Buyagift
reviews and complaints

I purchased a gift voucher for my parents for an overnight stay with dinner and when it came to booking, every date, every location was all at a surcharge. There was nothing that came up as available for use with the voucher without paying silly amounts of money to redeem for budget hotels such as premier inn and holiday inn express.

I was cutoff from customer service twice saying pretty much tough need to pay a surcharge. Just feels like I’ve been missold as they cannot fulfil any date or location or provide a list of what might be available. So isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. I was only 4 days out of the 30 day refund limit which again as it was a purchase for Christmas was really disappointing

I am yet again dissatisfied and very annoyed that I am left feeling like Buy A Gift are ripping customers off!

I was gifted two BAG vouchers from my kind family... my Mum, who is a low income pensioner, and my sister, who is on a low income alongside being a Mum.

Mum's voucher was 'Dining For Two' valued at £59.99 and a sister gave us the 'Happy Christmas' box valued at £63.99.

Having researched both of these vouchers, I find that the value of the offered 'experiences' are much LESS than the amounts they have spent on the vouchers! For example, again, your restaurants (Zizzi, Ask etc.) only give you £49 credit towards a meal... where does the remaining money paid go?

I say "again" because family and friends seem to gift me these vouchers in order to give me the flexibility to make my own experience arrangements around a busy lifestyle. I had only just just one from my birthday before Christmas at Zizzi and found that the old '3 course set menu' that the voucher used to offer now only gives a credit limit, meaning that I had to subsidise an extra £23 for our meal (in addition, Zizzi added a gratuitous tip that wasn't authorised before the payment was taken!)

I have therefore looked at exchanging the vouchers via the 'exchanging voucher' option on the Buy A Gift website but found that anything worth exchanging them for (in terms of monetary value!) are funnily enough NOT listed in their options for exchange!

Yet again they have taken £124 of my kind, generous family's hard earned money and ripped them off! I shall NEVER recommend, or use, BUY A GIFT again if I can help it and will be telling everyone about the findings I have made today. I am fuming have approached BAG for a refund to my family for the costs of the vouchers they have unwittingly been ripped off in purchasing!

I tried calling the customer service number only be told everything is done via live chat. My first experience with live chat lasted 30 minutes with nothing resolved only to be cut off. I then had to go back through the queueing system to be put onto another live chat. This chat then ended in them saying I couldn't go through them and had to go to the cruise provider (the cruise provider had told me to go through them). In total this used up 1hour and 30 minutes of my time. i don't understand how it took that long for them to tell me they couldn't do anything.

The reason for me contacting the customer service team was not my doing in the first place as the cruise I was booked onto was cancelled by them not by me. I am furious with how long things have taken.

order number [protected]

placed 08/12/22

product: John Lewis £50 voucher [protected]

delivered by post

I should have ordered a Gift Voucher, not an Experience Voucher. The website does not make this difference clear.

If you want to gift someone an experience, just give them cold hard cash. We had a 2 night break given to us for our 10th wedding anniversary by my parents at the end of 2019, 3 months later we went into lock down so we were unable to use is. We finally started looking when the rules were lifted and hotels were finally opened again, we struggled to book a hotel straight away due to any of the hotels we liked the look of were fully booked until forever or were not the type of hotel we would like to spend our wedding anniversary gift in. We finally booked up in July for a hotel stay in Banbury for 16th December Whatley Hall, we also booked a spa day which was also given as a voucher by a different company to coincide with our stay which we were really looking forward to. On 29th November we received an email from Carson Senior Destinations Executive stating 'We have been informed and or instructed by our supplier that due to a system/booking issue unfortunately they will no longer be able to accept your recently booked hotel reservation with us. They have informed us that the booking will need to be cancelled as they cannot accommodate.

I have been authorised to either issue a brand new hotel break voucher for the amount of the original voucher paid for plus supplement.

Alternatively I can issue a credit for the full amount of the original voucher and supplement.'

