House of Fraser not honouring vouchers.... again?

Ger Roe

My mother in law bought christmas gifts in house of Fraser,Dundrum, on Dec 2nd last and so received a €40 gift voucher from them, to be used between 3rd dec 2019 and 3rd dec 2020.

Last friday (Jan 10th) she tried to use it and was told by the cashier that they were no longer accepting their own vouchers. Looking about online, I see that this has happened before with this particular shop, when it nearly went bust in 2018.

This was not a purchased gift card, but a reward voucher issued by the shop for previous purchases made. The voucher is printed on a receipt roll and also has a website access code and pin for online purchases, but that aspect is not working either.

Has anyone heard any more detail of why they may be doing this and what options their customers might have?

coylemj

Tell her to read the terms and conditions on the voucher. It does sound like they effectively gave her an IOU to be redeemed on future purchases but there's often a 'get out' clause included where they can unilaterally revoke them.

winter2019

Pick something to the value of the gift voucher, explain what you’re doing at the till and walk out with it. Pure thievery on their part. Nothing will come of doing that.

Dav010

winter2019 wrote: »

Pick something to the value of the gift voucher, explain what you’re doing at the till and walk out with it. Pure thievery on their part. Nothing will come of doing that.

Apart from being arrested for shop lifting.

Looks like there is a good chance store is closing.

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/amp.independent.ie/business/irish/dundrum-makes-plan-to-deal-with-threat-to-house-of-fraser-store-38853501.html

coylemj

winter2019 wrote: »

Pick something to the value of the gift voucher, explain what you’re doing at the till and walk out with it. Pure thievery on their part. Nothing will come of doing that.

She didn't buy gift vouchers, they were given to her as a bonus for her purchases - a goodwill gesture. She has neither a legal or moral clam against them.

It's no different to Applegreen telling you that all those bonus points you accumulated on your loyalty card are now worthless.

Ger Roe

Thank you all.

The responses confirm my own thoughts... House of Fraser is in trouble and there is nothing that can be done if they don't honour their own reward system.

Darc19

winter2019 wrote: »

Pick something to the value of the gift voucher, explain what you’re doing at the till and walk out with it. Pure thievery on their part. Nothing will come of doing that.

Except a criminal charge of theft and immediate ban from entering dundrum town centre

Probably will go down as the most stupid advice of the year - and its mid January.

Time

Darc19 wrote: »

Except a criminal charge of theft and immediate ban from entering dundrum town centre

Probably will go down as the most stupid advice of the year - and its mid January.

If you think a prosecution would come from doing so you're deluded. It might technically be against the law but it would be virtually impossible to prove that the reasonable belief defence in s4.4 didn't apply.

Darc19

Darc19 wrote: »

Except a criminal charge of theft and immediate ban from entering dundrum town centre

Dundrum town centre is not short of replacement customers just yet. Even with Hamleys and other stores.

Dav010

Time wrote: »

If you think a prosecution would come from doing so you're deluded. It might technically be against the law but it would be virtually impossible to prove that the reasonable belief defence in s4.4 didn't apply.

Stealing is “technically against the law”?. I think you should pick up your local newspaper, I know ours has a Court Notes section which lists some of the cases heard in the local Court. Two most common convictions? Retail theft and motoring offences. Picking up an item and walking out without paying is theft, proving it tends to be reasonably straight forward if you haven’t paid.

Time

Dav010 wrote: »

Stealing is “technically against the law”?. I think you should pick up your local newspaper, I know ours has a Court Notes section which lists some of the cases heard in the local Court. Two most common convictions? Retail theft and motoring offences. Picking up an item and walking out without paying is theft, proving it tends to be reasonably straight forward if you haven’t paid.

Theft requires intent, it's not a case of taking something means its theft. If someone accidentally walks out of a shop while carrying something they haven't paid for because they were distracted by a phone call they were on for example, that is not theft.

Similarly in this instance, if a person honestly believed that by leaving the voucher and walking out that they were not acting in a dishonest manner then unless it can be proven to the criminal standard that the opposite wass true it would be impossible to secure a conviction.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE (THEFT AND FRAUD OFFENCES) ACT 2001, s4.4 wrote:

(4) If at the trial of a person for theft the court or jury, as the case may be has to consider whether the person believed—

(a) that he or she had not acted dishonestly....

...the presence or absence of reasonable grounds for such a belief is a matter to which the court or jury shall have regard, in conjunction with any other relevant matters, in considering whether the person so believed.

L1011

No normal person just leaves cash or another payment method down and walks out. Leaving the voucher down and walking out would be pretty damning proof that you knew full well it wasn't being accepted.

Anyway, this forum is not for giving utterly dubious to actual criminal advice.