Gift Card Warning/Tip:
So back in March, there were posts about buying from BJs in bulk to get a discount. I bought 35 gift card sets (3 in a set X35=105 gift cards), in anticipation of our December trip. I used some of them right away to pay off items. The others I set aside to use to potentially pay for an AP or food while we were there. I had planned to combine them all onto one card close to our arrival date. Well, we decided to take an adults only trip for my upcoming birthday. I pulled out the remaining gift cards to pay for that trip. As I was combining them, I found one set ($150) that would not work. It had not been activated. I compared it to my BJs receipt and that set of gift cards is NOT on the receipt. It could have been an honest mistake, or an employee keeping my activated card and swapping it with these. They had rubber banded most of the gift cards when they mailed them, but there were some loose ones (still in the sets), which I had thought was odd.. I have emailed BJs and am waiting to hear back. I asked if it was possible that they can compare this gift card set to their warehouse inventory (I assume that the UPC, although unpurchased, would show up in their inventory). I will post back when I learn if they will fix this problem. I only have an online BJs membership and do not live close to one.
Lesson: Do not set aside any of your gift cards for your trip without checking their balances right after their purchase. I did not do this, as I had used the majority of them without issues and figured that I had the receipt. It didn't occur to me that I would have a gift card set with a UPC NOT on my receipt. Because I had combined so many of the gift cards earlier, I really only kept the ones I used for payments, in case they ever had to go back on them. I have bought gift cards online for years, from various places- Sam's Club,
Amazon etc. From now on, I know to check them when I get them!
I hope my lesson helps someone else out in the future!
