The VOUCHER System is broken-by-design.This is not a voucher system.This is a labyrinthine mess of a system that seems to be designed to:(1) Harvest as much data from customers as possible, and (2) Make it as hard as possible to get money back from the voucher.It is borderline criminal.Firstly, this is not a voucher. A voucher is a medium of exchange used 'in place' of cash or credit. That is not how this system works. This system requires you to pay by card in full, and then await a cash-back refund.Secondly, this process is bitterly hard to understand, and that comes from someone who is 30 years old and works in Technology. How on earth the technically less-literate would cope is beyond me.You have to create an account, link the voucher to your card, and then enable smart-vouchers on your card ---- and then the cash-back process begins after the payment is made.Thirdly, the cash-back is rarely automatic. As many have noted, you seem to have to call customer service, and produce evidence including card receipts, and plead your case. Absolutely criminal --- bear in mind this is not a 'discount' voucher, this is a prepaid voucher with money provided already in full, usually in the form of a gift. This alone deserves referral to the Advertising Standards Authority. Fourthly, they want you to link all your cards. But guess what - you can link American Express, but 'Vouchers do NOT work with American Express'. Do you think they make that point easy to spot? No. Absolutely not. Hidden in the small print. Again, borderline criminal behaviour given the way this voucher system works. You have to link a Visa or Mastercard to make it work, and then after you have added the card, you need to manually tick a small box (with no prompt to do so, it is turned off by default) to 'enable smart vouchers'. Genuinely vile and utterly immoral user experience design.And finally, this isn't a criminal complaint, but a genuinely bad product complaint ---- very, very few of the restaurants that they display on their site actually accept or participate in the voucher scheme. Lord knows why, given the fact that perhaps the one-benefit of the 'Cash-Back and Collect Data' benefit would be that you then in theory could apply the voucher to literally any restaurant. But no. It's a tiny subset of restaurants that accept it, and they don't seem to enjoy the process dealing with (rightfully) confused customers.P.S. The voucher lasts for 1 year only from purchase. Yet another indication to me that they are just trying to collect cash from unwitting gift-givers, and making it as hard as possible to deliver a service with that gift.AVOID AT ALL COSTS! If I could give a 0 or Negative review, I would. I think they are crooks. I know they are utterly immoral.
Claim your business profile now and gain access to all features and respond to customer reviews.
SquareMeal started over 30 years ago, as a guide to the best restaurants in the City of London. Since then, we have grown to encompass the whole UK, as well as private dining, weddings and parties. Now, we are the UK’s leading restaurant guide, with millions of diners using our site every month. We publish articles, guides, ‘best’ lists, reviews, round-ups, foodie news and more.See more
