Buying gift cards at grocery stores..be careful

[Rock'n Robin]

I bought 3 gift cards at Giant Eagle in mid-November. They were promoting the heck out of it--for every $50 you spend on your giant eagle card on gift cards you get 20 cents off per gallon on a gas fill-up. I spent $90 and kept my receipt. We gave a $50 HD card to FIL and mailed 2 $20 Dick's sporting goods cards to NC for my niece and nephew.
Well FIL tries to use his card yesterday and it isn't activated. He's embarrassed. WE'RE embarrassed. I'm wondering if my NC relatives are doing this as well!
Today DH takes the receipt to Giant EAgle. They ask for the "activation slip". Now they didn't give me any such thing. They said to keep the receipt and it should be activated within 24 hours--no problem since that was in November! DH was arguing with the desk girl who had no idea what she was doing. Finally they call the corporate customer service #. They have my receipt and the record of it in the store as well since I used my card. Supposedly they are going to dig through the system and find out what happened and fix it. "This happens less than 1% of the time" she tells DH--perhaps a number was miskeyed. Why does this stuff always seem to happen to me then?
Oh well. Moral of the story--if you buy gift cards at grocery stores or other 3rd party outlets, keep careful track of your receipt.
Robin M.

 

[LadyyRedd]

Thanks for the heads up! I bought several there as well, but I do still have my receipts. One has already been used - by me! I was buying a bunch and knew I was going to Jo-Ann to pick up some things, so I Just bought another gift card to add to my gas money balance and used it about an hour later.

I hope none of my card recipients have any problems! I've purchased cards there in the past and haven't had any issues, so we'll see!

Kimya

 

[hydster]

Also a heads up about gift cards

This year, there's another pitfall to watch out for besides the usual fees and fine print: thieves who steal the balance off a gift card before the recipient can use it.

Here's how the scam works, according to ConsumerAffairs.com:

"Scammers write down numbers on the back of gift cards on store racks. After several days, they call an 800 number to find if the card has been activated. If it has, that means it has been sold and is probably under someone's tree. The scammer goes online, using the card to pay for a shopping spree. When the recipient tries to use the card, they learn it has a zero balance."

You're better off buying a card from a retailer that keeps it either behind a counter or online. If you're giving a card, be sure to send the original receipt in case the recipient needs to replace a lost or stolen card. If you're on the receiving end, ask for the receipt.

You may also want to stick with gift cards issued by a retailer instead of a bank.

Just a heads up!


http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thecheckout/2006/11/the_latest_word_on_gift_cards_1.html

 

[bekkiz]

We recieved 2 $100 visa gift cards and both were declined when we treid to use it. I'm not sure what we're going to do, as I don't want to embarass the gift givers.

 

[LadyyRedd]

In regards to the Visa cards.....what was the scenario? Was the purchase more than $100 and you tried to use the card?

I know some of those type cards (visa, mc, discover) are tricky and if the purchase total is more than the balance of the card, you must type in the exact balance of the card on the payment screen, but if the card is more than the balance, you don't need to. That was a HUGE pain when I was still a CM at TDS and the mall gift cards were changed to ones sponsored by discover, so the user had to know the EXACT balance if it was less than the amount owed for the purchase.

Kimya

 

[OK!]

Also, some stores can't accept the Visa gift cards; their credit card processing systems don't recognize them. I worked at Michael's for a year and dealt with some VERY angry people when I had to explain to them why their cards had been declined, so if anyone else has one that's declined somewhere, that might be a possibility to consider.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

We recieved 2 $100 visa gift cards and both were declined when we treid to use it. I'm not sure what we're going to do, as I don't want to embarass the gift givers.

Someone else hit the nail right on the head with this one. I work at Ruby Tuesday's and we had the same problem with one of those gift cards before. The card was for $20, but the purchase was for $52, so we had to enter the EXACT amount of the card and it worked fine. Tell the cashier to do that next time and I'm sure things will work out just fine. If you're total is less than gift card, just swipe it, if it's more, the card total has to be entered. Keep us posted.

Blessings!!

 

[Nancy]

I have heard that a lot of people have problems using the Am Ex cards, but I think a lot of that is the fact that the CC termimals the store uses just aren't set up to read those.

