Saw on SMH this morning that Mothercare has gone into administration. Might be of interest to any who are still waiting for a voucher. http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/90467
http://www.smh.com.au/business/parent-company-pulls-pin-on-m…
MOD (davo) - see comment here - announcement from AMEX
Trading still continues for now… Better quickly use up your gift cards if you have any…
Just spoke to Mothercare, no vouchers/gift cards can be redeemed at this point of time.
They are requesting details including name, phone number, gift card number and gift card pin. Once they receive instructions from the administrators they will contact you with an update.
Sigh. Babies are expensive, you would have thought buying the cheap vouchers would have saved you money but now you are even poorer.
Surely they knew on the 10 of January that they were in trouble and close to entering Administration. The selling of those vouchers is nothing short of fraud.
They were expecting a buyout. It was still probably a cash grab to make the buyout look more favourable.
Has anyone tried to chargeback on their credit card? It's worth a shot.
It should work if it's purchased straight from Mothercare but on the flipside, they have delivered the deal. If it's purchased via a middleman like those Amex Connect deals, technically the merchant had already fulfilled their obligations i.e. delivered the gift voucher. If the participating merchant (Mothercare) isn't honouring them then that's not your bank's problem.
I haven't received my gift card yet. I emailed amexconnect/pinpoint today. Waiting to see what they say.
if you havent received it then do a credit card chargeback
where are you sourcing the information that they have fulfilled their obligations? have you verified that is the extent of their obligation under the law with any of the consumer agencies?
Ironically I've just received some spam from them but it doesn't mention anything about the administration side of things…
They won't announce anything to their customers unless they have a closing down sale. This is common practice.
Once again… Don't buy gift cards EVER. Never ever. Unless it's Coles/Woolworths etc because they are just to big to be going out of business.
because they are just to big to be going out of business.
This logic has broken many times. Not to say don't buy them, but don't bet the farm on them.
Well when they count for 10% of our economy and employ half a million people, if they go down, then i'm pretty sure Australia goes down.
Mothercare is a pretty massive company in the UK.
Is there any way of monitoring a company's risk of going into administration like this?
I've still got a country road gift card which I don't know what to do with.
If the company is public they need to make certain information available. Usually just looking at a chart of the share price over the last few years gives you a good idea.
There was an article in SMH/Fairfax newspapers couple of months ago so there were signs.
….and I'm sure Country Road will be safe. If you're that concerned then use it up NOW.
Either buy something or have a look at selling it via:
http://www.cardlimbo.com.au/sell-gift-cards.html
just don't hoard gift cards.
If you bought through Amex Connect, watch this space, updates supposedly coming… https://www.amexconnect.com.au/Offers/539/Please-contact-you…
Would this affect layby as well or not? We have a car seat on layby at our local Mothercare but to be safe we will pay it off tomorrow.
Out of interest, how do these coupon sites work?
If I have purchased a coupon from Mothercare does Mothercare hold onto the money until the coupon is used at the retailer? or does the money go straight to the retiler once I have purchased the coupon (with a cut going to Mothercare I take it)?
Cheers.
Generally theres a split. i.e. coupon site will hold 30% for a certain period of time (refunds/complaints etc), giving 70% to the store. Then they will give them another 20% (making 10% profit)
Numbers might be different, but thats basically it.
saw this (thanks to ozbargain's facebook page) yesterday morning, and my gift cards arrived in the mail that day… the expiry on them says 19/3/13 though, and the original deal is supposed to be for 30/3/13? anyone else got theirs yet / can comment on the expiry not being the same as advertised?
I think the expiry date is the least of your (or should I say, ours?) worry for now.
au contraire, if the item received is not what was advertised, i have something to take to my credit card provider (the one i used to purchase the gift cards in the first place) or to amexconnect.
Same here, mine expires on 21/03/13. I had requested a chargeback, but have just seen the link below to get a refund via Amex Connect.
I still have $250 gift cards, not sure what i can do now…
I think this borders on fraud on Mothercare's part. The Amex deal was paid for on the 10/1/2013 yet the gift cards were not mailed out until the 29th Jan, the day before it went into administration, means that they never intended for the gift cards to be redeemable at all. I think I will write an email to ASIC and the directors should be investigated for fraud.
Technically it's called insolvent trading…
For a minute I read this is
Warning - Medicare in administration.
With the way this govt has ditched any plans of getting into surplus, that wouldn't surprise me one bit.
I have contacted my credit card company. They have lodged a dispute claim against the transaction.
The vendor has 45 days to respond. I will see what happens.
as a "chargeback" or "fraud" or???
As a chargeback for goods not delivered. FYI chargeback is the process of getting transactions disputed…
This Link https://www.amexconnect.com.au/Offers/539/Mothercare-have-go… gives details how to get a refund from AmexConnect. That was a close call!
