Expiration on Certificate of Value

[jayk2761]

At a local Los Angeles area gas station, following the purchase of gasoline, the purchaser is prompted for additional purchase of a car wash. The regular price of the car wash is $7.99, with a discount of $0.05 provided to the price of each gallon purchased. The $7.99 charge is added to the total purchase amount. A receipt is then issued for the entire purchase, plus a coupon containing a code for obtaining the car wash. The car wash coupon also has an expiration date attached to it.

My understanding is that coupons (certificates of value) that were purchased, not provided free, CANNOT be governed by expiration date. I am looking for the particular code of law that governs this type of transaction. The gas station owner in question has denied me access to the car wash, because the coupon that I have (for which I paid $7.99) is now past the 30 day expiration date.

I believe that this practice is unlawful in the State of California.

 

[NYClex]

Now I am no expert on the laws of California, so there might be some local laws pertaining to this. But generally this is not unlawful.

What happened here is that you formed a contract. The car wash promised to give you a car wash, and you tendered your money in exchange for this promise. But, and this is the problem, this contract had a so called "condition subsequent": You had to redeem the coupon within 30 days, or in other words, the condition here is that after 30 days the promisor, the car wash, no longer has the duty to perform.

This kind of contract is very common. If you buy a plane ticket, it will have an expiration date, if you buy a phone card, it will have one, if you buy a gift certificate it will have one and so on.

There might be some contractual issues, however, mainly if this condition was known to you when the contract was formed, and if there should be some restitution allowed, but generally such a type of contract is not illegal.