I requested a full refund for the voucher and supplement back due to not being able to book an alternative hotel straight away with 18 days notice due to the lack of availability with the hotels this company deals with and I was hoping I could book an alternative hotel with the refund received so we could continue with our spa day treatment.

I received a response on the Thursday 01st Dec at 4:43

The cancellation of booking has been confirmed.

The supplement amount of £141.00 is able to be refunded, the original voucher was purchased via Debenhams so we do not hold the funds for this nor can refund that original amount.

How would you like to proceed?

So after advising I could receive full credit for the hotel voucher and supplement I am now informed they do not hold the funds, this company is not a non profit organisation and have a revenue of $73 million dollars but do not hold the funds!

We are now without a hotel and will loose out on our spa day also. My parents are upset as they feel they have let us down with a gift they thought was going to be a lovely break away for us. I do not recommend buying an experience from this company who are very unhelpful, go back on what they say even if it is in black and white and take over a week to respond to your emails as you are not able to contact them by telephone to resolve any issues directly!

I would like to raise my concerns about the sanitation and health standards of The Wild Pheasant Hotel & Spa, Llangollen.

We used the voucher we received as a Christmas present to go on the spa day here, hoping for a relaxing and rejuvenating time. It was far from that.

This hotel and spa is dirty and not cleaned to a respectable standard; it is clear from the rust, grime and foam in and around the pool and changing rooms. This unsanitary environment resulted in an infected spot on my neck, which is unbearably uncomfortable and has resulted in me seeing a pharmacist to medicate. My partner also developed a skin rash.

This is not the outcome we were hoping to receive from a spa day, and if BuyaGift cannot refund us for this travesty, I hope they take this spa off their system, so other guests do not experience this awful service.

voucher details - 1071558-BUY1191443

PIN - 599640

My Husband received this Afternoon Tea for his 60th Birthday.

The Afternoon Tea was bought for Thorsby Hall during COVID19. Unfortunately, we have not been able to use this voucher and have now tried to book it and have been told that Thorsby Hall do not do them any more.

Can you assist with my enquiry and let me know if we can schedule this for somewhere else local.

The voucher has expired due to COVID and nt being able to book.

I look forward to hearing from you urgently.

Kind regards

I was bought as a present two Smartbox vouchers No.[protected] & No.[protected].

I have tried to activate them and was informed they could be extended for a cost of £20 each. I went on line for a 'chat' with Sheila and she confirmed 'there was no wavering on the £20'

I think this is not fair, because of Covid restrictions life has been difficult for us all. Your website says your Customer Services are very busy because of Covid disruptions & cancellations, so does this not mean the same for us? the customer. It also states that the expiry date is printed on the voucher - this is not the case - printed is the voucher code & pin code.

Could you please remedy the situation byactivating the vouchers or giving a full refund.

Thany you

Mr S A Scrivener

[protected]@virginmedia.com

Would like refund unable to get reply to contacts sent and on line chat doesn’t seem to be working. I don’t think voucher is value for money and would like refund. Cannot get any reply from Buyagift despite sending three emails over a period of time. I would not use buyagift again for reason of bad customer service.

Not sure what other information you require.

Ref no RSV17529147381

My husband and I received a two night charming getaway for our 40th anniversary and were really looking forward to it as several friends and family previously purchased the same and had had a great time. We felt very confident booking a stay through buyagift as your information says 100% hand picked and regularly reviewed. We booked the TY Rosa B&B, 118 Clive Street, Cardiff, Wales CF117JE for the 8th&9th of September 2022. We did not expect 5 star but we did expect it to be clean tidy and in good order, in fact we`d paid an extra 16 pound thinking we were upgrading, we were very disappointed to find it was none of the above. Firstly it was between very run down rubbish strewed properties. The entrance and stair carpet were dirty, the living/dining room, dining area was ok but the other half of the room was full of boxes bags, and other miscellaneous items, the kitchen was also very cluttered. we did have clean sheets but that was the best we could say as the towel rail in the bathroom was very rusty and the shower screen was dirty, everything felt a little un sanitary. We realise it must be difficult to keep on top of all the properties but this was a very special break for us and feel let down and very disappointed. I do feel this property was at one time a very nice place but sadly has fallen below an acceptable standard

Warning: Do Not Use Buyagift.

