Rant Expired ticketmaster Gift Vouchers

Before I start I do acknowledge that this is entirely my fault. I reserve the right to be annoyed about it though!

For my 30th birthday a year last August. Three of my friends gave me a total of £60 in ticketmaster gift vouchers. Very kind of them and considerate, because I do enjoy my music etc.

However my 30th year on this earth was also a very busy one. For various reasons which I'm not going to go into the last thing on my mind was going to a concert or any other event which ticketmaster sells tickets for.

I hadn't forgotten about the tickets either by the way. You know the way that nothing caught my interest the past year. So I'm sitting on ticketmaster last week the day before the Take That tickets go on sale, planning to buy them as a present (honest!) and I check the gift card site.

Vouchers expire one year after purchase. What!? I don't recall seeing that on the card!

I check the cards. There it is, in very small print. Vouchers expire one year after purchase.

I am raging about this. HMV gift vouchers (different company I know) expire after two years. I know nothing lasts forever, but is one year not a bit on the short side?

What can I do? Take it on the chin, or should I do something about it?

I called ticketmaster last Sunday to enquire. After 20mins on hold. I explained the situation, "yeah mate unfortunately they do expire". I politely try to explain that they were a present etc. The guy hung up on me.

Any ideas on how I can take it further?

 

Bah, worst thing in the world chap...

I'd write to their head office asking if there is anything you can do, some companies will go "oh right" and issue you out other ones. But if that was one of the customer service reps... you might wanna say "I've contact your guys, but they seemed disintrested and hung up when I tried to explain, this is bad Customer Service..." and lay that on thick... might be so offended to never use them again anyway... might even get an extra £60 with that £60 you've got now.

But either way, write in and give it 28 days. If you haven't heard owt... consider all hope to be worthless and you wont get owt back mate

 

Edit: The text that follows is, pretty much, a reiteration of what BRAWL has just said but i'll be damned if i'm going to delete it.

I think, as the expiry is stated in the terms and conditions there's not a great deal you can do.

I could only suggest you write about the situation in a letter, with the vouchers attached, addressed to an executive of Ticketmaster, cross your fingers and hope that they are a good natured person. They may command some minion to reissue you with some new gift vouchers - if you're lucky.

On the other hand they may just disregard it entirely.

 

I bought my bro one of them Aston Martin driving experience days last xmas. The voucher lasted something like 9 months, which he was told when he opened the present. He did nothing about it and how has a piece of paper in a nice box worth £75.

I was / am very pissed with him. This xmas he's getting a Lynx shower gel set.

 

LMAO

 

I got done with that by Amazon.
Once the voucher is acitvated you ahve one year to spend it, then it's gone.

My wife used a voucher on my account, I dillegently didn't touch it and kept using my own dosh.

She asked me to Buy her a book just after her birthday and it was gone.

"sorry hun, your £60 of books is a no go, Amazon have removed the credit" did not put her in a good mood.
I suffered a foul mood over that one for a few weeks.

I've got £10 left from my birthday in June, I'll buy tat before I get stung by that one again.

 

Those kind of things are pointless... surely if you've given money to a company they should honour that fact? That's like me giving my friend £50 for a tattoo I'm saving for... then going in six months down the line and going "okay... do this..." and them going, "I'm sorry, that currency has expired", fairly sure that in the time two £20 notes and a £10 note... haven't expired and that beer/materials are sitting there.

[/rant]

How did this go by the way?

 

I never really understood why people will happily buy their friends and loved ones giftcard or vouchers that only last ~12months, rather than just give them the bloody cash to start with!

A gift voucher for a music shop, driving experience or WHSmiths etc is all very nice, but what if the person doesnt want or need anything from the places they have the vouchers for? 12 months passes and the voucher expires = wasted money and useless gift.

Give someone a £20 note and they can spend it on whatever they need or want- you can even instruct them not to waste it on something silly like booze ( booze is never a silly gift actually... ), but to spend it on something useful- that way you arent wasting your own money & the person can actually get something they really want.

TL;DR: gift vouchers are a waste of time & money, give people REAL money as a gift instead- inspite popular belief, its far more thoughtful to let people buy what they want rather than force them into buying something they may not want just to spend the voucher...

 

Yeah.

I think the concept would be that "i know you'd enjoy something related to this but i'd rather let you pick out something specific so here you go".

I don't think just gifting money is a good idea. I mean, sure, it's practical for everyone involved but it seems unpersonal, uncreative and unthoughtful. It's like saying "happy birthday, i don't know you enough or can't be bothered to pick out a decent gift so here, have some money". I'd rather not give anything, then. Not like you're required by law to give gifts every single time you have a chance.

I'm usually a very practical and rational person, in a bad way, but it seems wrong to apply this way of thinking to gifts, since it's a highly personal matter. As a matter of fact i think it defeats the purpose.

 

But everyone loves money

I can understand the rational, but after X number of years you really do begin to run out of ideas of what to buy people- especially when you have birthdays and xmas to think about. In my family we kinda stick to a £10 limit so that no one feels guilty for not buying someone else something more expensive; theres only so much tat you can get for £10, if I want or need something I can buy it myself. Otherwise I usually end up with the usual- underwear, chocolates, smellies & a bottle of something. Im happy with that, but other people usually arent as the girls buy their own smellies, and booze/chocs is rather uninspired.

They will get a tenner in a card and be grateful, dammit!