Coupons and vouchers continue to create confusion and embarrassment.

A sorry tale from the pages of The Guardian, of the embarrassment and confusion caused by high street retailer Debenhams, which issued vouchers offering "£10 off your next purchase when you spend £25 or more at Debenhams", then refused to honour them:

"Lured in by the offer, customers have been turning up at the tills with their £25-plus worth of items, only to be told there has been a "printing error" and that they cannot have the discount unless they spend at least £50. Staff are pointing to the small print on the back of the voucher which states that customers need to spend £50 to get £10 off."

Shoppers have been embarrassed and angered when unable to redeem their vouchers. However, while this may appear to be a "misleading price indication" - a criminal offence under the Consumer Protection Act 1987 - shoppers cannot demand that the vouchers are honoured.

Vouchers and coupons often create a zone of uncertainty upon redemption - especially the multi-retailer 'Monopoly' money vouchers that inexperienced sales staff will not have encountered before. Can you redeem a Book Token for a magazine in Borders, for instance? I would never attempt to spend a voucher without having a credit card handy as backup, just in case. This uncertainty, and the embarrassment of refusal, helps contribute towards a non-redemption rate of vouchers which could be as high as 30%. That's right - up to 3 in 10 vouchers in the UK never get spent.

It seems Debenhams staff don't have much clue in regard to to the use of its gift vouchers either. On the consumer review site Dooyou.co.uk, a woman reports her unsuccessful attempt to redeem 4 vouchers, and was told only 3 could be spent per transaction.

"I gave the assistant the 4 vouchers and £5:50 only to be told that I could only spend three vouchers in one transaction. So I had to put £15:50 towards the perfume and take the one of the vouchers home. I was gob smacked."

If this lady has received these vouchers as part of an incentive scheme, it just lost all of its motivational benefit.

It's time to face the truth. Vouchers are tired and expired.