The person that commented on the balance is 100% correct. We deal with this every day! It's gotten to the point that the cashiers are now asking the customers if their card balance will cover the purchase. Customers look confused but once we explain why they totally understand.

 

[bekkiz]

Thank you for the advice! We were trying to use them at a restaurant and the total was $90, but I think that restaurants put a "hold" or something on more than the total, so that might explain the problem.

I'll try again at the hair salon tomorrow. The total should be around $50, so we'll see if it works.

 

[aprilgail2]

I bought a bunch of gift cards for people from grovery stores, drug stores and restaurants themselves and what I always do is about a week before I give them I call the number and make sure there is a balance on them of what I put on there and make sure they are ok. This way there is no issue if I give them and there was an error.

 

[yeartolate]

You should always get an activation slip - it is the only real reciept they will honor. If the place you get your gift cards does not give you one - demand it.

 

[mickeyfan2]

Whenever I get a gift card they always come with an activated receipt too.

 

[LadyyRedd]

Speaking of gift cards.....Walmart's really ticked me off.

I bought 4 of the same design card. Put $50 on one, $25 on two, and $5 on the 4th.

Now, you know normally the account number prints on the receipt along with the amount, right? Well....it does on Walmart's...HOWEVER...the account number that prints is the number that is UNDER THE SCRATCH OFF AREA. So I had to scratch 2 of the cards in order to figure out the card amounts (luckily it was the $5 and $50 so I deduce that the others were the $25).

So I had to explain to two recipients why their card was already scratched!

Kimya

 

[Feralpeg]

In regards to the Visa cards.....what was the scenario? Was the purchase more than $100 and you tried to use the card?

I know some of those type cards (visa, mc, discover) are tricky and if the purchase total is more than the balance of the card, you must type in the exact balance of the card on the payment screen, but if the card is more than the balance, you don't need to. That was a HUGE pain when I was still a CM at TDS and the mall gift cards were changed to ones sponsored by discover, so the user had to know the EXACT balance if it was less than the amount owed for the purchase.

Kimya

That is exactly what happened to DD last Christmas. My brother and SIL gave DD $100 Visa gift card. She used part of it to buy a couple of CDs. A week later, she tried to use the remainder. She knew her purchase was more than what was left on the card and intended to pay cash for the difference. She did not have the exact amount left on the Visa gift card. The clerk had to start putting in amount and keep going down until the card was accepted. Of course, he was only willing to do it in $10 mutiples, so I'm sure DD ended up losing money. I'm so glad they sent her a check this year!

 

[Nancy]

The good thing is you can now check a lot of the card balances on-line so that should eliminate that problem if she gets more gift cards in the future.

 

[bekkiz]

Just an update, we tried using the Visa card for a smallish purchase, and it worked just fine.

Thanks again for the info! It saved us a lot of hassle!

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

Wow thanks for the heads up!!!

 

[Nancy]

Just an update, we tried using the Visa card for a smallish purchase, and it worked just fine.

Thanks again for the info! It saved us a lot of hassle!

Just keep track of the balance and if you want to use it up and you have a larger purchase just have the cashier type in the dollar amount you have left on it, it should go through with no problem.

Example: 50.00 purchase, 19.32 left on card. Cashier types in 19.32 then hits the button used for C.C.

 

[miss missy]

Never thought of that. Never saw it happen. That stinks!

And I guess for the ones with the numbers on the back, we could start to check the balance before we give them as gifts I know some are scratch off's tho, so on those we're stuck.

Cash, it just keeps coming back to cash!

 

[Feralpeg]

Just keep track of the balance and if you want to use it up and you have a larger purchase just have the cashier type in the dollar amount you have left on it, it should go through with no problem.

Example: 50.00 purchase, 19.32 left on card. Cashier types in 19.32 then hits the button used for C.C.

That is true. Unfortunately, my DD did not realize that she needed to keep the exact amount with her and ended up losing money on the deal. I think it is a hassle to have to keep track of the exact amount for the cashier to key in. Not a very smart system if it can't detect the amount left on the card...or is it? Think of the money that Visa gets to keep because people don't know the exact amount and things get rounded.