News24 | Wendy’s Win of the Week | Her son got her a spa day, but she just got a refund headache

Julia was gifted a spa voucher from discount platform Hyperli, but after the Roodepoort spa refused to accept it, she was forced into a taxing process to get her refund, turning to Wendy Knowler for help.

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Cape Town-based online lifestyle platform Hyperli has been selling discounted vouchers for restaurants, spas, adventure activities and travel since 2016.

It was from Hyperli that Julia Mdzikwa’s son bought her a one-hour pamper spa session last December as a birthday gift, valid for six months.

When she tried to redeem it at the Roodepoort spa in late May, its staff refused to accept it, saying that Hyperli was not reimbursing them for treatments.

“I was told to seek a refund from Hyperli,” she told me. “So, I did, but I got no response to the emails I sent.

“I am caught between two parties, which is unfair.”

When I took up the case with Hyperli a few weeks later, I was told: “The [spa] has not indicated that they are refusing to honour Hyperli vouchers. In fact, we can confirm that voucher redemptions are ongoing, which suggests services are still being provided as expected.

“All payments are currently up to date.

“That said, we will follow up directly with the partner to ensure there are no underlying issues.”

Hyperli said the company had asked Mdzikwa to request a refund on her profile but had not had a response.

“The refund would have been processed by now had it been submitted correctly.”

It has since been done.

“We can assure you that customer queries are not ignored. We’re aware that some customers may experience delays in response times during high-volume periods, but we do our best to resolve all queries as soon as possible,” Hyperli added.

A manager at the spa in question confirmed that there had been a recent patch of non-payment by Hyperli, resulting in the spa’s refusal to accept their vouchers, but this had all been resolved.

*Section 63 of the Consumer Protection Act requires that pre-paid vouchers must be redeemable for up to three years. But with these “daily deals”-type vouchers, the National Consumer Commission approves a compromise approach. Such vouchers may have relatively short validity periods – three or six months – but if not used in that time, the platform must credit the customer the full value of the voucher, valid for use on another offer for three years from date of purchase. Always check a site’s voucher redemption policy before transacting.