M&S Credit Note expired

[CharlotteLV]

I discovered last week - in store - that my M&S Credit Card Voucher had gone out of date just 10 days earlier. (Got it by returning a gift with a gift receipt one year and 10 days before.) The store staff were sympathetic but Customer Services have shown me ZERO mercy and flexibility over this. So, they get to keep the money, and I have nothing to show for it. I've asked nicely, I've explained, I've complained, I've threatened to cancel my M&S credit card...nothing but polite refusals in return, and no compensation of any kind. It's damaged my loyalty to M&S in a way I never thought possible. It's outrageous and I'm furious!

Did it have a date on it?

YABU if it had an expiration date on it. You can't just expect businesses to bend their rules because you let it run out of date. 🙄

Presumably you knew it had a date on it or at the very least the date was written on it, whether or not you looked at it?

I can understand you being disappointed but not furious. You’ve made a mistake.

They don’t even have to give you a refund in the first place and a year is a good long time.

But you had a year to spend it in. That's a huge amount of time.

My mother has £170 of vouchers that have just expired and they won’t budge at all. They’ve had the money and done nothing in return, you can’t tell me that’s acceptable.

You had a year to spend it and didn’t? I think you are overreacting. I’d be annoyed at myself not M&S!

I’d agree with being cross, it’s money for nothing with no valid reason to give an arbitrary date.

I’d cancel the card frankly and switch brands, I did for a similar reason with Sainsburys (fitting room closed, advised to buy two sizes to try elsewhere, when I went to return 1 hours later the wind whipped the receipt out of my hand in the carpark and even though it was on a card they wouldn’t help). The upshot was I widened by habits, found way better places to shop with cheaper prices, better quality and excellent customer services. It got me out my shopping funk!

If everyone did it and fed back why they’d think

YABU.

Why do you think you're not? Blame yourself, not M & S.

If the date was displayed on your credit voucher then YABU to be furious and kick up a fuss - by all means you should have asked and been disappointed but that's life. If they budge for you by 10 days where do they drawn the line? 11 days? 14 days? A month? That's why these things have an expiration date - to be fair and have a clear policy on usability to avoid people taking the piss.

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3128660/The-stores-making-millions-gift-vouchers-forget-spend-Didn-t-know-s-use-date-ve-got-bad-news.html

The mumsnet 'rulez is rulez' brigade is out in force - but I agree with you OP. Shameful that companies can take money and bank it, and issue you with a credit note that expires. Rather smacks of, well I was going to say money for old rope, but it's actually money for nothing.

I'd follow through on the CC cancellation too.

But how is it ‘taking the piss’ to return and item the store then resells, making them pure profit in the terms of a voucher? Ok if it depreciated over time, but why should I say give £20 to a store that they can keep in its entirety after a set date? What is the reason that’s it’s taking the piss to expect to spend money in a store than you have already given to the store?

Once you've accepted a credit note from any store you are bound by the terms and conditions they apply to it (what you can spend it on, when it's valid to/from..bla bla). Do you think they should accept one from 50 years ago? There has to be a limit and a bit of sense about it.

Have you emailed the CEO? I think you should except it, it's clear they have a date.

They had absolutely no legal responsibility to accept the return in the first place. So have been more than fair, really.

They may not have a statutory responsibility to accept the return, but they do have a legal one as that was part of the terms and conditions of purchase - they offered those terms and the customer accepted, so contract law applies to the original return.

I think stores are wrong putting expiry dates on vouchers - suits them as they can account for liabilities easily, but morally questionable when they have accepted the money. Again though if it’s printed on it, there is not much you can do if they won’t budge.

It's annoying if they only give you a small window to use a voucher, but you've had a whole year. Lesson learned.

Totally get you OP. Bloody bloody annoying.

You're issued with this credit note/ voucher/ gift card that runs out and you forget and boom! Free money for the big company! You loose!

And if you're like me or you and not particularly across stuff like this and there must be gazillions of us, think of all the chances of a win win for them.

I don't care if it is the 'rules'. Crap bloody rules.

But surely that kind of proves the point, shopgirl - they sell it under those terms and conditions which they have rightly honoured... but those conditions are that the note expires in a year.

Credit notes clearly have a date on them. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that they have an expiration date.

A year is plenty of time to have spent it - this is your mistake.

@Shopgirl1 but surely then those same terms and conditions which you are saying fall under contract law must also be adhered to in regards to the expired date on the voucher?

I bet expired vouchers/ gift cards/ credit notes make them a pot of money. Totally weighted in their favour with their own arbitrary conditions.

John Lewis doesn't have an expiry on theirs. And I think a year isn't that long anyway. Matter of opinion.

It's damaged my loyalty to M&S in a way I never thought possible.

That is classic written complaint material. Who has ever put thought into how much their loyalty to M&S could be tested? That's given me a good snort, thank you.

@spiney yes they do.