AIBU to ask a restaurant to honour an expired gift voucher?

[Mum2BeRants]

So gutted and just need space to rant! I’m going to email the restaurant but unsure whether to go for begging or complaining!

Bought my partner a £50 voucher for his favourite restaurant as a birthday gift. This wasn’t cheap for me as I was 8 months pregnant and on maternity allowance and we had a lot of unexpected joint costs this year. But I wanted to buy it as he sadly had to miss a special event on his birthday when we thought I’d gone into labour on the way there!

Anyways gave birth a few weeks later, obviously not in a place to immediately use the voucher. Baby’s now 8 months so started looking at booking and it’s EXPIRED!! I can’t believe it. 6 month expiry date. I completely took it for granted that 12 months would be the absolutely soonest expiry, more likely 2 years+. Wasn’t a priority to double check in the midst of new born baby chaos and recovery.

What a punch in the face.

Didn’t say 6 month expiry in the email receipt. And just in tiny small print on the website.

I don’t think we’ve got a leg to stand on but also don’t think I have anything to lose sending an email pleading with them for mercy! Anyone else had similar and had any luck?

Quite. What kind of toddler mindset do you have to have to lash out by stamping your feet and shouting about how horrible everyone is when you made a mistake?

YABU 😂 it's expired you can't use it

Why would you do that. And surely they simply respond to the comments stated that sadly this person did not read the terms and conditions regarding the voucher and that they do not respond to blackmail.
If they are a decent restaurant one persons review will not have an impact (and it would be quite obvious it's the same person if they did post on multiple sites).
If I read reviews for a restaurant I would be looking for opinions on the food. Someone getting irate over mistakingly thinking they had longer on a voucher when they didn't would not impact me going there or not as it's nothing to do with the restaurant.

They don’t have to honour it but there is no harm in asking.

You’re responding to my post where I literally said “I just made the mistake of assuming it would be a minimum 12 month expiry”

I agree I made an assumption!

People on MN really like to kick you when you’re down 😂

Suggested wording.

Dear Resteraunt Owner,

Late last year I bought a voucher for a special night out with my husband. In the meantime life got in the way. We're finally in a position to use it but I've realised that we've missed the end date on it.

Would there be any possibility that we could still use it, as we were so looking forward to celebrating our first night out by ourselves since becoming parents by having a special meal with you?

i would have expected at least 12 months. I dont think it hurts to ask. I would hope / expected them to honour it.

6 months is unreasonable, they should make you aware when purchasing not buried in the small print

Definitely ask politely and explain why, and if they say yes make the booking straight away so they see you're legit.

Add Australia to the list of countries with gift card laws - they have to have at least 3 years before expiry here.

I have been on both sides with this a number of times.

I offered a free course during an event my company had attended in a raffle a chap won the raffle and was given the prize which had a expiry of 1 year, he tried to redeem 2 years later. It was very obvious on the prize, we had to say sorry but no
another one where a lady had bought a gift voucher through one of our then 'partners' which we where not aware they had sold gift vouchers and not agreed to, 18 months later tried to redeem it. the partners had ceased trading, I agreed to 50% discount

I was given a voucher for a track day at Silverstone didn't read T&C's tried to redeem and told out of date. shame as I wanted to do that

If the company offer any thing it will be at their goodwill

Perfect. Polite, to the point, doesn't blame the restaurant and isn't whiny.

I would send exactly this.

Having a newborn doesn't render you incapable of reading a few sentences at and point in 6 months.

Newborns are also portable so assuming that you have a pram I don't see why you couldn't go.

I think some people on here think I consider myself completely blameless in this and that’s just not true.

Me and DH are so annoyed with ourselves and genuinely really upset. We had been really really looking forward to this meal. It’s such a nice treat for us we would only go somewhere like that once every year or two. And it was literally bought because it was so sad that on our way to DH’s birthday treat last year we had to cancel, which I know he was absolutely gutted about.

