Remember Charlie? She couldn’t buy a computer from Apple because they wouldn’t accept more than 4 gift cards in one transaction over the phone or on the website. Charlie lives 3 hours away from the nearest Apple store, and the product she wanted to buy wasn’t available in the store anyway. Hardly worth a 6 hour commute!
gift cards
Apple Won't Sell You A Computer Because You've Got Too Many Gift Cards
By 3.2.07
So I called 1-800-My-Apple to speak with someone who could maybe help me. The first person I spoke to, after putting me on hold two or three times to speak to supervisors, tried to sell me a printer and speakers, saying that I could use four gift cards, plus a credit card to buy the computer, and use up the remaining cards for my accessories. I was confused and upset, and before I became rude thanked him for his time, and ended the phone call.
Cardavenue Doesn't Respond To Fraud Claims or Emails?
By 2.15.07
The idea behind Cardavenue is interesting. If you get a gift card you don’t like, you can trade it for another using their site. They charge a fee and ostensibly offer some protection against fraud. They don’t, however, answer their emails or process their claims, and that makes us sad.
Kid Buys 103 $.01 Gift Cards From Best Buy
By 1.19.07
- Had some trouble getting them, apparently me doing this 2 other times has sparked the interest of the management and they’ve received an e-mail not to let anyone do this anymore. I’d like to think this is solely because of me because this was an original idea of mine. I’m sure someone may have done this before, but I have not heard of anyone else doing such a thing. In any case, I was informed about not being able to do such a thing last night when I tried, my mom went in a quite a rage and I told her we’ll just try again today and hopefully it will be like when Hillary did it for me the 2nd time with no questions of whether or not you can do it. Nikki (left) was more than happy to, we got to around 38 when another cashier recognized me from last night, she said we couldn’t and she called up the manager. The manager tried telling us that we couldn’t do this without us even giving a say in the matter. Thats when my mom became upset again and she pointed out how often we come here and how much we spend, and that she had talked to the number they gave us last night to give it approved and they said it was okay. The manager was silent after that, I wanted to laugh, but I held it in.
More inside.
The Gift Card Economy
By 1.8.07
- Next year, if you need a gift for a strict rationalist, consider cash. If you want to appeal to someone’s wild self, you’ll have to use your imagination. And if you’re hoping to send a little something extra to the shareholders of Best Buy or the Gap or Tiffany, consider a gift card.
And get a month-to-month gym membership. —MEGHANN MARCO
Gift Cards Are The Most Popular Gift
By 12.19.06
The 2006 Deloitte report on gift cards is out, and it’s official. Gift cards are the single most popular gift this holiday season. But are they a good buy? Sort of. It seems that due to consumer pressure, and FTC pressure, stores are improving their customer service/disclosure of fees when it comes to gift cards. But that doesn’t meant there aren’t still a lot of problems. The Montgomery County, Maryland, Office of Consumer Protection which assesses dozens of cards annually, has released their 2006 report. The report evaluates 40 different gift cards, looking for things like whether or not the card can be replaced if lost or stolen, whether the cards have an expiration date, and whether fees are assessed to the card’s balance. Basically, you want to avoid the following cards:
Unused Gift Cards Profit Retailers By $4.8 Billion
By 12.19.06
Six percent of this year’s gift cards will go unused, netting retailers $4.8 billion in free money, the AP reports.
Wells Fargo VISA Gift Card’s Hidden Fees
By 12.18.06
Wells Fargo touts its prepaid VISA gift cards as “the perfect gift” and has sold over a million, but perhaps they would sell a little less if people knew about these terms and conditions, flushed out by Mouse Print:
Best Buy Employee Tries to Steal Your Gift Cards
By 12.9.06
Reader Alex sends us a tip about the a scam that he learned about while working at Best Buy. Here’s the scam:
Buy McDonald’s at the Grocery Store. Sorta.
By 11.17.06
From Business Week:
” Supermarket operator Safeway Inc. said Tuesday its Blackhawk Network unit agreed with McDonald’s Corp. to sell the burger chain’s prepaid shopping cards.
BestBuy Doesn’t Want You Using Your Gift Card?
By 11.2.06
Does Best Buy have a policy designed to trick you into not using your gift card?
WalMart. Always Low Compassion, Always.
By 9.18.06
Running low on gas and stuck with nothing but a gift card WalMart won’t let you use? Far from home? Screwed? In your desperation, don’t try to sell the card at a loss to another customer. Wal-Mart will call the cops on your soliciting ass. Then they’ll throw you out of their parking lot and call you a “vagrant.”
Hit the Monkey and Win a PSP
By 3.30.06
Gizmodo IM’d us an online offer to analyze and we chatted. Because we’re the Gawker Media Network and we never stop being excruciatingly witty for you.
