what do I dooooo?

[Dukat]

Ok I finished a job in preperation for going into the army recently(last week), and when I left they gave me a PC world gift card for £50, I was pretty suprised and hadnt expected it at all.

Anyway, I noticed the card says "valid December 08 - January 09" on the side, and after reading on the back it says it was issued between the 2nd and the 24th of december and is valid until the end of january 09. I looked it up online and the balace is indeed £50.

I spoke to someone at work about it as an aside and they said that quite alot of people had put it for me, but I'm not sure what to do.

I expect my boss bought the card in december in anticipation of me going as this has been coming for a while now, not realising it would run out. If thats the case I'm not sure if I should say anything.

That said, my friend says she put in money and alot of others did too, and they said I should have a word with my former boss about it at some point.

Not entirely sure what to do is all, might wait a bit and mention it when I see him at a running club I go to on thursday night, but I'm wary about looking like I'm after more money or something - I'm really not too fussed about just letting it go, the only thing making me think I should say something is because of the people who put money in.

uff!
So, any ideas?

Help my FH-kenobi! You're my only hope!

 

[Ch3tan]

Talk to your boss about it, if he bought it he can talk to PC world and get them to sort it out. It's better if the people who bought it for you do not know, and if the money is lost just thank them and tell them you got something with it.

 

[Dukat]

Talk to your boss about it, if he bought it he can talk to PC world and get them to sort it out. It's better if the people who bought it for you do not know, and if the money is lost just thank them and tell them you got something with it.

My boss is the one who bought it (I think), but then he must have bought it long before everyone did the collection, so I dont know what happened to the money they gave?

Yea if anyone asks I'll not go into it, just concerned because my boss may have pocketed the money, which I guess is fair enough if he spent £50 of his own cash on the PC world card earlier.

But what if theres something else going on? Dont want to say nothing and waste the money people have given, but on the other hand I dont want to cause a scene or look like I'm after more

Think I might mention it to my boss on thursday then... I just wish there was an easier way I'm missing

 

[rynnor]

Hmm - that sounds a very short usage time - was it a free one they were giving out in december for people who spent more than X?

 

[nath]

Since when do gift certificates have such a short expiration date? I sense something fishy..

 

[Dukat]

Hmm - that sounds a very short usage time - was it a free one they were giving out in december for people who spent more than X?

Very possibly, its probably something my boss kept because he knew it would come in handy - I would imagine he's then put money on it ready for when I leave and not noticed the expiration, I think, but I'm not certain - it all seems a bit strange.

 

[Dukat]

Since when do gift certificates have such a short expiration date? I sense something fishy..

My Dad said something similar, but the card does have £50 on it according to the website, it just looks like its not redeemable because of the expiry.

Any chance it could still be usable? even though it clearly says "all credit must be redeemed between the 26th of december 2008 to 31st january 2009" ? I'm guessing not... I just wonder if my boss hasn't noticed that.

 

[nath]

Yeah there's no way that's a gift certificate. That's a post christmas sale voucher type thing. I bet your boss pocketed the cash and gave you some voucher he got for free. The sly sod .

 

[rynnor]

Very possibly, its probably something my boss kept because he knew it would come in handy - I would imagine he's then put money on it ready for when I leave and not noticed the expiration, I think, but I'm not certain - it all seems a bit strange.

No I mean he may have done something like buy a £500 widescreen tv and got a £50 gift card - then seen your collection and done the swap - I imagine he didnt realise it was no longer valid but its still a bit underhand.

Edit - I see nath is a fellow cynic

 

[MYstIC G]

Have you tried using it on the website?

 

[Nate]

I reckon you exboss doesn't like you that much

 

[Yoni]

I would go to PC world try to use it and find out what it is exactly. Once you are sure he got it as part of a deal then tell him and see what happens

 

[Rubber Bullets]

What a shitty situation to find yourself in, I really feel for you.

