Best Buy Accepts 12 Year Old Gift Certificate Without Complaint
Jon wrote back with the results of his attempt to redeem a gift certificate that's over a decade old.
Happily, my story ends with no drama. I went to the Springfield, IL BestBuy and went straight to the customer service counter when we wanted to check out. Gail had indeed never seen such an anachronism, but she handled it without a complaint. She had to bring in another representative, but they immediately gave me the credit on my purchase and planned to sort out the accounting later.
A good story to tell is certainly worth $40, but I'm nonetheless pleased Best Buy honored the gift certificate without grousing.
"No drama" isn't what usually makes for a good post here on Consumerist, but we're happy that this worked out all around. Now we're going to go dig through old Christmas and birthday cards for overlooked scraps of paper.
"Will Best Buy Accept A Gift Certificate That's 12 Years Old?"
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Nice WOrk!!!
Dear Jon,
Your Welcome...
-The Printer
I had a similar experience with an old Target GC that dated from...uh, a long time ago. No idea why I misplaced a $50 GC, and if you remember how long it's been since Target gave paper gift certificates, you know this is OLD.
Me: "So, you think I can redeem this?"
Cashier: "Wow, that's old. Awesome!"
(Cashier grabs the GSTL, who comments similarly, thinks for a second, and takes it.)
Me: "That's great..."
GSTL: "Never expires means never expires. You loaned us $50 all that time for free..."
Me: "Heh. No more of that."
GSTL: "Pretty please? It works for the banks and the government..."
I had a pretty good chuckle and ended up up $50 of food and targetchotchkes that i didn't have at the beginning of the day.
I have obviously stumbled into an alternative reality. Which may or may not be better than my last one.
Next you'll tell me I can get sugar in my Mountain Dew!!!!
@temporaryerror:
"No drama" isn't what usually makes for a good post here on Consumerist.
BOTH sides should be the priorities of consumerist.com. It should be a Consumer advocacy site, not just a complaint site.
If Businesses step up, I would rather know THAT than a mistyped sign or gaffe.
This is an "Above and Beyond" story.
No merchant is obligated to accept old gift certificates (except in California), and most certificates have either an expiration date, or begin deducting a small amount after roughly a year until it gradually reaches zero.
Worst Buy only accepted it because they knew we Consumerist readers were watching and if they didn't there would be this huge story. haha
I had a 15 dollar gift certificate from Reward Zone (for buying a shitload of things on Black Friday) that expired - and they took it graciously.
(I live in Texas, but I don't know the rules concerning expiration dates)
I've been noticing that best buy seems to be focusing more on service lately. My husband and I were there a couple of weeks ago and all the employees seemed eager to help. Of was almost creepy.
@FrugalFreak: I totally agree with you, Frugal, we should be encouraging good consumer friendly behavior as well as highlighting the bad.
Damn, I was hoping for a BB Sucks post, not a BB Rocks post. Next thing you will be telling me is Cats and dogs are living together in harmony, and the world is at peace.
@lehrdude: What's with people assuming the worst in these situations? A few people expected the store manager the accuse the OP of counterfeiting the certificate.
Do you really think someone would go to the trouble to design and print a GC on a particular substrate, make sure it looks and feels properly aged, and then take Best Buy for a ride for a mere 40 bucks?
Up is down, right is left, the best golfer is black, and the tallest NBA player is Chinese.
Yeah, that joke is like 5 years old.
@Kimaroo: High unemployment rate. They are able to higher good help at a lower price... when things get better I imagine you'll see the same old guys as before who didn't really care.
That's awesome! I wish I had known this two years ago, after my father passed we found a stack of gift certificates we had given him over the years. Funny thing was he always asked for gift certificates... =\
@Ghosx: Actually, many of them are, depending on state laws, especially the older ones that didn't have the newer tricks to make them expire. This one had no expiration date and it was, in reality, simply an advance purchase that should have value as long as the business is in operation.
Best Buy gift cards are good forever. At least since they went to gift cards.
