Love to shop voucher and M & S - left baffled and speechless

[bagpuss90]

So I received a love to shop voucher for £150 - I’ve spent some of it. I went to use it in M & S and I wasn’t able to because I didn’t know the exact balance left on it. I tried scanning the QR code to get the balance but that didn’t work. Anyway I only live a 2 minute walk away went home and scanned the code there . Got the balance - back to M & S and told them the balance. All good - there wasn’t enough on the card to cover the cost of my goods. This time the said I couldn’t pay the balance using my debit card . I asked to see someone else - they were adamant this was right. I lost the will to live and walked out. Has anyone else been asked for a balance on a gift card? Can anyone shed some light ?

My only experience is not being able to do this online, rather than in the actual shop. I think it was to do with the fact it's put in like a debit card, so I couldn't use two cards for one transaction.

Could you just buy the items that make up the amount of the card for one transaction, then buy the other items with your debit card?

I had similar complications in boots, and the assistant was an absolute star working out which items to put through on the card and which not.
Love to shop vouchers are a pain.

All of my friends who work in retail absolutely loathe the love to shop gift cards for these exact reasons.

I really think they should spell out how inconvenient they are at the point of purchase. You can’t split balance spending with them, and you must know the exact balance on the card as the systems in place don’t work otherwise.

not an M&S issue, very much the love to shop problem.

I had a Love 2 Shop card that just wouldn’t work for whatever reason, I ended up buying a Sainsburys voucher on the Love 2 Shop website and spending it that way. Is this something you can do with M&S?

Garden centre vouchers are like this too, such a pain to use unless using full amount in one go.

I used a love to so card to pay a part balance in the works. I didn’t know the balance on the love to shop voucher either.

Yeah you have to know what’s left of them it’s not the shops fault but I don’t think their system can see the balance as they aren’t their cards, but your meant to be able to scan it and be able to see (which is a faff whilst in the shop) . They are a bit of a pain, I have one upstairs now you remind me. Need to spend it asap

You mention gift card , and also gift voucher , if I remember correctly there are different restrictions on the cards and vouchers . The website is down for maintenance at the moment which doesn’t help .

I know M & S always struggle with the gift cards when I shop with them .

I did find this on topcashback “Yes you can, but you must ensure the retailer processes the cash difference prior to taking the balance from your Love2shop Gift Card.”

I have a relative that sends these a lot! There is an app you can download to keep up to date on the balance. On line shopping the balance must be less than the value on the card-they are a pre-paid debit card rather than a gift card
In shops I've always been able to tell them how much to use from the card (and use it up) then pay the rest with something else. The key is being able to tell them how much to take off the card. However I tend not to shop in M&S, so maybe they won't allow two stages of payment

Am I missing something - it sounds like the shop has to rely on the customer's word about the remaining balance - are they not opening themselves to a huge fraud risk, i.e. scammer tells them remaining card balance is £200 when it's actually 37p?

No - the sale won't go through if the balance isn't sufficient, but because the shop can't see the balance beforehand, they're relying on the customers word so they can put the amount into the till.

It's a huge pain in the arse.

Basically, the till and the PDQ (card machine) often operate separately so the cashier still needs to input amounts on the system.

Ah, I understand now, thank you.

I had similar with one a few weeks ago, could not remember the balance so tried to take more in M&S and it was declined. Then tried a lower balance and that was declined as it had already been “used”. It reissued the credit the next day. There is a phone number you can text on the back that tells you the balance within a couple of mins. Should have done that first! Finally used it in TK maxx who were fine splitting the balance between the gift card and my debit card in one transaction.

I had this trying to use one in Boots, thankfully I'd kept the receipt of the previous thing I'd bought with the card so I would personally knew what was left but I still had to do some quick maths a the til for the Boots cashier.

Had the same in m and s. They are shite gift cards.

No worries @SevenSeasOfRhye - they were the bane of my life when I worked retail 😂

I had one of these and it was a pain. Most things I bought ended in 99p rather than a round pound. I think I ended up with 4p left on it that I couldn't access. Didn't bother me, but I did wonder at the time, how many pennies get unspent across all the cards?

I got round this by loading the gift card into Apple Pay and buying gift vouchers.

Yes; I never realised what a pain L2S vouchers were until someone bought me one. Absolutely woundly recommend buying one as a gift, ever.

Can anyone recommend a better generic gift card or are they all the same? I want to send my niece one for getting through her exams, was planning one of these as it can be used in loads of places but sounds like hard work!!

Yes that's a common issue. You are expected to know how much is left! And then often end up with a random small amount left on there as, like you found, retailers don't accept them as part payment.

Cash

Exactly and then after a certain period that's gone. They must be raking it in

I HATE Love 2 Shop cards for this very reason.