Anyone with recent bad luck with Disney GCs from Target?

[jls886]

I placed a handful of orders for Disney gift cards from Target using Target gift cards purchased at Raise.

Well, in my first order of 6 gift cards - 3 were activated, and 3 were not! Only half were actually activated when I got them.

I'm now talking to my third person with Target over the phone, with a total talk time of well over an hour, and this is honestly making me want to forget the savings at this point.

Anyone else had bad luck lately with these? I'm hoping it's just me and this one order. I'm now at Disney and my other orders were delivered while we're gone, so I'm not exactly excited to get home and check their balances.

ETA: If anyone has shared my experience and knows of a quick(er) way to get it resolved, I would love to hear it. No one has a clue how to help me, they all try to answer me like it is a Target gift card even after I have repeated multiple times that they are NOT Target gift cards. I went to my Target store to try to resolve it right before we left for Disney but they were completely unable to help because they were purchased at target.com

 

[ValpoCory]

I placed a handful of orders for Disney gift cards from Target using Target gift cards purchased at Raise.

Well, in my first order of 6 gift cards - 3 were activated, and 3 were not! Only half were actually activated when I got them.

I'm now talking to my third person with Target over the phone, with a total talk time of well over an hour, and this is honestly making me want to forget the savings at this point.

Anyone else had bad luck lately with these? I'm hoping it's just me and this one order. I'm now at Disney now and my other orders were delivered while we're gone, so I'm not exactly excited to get home and check their balances.

There are stories out there about this happening elsewhere. It's essential that you verify GC balances as soon as you get them.

 

[Dawnlight]

Yes, from one that I had purchased in-store.

I bought 7 for our trip, to give to the kids to use as they wanted, but some did not use any amount the entire time. We put them towards gratuities that were charged to our room (and gave the kids cash amount), but one was not activated.

I've got to get on the phone and see if I can do anything about it, but I've read nightmares about it, so wondering if it's even worth the $50 to deal with the aggravation.

I had heard about issues with online orders of Disney gift cards from Target, but hadn't heard about in-store issues; I, naively, thought I was safe.

 

[maria's_mommy]

I received a bad batch Friday. I requested to talk to the gift card specialty dept and they got it resolved quickly but they seem to be the only ones who can fix it. They are only there M-F, don't know what times.

 

[rab1022]

I received a bad batch Friday. I requested to talk to the gift card specialty dept and they got it resolved quickly but they seem to be the only ones who can fix it. They are only there M-F, don't know what times.

I've never had issues in the past, but I'm starting to order more for trips this summer and I seem to be seeing more reports of this occurring. I'll roll the dice for the 5% discount, but any chance you have a number for the gift card specialty dept instead of calling the general customer service number?

 

[CoP Luv]

I just received some Disney GCs that I ordered from Target as well and half were inactivated. I saw on the Disney GC Deals thread on this board that someone posted a phone number, which I called today. I was on the phone for about 10 minutes, and the rep. took the GC numbers down, said she would call Disney, and get back to me by the end of the day today. I will update this response once that does (hopefully) happen.

Target Corporate Gift Card Line: (800) 544-3875 - spoke to a real friendly woman, sounded like she was located in the U.S., and knew exactly what the problem was.

Have your Target order number ready, along with the 24 digit gift card number. Mine were located on the back of the card, but the rep. also said it could be printed on the cardboard backing, so keep that too!

ETA1: 10 minutes after I got off my first call, the rep. called me back saying she got all but one activated herself. The last one she needed to take the 16-digit GC number and call Disney to get it worked out. So far, relatively painless to get it resolved (though I wish I just got them all activated originally).

ETA2: Another 20 minutes and all GCs were activated. Again, this was rather painless, and I didn't have to talk to multiple people who didn't understand what I was talking about, or have to go through Target's "normal" customer service. If only Disney would allow you to apply gift cards to ticket purchases online...because that took 1.5 hours!!!

 

[maria's_mommy]

what previous poster said

 

[jls886]

I received a bad batch Friday. I requested to talk to the gift card specialty dept and they got it resolved quickly but they seem to be the only ones who can fix it. They are only there M-F, don't know what times.

This is who you need to speak to. It took FOREVER to get to the right place, but I finally did, and once I did it was resolved very quickly. To answer another PP, no, the "specialty gift card services" team has no direct line. Once I finally got to a very helpful supervisor I asked her how to best get back to her team if I have any future questions, and basically was told that you do unfortunately have to get funneled through the first agents first. She also said that no other team has the capability to help you whatsoever. So, in the future I'll just keep repeating the name of that team until someone finally transfers me. Pretty frustrating that there is no direct way to get to them since they are the only ones who can help. Or at least maybe they could educate their other agents to immediately transfer if the issue involves a specialty gift card rather than a Target gift card.

Here is the number to call at least initially, it's the Target Gift Card Hotline:
1-800-544-2943, then x5, then x0 to get to a person

 

[ValpoCory]

If only Disney would allow you to apply gift cards to ticket purchases online...because that took 1.5 hours!!!

I hate that they took out that option. As someone who works for a Disney corporate sponsor (IBM), we get access to a special Disney website with 12% discounted tickets. In order to get the discount, you must use the website. You can't buy them over the phone. So if I buy Disney Gift Cards on a discount, I could stack the discounts anymore.

 

[MommyTo5]

I just checked my order placed on 12/28/14 and none of the (8) gift cards have been activated. This is super annoying!

UPDATE: Called the Target Corporate Gift Card Line @ (800) 544-3875. The phone call took about 15 minutes, but the cards are now active and ready to go!