Ian Posted January 26, 2010 Report Share Posted January 26, 2010 Due to recent experience and now borrowing a quote from Cycas' etiquette thread I'm wondering about gift vouchers Personally, I think its rude to do that.. On my 40th, I got loads of pressies and some of me mates are skint and couple are minted.. the pressies that I recvd from both were just as special as each other as they made the effort.. I hate recving money or vouchers for any occassion as no thought has gone into it.. Personally I don't mind getting vouchers if they are from a store I regularly buy from or a contribution towards something I wanted anyway. However at some point I was given a couple "gift cards" for WH Smith & a voucher for PC World. Even though I've been in both stores at points for stuff I didn't use the cards / vouchers (or part balance of one), remove them from the cards, read the backs etc - they were just "sat in a draw somewhere". Apparently when (2 years or more later) I wanted to buy a book from Smiths I find my card has "expired" PC World is apparently only 6 months! We aren't talking about a huge amount, maybe £30 between the two companies but it's the principle - they've got & had "my money", interest free for a few years. Money does not expire and I don't care about their accouinting issues - it is / was MY money! I emailed both companies before Xmas with my comments, including that I would shop elsewhere as a result. PC World haven't bothered to reply at all. Smiths asked for the numbers so they could look into it but I've heard no more. So gift cards & vouchers, a great way of giving a gift of the recipients choice or just thoughtless and a con to make extra profits for greedy stores? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suzeanna Posted January 26, 2010 Report Share Posted January 26, 2010 My son and his wife asked for gift vouchers for xmas..they wanted Boots and Tesco, as they've just moved house and it would help them buy stuff. I got some but made a point of telling them to read the small print and see if there was a time limit on them. I do think stores should have some LARGE notices up saying how long they can be used for, and I've never seen any. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fee Posted January 26, 2010 Report Share Posted January 26, 2010 I've always been amazed that stores are allowed to put time limits on gift vouchers. I agree, it doesn't seem right that they are able to take the money for the voucher then refuse to exchange the voucher for goods if it's 'out of date'. I'm sure they make a fair bit of profit out of people who are given vouchers and never spend them. Looked at logically it's daft to give a £10 voucher that can only be spent in one place with a time limit on it rather than just hand over £10 - but (for me anyway) cash tends to just get absorbed into normal day to day spending, while a voucher is an excuse to buy something I might not feel I could justify/afford otherwise. I love getting book tokens (just in case anyone is desperate to buy me a present and can't think what to get) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greys mum Posted January 26, 2010 Report Share Posted January 26, 2010 They were discussing this subject on Radio Suffolk a couple of weeks ago. Apparently stores make many pounds out of the vouchers which are not used within a certain time. The times as you found can vary. Funny how they don't come with a great big warning sign on the front!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gooster Posted January 26, 2010 Report Share Posted January 26, 2010 Last year I won a £10 high street voucher, which lived in my purse for a while and the stub came apart from the rest of the voucher. When I tried to spend it, the shop was really not happy about accepting it because the stub had been detached, even though I explained that it had come off in my purse. Eventually, after having a mini staff meeting at the till, they decided to accept it, but I was not impressed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K9Fran Posted January 26, 2010 Report Share Posted January 26, 2010 I think one of the biggest problems with store gift vouchers is if the store goes into receivership, they rarely accept them - this was a problem with several stores including Woollies Especially tough on children who'd been given vouchers and were perhaps saving to buy something special. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merledogs Posted January 27, 2010 Report Share Posted January 27, 2010 (edited) Personally I prefer to receive gift vouchers rather than something which I wouldn't use and which would end up in a drawer somewhere or on eBay, at least that way I can choose something I want. However, only for somewhere which stocks a wide range of goods from which most people would find something to buy, such as M&S, Argos, etc. I would never buy someone gift vouchers for somewhere like PC world because they could only be spent on certain things. I do think that the time limit on them should be much longer - I have some vouchers I came across last year for Next which were from my wedding in 2002 which I had obviously forgotten about and which are long expired, bit like my marriage Edited January 27, 2010 by merledogs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cafferysmum Posted January 27, 2010 Report Share Posted January 27, 2010 (edited) Ian if your using quote from the other thread, it was about asking someone towards a pressie from someone else, it was not about people buying vouchers.. so where i said its personally rude to do that is to the email the young lady recvd not vouchers I didnt know they had expiry dates on them.. my motherinlaw got a couple of hundred quids worth for xmas pressies.. i suppose the only store i would like vouchers for is lush as i spend a fortune their.. when i have had vouchers in past, i stuff em in a drawer and very rarely spend them or i loose them.. i dont like getting cash either for pressies. which reminds me have to go and get a mate a pressie tommorrow We got a lot of vouchers when we got married as well as pressies.. wonder what ever happened to them :laugh: Edited January 27, 2010 by Cafferysmum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted January 28, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2010 Yes, I did realise that. It was more the last line about you seeing them as impersonal (as many people seem to) that was thinking of but I didn't want to "doctor" your quote & just assumed people would go & look at what was rude if they really wanted to know I don't mind cash, even if like Fee I might end up spending on general things. At least it's something I actually needed / wanted, not just something somebody else liked If someone gives me a "thing" I'd like it to be something that either they've asked me about at some stage or something personal & meaningful though a big winning lottery ticket might be good too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spins4me Posted January 28, 2010 Report Share Posted January 28, 2010 Just for info: National Book Tokens have no time limit on them and you can use them for books, maps, books on tape or CD or in any format sold by virtually any bookshop in the UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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