American Golf vouchers

[IanS]

Awful experience with American Golf. Found a voucher bought for me in May 2014 for £75 which I had mislaid. Tried to redeem but told it had expired after 12 months. Emailed customer services who added 12 months grace which of course was insufficient to make any difference.
They are within their rights but I consider this unethical and immoral. They foolishly take no account of the fact that I am a loyalty card holder and I and other members of my family have spent well into 4 figures with them in recent years.
I had 3 different responders to 3 emails who simply refused to listen. The obvious common sense solution would be to offer £75 off a large future purchase of say £200 which would give them a chance of holding on to my custom and resolve the impasse. They have now lost valuable business- very poor PR.
Anyone else with a similar tale to tell ?

 

[clubchamp98]

Awful experience with American Golf. Found a voucher bought for me in May 2014 for £75 which I had mislaid. Tried to redeem but told it had expired after 12 months. Emailed customer services who added 12 months grace which of course was insufficient to make any difference.
They are within their rights but I consider this unethical and immoral. They foolishly take no account of the fact that I am a loyalty card holder and I and other members of my family have spent well into 4 figures with them in recent years.
I had 3 different responders to 3 emails who simply refused to listen. The obvious common sense solution would be to offer £75 off a large future purchase of say £200 which would give them a chance of holding on to my custom and resolve the impasse. They have now lost valuable business- very poor PR.
Anyone else with a similar tale to tell ?

yes very poor service on some Ping wedges I ordered on 6th Jan still haven't got them see thread Ping and AG in Lounge.

Thats really poor I can't see why a voucher has an expiration date it should be like a currency note after all they have your money.
But by the sound of it wont be getting anymore.

 

[gmhubble]

IanS

Is there an expiry date on the voucher itself?

If there isnt then they have not got a leg to stand on legally

Ian

 

[ger147]

IanS

Is there an expiry date on the voucher itself?

If there isnt then they have not got a leg to stand on legally

Ian

From AG's website...

http://www.americangolf.co.uk/content/gift-vouchers-terms.html

 

[gmhubble]

Yes

But if they dont show the expiry date on the gift card and also do not refer the purchaser to the terms and conditions then they have no leg to stand on

They can have whatever terms and conditions they like but if they do not refer the ourchaser to them they are irrelevant ....basic A Level Law!!

From AG's website...

http://www.americangolf.co.uk/content/gift-vouchers-terms.html

 

[ger147]

Yes

But if they dont show the expiry date on the gift card and also do not refer the purchaser to the terms and conditions then they have no leg to stand on

They can have whatever terms and conditions they like but if they do not refer the ourchaser to them they are irrelevant ....basic A Level Law!!

I have no idea as I have never bought one but presumably that info would be on the receipt at the time of purchase.

I'm not aware of any legal obligation to physically print the expiry date on the gift card itself, but I don't have an A level in Law so of course I could be wrong.

 

[gmhubble]

I just think if you said it was being put in the hands of your solicitor you may get somwhere - just make sure there is no expiry date or 'refer to t&cs' on the receipt or the gift card - tbh i would just worry about the gift card

Might get you somewhere

Ian

I have no idea as I have never bought one but presumably that info would be on the receipt at the time of purchase.

I'm not aware of any legal obligation to physically print the expiry date on the gift card itself, but I don't have an A level in Law so of course I could be wrong.

 

[ger147]

I just think if you said it was being put in the hands of your solicitor you may get somwhere - just make sure there is no expiry date or 'refer to t&cs' on the receipt or the gift card - tbh i would just worry about the gift card

Might get you somewhere

Ian

Not sure why you're quoting me as I don't have an expired gift card so no need for me to talk to my solicitor.

 

[gmhubble]

Sorry

I meant as info for Ian S

Apologies ger147

Not sure why you're quoting me as I don't have an expired gift card so no need for me to talk to my solicitor.

 

[Deleted member 16999]

Bad admin on your behalf, all vouchers from all places have expiration dates.

Even Chq's you sign yourself have a limited time to be cashed, is that written on the chq.

Sorry, as you say, you and family members have spent thousands over the years in AG, so therefore you are all happy with the products and services, but because you didn't use the voucher, despite ample opportunity, you want them to take responsibility?

 

[Garush34]

Not sure why AG should honour it now, its 3 years out of date, your mistake for not using it. Just take it on the chin accept that its unfortunate you missed out on £75 but continue as you were. No need to pretend your getting lawyers etc involved, there's too much of that going around IMHO.

 

[Fish]

Bad admin on your behalf, all vouchers from all places have expiration dates.

Even Chq's you sign yourself have a limited time to be cashed, is that written on the chq.

Sorry, as you say, you and family members have spent thousands over the years in AG, so therefore you are all happy with the products and services, but because you didn't use the voucher, despite ample opportunity, you want them to take responsibility?

