With the Olympics on our screens at the moment, it’s interesting to see how much winning a shiny gold disc means to people.

Tennis player Raphael Nadal, for instance, has little to prove in the world of tennis, already having established his dominance this season, and earned a small fortune to boot. But winning an Olympics medal brings a special recognition that a mountain of cash cannot replace.

The same is true of incentives. Cash is a poor incentive because it becomes a form of compensation. It goes straight into the bank account, and thus there is little recognition of the recipients achievements and acknowledgement of their efforts.

A more tangible reward, whether it is an honour such as a medal or trophy, or a prize product, carries with it a kudos that can be proudly used and displayed. For a product reward, say a watch or an iPod, it becomes a prized possession, and a constant reminder to everyone of the acheivement.

Meanwhile, some countries do actually reward cash for athletes receiving Olympics medals. It’s a policy that has been adopted at Beijing by Canada, with $20,000 for gold medal winners, and proven a runaway success judging by their massive haul of 2 golds so far. Far better is the Belarus approach – spurring weightlifter Andrei Aramnau to break three world records in his quest for Olympic gold and the promise of free meat sausages for life. And the Mayor or Mansfield has promised UK double gold medal swimmer Rebecca Adlington a pair of Jimmy Choos on her return to Britain.

More tales of consumer woe at The Guardian’s Capital Letters.

AH or Derbyshire writes:

“I was given a WH Smith “Bookcard” by friends while in hospital in 2006 – they bought it with the leftovers from a whipround for my main “cheer-up” gifts. I misplaced it but recently found it. When I checked the value online, it was worthless. What has happened to my gift?”

The Guardian’s Tony Levene replies:

“The simple answer is your £13 card has been cancelled and the money has gone to WH Smith’s coffers, helping its profits to £64m at the last six-monthly count. The retailer says this grab is legal, citing “terms and conditions” which say vouchers expire worthless after 24 months.

Why? “Accounting purposes” is the answer. Why not 12 months or 36 months? Other than, “other retailers do it”, it has no answer. Why can’t it revalidate gift tokens after two years? No response. And the retailer refuses any goodwill gesture. So your gift will boost the dividends.

The answer is to avoid WH Smith and buy National Book Tokens – no expiry date and spendable in thousands of independent bookshops”

What Tony doesn’t mention is that WHSmith’s T&C’s are actually not bad for vouchers – many would expire after 12 months. But it’s also no surpise that WHSmith offer “giftcard malls” in their stores, operated by US company Coinstar.

As this article states, written by Julie Rosehill of the Voucher Shop, plastic cards are more prone to non-redemption than their paper counterparts:

“Due to the plethora of plastic cards that the average person carries it is almost impossible to remember how much credit is available on each one.
Hence the card supplier will win on non-redemption, as people cannot be bothered to check all their plastic cards prior to purchasing items.”