The more you look at this the more dodgy it looks. As has been said, there is no way that any proper gift voucher would be dated at less than 2 months, and your suggestion that your boss bought it in preparation for you leaving and before even starting a collection looks optimistic at best.

My guess would be that he had it lying around and decided to do a cash converters on it. I imagine that your nice colleagues, who stumped up £50 would be pretty pissed to find out what he appears to have done.

I guess the first thing to do would be to go to PC world, and find out if they will honour the voucher, and also find out what sort of vouchers they do produce with that short a date on them. It would give you a good idea of what has gone on. (Maybe we are all being too cynical and this is entirely above board).

If they will honour it then I suppose all is well, after all to an extent it is the thought that counts and it is nice to know that your colleagues thought enough of you to chip into this.

When all is done and dusted, you've left and got any references that you may need then you might be tempted to drop your boss a polite note to tell him that you know what he did and what you thought of him though, I know I would.

RB

 

[Dukat]

Cheers everyone - some good thoughts there, I'll give PC world a call tomorow morning and see what they say, then go from there.

I'm a little worried I may have already spilled the beans to an extent in talking to my friend who works at the same place - I wasn't exactly sure if there had even been a collection at all at first because my boss just gave me the voucher along with a 'goodbye' card people had written in saying it had £50 on it, without mentioning anything else about it (where/who it had come from etc), so I wasnt sure if he'd done it out of his own pocket for a short while. That said I'm not sure if he left it deliberately vague on this or just assumed I'd know because it was in with a card from everyone.

But then as I was leaving I was speaking to this friend who mentioned about the card and then about the collection asking how much I got, in a jokey way. I mentioned without going into details that there might be something wrong with the voucher but I also said I didn't want to say anything to anyone else because it was a really nice thought and I didnt want to ruin that, so my friend asked a few discreet questions for me after I finished today and found out that quite a few other people had put money in.

Its all a bit crazy really - I've worked with the guy for two years but we don't really know eachother all that well, but on the other hand we've always been on pretty good terms - nothing that I can think of that would make me suspect him of wanting to do something shady like this appears to be.

I guess I'll just have to see what PC world say tomorow and go from there, will post news as and when! cheers again for the advice

 

[throdgrain]

Just go and spend it you dwarf wanker.









Job done.

 

[old.Tohtori]

So your boss gives you a voucher that's valid for less then a week for you to use it, gathers peoples money for it and pockets the money.

Hang the f*ck.

There's nothing "unclear" here, or anything to feel sorry about, it's not even a sh*tty situation...except for one sh*tty boss.

Go to boss, "Hey, so, this thing expired week after i got it, what gives?" then go to employees and watch fun ensue.

 

[Cadelin]

It looks like it is not a proper gift certificate, however that doesn't necessarily mean your boss is ripping you off.

You said the gift card was unexpected, you are changing jobs but that isn't too unusual these days. Would you expect that your work associates would raise £50 for you? These things are normally done at relatively short notice and if a few of your friends are missing that day then what happens if say they only got £15 together. Your boss is asked to buy a present and thinks, wait a second I have a £50 token (even if he got it free with a purchase) that will make a really nice present not realising that it had an expiry date. I wouldn't judge him just yet.

Alternatively your friends might have chipped in £100+ in which case your boss would be a thieving bastard!

 

[Dukat]

Just got back in from PC world, problem solved!

The gift card is valid - the expiry was referring to an initial £10 which did require a certain amount of money to be spent, but it seems this £10 expired at the end of january and my boss has since put the £50 on there, which is still valid and supposedly doesn't have an expiry date at all.

The best bit is, after looking around PC world for a few minutes today I couldnt find anything I wanted so I left without using the thing anyway!

Seems everything turned out in the end - its kinda funny how something as innocent as a giftcard can turn into something so potentially volatile though!

Cheers again for all of the advice, most helpful!

 

[Ch3tan]

What I find funny is that you checked with us, and started a potential ruckus before even going to PC World and trying to use the damned thing! Lions these days, haven't got a scooby.