‘Experience’ vouchers are typically for activities such as short trips, afternoon teas and theatre shows.

Which? surveyed 2,000 UK adults and found that two-thirds (66%) of people who used an experience voucher in the past two years had issues redeeming it. One in seven (15%) said there were no times available when they went to book, and one in eight (12%) found that their voucher was not accepted or valid.

Of those that have not yet used their voucher, one in six (16%) said they had been unable to book the experience on a suitable date.

Virgin steam train woes

Jane Cantor received a voucher for a steam train experience, purchased from Virgin Experience Days, as a wedding gift. She tried to redeem the voucher, but was told that there were no seats available for 18 months.

The operator said she needed to take it up with Virgin, but she struggled to resolve the issue, describing Virgin’s chatbot as “useless”. Jane ended up paying £20 to extend the expiry date of the voucher.

She then decided to pay a further £20 to exchange her voucher for another train ride with a different company only to find there was no availability for this experience either. Not wanting to waste the voucher, Jane paid another £20 to swap to another treat for an overnight stay away, meaning she’d spent an extra £60 to redeem her gift.

Virgin Experience Days told Which? that the steam train operator Jane initially booked through was removed from its site in January 2023 due to restricted availability. It apologised and refunded Jane in full, including extension costs.

A Virgin Experience Days spokesperson said: “We do not recognise Which?’s survey as reflective of the Virgin Experience Days’ customer experience. Millions of customers have enjoyed experiences booked with Virgin Experience Days and in the rare occurrence customers have cause to contact us, our customer service satisfaction score, measured on each interaction, is above 85%.”

Typical redemption issues

Jane is not alone in having to pay extra to use her voucher. One in five (18%) people who used a voucher in the past two years said this only partly covered their experience. On average, these participants had to pay an extra £21.40 to enjoy their gift.

Which?’s survey also uncovered other frustrations with the booking process. One in six (17%) said they had to rebook their experience after their booking was cancelled by the supplier, while one in seven (14%) did not get confirmation emails after they redeemed their voucher.

Having finally booked onto their experience, one in eight (13%) said that they were disappointed to find the experience did not match its description.

Resolving issues with a voucher experience is not always straightforward. Once consumers have booked their experience, they are normally bound by the terms and conditions of both the voucher company and the experience provider, so they will need to read both sets of terms and conditions if they run into any issues.

What to look for

People considering buying an experience voucher should first check that the experience provider definitely still accepts the vouchers and is not fully booked for months on end.

If it is a gift, then it is also worth clarifying with the experience provider that the recipient will not be expected to pay any additional costs or take time off work to fit around inconvenient time restrictions.

Most voucher companies allow refunds on unused vouchers within 30 days of purchase, so it is worth passing this information on to gift recipients. Vouchers can also usually be extended for a small fee if they get forgotten about.

Lisa Webb, Which? consumer law expert, said: “Many of us will have bought experience vouchers as gifts for hard-to-buy for friends and family – so it’s really worrying to hear that so many are having issues redeeming them.

“Companies need to do everything they can to ensure all their customers are able to book the experience they want at a time that works for them – without incurring any unnecessary additional costs.”