Red letter days

[Tilllly]

More to the point, am I expecting too much? This company seem to be a nightmare for using your voucher.

I was given a voucher from work and decided to use it for a weekend away

I was able to filter it to areas within a couple of hours drive away, but I had to click into every single hotel only to find most of them were Sunday to Thursday only

There was no means to actually put the dates I wanted to go in a filter

When I finally found a hotel that said all week, the process was then really convoluted
I had to pay some extra which was fine and submit the voucher, and then they sent me another voucher with a phone number to contact the hotel direct

Except it wasn't the hotel direct. It was a booking agent and having been on hold for 10 minutes, they hung up on me and at the second attempt when they answered, they told me I couldn't use it for a weekend.
Even though it clearly said in the fine print that I could use it for any days of the week

And he added that they were fully booked for the next few months anyway

So then I had to get on a chat with Red letter days, which took ages, for them to send me another voucher to replace that one, and tell me they would refund the money within 30 days. 30 days is bloody ridiculous.

So now I am back to the drawing board, and have decided I will have to book a hotel for a Monday Tuesday, rather than a weekend, and will again have to pay some money, get a voucher, contact the hotel, and hope that the dates I want are available, because if they are not, then I have to do the whole refund palaver again

It doesn't seem unreasonable to expect to be able to filter by dates you want to book the hotel
Rather than have to submit your voucher and potentially some money, get another voucher for the hotel and hope the dates that you want are free

It seems absolutely crap. Am I being spectacularly stupid in the process or is it just rubbish?

Totally agree and have had equally as difficult with "buy a gift" boxes too.

@slipperypenguin
Love the user name!

So it's not just me? The process is rubbish?

Total nightmare trying to book a one night stay. Never again !

Totally rubbish. I've let more than one of these expire just because it's sooo bloody impossible to use the damn things

I received one as a gift and was temped not to bother - I now know I definitely won't bother as life is too short! They also keep bombarding me with annoying emails (loads of repeated symbols, which just annoys me!) so will also unsubscribe. I hope that's not similarly complicated!

Sounds like a con. They've taken money from someone for something that doesn't exist. I'd report them to trading standards.

I run a company which (reluctantly) accepts these vouchers. Once in they make it very hard for you to leave.

My advice to anyone ever thinking of buying a gift/experience/stay for someone is to always ALWAYS book direct through the company. Yes on paper there may be less choice, but there will always be less hassle, especially if you ever want a refund for any reason. Most of them point blank refuse to issue refunds. Moreover the supplier will receive substantially less of the retail cost than they would have done if the booking had been made direct.

We have people phoning us up astonished and offended that we charge less on our website than the gift companies do on theirs for the same experience. They appear to think they have been ripped off. How else do they think that these companies make their money?

If I can say one thing it's please remember that any perceived inflexibility is because the supplier (hotel or whatever) is receiving far less for the product than they receive from direct bookings, so any complaints need to go to the gift company. The venue was most likely suckered in by promises of huge sales and massive benefits and might be finding it a tricky deal to get out of. The gift companies also say that suppliers are free to impose restrictions hence the "no weekends" thing, for example. Buy and book direct! You'll save money and it will be more flexible.

Not much you can do once you have received one of these vouchers admittedly, other than swap it to an experience more convenient.

I've been meaning to try again all day but can't psyche myself up to do it

Never again

I know what you mean @WestwardHo1 - I never go thru companies like booking.com - I go direct to the hotel

Just googled and found this.
What a fucking nightmare.
Lovely gift.
Set up an account. Account is useless as does not have any details at all of your vouchers once you add them. So each time you have to add the same vouchers, to look at what's available.
Decide to upgrade the theatre. Have to 'buy' the upgrade, and wait for a credit note and an upgraded voucher.
Redo .
Decide to upgrade the seats. Will cost £50. Credit is £150.
Says wait three minutes randomly.
Do this. Goes through. We have 'paid' £100 now, and there is no way of tracking any of this. We appear to have lost £150 of credit , or £100 if the upgrade applies.
Spend 90 mins on chat. Automated, trying to get through to an agent but all are offline 'see our opening hours' - bank holidays 10-4, so where are they?
Now we have theatre tickets and have lost a load of credit.

Sounds about right
Wait till Tues and get on the live chat, they will track and sort it but it's a nightmare in the meantime