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The Booksellers Association has postponed the launch of its electronic National Book Tokens gift card until next year, citing "an ongoing regulatory issue" caused by a third party as the cause.
Although Book Tokens' managing director Stuart Mathews said he was confident the issue would be resolved "in the next few weeks", the unnamed third party had been unable to provide a date.
"As a result we are unable to guarantee a launch date before November and the busy Christmas period," Mathews said in a letter to booksellers. "Consequently we now have no option but to postpone until 2010."
During Christmas, booksellers are being told to use paper tokens instead, and orders for the cards will be processed from 12th October. Order forms are being sent out "in the next few days", or retailers can visit http://www.nationalbooktokens.com/" target="_blank">www.nationalbooktokens.com
The launch date has been pushed back several times, having initially been scheduled for launch in 2006 or 2007. At its 2008 a.g.m, the BA said the gift card scheme would come on stream in early 2009, and a pilot has been running since June which, in August, was described as "going very well".
Mathews apologised for "the inconvenience and disappointment" caused by the delay. "We are acutely aware of the amount of time that many of our customers have spent on preparing for the Gift Card and can only apologise," he said. "We will of course let you know when we have further developments as we continue to work on the Gift Card consumer launch for 2010."