Yeah that's a close call…I can only imagine these sorta things will becoming more prevalent in the current economic climate.
Amex service is the best.
Wait till you're spending $900 a year with their Platinum Chargecard…you'll be pretty disappointed then.
Meaning?
+1 to Amexconnect. Very impressed with how they have handled this.
I tried the link and was redirected to the home page where there is no information about Mothercare cards.
I didn't receive any e-mails from them about the issue either.
Does anyone know how else to contact them?
Hi Bob,
The original link for contacting them sent you to their generic contact page, which I filed out and got the response. The link is https://www.amexconnect.com.au/Account/ContactUs
This was their reply about a day later
"As you are aware Mothercare went into administration at the end of last week which was not something American Express could foresee. We are just as disappointed as you are that the gift cards we sold can no longer be used. In the interest of goodwill we will be refunding anyone who has been impacted. Our agency will be contacting you over the next week via the telephone/email address you provided to arrange a refund. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused."
Hi rabbit71,
Thanks a lot for your reply. I sent them a message through "Contact Us" and received the same response as you did by e-mail.
Are they refunding $100 or $62 ? What happens if someone has already spent lets say $20 on the card.
The link says "pro rata refund based on the balance of your gift card". Therefore I'd expect you will have returned the $60 in your case. So if you had $20 left on a $100 card and you paid $60, you will, get back $20/100*60 = $12
So has anyone actually progressed anywhere with Amex? Sent them details, and got a generic response..
I got the generic response below and am still waiting as well.
"As you are aware Mothercare went into administration at the end of last week which was not something American Express could foresee. We are just as disappointed as you are that the gift cards we sold can no longer be used. In the interest of goodwill we will be refunding anyone who has been impacted. Our agency will be contacting you over the next week via the telephone/email address you provided to arrange a refund. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused."
Yep, got told they have no records of me purchasing the gift card despite I've attached the confirmation e-mail to the e-mail sent to them……
PATHETIC.
Might have to hit up my card's relationship manager to lodge the chargeback instead.
I'd email them with the Gift Card number. You would hope they were tracking card numbers when they sold them.
See below djlee and myself have received refunds.
Selling discounted giftcards knowing full well it was going to go under is pure THEFT! Should call the cops on them when they refuse to let you use the giftcards.
This is no different to picking up a product in the store and walking straight out the door!
They were trying to get bought out it was a cash grab to help the deal go through. It is very different to theft. Even if they did it knowingly it would (possibly) be fraud rather than theft.
I know the "cash grabbed" from Customers was to make their account books look better in order for buyers to invest and give them more $$$ but either way to me, this is like stealing candy from babies…
THEFT, n. The act of stealing. In law, the private, unlawful, felonious taking of another person's goods or movables, with an intent to steal them. To constitute theft, the taking must be in private or without the owner's knowledge, and it must be unlawful or felonious, that is, it must be with a design to deprive the owner of his property privately and against his will.
"The main difference between a fraudster and a thief is that fraudster tends to hide his crime to the point that he does not want his victim to know that he has taken something away from that person. The fraudster will make sure that the crime will be hidden during the act and even after the crime is already done. The crime must be hidden as long as it can be; this is the main objective of the fraudster. Unlike theft, the crime is known during the act and even shortly after committing the act. This is the main difference between the two acts of crime; one is hidden while the other will easily be known. Another difference is how the thief knows that he cannot hide the act of stealing, so makes no effort of hiding the act. Unlike that of the fraudster, he intends to hide the act of stealing so he gives extra effort in making a scheme of how he can steal something without anyone knowing."
To constitute theft, the taking must be in private or without the owner's knowledge
Everyone knew they were paying money, that was not hidden.
Unlike theft, the crime is known during the act and even shortly after committing the act. This is the main difference between the two acts of crime; one is hidden while the other will easily be known.
So as no one here knew the high risk of not getting to use the voucher, that makes it fraud.
Got my amex statement today and they have refunded the $62 on the 8/2.
Jumped online and I got a refund of $62 on the 11/2. I must say I am very impressed with the way Amex Connect looked after it's card holders. Unfortunately the Mothercare gift card have been the only worthwill thing I have found in their emails. Overall got to use $700 worth of Mothercare gift cards and the final $100 one arrived when it went into Administration.
Thank you Amex! I got my baby's $308 back!!!
I had only 2 vouchers that weren't spent….have now received the refund from Amex. Great company and fantastic service….I've been using Amex for years and they've always been heaps better than other credit card companies/banks with their service.
refunded 8/2 - didnt know till now - thanks amex…
and big f U to Mothercare haha
Finally got my refund….meh took them a while but it's all good.
What happens now?