A reader called Noel contacted us with a strange story about JD Sports and a voucher his son struggled to cash in.
Noel tells us that his son got a few vouchers for the shop for Christmas 2024 – 13 months ago, in case you are counting – but only got around to using them in very recent times.
First he tried to buy something on the JD Sports website but was told by the system that he could only use the vouchers in-store.
“This was particularly disappointing as it was not highlighted when purchasing the vouchers and there is a significant price difference between the physical shops and online offers, as well as a more limited selection in-store,” his father writes.
“However, this is not the primary subject of my complaint,” he adds, somewhat ominously.
“When the vouchers were purchased, the Irish gift card legislation was in place.”
And what legislation is he referring to?
Well, for donkey’s years up to 2019, the Irish gift voucher world was a free for all and retailers were allowed to set their own terms and conditions and – importantly – expiry limits on the vouchers they sold. That meant there were companies that would take your cold hard cash for a voucher that would expire after six months or a year, leaving them to pocket the money for nothing if the vouchers were not used in time.
But the law was changed and now all gift vouchers sold in the State have to last for at least five years – although retailers can, if they choose, extend that time frame for as long as they wish.
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This was not the experience of Noel and his son.
He says that when his son went into a JD Sports shop he was told that “the terms and conditions indicated that the vouchers were only valid for one year”.
“My son queried this in one of the JD Sports stores in Dublin city centre and was advised that the voucher could be replaced by another voucher but that this would require the in-store staff contacting the JD Sports central office in the UK. As the store was busy he opted to do this on a different day.”
Annoying, for sure, but not the end of the world, maybe.
Fast-forward to a recent Saturday when Noel brought his son to the JD Sports store in Blanchardstown so he could have the voucher replaced.
On this occasion he was told that “the voucher was invalid and as it had not been used in over 12 months the terms and conditions confirmed that there was no value left on it.
“I also went to the shop and was also told that the voucher was worthless and if my son had only spent €1 of it within the last 12 months that it might still be valid. I did ask for confirmation of this position in writing but did not receive it,” Noel says.
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“After advising the management team of the gift card legislation and that the company’s terms and conditions were illegal we were again advised that the issue could not be resolved. Finally after saying that we did not intend to leave until the issue was resolved, we were challenged on escalating the issue, and finally, the UK head office was called and after a short period, I was placed on the call with the UK office, they took the gift card details, and my son’s card was replaced.”
Noel’s question is, how much value has been written off on these vouchers over the past number of years? He notes that the new cards do now include a five-year spend time.
“However, it appears likely that a significant amount of value may have been lost over the last number of years. Does the company intend to address this? And finally, people should be aware of the inability to spend JD sports vouchers online.
“We at least got the value for our vouchers but I fear a lot of people may miss out, and this is not a good example of consumer-centric behaviour.”
Noel’s story rang a bell for us and we went through our correspondence and found a mail – one we did not highlight at the time – from a reader in the summer of 2024, who wrote: “I have discovered that three JD sports vouchers that my son has received in recent years are all considered expired because their terms and conditions state that voucher cards only last 12 months. I thought this was illegal in Ireland since 2019? Just wondering if you can shed any light on this?”
We couldn’t shed any light on it but we figured that JD Sports might so we contacted them to see if they could explain what was going on.
In a statement JD Sports said it has been “compliant with all gift card regulations, including the 60-month expiry period, in Ireland since the middle of 2025. Our customer care team are aware that some gift cards issued prior to that date incorrectly carried a 12-month validity period. We sincerely apologise for this and customers who remain affected are strongly encouraged to get in touch with our Customer Care team if they have any outstanding queries, and we will resolve this issue as we have been doing.”
The statement added that “all physical gift cards bought in store – which make up the vast majority of JD gift cards issued in Ireland – have always been compliant with the regulations around a 5-year validity period and this is printed clearly on the back of each physical card. The issue related only to physical gift cards bought online and has now been resolved.”