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Gift Cards

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Turkeytop
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Gift Cards

Post by Turkeytop » Tue Nov 30, 2021 8:26 pm

I bought a store gift card several months ago. The plan was to add it to my wife's Christmas stocking. I hid it away so she wouldn't find it. Now I can't find it. I forget where I put it. I still have the purchase receipt and the activation receipt.

Do stores replace a lost gift card if you can show the receipt?


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.

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ZenithCKLW
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Re: Gift Cards

Post by ZenithCKLW » Tue Nov 30, 2021 8:51 pm

Depends on the retailer, but typically not. For these reasons:

1. Someone could claim to have lost a gift card when they didn’t, show a receipt of purchase, and get a new one. Now they have two gift cards. Free money!

2. Someone could throw away a receipt, someone could fish it out of the garbage, bring it in, claim it was lost, and get a new gift card. Free money!

3. Someone could throw away a receipt, someone could fish it out of the garbage, have the gift card deactivated (if the retailer could theoretically do that), leaving the rightful owner out the money and the thief gaining, you guessed it, free money!

4. An employee could muck with the system or print a duplicate receipt, claim they lost the gift card, and steal your or the retailer’s funds. Free money!

The fine print of many gift cards say treat this gift card like cash. Once it’s lost, it’s lost. After having worked in retail management in the past, gift card fraud is rife with potential scams. Controls on gift cards are incredibly tight for a reason. It’s like going to the bank to withdraw cash, losing said cash, then asking the bank to replace it simply because you have a receipt proving you withdrew it. Don’t expect any store personnel to be able to help, but maybe corporate can figure something out. Good luck.



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Turkeytop
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Re: Gift Cards

Post by Turkeytop » Tue Nov 30, 2021 9:46 pm

Couldn't the store determine that the lost card had not been used and then cancel it?


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.

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ZenithCKLW
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Re: Gift Cards

Post by ZenithCKLW » Wed Dec 01, 2021 3:53 am

Doubtful. Gift cards are not easily traceable. They’re not like credit cards, especially before they’re used. That’s why scammers so frequently want victims to pay them with gift cards.



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audiophile
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Re: Gift Cards

Post by audiophile » Wed Dec 01, 2021 8:13 am

Did you use a card to pay for it TT?


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km1125
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Re: Gift Cards

Post by km1125 » Wed Dec 01, 2021 8:26 am

ZenithCKLW wrote:
Wed Dec 01, 2021 3:53 am
Doubtful. Gift cards are not easily traceable. They’re not like credit cards, especially before they’re used. That’s why scammers so frequently want victims to pay them with gift cards.
There's no logic in that. The card obviously had to be authorized to begin with, so there's no reason to think that it can't be deauthorized via the same method. They also know - within seconds-whether a purchase has been made on one of those cards and what the current balance is. No reason they couldn't set the current balance to 0$ if they know which card it is. If you didn't have the receipt, then I'd understand.



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Turkeytop
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Re: Gift Cards

Post by Turkeytop » Wed Dec 01, 2021 8:38 am

audiophile wrote:
Wed Dec 01, 2021 8:13 am
Did you use a card to pay for it TT?

I paid cash, but I have both the purchase receipt and the activation receipt..

I'll just take them to the store and they'll either issue a new card or they wont.


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.

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ZenithCKLW
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Re: Gift Cards

Post by ZenithCKLW » Wed Dec 01, 2021 9:54 am

km1125 wrote:
Wed Dec 01, 2021 8:26 am
ZenithCKLW wrote:
Wed Dec 01, 2021 3:53 am
Doubtful. Gift cards are not easily traceable. They’re not like credit cards, especially before they’re used. That’s why scammers so frequently want victims to pay them with gift cards.
There's no logic in that. The card obviously had to be authorized to begin with, so there's no reason to think that it can't be deauthorized via the same method. They also know - within seconds-whether a purchase has been made on one of those cards and what the current balance is. No reason they couldn't set the current balance to 0$ if they know which card it is. If you didn't have the receipt, then I'd understand.
With all due respect to your response, and with my experience in this area (which admittedly ended in 2014 when I changed careers), I said "doubtful" not "definitely not", and that it's not "easily traceable", not "not traceable". In my first response, I said don't expect store personnel to be able to help, but to instead call corporate to see if they have a way to handle this situation. Believe what corporate tells you - they're the ones to help, even if it's not the desired outcome.

Edit: Not all retailers are the same with the handling of this. PCI regulations and compliance rules bring multi-armed regulation on what information a business can store and access. It's not one set of rules for everyone. For instance, something like the encryption standard of a computer network the company owns and uses determines what information they can store and the abilities it has to use that info. Which is why some retailers automatically refund your credit card vs. other retailers who ask you to insert your card to complete the refund transaction. Other regulations limit who or what computers have access to that data based on other factors in the business. Just because you have a purchase receipt doesn't necessary mean the company has unlimited ability to trace that gift card, especially since I strongly doubt that receipt has the gift card number printed on it, which then takes us back to tracing it, while keeping in mind the rest of this paragraph. Which is why I suggested contacting corporate.

Canada may have completely different rules about this for Turkeytop. Maybe bmw can comment on this as he seems more of an expert about business technology and possibly PCI regulations and compliance.



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Turkeytop
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Re: Gift Cards

Post by Turkeytop » Thu Dec 02, 2021 3:43 pm

So, the store is in Florida. Won't find out til I get back there next month.


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.

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Turkeytop
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Re: Gift Cards

Post by Turkeytop » Sun Feb 13, 2022 10:03 pm

The answer is yes. It was a women's store called Burlington. I took my receipts in and explained what happened.

The woman told me she didn't have the authority to issue a new card but gave me the toll free number for customer service.
When I called, the woman there told me to mail in the receipts. I did and they sent me a replacement $100 gift card in the mail.

I intercepted the mail that day before my wife saw it and now it's hidden away until next Christmas.


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.

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ZenithCKLW
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Re: Gift Cards

Post by ZenithCKLW » Sun Feb 13, 2022 10:22 pm

Great news!



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