Book directly instead.

Most of these reviews which say how great they are "must be fake" and requires investigation, as several friends and family have also experienced issues with vouchers and poor customer service from Buyagift.

My wife and I redeemed the buyagift voucher plus an additional payment of £41.00, to book the family Shrek World and london riverpass boat cruise, for our daughter's birthday.

However, the day was ruined!

We wished we never used buyagift and purchased directly instead.

Firstly, on attendance at shrek world, the voucher was not recognised by their system and we had to call a Manager at the site to discuss the issue, after 45mins and embarrassment they finally allowed us entry without paying but said it was as a goodwill gesture and only on this occasion.

The riverpass voucher was not accepted, as we were informed the voucher is invalid and needs to be updated to be redeemed at Westminster Bridge pier (not London Eye), both (London Eye and Westminster) piers confirmed we can not board without a valid voucher, therefore this experience voucher was not used and we had to pay out of our own expense for a very short boat trip, although the money was supposed to be used for a meal at a restaurant, but we promised our daughter the boat ride.

As a result we had to get a fast food takeaway and the birthday plans for our daughter was ruined!

We submitted a complaint, however the Customer Service at Buyagift is absolutely appalling.

There is no contact number to speak with someone, obviously because to avoid speaking with the overwhelming number of unhappy customers!

Instead they use a very time consuming chat service or email process.

Someone by the name of Josh/Joshua was assigned to our complaint case, however he seemed to not care about our ordeal nor the importance of resolving the matter urgently.

When we used the chat service and email again we hoped a different person would respond, but we had the same person, lacking any empathy about our circumstances.

We submitted our complaint and request for a full refund on 27th June 2022.

We were told they give their suppliers 10days to investigate and respond.

Despite waiting and after several attempts to chase a response or a refund this carried on well outside the given timeframe.

It started to appear they knew about the issue and was trying to keep us waiting until we gave up, as they attempted to send an email advising "Case being closed" as they expected us to monitor our emails for a response from them at random times.

5th September 2022, we finally received a response, offering us only £10.69 refund, which is appaling behaviour and well far from sufficient!

We were given a gift to visit the Shard I have not been able to book due to surgery and being away. Have gone to book today I have found the voucher expired on the 21/8/22. I have tried to contact via the chat several times which keeps throwing me out so I have to restart the chat, waste of time. Even though you indicate a contact number and email address I am unable to find it to resolve my issues. Please respond

Had a voucher from our daughter last christmas for a one night stay in a hotel with dinner for two, have tried on numerous occasions to book this at eight hotels within a sixty mile radius of my address . 14 lambert road welshpool powys sy217bp, to no avail. Have contacted the company several times without success, my last email from them they are offering me a bottle of wine or a box of chocolates as recompence for my dissapointment , they are on a winner as the voucher must have cost 130 pounds, i feel that i should persue this complaint as a matter of princable, any help you could provide would be appreciated.

The company in this instant is buyagift.com

my email is william.[protected]@btinternet.com

yours w.J.Evans (mr)

Hi

i booked my experience it was originally extended due to COVID. i booked onlinen as instructed and chose two dates for the comedy club inn leicester. this saterday 6th and the 13th. i have still not recived any communication from anyone and im not sure what im supposed to do about it? i would like to speak to someone about this please call me on [protected]

the comedy night was this saturday or next?

my voucher code is [protected]-BUY11530395

Regards Sharon Burdett email [protected]@gmail.com

on going complaint. Have email correspondence with various BUY A GIFT employees all of which say they will get back to me with a solution. Solution not found to date. Awaiting on a manager for a full refund. See my records on their system.

