Living Social issue - Am i unreasonable

sue97

I booked two meal vouchers for a restaurant before Xmas using livingsocial which are due to expire on 22nd March.

I had not forgotten them and had a reminder in my phone to book the meal on 21st Feb.

I got an email reminder from Living Social about these vouchers on 20th Feb that they had to be used before 22nd March so ignored the reminder on my phone the following day. Rang some friends we have not seen and asked them if they wanted to meet up. By the time I co-ordinated everyone it's today. I rang the restaurant and he said we had to book by 22nd Feb but we could have face value vouchers instead which is no where near the deal.

I would not have a problem except that the reminder from living social did not mention a book by date which I think it should have, had I not received their reminder, I would have gone by my own phone reminder and checked the voucher.

Have emailed Livingsocial to see what they can do.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

According to the T&C the vouchers are issued by the merchant and all responsibility lies with the merchant and not Living Social. It appears your issue is with the restaurant and not Living Social.

sue97

Cassius Famous Kettle wrote: »

According to the T&C the vouchers are issued by the merchant and all responsibility lies with the merchant and not Living Social. It appears your issue is with the restaurant and not Living Social.

Thanks

Teagwee

If the voucher you bought from Living Social did not specify that the booking had to be made a month before its expiry, then it was not as described and the issue belongs with LS, as they are the ones who took your money and your contract is with them first and foremost.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Teagwee wrote: »

If the voucher you bought from Living Social did not specify that the booking had to be made a month before its expiry, then it was not as described and the issue belongs with LS, as they are the ones who took your money and your contract is with them first and foremost.

Have you read their terms and conditions? I have and they are very clear on this.

Teagwee

Cassius Famous Kettle wrote: »

Have you read their terms and conditions? I have and they are very clear on this.

Do the T&Cs for this particular offer state that the booking must be made a month before its expiry date? If not, the voucher is not as described and sold. As always, the contract is with the agency/company who took the money and no amount of other T&Cs can trump this.

Fred Swanson

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schemingbohemia

Teagwee wrote: »

Do the T&Cs for this particular offer state that the booking must be made a month before its expiry date? If not, the voucher is not as described and sold. As always, the contract is with the agency/company who took the money and no amount of other T&Cs can trump this.

The OP has implied that this requirement was there as they had set a reminder in their phone to do so.

They seem to now be blaming Living Social for having the temerity of reminding them to book them a month in advance.

User error in my opinion.

Teagwee

schemingbohemia wrote: »

The OP has implied that this requirement was there as they had set a reminder in their phone to do so.

They seem to now be blaming Living Social for having the temerity of reminding them to book them a month in advance.

User error in my opinion.

If that's the case, then I agree. The OP will need to clarify this as they also say in their post that Living Social did not 'mention a book by date'.

emeldc

You have to book the meal a month in advance, WTF ?????
It's true what they say. There is no such thing as a cheap lunch, never mind a free one.

vitani

emeldc wrote: »

You have to book the meal a month in advance, WTF ?????
It's true what they say. There is no such thing as a cheap lunch, never mind a free one.

To be fair, if the restaurant sold quite a few vouchers through LS, all to be used by March 22nd, then the month in advance booking makes sense. Otherwise, you'd have 70 people ring up on March 21 asking for a table the following night.

rubadub

vitani wrote: »

Otherwise, you'd have 70 people ring up on March 21 asking for a table the following night.

Yes, this has happened with 2 vouchers I got. The offers got extended and I presumed it was since the 2 takeaways knew 100's of vouchers were out there yet to be redeemed, so the extension also served as a reminder of the original date.

If it is clearly stated in the offer then most will probably still go for it.

They are a bit mean doing this after just being a few days late, doing nothing for goodwill. One main point of these vouchers is usually to impress a potential new customer. If I owned the place I would probably have let it go, or at least introduced another restriction, e.g. you can still redeem it but must come on off peak days, or off peak times, or not be used on "early birds" etc.

Nanazolie

check the voucher. It usually says 'valid by ....', but also 'to be booked by....'
I have a couple of them and they all have a book by date

Milly33

I cant stand living Social think they are nothing but trouble. I would think it was between the two places but it is bad form of the restaurant not to honor the voucher correctly even if it is from a customer service side. I would defiantly get onto Living Social aswell and ask them to issue a credit for what you spent so at least you can get something else. Note though they are impossible to get in contact with nearly. I was at them for weeks trying to get in contact over a deal which they stated was free delivery but when you went to get it, you were going to be charged a hefty delivery. Anyway the only way I could get a response out of them was by going public, created a twitter account and let them have it, quite nicely now nothing mean but they didn't delay getting back to me then.

best of luck

miamee

To be honest OP after the reminder went out to everyone who hadn't yet used their voucher, the restaurant were probably inundated with people looking for tables every Friday/Saturday night from now until the end of March (and beyond) and they were overwhelmed. It doesn't excuse the sudden change of mind about vouchers having to be booked by X date - if this is not explicitly on the voucher and the restaurant are not backing down then LS should refund your money.

sandin

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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rubbish

Terms and conditions are attached to a purchase and by you agreeing to them means they are part of the contract and therefore legally binding on you and the seller.

Therefore "terms and Conditions" become part of "The law of the land" as you say it.

Fred Swanson

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sandin

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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so terms and conditions of a contract are totally meanless in your eyes?

whippet

sandin wrote: »

so terms and conditions of a contract are totally meanless in your eyes?

they are 'in addition' to your statutory rights and can not take away from your statutory rights.

chillywilly

I think this is quite is simple, if the voucher stated that the 'book by' date was the 22nd of Feb then the restaurant are not obliged to honour the voucher. If however the voucher did not state a 'book by' date then you are within your rights hold them to the voucher agreement.

sandin

whippet wrote: »

they are 'in addition' to your statutory rights and can not take away from your statutory rights.

but the poster was effectively saying that no terms and conditions could be implemented and that a business cannot have cut-off times or booking restrictions on a voucher.

if there are terms and conditions attached to a voucher that are nothing to do with "statutory rights" (there is no statutory right regarding timeframes or bookings conditions on vouchers), then those terms and conditions must be adhered to.

If there is no booking deadline attached, then the restaurant must honor to the expiry date, but if there are they can refuse to honor the voucher in its entirety, but as goodwill is allowing face value to be used even after expiry date.

What everyone needs to know is that with many discount vouchers there are strict terms and conditions - spend a couple of minutes reading all terms and conditions and you save a lot of annoyance.

Fred Swanson

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