Honouring freebie expired gift voucher

[GracefulH&B]

A friend of mine runs a mother and tots group and asked if I would donate a raffle prize for her Christmas raffle. I donated a £25 treatment thinking a mum would win it, come for a treatment, love it, go and tell everybody else how great it was and get me lots of business. However, my friends, mum's BFF won the voucher. This lady lives 40 miles away and is extremely unlikely to become a regular. I give one month expiry on free gift vouchers (12 months on bought ones). So, this lady rang and made an appointment, then rang and cancelled because of the snow. Fair enough I thought. She rang again, made an appointment, cancelled again. So she rang last week (the voucher is now 2 weeks past expiry) looking to make an appointment so I booked her in for tomorrow morning at 9.15am. She has just rang me to say she might be able to make it, but she might not because the weather is supposed to be bad again tonight. What would you guys do? I've done a search on here and found loads on paid for vouchers (which incidently, I would always honour) but nothing on free vouchers. I'm a home based therapist and have a summer house as my treatment room and in this weather, I have to put the heater on a good hour before the treatment to make sure the room is warm enough.

Any thoughts or advice?

 

[Tomme]

A friend of mine runs a mother and tots group and asked if I would donate a raffle prize for her Christmas raffle. I donated a £25 treatment thinking a mum would win it, come for a treatment, love it, go and tell everybody else how great it was and get me lots of business. However, my friends, mum's BFF won the voucher. This lady lives 40 miles away and is extremely unlikely to become a regular. I give one month expiry on free gift vouchers (12 months on bought ones). So, this lady rang and made an appointment, then rang and cancelled because of the snow. Fair enough I thought. She rang again, made an appointment, cancelled again. So she rang last week (the voucher is now 2 weeks past expiry) looking to make an appointment so I booked her in for tomorrow morning at 9.15am. She has just rang me to say she might be able to make it, but she might not because the weather is supposed to be bad again tonight. What would you guys do? I've done a search on here and found loads on paid for vouchers (which incidently, I would always honour) but nothing on free vouchers. I'm a home based therapist and have a summer house as my treatment room and in this weather, I have to put the heater on a good hour before the treatment to make sure the room is warm enough.

Any thoughts or advice?

Tough titties. Free vouchers have a very strict time limit for me and will never be redeemed past expiry.
Its not your problem people are afraid to drive in rain/wind/snow and I think you have been more than generous to extend it already and I would now tell her its expired but she is more than welcome to book in and pay at the normal price xoxo

 

[JenBella]

To be honest if its down to the weather that she can't travel then I would do the nice thing and extend it but explain to her that it absolutely must be used by X date..after all I presume she purchased a raffle ticket and won fair and square.
I know you had an expiry date and were accommodating with her re changing appointments but I really believe in these circumstances that karma is a great thing and you really don't know, she may well book in with you again and by showing yourself to be a fair, kind and accommodating as well as a great therapist, I'm sure she will be recommending you.

Perhaps give her a call and say that due to it being a donated voucher etc that you have to tie this in with certain dates, due to weather you accept that it's been difficult for her to get over to you but you have extended the voucher until such and such a date and after which you really wouldn't be able to redeem it. I'm sure she will understand and hopefully make the necessary arrangements.

 

[Wellyb]

I think I would explain to her that the voucher is past its validity date but that you are willingbecause of the badweather to still honour it, but also add that if she has to cancel again then you are very sorry but the voucher cannot beextended any further. I too am a home therapist working from a very cold conservatory, there is nothng more infuriating than heating a room for someone to then cancel at short notice!

 

[Annemarie]

It was a free voucher right? She's cancelled twice and maybe going to cancel again and its out of date? Tough. She's hardley going to become a regular living 40 flippin miles away. She's taking the mick by messing you around. It was a free voucher for goodness sake. Just ask her to look at the date on it as it's expired.

 

[Murnettie]

I would honour the voucher if it were me, although she might not become a regular she might recommend you to people who will as you were so so accommodating word of mouth is powerful

 

[GracefulH&B]

Well she's just cancelled again. Says she snowed in. It's just the way she says it "Can't make it. You'll have to book me in for next week". I'm booked solid next week with it being Valentines day. So it's going to have to go over to the following week which means this voucher will be 4 weeks past it's expiry date. Part of me thinks "be nice" the other part thinks, she lives 40 miles away, other than my friends mum, the people she could recommend me to aren't going to travel 40 miles when there's four perfectly good salons in their area.

