“Same as me. Bought an experience through Buyagift, spent over £130 for my dads birthday on a Gorilla experience at the Aspinals in Kent only to find that the voucher isn't working and the message I get asking for me to use the same voucher number which doesn't work. Going round in circles here & getting really frustrated that these companies are allowed to scam and there never is any regulations on them. Refund requested & hoping to get money back.”
“I have been trying to book a weekend retreat for almost 16months now the website is so poor that when you try to change your location it doesn’t allow it and it kicks you out of the website and you have to type in the unhelpful 6000 digit code AGAIN”
“Definitely scam. Similar experience to Jasmine Jones. They told me that refund would be problematic as I exchanged the voucher three times. But I only did it because the actual price of the tickets for the musical I wanted was 1.5 times the price on buyagift and I was trying to see if I can use it for something else.”
“⚠️📢🚨 SCAM SCAM SCAM ⚠️📢🚨
CONTACT THE BRITISH TRADING STANDARDS - WE NEED TO SHUT THIS PLACE DOWN - FULL OF BAD REVIEWS BUT SHOWING 4.4*
I don't usually leave bad reviews but this is honestly one of the worst companies to use for vouchers. Please make sure to do your research and go on the actual websites of the hotel/places you want to book as I can guarantee you its almost half the price that BUYAGIFT wants to charge for the same amount of nights and experience.
When you get a gift voucher from someone and you look for places to book, the ones that are included on your voucher are like hotels next to a service station or basically might as well be travelodge. If you want something nicer, they'll ask for more money.
When I asked for a refund from the amount yesterday that I paid, they said the voucher takes 24 hours to process and even after, they still can't give a refund because I've exchanged the place 3x. You can only book 1 place with your voucher so I wanted to make the most of the amount already on there so I don't have to deal with them again. I can only get a refund if I paid more money apparently.
They said the price difference (as in double or triple the amount) is dependent on the days/season which is just rubbish as i was checking on both for the same dates. If you try to change your voucher to another place and then try to book the original place, they ask for more money AGAIN.
They offer flexibility as in DISCOVER THE FULL RANGE but they don't tell you that if you do this more than ONCE, you can't get a refund.
Also, I asked how much my whole voucher was worth and they said the original buyer put £114 and I paid £163 yesterday but they only credit my voucher with £176. So not sure where the rest went as I've not used it at all.
Absolute rip off! I would really AVOID. Its really not a good present for your loved ones.
Only a matter of time till this company go bust. Customer service is shocking. Unfortunately, I'm sure the staff have no morals and still sleeps well at night knowing they're working for such a company.”
“I bought my husband a Buy a Gift overnight Spa experience for his birthday last year. After the experience I’ve just had I never want to buy a gift from them again. We bought the experience so we could use it at a specific hotel nearby. However, when we went to claim this we were told by the hotel it’s only possible to book weekdays not weekends. Online it does specify certain dates might be restricted but not certain days. It was difficult to reach out to Buy a gift as they only have the online service you can’t call anyone. When I finally got through they said they couldn’t refund the voucher for false advertising only give me credit for another voucher. So I took the credit and used this to buy another overnight stay at another hotel which was under the credit limit so I also put an extra £20 towards another voucher for an overnight spa. As I did this I noticed that for the previous voucher I booked which was an overnight spa day for the hotel I had wanted spa wasn’t included anyway which is ridiculously false advertising for a spa day package. So I had my two new vouchers anyway and I wanted to book my hotel. When I tried to book the hotel there was no date I could select which didn’t charge me between an extra £20-£80. I feel like when you book a voucher this should cover the cost of the stay, you shouldn’t have to add more money to it. In any case I added £20 to book my hotel stay. Then it came to book my spa at the same hotel and again to book at a weekend I had to pay an extra £20. So I ended up overall paying £60 more than I should have just to book the hotel and spa when I wanted to. This was very frustrating. Had I just booked the hotel and spa directly I worked out that it would have been approximately £80 less than I actually paid! So they really are making a lot of money on these vouchers. I would recommend anyone to buy directly with a hotel not through buy a gift. The customer service is awful. To top this off when we went to the hotel and to the spa the boilers had stopped working at the hotel so the water in the spa was cold as were the showers. I’m still trying to get a refund from the hotel for the extra £20 I paid to have the spa day on a weekend. Overall a very disappointing experience, please don’t buy a voucher with this company. There is so much small print you will soon regret it.”
