Consumer Question

BetteDavisEyes · #1 11-25-2006, 02:15 AM

In October, I bought my nephew a gift card to Target for his birthday. Because we don't live near each other, I have had the card at my home since then. I finally was able to give it to him yesterday. He went shopping with it today but was told that it wasn't a valid card and had a $0.00 amount on it. I have since either tossed or lost the original receipt to the card. I did purchase it with my debit card though.
Is there any possible way of getting Target to reimburse the card for the amount I originally purchased it for? I know I can get a statement from my bank that says I bought stuff at Target but I don't think Wells Fargo gives an itemized listing of what I purchased that would show the gift card on it & the purchase price. I know I checked the receipt when I bought it b/c I was balancing my checkbook & made a notation that I bought a gift card at Target.

Am I just screwed? Did I really just lose $100 b/c some idiot didn't scan the card right? Damn.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

UGAalum94 · #2 11-25-2006, 12:22 PM

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. . .

EE-BO · #3 11-25-2006, 12:30 PM

Any bank can provide you detail for a specific charge. And whether or not Target wants to admit it, any store will be able to trace back to the specific transaction you made since it is just a couple of months old.

The trick is whether that specific card is being tracked. I am willing to bet it is so Target can be sure people are not fraudulently boosting the value of a given card- but that does not necessarily mean they have to use that tracking ability to help you out.

First stop is your bank to get some kind of detail of the specific transaction- including date and amount.

Next step is to go to the store in person with your bank info and the card itself and see what they can do for you.

Beyond that, will depend on what they say. A great many major retail corporation 1-800 service numbers now route to call centers in India and other parts of Asia, so your best first step is to go to the local store.

If you can get a replacement, expect to be charged for it. Gift cards have become big business and these days the fine print includes charges for reissuing a card, often a monthly fee for each month the card is not used (it is deducted from the card balance) and in some cases the cards become worthless and the company keeps the balance within as little as 6 months if the card is not fully used.

I first noticed this when I was looking into Simon Mall gift cards for family members and saw all these little details. I have since found most gift cards now carry similar hidden charges to make them even more profitable for the companies that issue them.

I hope this helps and do please post the outcome. As common as gift cards are becoming, your story and its outcome will surely be very helpful to others in future.

UGAalum94 · #4 11-25-2006, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EE-BO;

If you can get a replacement, expect to be charged for it. Gift cards have become big business and these days the fine print includes charges for reissuing a card, often a monthly fee for each month the card is not used (it is deducted from the card balance) and in some cases the cards become worthless and the company keeps the balance within as little as 6 months if the card is not fully used.

I haven't seen this in action yet. Do you suppose it's more common when you purchase the card from a third party, like the Mall gift card, rather than one particular to a certain store?

EE-BO · #5 11-25-2006, 02:55 PM

I'm not sure to be honest. And just because it is written in there does not mean it would always happen. If local managers can override the charge to promote goodwill, then application could be discretionary.

I have no idea if the Target card is subject to this kind of fee, but when I got Neiman Marcus cards for people last year I was warned that if they were lost and there was no receipt there "might" be a replacement charge.

UGAalum94 · #6 11-25-2006, 03:43 PM

EE-BO,

Thank you for your reply and your warning about the fees. I tend to have a lot of gift cards with partial balances; the monthy fee deductions could gradually deduct most of balance before I got around to using them.

I'll pay better attention to the small print from now on.

I suspect the customer service is generally better at Neiman Marcus than it is at Target, and if NM is warning about replacement fees, Target probably has them.