Traveller unhappy with S$3 voucher limit for duty free shop, not satisfied with S$30 goodwill voucher

A traveller at Changi Airport says he could not use most of his S$3 vouchers at The Shilla Duty Free, a cosmetics shop, and ended up letting them expire.

The store says the vouchers work differently from how he supposedly understood them, and that three were redeemed that day.

What he was trying to do

The traveller, identified as Ky, was shopping at The Shilla Duty Free at Changi Airport Terminal 2 before a flight on Aug. 22, Stomp reported.

He wanted to buy L’Oréal facial cleansers priced at S$7 each and was told that buying two would entitle him to an additional 30 per cent discount.

Ky also had more than 10 of these S$3 vouchers, which he said his family had accumulated from travelling several times a month.

He said: "I made a purchase and attempted to use several $3 vouchers with no minimum spending requirement."

He was told 1 per passport

When he tried to use several of them, he was told at the cashier that only one voucher could be redeemed per passport.

According to Stomp, The Shilla Duty Free clarified that each S$3 voucher could be used for one transaction, with each transaction tied to an individual traveller's passport.

As there were three travellers at the point of purchase, three separate transactions were processed and three S$3 vouchers were redeemed.

Why he was unhappy

Ky complained that the restriction was supposedly not stated on the vouchers and was only made known to him at the cashier.

He said he “could not find any such limitation in the terms and conditions printed on the voucher”, and that he had used several the previous month without being questioned.

He told Stomp:

"A restriction that is not stated on the voucher's terms and conditions should not, in my view, be imposed at the point of payment without prior disclosure."

He felt such conditions should be "clearly and prominently communicated to consumers before they make their purchase".

Stomp noted that a photo shared by Ky showed the voucher directing customers to the store for additional terms and conditions.

The vouchers expired

Ky said the remaining vouchers subsequently expired on Aug. 31, despite him making two overseas trips before then.

He said this meant he had missed the chance to use vouchers that had been issued without a stated minimum spend.

S$30 offered

The Shilla Duty Free told Stomp it had since reviewed the matter and been in touch with Ky.

The company said his feedback would be taken into account when communicating voucher redemption conditions in future.

The Shilla Duty Free also offered Ky a S$30 voucher as a gesture of goodwill.

Ky, however, felt the compensation did not adequately address his experience.

“I initially have around 10 pieces of $3 voucher to spend,” he told Stomp. “And after going through all the trouble and got into argument, I am getting back only that $30 in compensation.”