself on my customer service but if someone demanded I have them something or they wouldn't turn up, I wouldn't want them anyway. Running a business isn't about letting people walk all over you. You can give good service without letting people dictate their terms.

It’s a foolish business owner who thinks the customer needs them more than they need the customer.

@WomanStanleyWoman

It’s a foolish business owner who thinks the customer needs them more than they need the customer.

I never thought or said that.

Taking a customer’s £70 and providing nothing in return is not good customer service. It is lawful theft and should be prohibited by law.

@LondonDadToBe

Taking a customer’s £70 and providing nothing in return is not good customer service. It is lawful theft and should be prohibited by law.

They offered a refund and then provided a voucher so that didn't exactly provide nothing. OP didn't make use of the opportunity.