 

[squidgernetball]

I had exactly this situation. The lady rang me and was so apologetic, and said 'I'll definitely be coming to you anyway' so I honoured the free voucher and she hasn't been back in 10 years. BTW I also put on the voucher 'this is a charity donation' because sometimes, people have won a voucher and given it to a friend as if they'd paid for it. Finally, I always do a voucher for a specific treatment, not an amount. This way, they only have what costs me a small amount in products, such as a manicure rather than a more expensive treatment such as a facial. Hope that helps!!!

 

[Carlalouise]

I think I would keep being busy . If I detected an attitude that I have to dance to her tune then she would be told in no uncertain terms, "this voucher was donated, it has a months expiry date on it because I get very booked up from now on with paying regulars and unfortunately they have to come first". Obviously if the voucher had been purchased then I would bend over backwards for the client but not for freebie and with a slight attitude!

 

[Tomme]

Well she's just cancelled again. Says she snowed in. It's just the way she says it "Can't make it. You'll have to book me in for next week". I'm booked solid next week with it being Valentines day. So it's going to have to go over to the following week which means this voucher will be 4 weeks past it's expiry date. Part of me thinks "be nice" the other part thinks, she lives 40 miles away, other than my friends mum, the people she could recommend me to aren't going to travel 40 miles when there's four perfectly good salons in their area.

Tell her to 0121. The way she's worded the text is enough.
Call her up and say "hi x, I'm sorry you have had to cancel again but the voucher is over its expiry date, as a gesture of goodwill I extended it until today but can now no longer accept it"

If you wanted to be exceptionally nice you could give her 10% off a treatment with the voucher but that may be going too far as the debate has said on other threads, you don't expect Tesco to honour out of date vouchers (club card vouchers have expiry dates too) and they wouldn't change them to discounts for you xoxo

 

[Lady Murasaki]

I would call her and kindly explain that you are unable to book her in unless she calls you on the day she wants an apt and if she cancels again you will be able to offer % off treatments rather the full cost of the voucher.

I understand she has had problems with transport, but at the end of day you are losing business from PAYING clients pre booking this lady in.

 

[Jen889]

Well she's just cancelled again. Says she snowed in. It's just the way she says it "Can't make it. You'll have to book me in for next week". I'm booked solid next week with it being Valentines day. So it's going to have to go over to the following week which means this voucher will be 4 weeks past it's expiry date. Part of me thinks "be nice" the other part thinks, she lives 40 miles away, other than my friends mum, the people she could recommend me to aren't going to travel 40 miles when there's four perfectly good salons in their area.

Normally i would always honor the voucher but his is her third time cancelling? well tough luck, i would kindly call her (or whatever method you used to keep in contact with her) and tell her that unfortunately due to her cancelling for the third time, the voucher is now expired and you will not be booking her again.

She knows that she lives that far, she could have given it to someone closer or actually kept her appointment and slowly drive. The fact that she's scared to drive in "bad" weather is not your fault. you have a business to run first and for most, she's just wasting that time.

 

[Annemarie]

Well she's just cancelled again. Says she snowed in. It's just the way she says it "Can't make it. You'll have to book me in for next week". I'm booked solid next week with it being Valentines day. So it's going to have to go over to the following week which means this voucher will be 4 weeks past it's expiry date. Part of me thinks "be nice" the other part thinks, she lives 40 miles away, other than my friends mum, the people she could recommend me to aren't going to travel 40 miles when there's four perfectly good salons in their area.

Love the way she say's "You'll have to book me in...blah blah blah. For heavens sake. You don't have to do anything except to tell her the voucher is no longer valid. The nerve of some people.

 

[Wellyb]

Enough is enough. Sorry it's now expired I'm happy to book you in but you will need to pay for your appointment. If you fail to make this appointment you will be charged a cancellation fee, end of!

 

[Tomme]

How has it gone? Would
Love to hear the outcome xoxo

 

[Divine h & b]

The weather hasn't been constantly bad since Christmas surely she could of got to you at some point

 

[elliebee]

I wouldn't honour this now.
I would explain that you have already extended the date but it is now well outwith the expiry. To soften to the blow a bit you could offer her 10% off her next treatment? I'm sure you'll never hear from her again.