Upset over voucher that can only be redeemed with cash
A Christchurch woman was left disappointed when she took her daughter to Silvermoon Merivale to use a $30 voucher but was told she would have to fork out $30 to redeem it.
The voucher policy came into place after Silvermoon Jewellers announced it was going into liquidation earlier this month.
Michelle Terry’s 12-year-old daughter picked out a ring she wanted to spend her Christmas voucher on but was told she needed to spend the equivalent amount in cash.
Terry and her daughter walked out of the shop empty-handed, but Terry said she would probably “bite the bullet” and spend the extra $30.
“She was a bit disappointed, you know, so I’ll probably cough up the extra money,” she said.
On its website, Silvermoon Jewellers said: “We have made a special arrangement with the liquidator: Customers must match the value of the gift card with an additional spend in the store ... We encourage you to utilise any outstanding gift cards or vouchers at your earliest convenience.”
Bryan Williams of BWA Insolvency Ltd, who is the appointed liquidator, said the policy was fair. “In the morass of activity that’s post-liquidation, it was a short-term policy that was put in place because it looked like a much fairer and palatable circumstance than what typically happens.”
Someone with a voucher would typically be given an unsecured creditors claim form to fill in, he said. Once a claim had been made, the customer was able to receive any dividend from the sale of the company’s assets. While voucher holders were preferred creditors, they were quite a long way down the list and it would be “very very unlikely” they would get anything, Williams said. “There is not too much discretion that I have as liquidator.
It’s an environment of black-letter law.”
Ewa Betkier, MBIE principal advisor of consumer services, said when a company was closing down or had gone out of business, you could normally expect to lose money if you had unused gift vouchers.
“In this case, as the liquidators are offering a special arrangement.”
If the voucher was paid for by credit card, an application for a chargeback could be made to the bank to get a refund.