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05 Sept 2025
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05 Sept 2025
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Smyths Toys have confirmed their gift cards are redeemable in stores again following a two-day blackout that caused chaos in stores across the country
The news will come as a huge relief to parents and eager children across Ireland and the UK after a technical issue prevented shoppers from using gift cards in-store on December 27 and December 28. The glitch did not affect online gift card payments.
The problem was first highlighted on Wednesday with Smyths confirming the issue was caused by a “technical problem” with their “IT provider”.
In a statement on Friday, the company, which operates 21 premises in Ireland, apologised for the inconvenience caused and confirmed that gift cards can be redeemed at store tills again.
The statement reads: "Our gift cards are redeemable in our stores. We apologise for the inconvenience caused this week."
Many customers took to social media over the two-day outage to criticise the major retailer.
One said: "Shame on you for not letting customers know your system was down! Four kids with vouchers they couldn’t spend money you’ve already got and now you look like money grabbers trying to make more NEVER AGAIN!"
While another said: "What an utter shambles. Vouchers not working due to IT issue. Kids distraught and only told at the till. No manager telling people as they enter store. Things go wrong but it’s how you react that matters."
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