[UGAalum94]

Weird, I was reading on Snopes.com about how thieves have figured out ways to take money off the cards after they are purchased, but maybe this is what happened to you. Although it's also possible the person checking you out just didn't handle it correctly, but it's interesting that you were charged for the gift card and yet, there was no money assigned to it.

If I were you, I'd probably try to get a national number from the Target website, and call them to ask what proof they would accept and what information will allow them to pull up gift card information from their end. Like, if they have the gift card number, can they track it through their system to see if it was ever activated? When I worked in retail in college, there were sometimes ways to pull up receipts from our store registers if we knew a receipt number; maybe gift card numbers can be tracked too. Certainly, their system can see if a card ever had money on it and whether it was used.

The local stores I've been to always have jerks/idiots working customer service, but if your store is good you could go directly there.

Good luck. Please let me know how Target handles it. I want to like them, but sometimes I'm not sure. . .