“We were gifted a voucher and looked through the options. We paid an extra £50 to book a place that looked lovely. After eventually finding an available date we were told to pay an extra £29 for the meals it stated was included in the voucher. There was no option to not pay that extra and I was so frustrated and just wanting to get the booking confirmed I paid it. Trying to talk to a person to try and get the money back is incredibly difficult. There's not even an email or customer service reps to talk to. I want my refund or for them to list the actual cost on the website. No luck yet.”
“I have only provided 1 start because i was quick to recieve my order! I decided 1 hour after buying the day out that my son really didnt want to do it for his birthday so i went to contact them for a refund. 1) It was soooo hard to understand how to! The bot is useless. I sent a note through the communication log tewice and still no communication or refund. IM DISGUSTED!!! DO NOT BUY i took pictures of all documents recorded delivery etc they have effectivley stolen my money!respond please.”
“I've brought several experiences from buyagift. Because if you manage to get what you paid for it's usually a good deal. However this no longer seems to be the case. I purchased a voucher which stated most hotels included breakfast within the cost of the voucher. Unfortunately I can't find any. I searched dozens of options. No breakfast included..unless you pay extra. I flagged this up with customer service. They replied not all experiences include breakfast. I replied your advert says most do include breakfast. So invited them to find me one within the cost of my voucher..this went backwards and forwards for several messages. In the end they stopped replying. Either because they couldn't find me anything or they were unwilling to look. I've left a similar review on another page. I got a standard reply which many of the reviewers had received. Stating hoe sorry they were and my experience would be used to learn from. It wasn't tailored to my review. It seems that once they have your money they are not interested in their commitment to your experience. I won't be using buy a gift again for any of my short breaks. There are plenty of other companies that do these experiences better than this company”
“Don't buy a gift. Nothing is available when you try and book an activity. You can't choose a date before you commit to buying the voucher. There is no phone number to speak to a person. Live chat does not resolve issues. Really save your money and book your activities direct. Overnight stays cheaper on booking.com than using the voucher. Really not worth all the hassle of getting the voucher code, pin etc and booking an activity only to be e-mailed activity not available. Don't waste your money and time. Really dissatisfied and disappointed”
“Was struggling to find a gift for my friends birthday. Found their website on google and they had a wealth of choices amd experiences available.
Their prices were reasonable and there are discount codes available for further discount. I ended up getting The Shard tour with a meal at a very reasonable cost. Will definately use again.”
“DO NOT USE !!! Bought Hellofresh vouchers & was charged , hellofresh said buyagift need to re issue new vouchers, spent 5 hrs in total on 3 separate occasions, not resolved 😡. Also have credit so bought Sealife centre tickets , Can't use them , buyagift site says no availability, everyday for past 3 weeks rang Sealife direct, guess what they have had availability !!! So angry .”
“Terrible, stay away from this company.
I was bought a Buy A Gift voucher for Christmas and was looking forward to booking a night away with the voucher, what followed was an absolutely fascicle series of events which has left a sour taste in my mouth.
Loading up the website and redeeming the voucher, and £20 of my own money, against a ‘memorable’ night away I drew up a list of 5 or so hotels which looked lovely and were in the right location. Upon redeeming this new voucher none of the hotels appeared on the booking site. A quick check on the hotel's websites showed they all had availability for the dates put in. Getting in contact with one or two of the hotels it would seem that a lot of them have stopped taking Buy A Gift vouchers. Not surprising considering how difficult it is to use the voucher in the first place.
