Ziay!

Ü Help appreciated

gift certificate? If so, what? I was told by a restaurant owner that Illinois has to honor all gift certficates (paper ones that is) no matter what the valid date has on it. For instance, they write the date of purchase on the paper copy and it has "Valid for One Year" stated below it, but supposedly, the law now states it should be valid past the year. Mine is dated 12/15/04 and I don't have much more time to use it - we do not live near the restaurant and it isn't a chain one. Please advise if any knowledge on this. Thanks for your help.

cifarelli

I believe the law you're looking for is Illinois Public Act 093-0945, which went into effect on January 1, 2005. You can view the full text of the act here:
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/93/093-0945.htm

Based on my interpretation of this, the law doesn't apply to your gift card, since it was issued in 2004, and the law didn't take effect until January 1, 2005. However, there is language there that implies that some businesses may routinely accept gift cards after the expiration date anyway. Your best bet in this situation is going to be to call the restaurant and see how they'd handle the situation.

For a more concise summary of Public Law 093-0945, go to http://www.pjstar.com/newlaws2005.html. Hit <Ctrl-F> while in your browser, and then search for 093-0945 -- that'll get you to the right one. When you look at this, you'll see that the law doesn't force anyone to honor a gift certificate past its expiration date; the expiration date and any fees, etc. associated with the card must merely be stated very clearly to the consumer.

theevilfez

Laws were changed on gift certs and card items. The best thing to do would be to call the magange ment of the place you are visiting and explain the situation. Get the persons name and number and write it on the gift cert. The go when they are and and have a grand old time.