Visa gift cards or reward cards..

[beercashier]

have you had to deal with those? I had some lady give me one tonight. First, I have no clue it is a gift card, looks like a regular credit card to me. Then it declines because the full amount of the sale was more than what was on the card. I tell her it declines and she gets all huffy with me asking if that is because there isn't enough money. I tell her I really don't know because all our machine says is "decline." Then she looks at me like I have 3 heads and tells me it is a $50 visa reward card ....like I am just supposed to know this since it doesn't say that anywhere on it! I ran it for $50 and she paid the balance in cash. she was also one of that people that when you smile and say "thank you and have a nice day" she ignores you. I hope her beer sucked.

[Mighty Girl]

Ah yes, you can file her under the "they don't read instructions" category.

I got one of those cards for switching our phone service. And I admit, I didn't read the instructions at first. Then I tried to buy something that was like, $3 over the amount of the gift card. It didn't help matters that the clerk spoke very little english, and kept trying to get me to sign up for a store credit card- completely ignoring my refusals. But anyway, I came home and read the instructions that came with the card- and it says if you have a purchase that is more than the allowed amount, pay the overage with another method first, then pay the remaining amount with the gift card.

I think it's totally stupid. I've received many gift cards and gift certificates in my life, and none of them have worked like that.

[Amalthea]

I'm pretty lucky. My store's system can actually figure out how much remains on those things, and will charge it that amount if the purchase is more than what is on the card, and then tells you how much the customer still owes. But, yeah, they are a little bit of a pain. Especially when the customer has no idea what's on it, so they have you try charging it for 20, then 15, then 10, until it goes through.

[chainedbarista]

we've gotten them, but our machines won't accept them; i guess our reader doesn't 'see' them as a valid form of payment??

[purplecat41877]

Where I work, some of the customers use purchase advantage cards. One time, I had to explain to the front end manager how to put the card through. I've never gotten a customer with this type of card. I just came across how to do by experimenting with the register.

[Becks]

I'm pretty lucky. My store's system can actually figure out how much remains on those things, and will charge it that amount if the purchase is more than what is on the card, and then tells you how much the customer still owes.

Same with my store, but sometimes it has issues with reading the gift card in the first place...or maybe it's just the ones I get... (I get my store gift cards from the employee rewards program.)

[ZumZum]

Ugh, I hate those things. Our mall sells gift cards that are Visa, some other malls sell them as Amex.
If the amount on the card is over the amount owed, no problem. If it is under, we need to know how much is on it. Which is a problem when we get the teenagers who have no idea, so we play the guessing game running it through.

The other problem, when they return something and it goes back on the card it can take up to 7 days to get credited on the card. I had a mother pitch a fit on me because of this. She would not understand that it was out of my control.
Ugh.

[Kogarashi]

Le sigh. I've had to deal with those too. Usually the customers are helpful and recall the exact amount on the card. Not always, though.

Wal-Mart's registers take different cards in different ways. Wal-Mart gift cards can be used despite not knowing the balance on them (though the register can check remaining balances, too). When the prompt comes up to enter how much will be paid, you just attempt to pay the whole thing and the register does the rest of the math. EBT cards pay just for EBT-eligible items if run for food, or the whole thing if run for debit (with some exceptions, I'm sure, but I haven't seen them yet). The Visa and Cingular gift cards, though, require the exact amount to be punched in if it's less than the total purchase.

I've gotten quite good at explaining to customers that the back of the Cingular card has an 800 number on it for finding your card's remaining balance, and that they'll need that if they want to use it at our store.