gift card fail

[Rine]

Today I had a customer trying to pay with one of those visa logo gift cards. The way we have to run them is for the customer to buy one of our gift cards IF they are trying to use the card on a purchase greater than the value of the card. Make sense? Her gift card was supposedly for $50 and she wanted to use it on a $150 purchase.

Okay, so I go to another register and try to buy one of our gift cards for $50 and it declines it.

Me: Sorry, there must not be fifty dollars on it if the system declines it.
SC: No, there is FIFTY DOLLARS on it. I've never used it.
Me: Is it older than a year? The card starts losing value after a year.
SC: NO. It's only three months old!
Me: I'm sorry, but I've done this procedure many times before...
SC: There's fifty dollars on it!
Me: Let me call them...*I use my cellphone and type in the card number...Lo and behold, there's only like 31.10 on it*
Me: Ma'am, there's 31.10 on it.
SC: What?! How? I've never used it! What did I spend it on?
Me: *for a moment, I didn't think she actually asked me*
SC: What did I spend it on?
Me: Uh...I don't know...that's a visa gift card so I don't have access to it. Would you like me get you (store) gift card for 32.10?
SC: FINE, I'll have to call them when I get home.
Me: Okay...

I just hated how she kept assuming I knew everything about the visa gift card and blamed me for it not having fifty dollars on it.

[AirHostess]

How rude. There was no apology from her...typical.

And how are you meant to know what she spent it on? Oh right, you are a psychic robot!

[AnaKhouri]

Oh wow, it's good to know someone else has to do that with those stupid gift cards. Our system is ancient and isn't even set up to deal with debit cards (we run everything through as credit), let alone those gift cards.

[Bosch]

I always loved that with those gift cards, at my store they all get the catbutt face when we tell them they have sign for them since they are run as credit. But its a gift card! I refuse to sign.

I just void the payment and ask for another form of payment. Argument over. You want your stuff you sign for it or break out your own cash for it.

[malmalthekiller]

I hate those things.

I feel your pain from when I was a cashier.

[BowserKoopa1]

I hate those miserable things! They're the worst dam thing ever invented! I get the same problem EVERY SINGLE TIME! I have to constantly explain to the customer that if they try to run it through for more than what's left on the card, it automatically declines it! Do the morons know how much is left on the card?! Of course not, they never know! And I wind up having to play guessing games with them!
1 lady I had the other day had a $100 gift card and used $96.73 on it. She could've just left after that. No, she wants to use it up. So she goes and picks something else out, and guess what.... its more than the $3.27 left on the card. She asks me how much is on the card, and I had already told her twice. After discussing with her husband if she should still get the item, he finally gets fed up with her and tells her to use the gift card, and he will pay the remaining balance owed. Finally she leaves Good riddens

[CaroPhoenix]

When I was at the Gaming Store, it was usually the kids who used the Visa Gift Cards, they always had all the receipts letting them know what the latest amound of $$ they had on them. We always explained our computer system treated them like credit cards. And the kids were always excited about having to sign for the purchases.

As I keep saying - the Gaming Geeks are some of the nicest (*quickly knocks on wood*) customers to have.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I hate those VISA gift cards with a passion because while our system at work can run them fine, we have NO WAY TO TELL YOU HOW MUCH IS LEFT ON THE CARD!

So many times after I run them the SC will ask me how much is left. GRRRR. Call the damned number on the card and find out! Also it is not *MY* job to find out how much is available on YOUR card before you even make a purchase.

I can do that on Store gift cards, but NOT on those damned VISA gift cards.

[Catwoman2965]

I hate them too. In my store, we have to know the amount on it, in order to use it for their payment. We can't just swipe it, and the balance due will come up, nor will it show what's left on the card, if there's anything left. And the custoemrs will just look at me and say, well, I THINK there's about $22 on it. sorry, i need the exact amount! i generally won't offer to call the number on the card either, as its not my job! sorry to say, but if a manager is around, sometimes i have to. ugh.

[Bosch]

I hate them too. In my store, we have to know the amount on it, in order to use it for their payment. We can't just swipe it, and the balance due will come up, nor will it show what's left on the card, if there's anything left. And the custoemrs will just look at me and say, well, I THINK there's about $22 on it. sorry, i need the exact amount! i generally won't offer to call the number on the card either, as its not my job! sorry to say, but if a manager is around, sometimes i have to. ugh.

Our store was like that until a few months ago. I always refused to call sorry not going to do it.. Sorry there is a payphone right outside the store, we will be happy to hold your purchase.

[pile of monkeys]

People who redeem these just do not get that there's no way to run a balance inquiry on the gift card from the register. I did have one woman who had written on her card, in Sharpie, the current balance left. After she used it (there was still some left), she crossed that out and wrote the new balance. I thought that was a good idea, so I do that with gift cards when I get them for the holidays, etc., and there's no indication on the card itself how much it's for. Works great for coffee gift cards, etc., knowing that it's the $25 and not the $10 one, then I always wrap the receipt with the current balance around it for next time.

But, yeah, I hate Visa (or Amex) gift cards and the morons who have no idea how much is on them.

[Rine]

Yes, this woman just didn't seem to understand that I was not customer service for Visa gift card. It was one of those Simon mall gift cards and she did say at one point, "well, you are in a Simon mall!"

Gaaaaah, I'm not Simon Mall! I'm not Visa! You need to keep track of your own balance and don't get snippy with me when I'm bending over backwards to accept your card.

It doesn't help that my mall has exactly FOUR stores (three anchors and one lonely tenant) in it and no more customer service office so she couldn't go to the office to figure out what she used her card on. I don't even know if they could help, either.

I really hate these kind of gift cards.

[Enjis]

I hate the VISA gift cards because so many of the people who used them in my old department (Young Men's streetwear) were thieves, and had the suspicious amount of $500 on their cards...every time! (that's the limit) They would use money stolen from a credit card to buy the VISA gift card, which is untraceable, then use the gift card to shop, without having to show ID.

I always dreaded seeing those damn cards, cuz it was almost always the end result of someone being scammed.

[Calie]

...I did have one woman who had written on her card, in Sharpie, the current balance left. After she used it (there was still some left), she crossed that out and wrote the new balance....
But, yeah, I hate Visa (or Amex) gift cards and the morons who have no idea how much is on them.

I do exactly that with all my gift cards (visa and otherwise) - it really makes everything a lot simpler. One time I didn't do it - the cashier tried to run the old amount but I'd used some. So what did I do? Scream, cry, wail, demand him to find it out? Oh wait, I'm not an SC. I said oh well, and pulled out cash. Then when I went home I looked up the amount online and fixed the card.

I was a cashier when those mall gift cards started coming out and boy did I hate them. We actually had to change our sales system to allow multiple AmEx charges because so many people wanted to use multiple cards...until they fixed that I had to deal with the angry customers.

[Geek King]

Yes, this woman just didn't seem to understand that I was not customer service for Visa gift card. It was one of those Simon mall gift cards and she did say at one point, "well, you are in a Simon mall!"

There's the issue. The Simon Mall gift cards are infamous for charging fees for non-use. They've been the target of more than one lawsuit, and several state laws were written specifically as a result of the way they bleed the credit off those cards. If she had been sitting on it for a few months (or it had been puchased as a gift several months before), it may have been fee-ed to death.

Some of the fun complaints just about Simon Mall's Gift Card Practices I found on a quick Google.