Gift voucher - cheeky?

[Seriouslydodgyname]

Bring deliberately obscure:

I've have been tasked with collating the funds for a group gift. The group had already decided on the gift prior to me being tasked with organising it.

It's a gift voucher for something quite niche, but that we know the recipient definitely wants. I have a gift voucher for that place that I will not use.

My gift voucher is £80 and the total pot for the gift is £150.

WIBU if I used the gift voucher I have and top it up to the £150? I've already contributed to the pot, so I'm not trying to get out of giving money.

YABU - it would be cheeky and inappropriate to do this

YANBU - seems totally fair, you aren't depriving anybody of money/ a gift

FWIW - the gift voucher is paper tokens of varying amounts, not a credit card, do won't look odd if I add to it.

Because she had vouchers before the collection and now doesn’t but has cash to the same value.

I really do not get the big deal. If OP had suggested these specific vouchers, or the expiry dates were different, or OP hadn’t contributed cash I would see an issue. But I can’t see the issue here other than it makes life a bit easier for OP who is the one burdened with the task of getting the vouchers.

OP has currently got £80 in vouchers, and has been given £150 of collected money (that she contributed to) to buy £150 gift vouchers with.

She will end up with giving £150 gift vouchers as requested and instead of owning £80 of vouchers herself, she will have swapped them for £80 cash.

She is basically selling her existing vouchers at face value to the present pile.

She starts with £80 of her own vouchers and ends up with £80 cash instead. Same value. Nobody is ripped off.

I think it's as follows:

Collection is made up of £130 + £20 from OP = £150.

In addition, OP already has £80 of gift vouchers for Place X with no expiry.

So collection= £150 cash, OP = £80 vouchers.

OP will use £70 of the cash to buy more vouchers from Place X. She will then exchange her £80 of Place X vouchers for the £80 cash from the collection.

Net position at the end: Collection = £150 vouchers, OP = £80 cash.

So she has gained only in the usefulness of the thing, not in net value.

The person in question doesn't lose put but the OP has cash instead of vouchers.

Seems like nothing but a good idea to me as long as they don't have an expiry date.

I didn't say she was ripping anyone off.

But having £80 in cash is a lot more useful than an £80 voucher you can't or wont use (and that was potentially gifted so the OP never paid the £80 to begin with?)

Anyway the OP asked if it was cheeky. Most people said no but I disagree and I would find it cheeky.

I wouldn't have an issue if I was one of the other contributors or if I was receiving the voucher (if it was for somewhere I'd use as opposed to lumbering me with a voucher I won't use).
If ever there was a time to be sensible with money it's now.

I think it's dishonest unless you're upfront with the people who have donated.

What difference does it make if the vouchers were gifted to OP? Maybe the money from other contributors was gifted to them (birthday money for ex).
There are no losers in this scenario so I don’t understand what is cheeky. The small ‘gain’ to OP makes up for the fact that she has to do all the collection admin. I put quotes as she is not gaining any money, just getting something more convenient.

OP people who are saying don't do it are being ridiculous because at the end of the day, WHO CARES. Nobody loses. Keep the cash and give him the vouchers that you're not going to use anyway, think of it as "thanks" for being the one to organise the vouchers!

I think transparency at times like this, if you can't tell them then you know it's not on. Would you feel differently if you had paid in knowing the collector was giving something they had at home

I have never known gift vouchers not to have an expiry date except for a local restaurant.

OP has already donated to the collection though. Surely no one would do that and give another gift?

I once received a gift card to the value of £15 but it had already been used the balance was £0

@empatheticpretzel - it’s possible it wasn’t loaded correctly when bought. That’s happened to me before and I was mortified when the person I had given it to politely told me.

This.

The person gets the corre ct amount's worth of bouchers. And OP gets to swap her £80 voucher for £80 cash.

No one if out of pocket. no one would even know. Or likely care!
As long as the recipient ends up with the same value of vouchers that matches the contributions what on earth does it matter!

I'd do it OP. Nothing at all wrong in doing so, as theres no expiry on the vouchers.

Or if you are worried, purchase a brand new £80 worth using your £80 voucher.

Honestly, anyone giving a hoot about this needs to give their head a wobble.

Agree. In my case, my employer was never going to hand over £100 cash to an employee, it has to be in the form of a gift card.

I would just ask the group, out of courtesy.