Spoken to John Lewis as was told my contract is with them, they say no its with BUY A GIFT.

just need my money back .

Your request (1075629) has been updated.message from Buy a gift

I have a buyagift 'datenight' voucher value £59. If I use it at Ask restaurants I get £49 off the bill! Bearing in mind that Ask would be almost certainly be claiming less than £49 from buyagift this is a complete ripoff.

Called their customer services and got fobbed off.

voucher number [protected]-BAG0477567

I had two vouchers titled "two night hotel break for two" both £99 each. I selected a hotel for a 2 night stay next week, but couldn't combine the vouchers through the site. I wanted to combine the vouchers as there were no 2 night stays available for £99.

As there is no service after 5 o clock, I selected a hotel and rang them direct and asked them to provisionally book the 2 nights and asked how much a night, it was £87, so 2 nights would be £174.

the following day I used live chat to try and book through Buyagift. They want to charge me...wait for it! £99 voucher + £174, so £273, if I want to use both vouchers, I have to pay £99 x 2 vouchers + 2 lots of £174, so £546. I repeatedly said, this cant be right, but apparently it is.

I cant believe what a rip off this is, the vouchers are worth literally nothing, the advertising is misleading and the customer service very poor

Had a bit a gift voucher and wanted a nice couple of nights away which is what the voucher was for. Found a hotel on the buy a gift website. Booked it. Went for the stay and took the voucher with us. On check out I have the voucher to the hotel as they asked for it the following day the hotel called to say they could redeem the voucher with Buy a gift. They can’t get a response from buy a gift and neither can I 10 days later still no response and the hotel are now telling me I have to pay the bill. Not good as we do not have spare cash for this kind of treat hence why we used a voucher we were give for Christmas. Not very good.

Recently I booked one experience for my wife at Cher Saloon, Tooting which was already enlisted in Buyagift's voucher 'Pamper Treat Experience Box'. But when she went there to have the treatment she was bluntly denied that BuyAGift vouchers are not accepted here and if she want to proceed she will have to pay for the services.

It was a very shocking thing for her that her 2 hours got wasted for this and she had to come back empty handed. It was too embarrassing for me that I bought this package for her and she had to face such humiliation due to this. Even after trying hard to convince them that they are in the list of BuyAgift's list of service providers, they completely refused our claim.

It is a very humiliating and embarrassing thing for us and very unfortunate also that you guys do not think about the customer's experience and make false claims. My wife spent 2 hours travelling to and from the location and in the end she got only disappointment only due to your poor services.

After my first email which was on 20th May 2021, i got various false promises by the company but no solution.

They have made false promises and advertisement which is nothing but a fraud and scan with common man. It is like a scam and like these guys are fooling people by giving fake/nonredeemable vouchers and then not replying for weeks.

I have tried to book in Telford the above voucher yesterday for Telford.
When I rang the first hotel they said they are no longer using buy a gift,
After this I thought I would try a second and to my disappointment the second hotel said the same, now I am very annoyed.
Why and how are you able to advertise the stays on your live web page when they are Not using buy a gift this is a trading standards issue and very miss leading, and should not be on your web sight at all Covid or no Covid, i have taken a snap shot of the page and hotels in question,
Hotel one is The malt house and it's still live.
Hotel two is The white hart cafe.
Also still live on your web page as an option,
I also rang one of your colleagues who told me to send an email to you and I have not received a reply,
So now I am contacting you via your web page.
I can assure you this is not acceptable and need either a full refund on all my purchases for the stress caused or help with dealing with all the issues I have mentioned,
Also I suggest urgent attention is required to Remove the hotels that are Not
Active as from today,
Or my next step Will be trading Standards,
Hope all is clear .
Any questions you can contact via my email.

Regards Mr Jason Riley .