We were given a £50 gift voucher for Westfield Stratford City shopping centre as a wedding present in May last year, which had to be collected from the centre. We went to pick it up this June and were told it had expired the previous month.
Nowhere on the details of the order confirmation form, which we had to take along as proof of purchase, does it mention a 12-month deadline.
Westfield insisted that even though it was not mentioned on the form, there was notification on the terms and conditions page and also on the delivery page before purchase.
Crucially, as we were not the purchaser, we had no way of knowing. PM, London
There is indeed no mention of this vital detail anywhere on the order confirmation form your friend gave you, despite a section headed “important information”.
Westfield tells me that the 12-month expiry date is outlined in the terms and conditions and the point of sale. It seems oblivious to the logic that, as gift cards are usually given as gifts, the recipient won’t have seen the pre-purchase information.
Only after The Observer points this out does it twig. “We appreciate that the gift card confirmation note should also contain the expiry date, which would assist customers if the gift card is provided as a present,” it says.
“We have updated this process to ensure the gift card confirmation note also includes the expiry date. As a gesture of goodwill, and to say ‘thank you’ for raising a customer need, we have extended the gift card.”
Two weeks after this promise you have still not been contacted, however, and it is certain there will be many other recipients in the same boat.
The very existence of expiry dates is contentious since the store has pocketed the money and will profit handsomely if customers forget to use their cards in time. Gail Cohen, director general of the UK Gift Card & Voucher Association, explains that it is to help businesses manage their accounts and to shield them from future liabilities.
Expiry policies must be displayed on the card or voucher, but in your case it wasn’t, strictly speaking, a voucher – rather the confirmation of the online purchase of one which had to be collected instore.
If you need help email Anna Tims at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number.