We made a mistake and just completely took it for granted that the expiry date would be 12 months or longer since the date of purchase. We have learnt a lesson here!

The only way I can make myself feel a bit less guilty is by reminding myself of how full on it’s been having a baby and I can’t keep on top of absolutely everything. And even if we had realised after buying we would have really struggled to use it by the deadline.

I don’t blame the restaurant as such. But I personally think a 6 month expiry must catch a lot of people (who I’m guessing are probably all keen customers) out. And my feedback to them would be to make it much clearer to people, surely less disappointed customers can only be good thing for them.

I’m surprised so many people are shocked that it’s 6 months, in my experience 6 months is pretty typical for a restaurant voucher and I’ve never had one that was 12 months.

You can always email to ask but I wouldn’t do that complaining or with a sob story about having a baby etc, I agree with PP message, just to the point and polite.

If it were me I would be really nice, polite and briefly explain about having a baby , I'd say you didn't see/think the expiry date was 6 months and that you foolishly thought it was longer and ask them nicely if there is any chance of them honouring it. If they come back with a big fat no then say about them making the date clearer for other customers in the future. I do find when you start off with being polite even blaming yourself is better than starting off with a complaint or being angry as it makes the person reading annoyed/angry.

This may be true. Buying / having a restaurant voucher is very unusual for us and only occurred because of DH missing out on his birthday and I wanted to do something for him. There’s only one other restaurant type place where I regularly buy vouchers and that’s 12 months but maybe that’s the exception and 6 months for restaurants is the norm. The main vouchers we get are for retail, so that’s probably where my assumption about 12 months came from.

You tried to shift blame on to the restaurant! It’s right there in your post.

Yeah retail vouchers do tend to be 12 months+, restaurant vouchers are usually 6 months at least in my experience if nothing else for their cash flow purposes, accounting for changing costs etc, especially with things increasing now.

Agree with another poster if you don’t ask, you don’t get! I once had a voucher run out and I called head office to explain that I forgot about it because I just had a baby. They sent out a new one! Just give them a ring and be polite and friendly.

A 6 month expiry is extremely short. Imagine if someone bought you it for Xmas and you thought oh that would be a nice treat for my birthday next year in July for example? It should be a year, I agree. The best you can do is call and ask and the worst that can happen is they say no.

I think it's because you mentioned complaining in your initial post and people read it and thought: "Why would you complain when they have done nothing wrong?" I think that might be where the assumption came from - because there are people in the world who can't accept their own error and would do a Veruca Salt until they got their own way - @Laurmolonlabe being a case in point!

Well looking online it suggests this is quite unusual and the restaurant does share some blame! https://sprintlaw.co.uk/articles/understanding-gift-voucher-expiry-laws-in-the-uk-what-businesses-need-to-know/

It seems in the US, EU and Australia laws have been put in to prevent these short expiration dates on vouchers.

Im not going to lead with a complaint when I contact the restaurant but I don’t think they’re entirely blameless. It’s literally like a size 8 font buried in their terms and conditions. Certainly not very clear at the point you buy.

So every time you make a mistake because a company has punitive conditions, you are happy to just take the hit?
Good for you,but I wouldn't, I would always ask politely first, but a business is not an invoilate entity- they decided to have a very short 6 month use by which is very punitive, saying they have done nothing wrong ignores this, if they refuse there is nothing wrong in telling people this is what happened on review sites- you are helping people to not make the same mistake with a slightly dodgy company.

I'm not a blackmailer - that's the point. It's a horrible thing to do because you made a mistake. Don't buy from a business with punitive conditions in the first place - that's on you. Personal responsibility exists - I don't need to read a shitty review from a whinger - I would do my research first.

I went into a nail bar, nails done abd I paid with a voucher which had expired. Boss said no, not acceptable. I told them not to be ridiculous and walked out without paying in cash - told her she'd already been paid!