I got in contact with the customer service team before the new year (December 2023) and they were happy to help…to begin with. A few back and forths asking for money back and voicing my opinion of the system Buy A Gift has in place have left me no closer to a resolution than when I started.
In all fairness, however, they did give me back the additional £20 I paid. But that was after asking a few times for it back.
With no number to call to talk to someone, you have to wait days for a response. I’ve currently been waiting a week for the customer service advisor to get back to me.
You’d think that a company that advertises in big supermarkets and newsagents up and down the country would have an effective system in place to help when things like this arise.
It seems like Buy A Gift is all too happy to take your money but when it comes down to brass tacks they run away and leave you stranded £100 worse off. I have yet to be able to buy a gift. All I’ve had so far is a month of headaches and stress.
The customer service advisors I’ve had have been as helpful as they can be, but they can only do so much when they’re operating under T&Cs.
I wouldn’t buy anything from this website in the future, I’d be more than happy to spend my money with their competitors instead.”
“Appalling! Bought a 2 night hotel break, very limited choice, wanted me to upgrade. One place I tried permanently closed, another not dealing anymore with buyagift. Customer service non existent. Will never use again. I'll give cash in future.”
“Do not use buyagift. They advise options, such as meal for 2, that are not available, and not affiliated with that venue, limited or no options at all, or change them on a daily basis with no warning.
We were gifted the "cinema and meal for 2" option.
The cinema only posts showings a few days in advance, that's fine, most do. so we found a showing we wanted, went on the website, got our booking code.
The booking codes have which has to be used in 30 days despite the 1 year exchange window for the voucher.
There apparently is only 1 restaurant in our city, Leeds, and it was not the same as what was offered in their booklet that came with the voucher, or on their website when ordering.
I contacted the restaurant and now dealing wih what appears to be a company that has no idea really what I am talking about.
I went on the buyagift website again today to get a picture of the deal BuyAGift was providing, and that restaurant has gone and now only 1 of the 6 actually available in the booklet is available, despite Leeds having branches for 4 of the ones provided.
Also, the process for getting booking information seems to have changed overnight too, so I have no idea if what I have done so far is going to work.
I have yet to get a response from buyagift.com after filling in their complaints form, I have no interest in dealing with a chatbot.”
“I was gifted a Gluten Free Baking course, which I didn't manage to use in the 12 month limit so extended it. When I went to book it, I finally got hold of the lady who runs them to be told she was so terribly sorry, but she retired 5 years ago and had been asking buy-a-gift to take it down.
This was not just the experience had stopped after the voucher had been purchased, which I would have accepted, this was the experience stopped a good 3.5 years prior to the voucher been purchased!!
When I went on to live chat, I was told by Ian, sorry you can't have a refund as it's outside 30 days, and I had to rebook to something different.
Only when I reiterated they were selling something that no longer existed, did he decide a refund was possible. I now need to get the person who bought it for me to contact them and ask for a refund. It was not fair them paying £80+ for an experience I was never going to be able to use.
I will not be using buy-a-gift again, or recommending them to anyone.”
“See all the other reviews. If you want to buy someone a gift give them the cash rather than use this site! Ended up paying £50 supplement even though I had a credit voucher which I’ve now written off as lost money. Infuriating!”
“Bought vouchers for a Spa 2 years ago. We could never find a date that Ballantynes was available when we were free. We paid for a years extension hoping that we had just been unlucky with our dates. However, there was still no joy. We asked for assistance from Buyagift multiple times but we never received a response. Whilst it was Ballantynes inability to help us, my Contract was with Buyagift, and their service was truly abysmal. If i could give zero stars i would. I will certainly advise anyone never to buy vouchers.
Predictably Buyagift responded to my review by telling me to contact customer services- as if i havent tried that multiple times over 2 years with absolutely no response. I lost £80 which i asked to be refunded: again no response to that either.”
