Please read if planning on going in for the Boston Pizza giftcard!!!!

[scbpooh]

Ok so I dont normally take part in the buy xx to get xx but we LOVE BP so I thought we would take advantage of it this weekend!!!!! Or maybe not....

If you do go get the GC this weekend be prepared to use it on or before Mar.14

The fine print on the bottom back page says "One BP GC per transaction per customer. BP GC will be valid until March 14/2011"

Im a little choked and upset at the same time. How can they put an expiry on a GC?

[canpip1]

Ok so I dont normally take part in the buy xx to get xx but we LOVE BP so I thought we would take advantage of it this weekend!!!!! Or maybe not....

If you do go get the GC this weekend be prepared to use it on or before Mar.14

The fine print on the bottom back page says "One BP GC per transaction per customer. BP GC will be valid until March 14/2011"

Im a little choked and upset at the same time. How can they put an expiry on a GC?

Most free GC expires in one month, I got the SDM Valentine GC from the last promo, I have to use it before Feb. 25, 2010. Because you did not purchase it, so it is like a $10 coupon, I learn it hte hard way, when the GC expires on me last year.

[thetonester521]

I learned the hard way too - their GC promos like this always have the GC expire rather quickly. I did once with a Tim Horton GC promo - and it expired before I could use it. Thus I don't do these GC promos anymore.

[scbpooh]

I didnt realize this was normal. As I said, since when is there an expiry on GC's. Isnt it illegal or something? I thought there was no longer allowed to be an expiry on GC's. Or are these special GC's so yes they can do it?

[thetonester521]

I agree there shouldn't be an expiry on GCs. I don't know what makes their GCs so special that they can put an expiry on them.

I would be interested in knowing why they can put the expiration on these too.

[hollyhill]

Their Tim cards expire!!!! Oh no! I hope I didn't trade for any of those...

[IraGarcia]

Hmm... They expire quickly, yet strangely I still want one.

[CSLT]

Yeah unfortunately it's pretty normal for their promo cards to have a short expiry. It's a good thing to keep in mind before going for one of the promo shops!

[anastasia1009]

I worked for Petro Canada email support (petro points and gift card support) when SDM back then used there gift cards as promotion and they always expired. People would call months later and we couldn't do anything for them. The reason why the expire is because SDM pays up front for the making of each gift card but not the amount. When the gift card is used and after the expiry date Petro use to send the bill for the amount used. SDM did not pay up front for the amount of the card and that is why when they expire we couldn't do anything for people because SDM didn't pay for them. If SDM didn't pay for the amount of the gift card then you don't get to redeem it.
Expiry dates between business to business gift cards are allowed not allowed between business and person. Since Petro or who ever sold them to another business they can do anything they want with them and expiry dates are allowed.
People use to get pissed and I mean pissed threaten the agents and when I took sup calls we couldn't do anything for them because if Petro didn't get paid for the card.

[Decaf]

^ I see, that make sense. So SDM will only pay for the GC that the customer redeemed, and of course they want to wrap up the promotion as soon as possible. Still I think less than 1 month time frame to use the GC is a bit extreme, I think a 3 months would be more realistic. It's perfectly okay to have expiration date on this promo GC because it's a gift from SDM and works the same way as a free voucher.

[BuggaBugga]

I think they planned for the $10 gc from last month to expire on the $25 so we can't use it on the 20x event on the 26th. Bah. They shouldn't refer to these as GC when they are actually coupons, their business to business politics have nothing to do with the consumers and so there fore we end up, non suspecting with a "gc" that expires, even though it is technically illegal to expire a gc. grumble.

[wellcalm]

I did a Swiss Chalet promo spend $75.00 get $20.00 GC and of course I was very upset that it expired a few days before I pulled it out to use it. I see why SDM does it the way they do, but they really should let people know of the short expiries. I don't think I will do any more of those types of promos. $75.00 get $20.00 GC isn't that great unless you're already going to be spending that amount or more anyway.

[Vov76]

I didnt realize this was normal. As I said, since when is there an expiry on GC's. Isnt it illegal or something? I thought there was no longer allowed to be an expiry on GC's. Or are these special GC's so yes they can do it?

Regular gift cards - no expiry date.

Promotional gift cards - expiry date.

[babygonnermann]

.

[theweave]

Wow I never knew about this until I read this thread! That does suck that they put such a short expiry on them! They should really use the word "coupon" instead of gift card for these. People expect that gift cards neve expire (as it is law), whereas we all know that "coupons" have expiry dates on them!

Perhaps a SC flood of emails to SDM should occur! I, too, find this very misleading!