Protect Yourself

I saw a preview of an upcoming news story this morning regarding a “loophole” in gift cards. It seems that people aren’t always getting all the money out of gift cards that the person who gave it to them put in. It seems that if there is an error activating the card and crediting the money, they have no way of determining what happened.

I find that hard to believe.

First of all, why do people trust the store so much? Why wouldn’t you keep the reciept for the gift card to make sure that the proper amout was credited to the card? Personally when I give a gift card I also give the person the reciept as that is proof of the transaction. I think that individuals need to protect themselves better and make sure that reciepts are saved. Look out for yourself, it’s your responsbility not the stores.

With that said, why don’t the stores track this information? They seem to know how much money is credited to the card when you use it, so why can’t they track the information? I bet they can, but don’t have an easy way to access the information. Maybe.

Bottom line is - trust no one, and always save your reciept.

UPDATE 11/28/05:

Apparently, the issue was not gift cards, it is gift reciepts. It seems that when you get a gift reciept there is no way to track the original price paid since that amount does not appear on the reciept, which is the purpose for the gift reciept in the first place.

So, if you buy an item at full price and get a gift reciept, and the person whom you gave the gift to returns it when the item is on sale, they get the sale price back, not what you paid for it. I would also assume that the reverse is true.

I still call B.S. on this. With all the computer power available today there should be a code or something on the reciept where the store can find the actual price paid and refund the correct amount.

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