gift cards

[andyw]

my mother in law bought a tv from a well known electrical retailers( i won't mention the name but you will order it at an indian restaurant:) ) the tv went wrong but was still in gaurantee so they sent it away then gave her £500 to buy a replacement, she went to the local store and spent around £450 on another one and they gave her £53 on a gift vouvher this all happened in may. anyway a few days before xmas she goes to the same store to buy a new camera chooses the camera and goes to the till hands over the gift voucher and there is no money on it:bang: they speak to the manager who insists she must of spent it already, he won't help us he wont give us head offices address but gives us a phone number, so i ring it explain the situation and they say the manager of the shop needs to deal with it, i tell them he won't so ends up with an email address, so i email the complaint line and this is the reply i get

"
I am concerned to learn of the matters you have raised. I am unable to assist you with your GiftCard, however you can call xxxxxxxxxxx and they will be able to advise you when the card was used and what the amount was for.

Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience caused to you on this occasion.

Yours sincerely,

what a waste of time that was
so i ring the number and it says the card has no money on it:bang: :bang:


any ideas where i can go next ot should i just give it up as lost, the good thing is my wife wanted to buy a cooker from them next week and my son wanted a new tv from them both of which we will not get now but the bad news is i have to spend a couple of days going other places to look at cookers and tv's now:bang:

[wensleydale]

Have you got the receipt for the telly- they usually have the balance on the card on that when you paid for it originally.

It may well have had an expiry date too which you need to check- try their website for details as a start/.

[Spirits High]

That's not good to hear :(

Now I might be wrong but whenever I've got a gift card recently I've got a receipt with it to say how much was on it. It sounds like the shop is at fault for not doing this.

It seems as though they didn't put it on there in the first place as the phone number you called has no record of that card being "topped up".

Unfortunately its your word against theirs in this case and unless you can prove to them that it was there and you haven't spent it you may well be up the proverbial creek without a paddle :mad:

I know this may not have told you anything you didn't know but that's the way I see it. Hopefully someone with a bit of retail experience will be awake soon ;)

[MagicMusic]

This is illegal, given that the T.V was faulty she may have been entitled to a full refund by original means of payment although this is not statutory.

Gift cards should contain a unique piece of information, generally a serial number which makes it uniquely identifiable.

It should be simple enough for the shop to establish whether the money had been sent or not.

Visit or call your local citizens advice bureau as they will be able to offer the best advice.

There is a regulation which states that in instances where a staff member can recall fully a customers transaction, it is legal for them to offer exchange or refund (that may just be a Scottish thing though).

It may help to return to the store where the new T.V was purchased as they will undoubtedly be able to check back and establish if the gift card transaction went through correctly.

Do not accept that this is not possible, if they don't have the means in store then their head office door.

Sadly, the lesson here is always check and keep your receipt for any electronic gift card.

P.S A word to the wise, its no co incidence that Dixons disapeared from the high street. Dixons group, in my eyes, always have and always will be scum from top to bottom. Their staff are trained from the off to sell everything - they talk you in circles and always lead you in the direction of their high margin products and add ons. They are never there to help and that applies to Curries, PC World et all. I've worked with many pople who worked for them and hated it.

[SC Events]

Well...I work for one of the UK's largest Outdoor Retail Stores and our refunds work like this...

-- The money that is refunded (if paid by card) gets refunded back on to that card.

-- The money that is refunded (if paid by cash) gets refunded in cash.

-- If the customer does not have the card it was purchased with then the money is refunded on to a gift card. However, if they bring in their bank statement, we will refund it back in to their bank account.

To be able to have a refund though, the original receipt must be given to us. If the customer doesn't have it, we will not do a refund and will only allow them to have an exchange.

Head office always know what transactions have been made and can trace whether the card was topped up or used. Don't stand for their lies!

[andyw]

we have the reciepts the shop photocopied them, i emailed all the relevant no's to the customer services, unfortunately she went upto the store alone to buy the tv(shes's in her70's) but she can recall the assistant putting the card through the machine and dropping it then bending down to pick it up ( i think he swapped it and told them this) i believe it is their interest's to investigate, it could be a genuine mistake or it could be a scam the assistant is working, i would of thought that with the original reciept they could trace back the number of the gift card that the money went on, then if the money was spent i know it's a scam but they don't want to know

[MagicMusic]

Mybe you should visit Martin Lewis (http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/consumer-rights-refunds-exchange)' site. He may have the answer.

The problem with a lot of retailers is that they stick signs up with their interpretation of the law. It is not always the actual law just an interpretation that suits the need of their business.

When shopping with the missus I often notice signs displayed on the counter claiming that a refund will not be offered in any circumstances which in the eyes of the law is absolute nonsense it is there as a preventative measure and nothing else.

That sounds all wrong mate. Chances are it was a genuine mistake but their refusal to check up on it is nothing short of apalling.

Get in touch with citizens advice and they will advise you on the correct legal procedures.

I'm sure a few strongly worded letters mentioning some choice intentions wil resolve the situation.

What a disgusting way to treat an elderly lady.


Do you have a receipt for the new T.V?

[DJ Jules]

The problem with a lot of retailers is that they stick signs up with their interpretation of the law. It is not always the actual law just an interpretation that suits the need of their business.

Incidentally, this is my other problem with Maplins. After a period (4 months from memory) they refuse to exchange or refund for faulty products, instead always insisting on sending the equipment away for repair or replacement (not much use if you buy speakers/amps/lights from them and need them for a gig on the same evening). According to consumer law, you're entitled to request a refund or replacement for any faulty goods within about a 12 month period, and even after that, are entitled to the same if it is reasonable to think that the product should have lasted longer than it has. The retailer is also liable to pay for any costs involved in obtaining a replacement if you are without the product for a period of time due to their actions.

The conversation I had with the store manager when one of my Prosound speakers failed was hilarious, basically I pointed out that the policy was against consumer law (even showing her a copy of the parts which they were in violation of) and she still insisted that she couldn't give me an exchange or refund, and insisted that there was "no way that Maplin's would do anything which was against consumer law".

The problem is that if a store offers something which "seems reasonable" to most people, then they're likely to accept it, regardless of compliance with consumer law. The reality is the stores policies are only going to be changed in the face of widespread consumer pressure, probably via an organisation like trading standards - or a campaign from Trading standards or Which to try and get stores with less than fantastic complaint handling to update their policies.

And I agree with the above - Dixons Store Group (Currys, PC World, etc) have always been poor on the customer service and staff training front - there are some youtube video's kicking around of conversations customers have had with staff on technical aspects of purchasing equipment which would be pretty funny if it wasn't for the fact that in some it is clear that the sales reps are intentionally misleading customers in order to up-sell.

Julian