£100 eBay voucher turns out to be just £10

I got more than a little excited to go shopping on eBay today when I received an email telling me I’d got £100 discount voucher to spend. The title of the email was “chris, with £100 off, find collector’s items you’ll treasure“!

Needless to say it didn’t take me long to go shopping, the only restrictions were “Minimum spend of £20. Voucher valid until 13 June 2015. In the category: Collectables. Discount does not apply to postage. Valid for payments made with PayPal“.

£100 of free cash, I can spend that in about 60 seconds flat as there’s always something in my wish list on eBay, so of course I was straight on the site and ready to start spending.

Sadly it appears it was a little too good to be true, when I redeemed my voucher I didn’t receive quite the £100 that the email was promising, it only applied a discount of £10.

Now I’m not greedy, but the reason this item was in my wish list is that it’s something I’d like, but not until I’ve got the spare cash to spend. When it was only going to cost me a tenner I’d buy it today. When it’s going to cost me £100 I’ll wait until I’ve been paid.

Sadly the discount voucher hasn’t had quite the effect that was intended. Now I’ve applied it for that purchase (which I backed out of) I’m not going to be able to apply it against a more modestly priced item. That means I won’t be buying anything on eBay today. If I’d known the voucher was for a tenner I’d have probably purchased an alternative item for £20 – £30.

I’m not that fussed, mistakes happen, red faces somewhere at eBay, no harm done. But that’s just me, the question remains how many other people have received the “£100” £10 voucher email and will complete checkout before they realise eBay raided £100 from their bank account? There might be a few upset eBay buyers wanting refunds today.

14:27 3rd June. Updated to add:

Someone at eBay has spotted the error and is sending corrections…