Under new ownership – Three things you need to know when a retailer is sold!

12/10/2018 What are my rights when a retailer changes hands?

As the high street continues to face difficult times, we’ve seen loads more shops bought out by other retailers – and things can get a little bit confusing for consumers. Where do you stand when a retailer is under new management?

There are a couple of things you need to know.

First of all, a retailer’s new owners don’t actually have a legal right to honour existing orders and gift vouchers. That being said, most of the time it’s business as usual. It’s in a new owner’s best interests to keep things moving as clearly as possible. It’s far easier to keep hold of existing customers than it is to find new ones, after all.

What about gift vouchers?

The gift voucher situation can get a little complicated. Recently, we’ve seen new owners decline all existing gift cards – demanding that customers get in touch to ask for replacements instead. This seems pretty extreme, but can happen!

If you’re worried about gift vouchers, our advice is to spend them as soon as possible to avoid potential problems.

This is generally pretty good practice, since most gift cards and vouchers have an expiry date.