Did you have a gift voucher expire during lockdown?

The message coming through this Conversation is to always spend vouchers as soon as possible after receipt. Companies are under no obligation to extend their availability.

There has been double jeopardy this last year or two with the economic recession leading to the cessation of trading by retailers and the Covid-19 lockdowns compelling the temporary closure of outlets.

The special problem with garden centres is that much of the stock and products are seasonal and so people sometimes need to keep vouchers for some months before they can spend them. There is a case for saying that, where there is a government-directed lockdown, the validity of any vouchers should be paused for those numbers of weeks and the cumulative total added to the expiry date. I appreciate that this could make for accounting difficulties with accruals but it must be possible for the accountancy profession to work out a practice direction to cover this contingency.

I think retailers take the view that they have suffered economically more than their customers have, as well as having permanently lost many to the internet. I reckon they’re probably right.

I’m sure that many businesses have suffered but I don’t see that as a reason why Pamela and many others should lose the value of gift vouchers that have been purchased by themselves or as a gift. Companies have had the use of the money spent on vouchers.

I would like to see a ban on expiry dates on vouchers.

We have been asking for this for a long time. If a retailer has been paid, via a gift card, for a product or service then not only have they had the money but an interest-free loan to help finance their operation. There should be no expiry date.
@jon-stricklin-coutinho, Jon, have Which? any intention of pursuing this?

The Body Shop has an on-line operation. I think that makes a big difference.

If the gift card had not already expired it might have been possible to exchange it for a new one but we don’t know if that was possible.

Not everyone uses or trusts online shopping, a point that has been made many times. We do not know if Pamela shops online.

Nowadays we have to be careful to protect our money from scammers but when ‘reputable’ companies have had the use of our money and then a gift card becomes worthless, I see the expiry date as an unfair condition.

If I forget to pay in a cheque I can ask for it to be reissued, even though I may be required to pay a fee. A couple of years ago I found some travellers cheques hidden in a suitcase and the money was paid into my account promptly.

Companies have good accounting reasons to set an expiry date on gift vouchers. I appreciate that the recent exceptional circumstances have disrupted normal customer behaviour and would expect decent companies to act honourably [i.e. with generosity], but The Body Shop – for all its claims to be an ethical company – clearly believes that so long as it does no wrong it must be doing the right thing. This is commerce. I would like the law to be different and have previously suggested that the accountancy profession could find a way of dealing with accrued liabilities. We must learn that a gift voucher is a perishable product and must be consumed as soon as possible. I expect that is what the donor expects to happen as well as the issuing company.

Companies might have good accounting reasons but so do consumers who lose their money if – for any reason – they are unable to use a voucher before it expires. That would mess up my accounts. If I can have a cheque reissued for a small charge or free, then why not a gift voucher? It might be commerce but it’s your money and mine at stake.

I see no reason why a company could not make an administration charge for extending a gift voucher. Strictly speaking their contract is with the purchaser of the gift card and I expect some weaselly lawyer would say that the issuer has no control over when the gift card was donated in relation to its date of issue and the balance of its validity.

I am not a Body Shop customer but my wife is occasionally. Today we know more about the company than we did yesterday and that will lodge in our brains. If I was their commercial director I would change the policy but perhaps they don’t feel the need to do so.

Having passed through the hands of French toiletries colossus L’Oréal, The Body Shop is now owned by the Brazilian cosmetics company Natura. No stranger to controversy, the Body Shop brand trades on its legendary – but not always genuine – credentials so has a loyal following.

Money is perishable when I spend it but I do not think that is a reason to expect a retailer, who has had the use of the money paid upfront to purchase a gift card, should treat it as perishable (unless they go broke).

For the recipient, it is the value, not the stored money, that is perishable. They cannot get the money back; all they can do is acquire goods at prices that greatly exceed their book value.

Do retailers have the use of the money if their accountants tell them they must hold it in reserve as an accrual liability?

I am not in sympathy with my own arguments here so I shall say no more on this subject.

I have a £10 book token from last Christmas ticking away and had better venture into the city to find a ‘suitable’ birthday gift for the kind-hearted (!) relative who sent it to me. Shops like issuing vouchers because they know that the recipients will invariably spend more than they are worth.

I also think shops like issuing vouchers because a proportion will never be used – forgotten, lost, no interest in the product, or whatever. Real money spinners for someone.

I agree, though have no figures that would show how much money is lost.

I presume that some of the gift vouchers that have expired have been received when customers exercised their legal rights to return unwanted goods to a shop.

When I first heard about the Body Shop I assumed it was a place you took your car to be unbent.