What do you do when someone wants to redeem a gift certificate for services no longer offered?
Posted by admin
identity_crisis_in_progress asked:
The gift certificate was donated over 2 months ago from my personal concierge service to an organization for a silent auction. I haven’t heard a peep about it until now and unfortunately assumed it was not purchased. Now, the winning bidder wants to redeem the gift certificate for housekeeping which, due to health reasons, I no longer offer as one of my services. I have mentioned that I have many other services to choose from but she specifically wants housekeeping, which at the time of the donation, I offered. Now she’s upset because her family spent the money on it for her and housekeeping is what she wants- says she has no need for the other services. And to top it all off, I don’t know if there is an expiration date on it or not. Any ideas on how to handle this without upsetting the customer and giving my fledgling business a bad rep? I’ve already thought about offering a refund of the purchase price- don’t know how she’ll respond to that.
Veronica
The gift certificate was donated over 2 months ago from my personal concierge service to an organization for a silent auction. I haven’t heard a peep about it until now and unfortunately assumed it was not purchased. Now, the winning bidder wants to redeem the gift certificate for housekeeping which, due to health reasons, I no longer offer as one of my services. I have mentioned that I have many other services to choose from but she specifically wants housekeeping, which at the time of the donation, I offered. Now she’s upset because her family spent the money on it for her and housekeeping is what she wants- says she has no need for the other services. And to top it all off, I don’t know if there is an expiration date on it or not. Any ideas on how to handle this without upsetting the customer and giving my fledgling business a bad rep? I’ve already thought about offering a refund of the purchase price- don’t know how she’ll respond to that.
Veronica
January 12th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Depending on how much was spent to win the gift certificate, you can either offer to refund her the amount she spent or hire someone else to provide the services and eat the cost. I would honor the request since the services were offered at the time and you probably don’t need the bad rap.
January 15th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
The same value and be done with it and be done with it and be done with it and be done with it.
The same value and she cannot understand merely refund or offer change in offer change in services dont get bullied by this customer if you can no longer do it and she cannot understand.