Not sure why AG should honour it now, its 3 years out of date, your mistake for not using it. Just take it on the chin accept that its unfortunate you missed out on £75 but continue as you were. No need to pretend your getting lawyers etc involved, there's too much of that going around IMHO.

I agree, it's your fault, end of....

As soon as you knew you had mislaid it you should have contacted them and told them, there may have been an opportunity to match the sale to a credit card payment and gone that route but you let that time pass also. Your history with AG means squat against your 3 years of incompetence and now you want to blame them and give the impression of legally challenging them, which is pathetic IMO.

This kind of thing is everywhere nowadays, we live in a blame & claim society and also see far too many 1st posts like this who no doubt are curtain twitchers but then when there nose is put out of a joint they want to rubbish a company who is simply standing by its T&C's.

#Pathetic!

 

[Andy]

Deal with it and move on.

 

[Papas1982]

Your friend gives you a bday card.
You note down that they gave you £75 and send them a thank you letter.

Weeks ks later you tidy up and realise you threw the card away (with the money inside) whilst tidying.

Do you:

A, curse yourself and move on.

B, contact your friend and ask for another £75.

C, contact lots of retailers asking the to give you a £75 discount.

whilst that's an extreme example. Asking someone to honour something 2 years out of date and being refused isn't poor service. Whilst I accept they could have made an offer to keep your custom. I don't feel they should be obligated to do so in the slightest.

 

[Reemul]

I dunno, it's not like AG didn't get the £75 is it. That money went in the till so while it's an oversight most decent companies would sort something out to keep a good customer happy.

I would still check to see if it has a date on it and try a different AG or try a different person, ring head office rather than email as talking to someone is more effective than an email which is easy to reply to.

 

[jamielaing]

I land on two sides of this to be honest. Firstly, if you mislaid £75 you wouldn't be able to get it back. However you have found it in the end. AG have gladly taken your money with no product changing hands. They are happy to hold your money until you make the purchase and ultimately have a guarantee that you will spend there. In most circumstances you will spend more than the £75 which is another motivator for them to sell gift cards.

What right do they have to limited the amount of time you have to retrieve goods from them for your money they are holding?

Let's look at this another way-

I walk into AG and order new irons, new woods, new putter, the works. I spend £2,000, all custom fit. I am told that they will take 2 weeks to arrive. After two weeks I have a calamity of disasters- work sends me abroad for a while or someone falls ill and I have to travel to Australia to look after them etc.

I come back after 2 months and remember I have new clubs to pick up. I head in and they say sorry, we've sold them as you didn't come to us in time. And no, you can't get your money back or the clubs re-ordered.

You'd be more than slightly livid.

 

[Garush34]

I dunno, it's not like AG didn't get the £75 is it. That money went in the till so while it's an oversight most decent companies would sort something out to keep a good customer happy.

I would still check to see if it has a date on it and try a different AG or try a different person, ring head office rather than email as talking to someone is more effective than an email which is easy to reply to.

Still don't see how its AG's problem. Yes they could have tried to sort something out but once they do it for one person then what do they do for the next person that comes along with a similar story? In my job I deal with a lot of competitions that all have T&C's and yes sometimes you can sympathise with people and it is unfortunate but you have to draw a line somewhere so that everyone gets the same service. Bending the rules for one usually leads to having to do it for others and AG are in the business to make money not give it away for free. Just because you are a loyal customer doesn't always mean you should get something for free, especially if it was your fault that the issue occurred.

 

[Slab]

On the one hand vouchers have always been a good thing for retailers (& some folks will ‘misplace’ or perhaps more accurately ‘forget’ to spend them) and retailers are not blind to this

On the other hand its clocking on for three years since the voucher was issued, at least a few stock-takes have been done and a couple of tax returns filed. The income on those vouchers has long since been declared

Its good if AG can help out somehow but it’s not bad of them if they can’t or choose not to

Ultimately we have to be responsible for our own actions (or inactions)



Jamie, For the vouchers they basically say, use it within 12 months or lose it
So in your scenario if they said you need to pick these clubs up inside 2 months or we'll sell them then it would've been up to you to arrange collection and tough wobbly bits if you don't
If they said nothing about timescales or it doesn't matter how long you leave them here and they still sold them then yup, go ballistic

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

I'm not aware of any legal obligation to physically print the expiry date on the gift card itself, but I don't have an A level in Law so of course I could be wrong.

Mine expired after 12 months

 

[IanS]

I am not threatening any legal action and fully accept they are within their rights to refuse an extension.
My point is that they have banked the money and are not interested in retaining my business. The proportion of their profits that arise from expired vouchers must be tiny yet they are happy to lose the goodwill of previously loyal and satisfied customers. I am not asking for special treatment but they must be able to check names against previous patronage of their stores. In any event the whole principle is unethical as vouchers should be open ended. If you take 5 years to spend it then they have gained interest during that time.
I have lost £75 but they have lost goodwill and several customers. The main winner is my own club professional who is excellent and will now get all, rather than some ,of my business.