To not accept this customer service solution?

[Thejoyfulstar]

Last Christmas, for one of my gifts, my husband gave me a voucher for a store in the country I live in, worth around £40. The voucher itself was printed on a receipt.

There is a branch of this shop at a mall near me, so I tried to redeem it soon after. Put my things in the basket but was told I could only redeem it in the city centre store, where it was bought so had to put my stuff back and leave empty handed.

I was pregnant at the time, getting huge and pretty immobile. I also have two other small kids. Getting into the city centre just wasn't on the cards at the time.

Then I had my baby by c section, recovered from that, was just generally exhausted and didn't get into the store for ages.

A few days ago, I was in the city centre with my husband and kids and brought the voucher. It had just been folded in my purse since I got it. I checked and it was still valid until December 2022.

I checked that I could use it in the store, filled my basket and went up to pay using the voucher. No, turns out it won't work as the barcode has faded over time. They could see the numbers on the barcode but couldn't put them onto the system for some reason.

Cue lots of sales assistants huddled around the computer, calling the boss, ringing back, basically nobody knowing what to do. I was standing in the hot shop for around 15/20 minutes. My husband and other kids were waiting around the corner in the heat and eventually I asked for the voucher back.

I went home and contacted customer services, who told me the voucher is indeed still valid and to go back to the store on a certain date. If the staff have any problems they are to ring the IT department.

I said no. Why should it be so hard to spend a gift voucher? Why aren't they printed on something more durable than a receipt if they are valid for a year? Why couldn't I have used it at another branch? Why do I have to keep having to be inconvenienced?

I've asked for either a refund or to be able to spend it online. Am I being unreasonable in being sick of trying to redeem this voucher?

If you think I'm not being unreasonable, what should I do?

How RIDICULOUS. Surely they can change it for one you can use online, or just replace the actual receipt? The red tape these days.. find the CEO's contact details online & write to the organ grinder, not the monkeys.

OK, escalate it. Thanks for the advice, this is what I need. How? Can I ask customer services to escalate this? Am I being petty?

Not unreasonable at all. Have they agreed?

I will also add that I had my baby with me in the store and she was so hot and sweaty. Also, not one of the sales assistants apologised. I took the voucher back and they literally all just walked away silently, without saying sorry. I don't even want to go back to the store! The staff were so 'computer says no' that I can't face it.

You are not being petty. Google the CEO of the company and email him/her directly as you didn't get any joy from customer service in the first instance.

Can you tell us the name of the company so we can help find the contact details?

See if the shop/company in question is on resolver.co.uk
They're a free consumer complaints service for retailers.

You can then put in a claim there, I have used it twice with really good outcomes from the retailers.

No, they just told me what the barcode number is (I can see it on the voucher!) and to go back over the weekend and tell the assistants to call the IT department if they don't know what to do.

I have asked again for an online voucher or refund but doesn't seem likely. Such uselessness!

Unfortunately it's not a UK store 😕
I live abroad.

Thank you. It's wycon.

Those who voted that In being unreasonable, please explain why. I'm genuinely interested.

Incompetent twat of a company.

Absolutely love this summation and agree entirely.

I said YABU because you tried to spend it at a shop it wasn’t valid in (not company fault) and then gave them a damaged voucher which they couldn’t scan (also not their fault).
Now you have a reasonable resolution but don’t want to do it.

If you go back and it still can’t be used then you have cause to be pissed off.

I voted YABU because they’ve given you a solution they’re refusing to go along with and also for saying the staff had a ‘computer says no’ attitude when it certainly doesn’t sound that way from your initial description of multiple staff members taking that much time phoning people etc to try and work it out. There’s only so much floor staff can do, which the company acknowledged by giving you the solution of going on a day where they could fix it

OK thank you for sharing your point of view.
The shop I tried to spend it in was the same company and nobody had told my husband he could only spend it at the branch he bought it from. Its like buying a H&M voucher in the Arndale in Machester and only ever being able to use it in the Arndale. And perhaps the receipt had faded, but why issue a voucher on material which is known to fade and won't last the duration of the validity (one year)? It wasn't scrunched in my pocket. It was folded in my purse and had been there pretty much since I got it.

Appreciate your point of view though.

Could you take a picture of the receipt and ask customer service to sort it out for you before you go to the store with IT or email you a replacement voucher with a clear barcode yanbu

It is not good enough imo

Stick to your guns op. Does it actually say it can only be spent in that particular store? I’d be up in arms about that on its own,

Fair point about the staff. It's hard to describe the atmosphere but the shop was empty except for me and they were all standing around looking at eachother and there was a real sense of reluctance to sort it out. In fact, the first assistant actually said 'no it won't work' as if that was the case closed. There was a sense of 'we don't want to sort this out but we kind of have to as you're here'. I can't really describe it any better. I definitely know that errors do happen but the spirit in which they are amended tend to make the difference. Hope that makes sense. Thanks for the point though.

The customer service people haven't replied to my last email on Friday where I said I couldn't go back to the city centre and wanted either a refund or an online voucher.
What should I do?

Find the CEO details/head office and email them.

Do they have a Twitter presence? Tweeting generally gets a reaction pretty quick.

@Pansypotter123 I suggested that on the first reply but it seems to have been ignored! Easy to google who the CEO is these days.

What an utter faff! You are not being unreasonable at all. I'd definitely escalate this as it's a ludicrous situation not of your making!

@mamabear715 I agree. I had to do this for IKEA - got right through to his PA 😆🫢

@Pansypotter123 Brilliant! :-)