You know me…if I’m disastified with a service, I write a letter! Here’s my letter to Black’s Photography.
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To whom it may concern,
I purchased a Black’s Prepaid Photo Card for 100 4×6 photos a few years ago. I had used 45 of the photos at the time and placed the card in my wallet.
The opportunity arose to print of some photos and I remembered that I had this card hidden in my wallet and I went to the Black’s Photography store at Place D’Orléans, in Orleans, Ontario. I was greeted by John who was very personable and helpful.
He discovered that my card had expired. I asked how a card that I paid for has an expiry date and he stated it was company policy and he had no real explanation for it.
He was very helpful in that he gave me 15 free photos for my troubles. I would like to applaud his actions in giving me something for my disappointing trip.
I would appreciate it if Black’s Photography will explain to me why there is an expiry date on something that I paid for in the first place. Yes, I understand that there is a notice on the back of the card indicating very clearly that it will expire in 2 years, but that still doesn’t explain why Black’s would do this. I am disappointed that something I paid for is invalid over time. Essentially, I paid for a service that was never fully delivered.
I would appreciate if I receive a response in writing, as well as some form of compensation, perhaps an additional 40 free photos to top up the 15 which John had given to me. Unfortunately, John had taken the card in question, therefore if you need proof that I had this card, I would recommend you contact the store at Place D’Orléans.
Thanks for wasting my time! (alright, I just added this for the fun of the blog)
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What’s everyone’s take on this? Maren was talking about how everything has an expiry date clearly listed (gift cards, etc.) but she did agree that in principle, this is a lame business practice. But, I’m sure we all know WHY they do it this way. They hope that they have people like me who forget about it over time, let the thing expire, and then they essentially got a profit for no work done.
OR, they have an expiry date so that they generate more sales during the 2-year period that it’s good for, rather than sales generated until the END OF TIME. Mwahahaha.
So here’s my take and feel free to comment. Good business policy internally – gets the money in and potentially nabs some cash from the stupid customer who forgets to use it. Bad customer mojo to those like me who forget to use it in time.
15 replies on “My Letter to Black’s Photography”
I totally agree with you. I had something similar happen recently, and am still waiting to hear a response from the company.
It’s all good that you are taking time out of your busy day to write letters to “The Man” moaning and complaining about whatever but have you ever though to exercise the same courtesy when you are 100% satisfied with something??
Excellent point Sam! I am going to write to HMV and let them know that I am happy they sent me $25 because they screwed up.
To play devils advocate, from Black’s perspective, you should also keep in mind inflation.
To make up an extreme scenario, random Grandpa walks in with a 50 yr old card, and wants his prints that he purchased for 2 cents a photo back in the day.
The cost of doing business will always rise, and with it the price of the product, if you pre-pay for a product that inflates in value, there has to be a cut off, given that the purpose of the business ultimately is to make a profit, they can’t do that giving you photo’s at the price they were 5 years ago.
Therefore pre-paid photo cards must expire so as not to negativly impact the bottom line.
On a similar topic: You buy something at a store, and you return it, for any reason but the package or sceal is not even open. They give you store credit instead of your money back PLUS put an expiration date of 6 months on that credit. What the? It’s so frustrating! I just don’t buy at these places anymore. I say they’re just loosing money that way! Not too smart.
Matt has a point. Since I did once work in retail. I did see people with 5 year old coupons come into the store.
I still feel that salesperson should have at least met halfway on the outstanding photos left on the card. I don’t know if this would have satisfied you, but the point I’m trying to make is that Blacks should try to keep you as a customer.
Excellent, excellent points all!
Matt: Your theory is sound. However, John at the cash said that the prepaid cards are useless now because years ago, they actually ended up being cheaper per photo. Now the price of photos has come down so much that it’s the same price as the cards. Hence, the victim of deflation.
Now, let’s say this wasn’t the case and the cards did inflate. Perhaps they should take Joe’s word of advice and offer something like half the photos left on the card, OR have some inflation calculation to determine how many cards your money would have bought in the present.
I enjoy when people play Devil’s Advocate, but in the end, I’m always interested to see if you actually take the side of the Devil, or if you somewhat agree on the other side.
Another perspective to consider:
From an accounting standpoint, companies are supposed to reflect revenues as they are earned, it’s a part of the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)that govern the accounting world.
ie. they can’t show the whole $50 or whatever as revenue the day/month/year you buy the card. Instead (in theory) they must have a liability account to show that they still owe a service to the customer until such time that they provide it. So, 3 years down the road when you use another $5 on the card, they can then record another $5 in revenue for that year.
So I kinda find it interesting how they can just decide that there’s a time limit on that. Of course, I guess they would just argue that those are the conditions you accept by entering into the transaction.
It just shows how we don’t read the fine print! Each one of us owns at least one credit card, but who has read the booklet of legalize that come with it?
My issue is not about the fine print and the fact that it has an expiry date.
My issue is the fact that it’s dumb to have an expiry date.
I understand that and yes I agree that it does sound stupid to put an expiry date on what is basically money.
What I was saying is that by purchasing your card you entered into an agreement with Blacks to spend the money by this time. Pre paid phone cards have worked in the same way! I personally will not by a gift certificate or card with an expiry date!
Excellent point Joe. In this case, it looks like the both parties involved are responsible – myself for agreeing to the…agreement, and the company themselves for stepping up to the plate and helping out the customer.
Hey, good news for you Palmer, I hope you continue to read the comments long after the post.
Anyway, just heard on the news that one of the first things Ontario Legislature is going to discuss is banning expiry dates on gift cards. Apparently someone out there is listening!
Palmer is writing to the wrong people,
He should be writing everything to his MP.
Thank you Katie for pointing this out! I just got home so I have heard about the news earlier from my friend Maren.
As for contacting an MP about something…come on. I’m smarter than that.