Stolen (or lost) gift card. Has this ever happened to you?

[Kitty 34]

About a month after I sent my son's wife a gift card for $50 at a store she likes, they told me she never received the card. We waited another few weeks but she never received the gift card or my cute little birthday card I had sent her.

I think how easy would it be to steal a gift card. Sure it might have just been lost in the mail??? I'm beginning to think a gift card is the equivalent of sending cash!

Are there things you do to save guard from getting a gift card stolen in the mail or should I just know not to ever send one thru the mail again?

 

[minnie mum]

I would be more tempted to think that the post office had lost the card than to assume that it had been stolen. Unless you write: !!!!!Gift card enclosed inside this card!!!!, I don't know how anyone would know.

 

[Kitty 34]

I would be more tempted to think that the post office had lost the card than to assume that it had been stolen. Unless you write: !!!!!Gift card enclosed inside this card!!!!, I don't know how anyone would know.

I know....that's what I'm hoping.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Last year the gift card that my sister sent my son for Christmas never arrived. She put it in a regular card (she drew his name in the drawing).

I never thought about it being stolen. I figure it got lost someplace between MN and GA.

Oh and it never showed up. I figure she forgot about sending it until she called to check on it since she didn't get the Thank you card I make my kids write for every gift they get.

 

[ImDMous]

Stuff does get lost in the mail all the time, especially if it had a bump in thickness for a gift card. Easy to get caught in some rollers somewhere along the way.

I send stuff all the time and never really thought about it not making it there. Then we bought a car 6 months ago and after two months still hadn't received a check we were expecting back. I emailed the sales manager and he sent back an electronic copy of the check, but we had never received it. So they did some digging, checked the bank to make sure we hadn't already cashed it and sent a new one which we received in a few days. Just last week we received the first check they sent. Who knows where it was in that time, but it sure took a long time to get the 2 miles from the dealership to my house.

 

[WhateverLolaWants]

This happened to my grandmother during her birthday this year, only she received the card but the gift card was missing. We figured it out when she thanked the person for the card but not for the gift card. Other birthday cards during that time had slits in the corners of the envelope. Gross to steal from an 85 year old woman if you ask me.

 

[PrincessJo]

Yep, happened to us. We'd been having issues for a while though with things not being delivered.

I finally called the post office to find out what was wrong and come to find out that we hadn't been the only ones with mail missing. We got a NEW postal carrier shortly after that.... this one is really rude, but at least we get all of our mail

 

[maelstrom]

A wedding card & giftcard from my cousin got "lost in the mail".

 

[FireDancer]

Make sure to make a photocopy of the gift card (front and back) if you are going to mail it. We are not a retail establishment but we offer Visa gift cards and if a card is lost we can verify that it hasn't been used, cancel it, and transfer the balance to a new card. There is no technological reason why any other establishment can't do the same. If they tell you they can't they are lying, they are choosing not to as a matter of policy.

 

[TheRose227]

This happened to my best friend actually. Only her entire purse was stolen. I had given her a wawa gift card as she started her observation for teaching.

Very, very luckily I had the receipt and when she told me I ran up to wawa and they we able to cancel the card which hadn't been used yet and issue a new one.

So, OP if you have the receipt you might try that. Especially if its been lost in the mail.

 

[Straitlover]

My sis works for the PO, and she says to NEVER mail gift cards. They get stolen all the time. Soemtimes PO workers, sometimes people going in your mailbox.

 

[LAB81018]

I would be more tempted to think that the post office had lost the card than to assume that it had been stolen. Unless you write: !!!!!Gift card enclosed inside this card!!!!, I don't know how anyone would know.

I think the MO is to steal what appears to be a greeting card, since more often than not there is something of value inside (gift card, check, cash).

 

[Kitty 34]

Make sure to make a photocopy of the gift card (front and back) if you are going to mail it. We are not a retail establishment but we offer Visa gift cards and if a card is lost we can verify that it hasn't been used, cancel it, and transfer the balance to a new card. There is no technological reason why any other establishment can't do the same. If they tell you they can't they are lying, they are choosing not to as a matter of policy.

