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?

Yanbu. The staff at the store should have replaced the voucher or given you a refund. Very poor customer service

Im really sorry. I didn't mean to ignore you at all. I just didn't want to escalate things too quickly and dint know whether there were some other steps I could take before I go into Beast Mode.

It sounds like the stores are independent concessions hence having to go back to the store you bought it from
in that case doubt they can do online or different stores
It’s not like Argos all in one pot there all separate businesses just paying for a brand name

I’d say post on their twitter instead of the ceo. I always think people emailing ceos is a bit silly as if they care about something like this

@Flyonthewall01 it isn't silly at all. It works.

@Thejoyfulstar
Beast Mode sounds terrifying, go for it! :-)

I emailed them and asked for a refund and they said no, and to go into the shop and spend my voucher. I asked what they will do to guarantee that there won't be any problems in store and why won't they give me an online voucher instead? I'm getting ready for my twitter exposure, but don't know what to write as I never use twitter.

Any suggestions?

gave you checked that the stores aren’t franchised

Have

I tried looking it up but didn't know what I was looking for.

I emailed them back and said my husband would be able to go into the shop on the dates suggested, but if there any more problems I would have to escalate the complaint. I then asked why my request to spend it online was ignored. They emailed back to say 'of course we can transfer the balance of the voucher so you can spend it online!'.

So eventually got somewhere but it's been like pulling teeth!

This is why no-one should ever give gift vouchers as a present.
All the vouchers I "bought" off my DC because they were for shops where the nearest was 50 miles away. Give cash. More use.

Best to avoid vouchers nowadays- it's basically an interest free loan to a company that may or may not go bankrupt. I had that with Pandora- first branch wouldn't accept it as till was broken (not my fault), then it expired (my fault.) I had to not take no at least five times before getting a refund. As others have said, escalate, and unfortunately be prepared to stand your ground, even if you are holding up the queue. Be polite, reasonable, but forceful and don't be fobbed off.
'If they could put a man on the moon in the 60s without internet, I'm sure you can find a way to make this voucher work.'

YABU they were trying to sort it and you walked out before they had chance.

I am definitely going to use this last sentence of yours if I ever need to complain.
😁

I feel the people who voted you were unreasonable are being unreasonable 😁 Good luck with your complaint 🤞

Is it WH Smith? They’re absolute bastards for gift vouchers - determined to pocked the cash without providing the goods. I completely stopped using them after they screwed me over when I tried to book a photo session using one of those WHSmith experience gift vouchers and couldn’t get any availability until after the deadline in spite of trying, so they just trousered £40.

Sounds like UK IKEA customer services and their crap computer systems.

Hate crap customer service. That’s rubbish, OP!
I have a similar story. Went to our nearest Costa, which as we live rurally is a 15 mile round trip. We don’t just walk past in the city centre. Tried to redeem the Vodafone veryme rewards free drinks, 3 of us, DC excited for the frappes or milkshakes or whatever. The staff member watched us download the vouchers and then told us they didn’t work when we tried to scan them. Vodafone claimed they did. This is the third time this has happened at this particular store.
Called Vodafone and they assured me there was nothing wrong with any of the vouchers, then emailed Costa to report that branch for making fraudulent transactions. I honestly think they put the vouchers through, then get the customer to pay as the vouchers ‘haven’t worked’ and pocket the difference.
Either way, someone emailed me this morning and I’ve got loads of extra beans added to my Costa account now.

Isn't it odd how happy they are to take your money for a voucher, but not redeem it? I've heard sending public messages on Twitter can quite often get the result you need. I had trouble with a dishwasher manufacturer (in the UK), so I mentioned the problems on their US Facebook page (larger audience). That seemed to get things moving. Good luck!

@Thejoyfulstar / all

not with vouchers but I’ve noticed that most receipts are printed on paper with ink that fades over time so unless you save it in a zip lock somewhere it’s of not use while claiming extended warranties.

one way to get around this is to take a picture of it and store it on your phone. At least that way they can’t fob you off

This sounds really stupid, of course they could have redeemed it without the barcode if they had the actual number FFS. Tills are just computers, and the barcode reader is just an input method. They could have literally just typed it in. If they really wanted to use the barcode they could have just coloured it in with a biro. It probably would have worked. Or taken a photo on a phone, increase the contrast, scan the photo. AAAAARGGH. Do these people have no common sense? What do they think a barcode IS?

Also, reprint receipt is definitely a function that also exists on every till, so they ALSO could have just taken the transaction ID from the receipt you had and printed a new one. It's not like they would be doubling up the voucher since the original one didn't work

Having to spend it in the same branch is a really special kind of WTF as well.

Thanks for the recent comments. I felt like I was in some kind of alternative universe for a while! Luckily I can now spend my online vouchers :-)

Glad you got it sorted @Thejoyfulstar 😊 I work for a UK retailer and have the same issue with gift vouchers that are printed as a receipt sometimes not scanning when they are brought in to be used. As others have said, there are loads of ways to get around the issue so either they had very untrained/incompetent staff or staff that were lazy and just couldn’t be bothered trying to fix the issue unfortunately!

Just to follow up with what @BertieBotts has said - a “reprint receipt” function definitely should be available on all tills but sadly isn’t. I’m a retail manager and there definitely isn’t a function on our till. I can still get a copy but I have to phone finance at head office, have them trace the transaction ID using the date/product/payment method etc. Then phone IT support (which often has a long queue) to have them send me a copy of the receipt to my printer. So it’s a bit of a long winded process!! (Would still absolutely be done for a customer whenever necessary though!!)

For future reference, faded receipts are often thermal receipt paper. If you hear it eg with an iron (with towel etc between iron & it) or even a hairdryer etc from the back of it, the “printing” will return to visible.

@Flyonthewall01 I'm also LOLing at the suggestion to email the CEO.

Any CEO will literally just forward this to the customer services or complaints team with a note to deal with it. They won't give a flying fuck about a £40 voucher. I've worked for a few global corporations where people try to do this and nothing more happens.