Though it was probably worth about $50 or $60 in 1996 dollars!
@Ghosx: Might I ask how you deduct value from a paper gift certificate? It's the first time I've ever heard of it happenning. Ussually it's either they take it or don't. No one busts out a calculator to determine fees.
Fifty bucks says they were watching this blog and knew in advance.
@sonneillon: Actually we haven't had much unemployment in Houston... You could be right I guess.. but most of them seemed pretty young, but did actually seem to care.. so who knows.
A few days ago when you posted the original stories, A best buy rep who surfs through all the consumerist complaints of BB read your article and informed all the BB locations that there was going to be old GC coming in and I want you to accept it no matter what!
@Munchtime: It's not whether I think somebody would, it's whether the store manager thinks somebody would.
i write to the tips@ email to tell them about a friend getting ripped off for 12k from citi and their anti id theift efforts and they ignore my email, and this story about someone saving 40 bucks gets put on ...
This old gift certificate is worth TWO worthless posts on consumerist.com!
KIDDING.
As a Geek Squad employee (and a newer one), I can say that there is a LOT of focus on customer service. Unfortunately, even with our high staffing levels, it seems that we still don't have enough people to help all the customers. And the customers that come in usually want to spend quite some time with whoever is helping them. I would say an average of 30 minutes in PC, Mobile Phones, and Geek Squad per customer. So even though we have 10 people working the PC section the size of a house, we can only help 20-40 customers per hour, when our traffic is usually two to three times that.
Geek squad is even worse. We are taking in an average of about 25 computers per day, and even with two full time employees and six part time employees we are falling behind. I'm going to have a decent chunk of overtime this week. Not to mention that most of the customers we receive want to (a) give their life story leading up to the current computer problem and (b) not pay anything for it to be fixed and/or (c) get a replacement right NOW under the protection plan instead of having it sent off as is standard. And they want to spend thirty minutes with you, even if the line is ten people deep (which happens a few times each day).
Honestly, we're about to crack down because we can't handle the work load. We're going to cut down our time per customer - if we can't identify the problem within our allocated 15 minutes, they will need to check it in and pay the diagnostic fee. We're also going to start requiring payment up front for operating system issues (currently just charging a diagnostic fee, even if we know there are virii, because the customer wants to be sure). That may sound harsh, but if they don't want to pay the price up front, then they are not likely to pay the price at any point. The 60 completed computers that customers won't pick up (almost all of them either not paid for and repaired or not repairable) are testament to that.
@FrugalFreak: "It should be a Consumer advocacy site, not just a complaint site."
If there are no complaints, then who needs advocacy?
@Zclyh3: So, Best Buy corporate sent memos to every Best Buy warning them that 1 person might come into their store and try to redeem a certificate that was over a decade old, then this customer service rep recognized the gift certificate, then they accepted it all based upon that memo?
I don't think so.
Barnes and Noble told me that their gift cards never expire too, but I haven't had a chance to test it out. I spend them as fast as I get them.
@Ghosx: Why, look! Here's the relevant IL law!
[www.ilga.gov]
Expiration dates must be clearly marked. Since, IIRC, there was no printed expiration date on the certificate, the law obliges Best Buy to take it.
Glad this was hassle-free for the OP!
Who waits twelve years to use a gift certificate?
What about the person who gave it to him?
Best Buy Accepts 12 Year Old Cash Without Complaint
The fact that no one would think this noteworthy highlights why gift certificates are terrible.
The best $40 Best Buy ever spent.
Fat Chance.
I work for Best Buy and if I ever tried to deny a customer's right to use a gift card, no matter how old, I'd probably be fired. One of Best Buy's selling points on gift cards is that they never expire for Pete's sake...
I use this Best Buy during the school year, it is 100 percent better than the ones in the chicago land area near me, they always have enough sale items and never try and force monster cables / extended warranties on you.
That's good to hear. Often times we only hear about a company when the do wrong. It's refreshing to learn that that is not always the case.