The recent decision by the Administrators of Peacocks not to honour gift vouchers purchased before the axe fell is likely to further anger consumers who are feeling under increasing pressure and who feel, perhaps with some justification, that the financial world is against them.
The decision by KPMG, the Administrators of Peacocks, is not a surprising one, and they point to the need to maximise the value of the company in order to be in the best place to sell it on as a going concern for the general benefit of creditors.
However, given that RBS are one of the biggest creditors, one might be forgiven for thinking that this is not going to appease those members of the public who are holding vouchers that they received as Christmas presents and are unable to use them.
So what can now be done with these vouchers? Ebay followers might not be surprised to hear that some enterprising individuals are trying to sell Peacocks vouchers on-line! If you have vouchers, or are tempted to buy them through ebay or any other website, the chances are that you will end up with something that is of very little value.
You will be entitled to be included in the, no doubt, very long list of creditors of Peacocks and you will have to wait to see if any dividend is paid out to you after all of the dust has settled on the Administration. Needless to say you would be well advised not to make too many plans on the back of the outcome.
If the voucher was purchased by credit card then, provided it was for more than £100, there may be a possibility of recouping the money from the credit card company. However, this raises a number of technical arguments where the purchaser of the voucher has given the voucher away as a gift, which is generally the point of buying vouchers.
For many years gift vouchers have been an integral part of our lives, and most of us will have given or received a gift voucher as a present at some point in our lives. However, it is difficult to see how many of us who have historically given gift vouchers as presents would be persuaded to continue with this practice where there is a growing risk that such vouchers may never be honoured.
Philip Banks-Welsh of the the Dispute Resolution team advises "If you run a your own business and use gift vouchers to encourage sales, then it should come as no surprise that you will probably be facing far more challenges from the public as these types of experiences harden the attitude of consumers not to be caught out by the changing financial world in which we now live." For more information please contact Philip Banks-Welsh or one of the Dispute Resolution team.
