This past winter, my friend and I attended a Silent Auction evening to benefit local children's hockey teams. We were pleased when our bids both won gift certificates for $100 worth of spa treatments at Hair by Nature, a local salon. Since our schedules are hectic, and we wanted to have a "spa day" together, we decided to wait till we could both get vacation time to go. This week was it--we both had time off, and so we ripped open our pink "A Gift for You!" envelopes, to book our appointments. We couldn't believe it--the certificates had expired at the end of May.
Where we live, government regulations passed in 2007 mean that gift cards can't expire. But when we phoned the salon to ask why our certificates had expiry dates, we were told that although they were worth $100, they had no actual cash value because the salon had donated them and had not received any money in exchange. This technicality means a retailer donating a service can impose an expiry date--something you should know if you bid on or buy a service at a fundraiser.
My friend and I were almost too disappointed. Why didn't we book the appointments anyway? With more than one child heading off or back to college, we both have to economize, and we felt we'd just lost the money for our day at the spa. Yes, we were glad that we had supported a good cause. But we'd bid, we'd won, and we'd paid cash for the certificates. It was a let-down to lose the prize. Undoubtedly, we'd lost out because of our own ignorance of the "gift certificate rules" and inattention to detail. We should have examined the gift certificates. We felt a little cheated, a little stupid--and definitely not in the mood to splurge at the salon.
