Biosfaire I bought their gift certificates and now they won't honor them Montreal, Quebec

I first started patronizing their establishment back in the late 90's. Since they bought and sold new and used books, I brought in a lot of books to sell them. I accumulated over $100.00 in store credit which I used to buy two (2) $50.00 gift certificates, with $5.75 left in my account. I was assured by the employee that there was no expiry date on the certificates and that I could either spend them myself or give them to somebody else.

In 2008 I was looking to buy some of their health products, when I asked about the $5.75 left in my account. I was told that it was empty. Luckily I save a somewhat faded but still legible sales receipt proving that I had a balance of $5.75 left, which they restored to my account. While I was sorting this out, I bought my stuff somewhere else.

August 7, 2011 I found the gift certificates I had misplaced and decided to redeem them for books. When I met the new owner, Renee Demers, she flat out refused to honor them, saying that since they weren't stamped and signed by her that they weren't valid and possibly fraudulent, and even said that by all rights she should tear them up, which would have prompted me to call the police. She did find the $5.75 in my account and claimed that according to the system, it was already spend. Not true. I asked her to look into her records to prove their authenticity but she didn't seem to be paying attention to me.

August 14, 2011 I followed up and she said that she check her records that that there's nothing she can do. She strangely wasn't able to give me the name of the guy who was working there before when her now-late husband ran the store. She even admitted that her older records were purged from her archives, even though the gift certificates weren't redeemed and had no expiry date.

I sold books and CDs to them which they in turn resold at a profit. It's not fair that they refuse to honor these certificates. I'm willing to wait whatever amount of time was reasonably necessary for her to sort through her archives (assuming she did) and to provide whatever proof is needed. I can only interpret her lack of co-operation and her eagerness to forget the whole thing as gross indifference (obviously) and maybe a cost saving measure? How many other people had store credit that she felt wouldn't be reclaimed? I want to be reimbursed either in merchandise or in cash and I won't take NO for an answer.