The gift card I bought her was from our Meijer's. I still had the receipt but they told me they could not verify if it had been used or not. I will remember the idea of photocoyping both sides from now on.


Interesting how many other posters have had "lost in the mail" situations with gift cards. To sing kudos to my postal service.....in the over 30 years I've lived at this address; this is the first time I've ever had something not show up to where I'm mailing it.

 

[Disney st8 of mind]

I VERY RARELY mail anything ever! I have little to no confidence in the postal service. If I do have to mail something I say a little prayer that it makes it to it's destination. I figure as often as we get the wrong mail put in our box there is a great chance that whatever I send out is not going to make it. Sometimes we get mail for our neighbor across the street, sometimes it's for our neighbor on the other side of the block, sometimes it's for random people all over town. One year our federal tax refund was delivered to someone else.... thankfully they brought it to us.

 

[Albort]

I would be more tempted to think that the post office had lost the card than to assume that it had been stolen. Unless you write: !!!!!Gift card enclosed inside this card!!!!, I don't know how anyone would know.

if u bend the mail, u can tell there is a card in there... i think that is why when banks send you your debit card/credit card, they send without any lettering on it, just a PO box and your name/address info...

 

[thedonduck]

One thing we always do is take a picture on our phone of the gift card and the receipt before we mail (scratch off the security code too for the picture because you will need it).

Also, we have found that most places (major chains) will mail a gift card right from their website thus ensuring a proper delivery

 

[It'sWDW4me]

The gift card I bought her was from our Meijer's. I still had the receipt but they told me they could not verify if it had been used or not. I will remember the idea of photocoyping both sides from now on.


Interesting how many other posters have had "lost in the mail" situations with gift cards. To sing kudos to my postal service.....in the over 30 years I've lived at this address; this is the first time I've ever had something not show up to where I'm mailing it.

You bought the GC at Meijer's but was it FOR Meijer's or for another store? If it was for another store, give THAT store a call - maybe they can help. I hope the GC turns up.

 

[FireDancer]

The gift card I bought her was from our Meijer's. I still had the receipt but they told me they could not verify if it had been used or not. I will remember the idea of photocoyping both sides from now on.

Was it a Meijer's gift card? If it was of course they could tell you if it was used (or more accurately their POS system could tell you). If they couldn't tell you if it was used how on Earth would then know the balance and if there was enough on the card to pay for your purchase?

If you bought it at Meijer's but it was for a different store you'll have to call the store it was for. The API the Meijer POS system uses to activate and fund the card probably doesn't expose the balance.

 

[Kitty 34]

It was for Meijer and they (the lady at the service desk) said they couldn't do anything about it. Apparently my receipt only had the last 4 numbers (of the card) on it and they needed it all. Not sure why the receipt just doesn't print it all out??

 

[elaine amj]

That stinks. I can see them needing the whole gift card number to be able to track the card's history.

Recently we purchased $200 in Esso cards from a local drug store. When we went to use it a month later (for a trip), the cashier told us it had a zero balance. We thought it wasn't activated properly and promptly went to the drug store to ask.

They said when it shows up on the receipt it was proof they activated it properly. We ended up finding the number for Esso (quite difficult to get the number dealing with gif cards), and called them. Since we had the cards in hand, the Esso rep was able to track the cards' history.

Turns out the cards had been used on the same day. One card ($100) in one gas station and the second card ($100) in another gas station in the same city about 4 hours away. Laughed and told the rep our minivan can't possibly hold $200 in gas on the same day. Plus, we had not left our city anytime since we purchased the cards.

She requested we fax her our signature to verify against the gas station records. We faxed it right away from the drug store (during the hour+ this all took we were still standing there with our kids waiting impatiently in the minivan for their vacation to start).

Several days later, we get notified that they will be sending us new gift cards to replace the ones that were "emptied".

We figure the numbers were stolen and new cards printed. Most likely it's a leak at Esso/drugstore or something since no one went near our cards after we purchased them.