Has anyone ever had a problem where they purchased a gift card, then gave it to someone as a gift and they tried to use it and it was invalid? We had this happen recently - got a gift card to a steak house (national chain), but when we went to pay the card was empty. FORTUNATELY, the manager decided to pay for it anyway, so we didn't have to pay for it. I guess he told me that there have been scams, where people buy a gift card using cash, then the employee pockets the money and gives them an empty gift card. This has made me extremely paranoid with buying gift cards. When I do, I usually include the receipt to be safe.
I would not bother with gift cards to be honest. You are basically forcing them to use them at a specific store or restaurant, of which they may not even really like. I had to tell my parents to cool it with the gift cards last X-mas, because they got me like $200 worth of them from every stinking place under the sun - $5 here, $10 there... And I don't even shop/eat at most of those places, and I would have much rather had the money in total because I wanted to get a new phone at the time. I am not surprised there are employees pulling these scams, especially around the holidays when money is tight. You should definitely alert the person who bought it for you, so they can go back and complain to the store that sold it to them. If it's recent enough they may be able to track down the person that sold it to them. I'm surprised they don't just have self-service machines for gift cards - or perhaps they do, but not in my area. I've heard of similar scams when places like Wal-Mart ask you if you want cash back when paying with your debit/checking card at the register. They will sometimes take extra cash out for themselves too.
My mom did. She tried to buy Visa Gift Cards and I think the store charged her more than what she wanted to put on it. They said there was an activation fee or some kind. Ridiculous! And I hate how those Gift Cards charge someone if they don't use all the money that's on it by a certain time. What is the point of having a Gift Card if it's going to be treated like a Credit Card. I don't get it.
Yeah, I definitely wouldn't buy those Visa Pre Paid Debit cards to give to someone. Just give them cash. Those activation fees are beyond ridiculous. Or if you don't want to give cash, just buy them gift cards to a store or restaurant. Anything but the Visa cards.
The same thing happened to us! It was terribly embarrassing, for one thing, and it just made me really angry as well that it would even be a problem but I guess like you said, some people just want to scam and pocket the money for themselves . That was nice of the manager to still basically honor it, at least. Between hearing about things like this happening frequently, the fact that it has happened to us personally as well *and* the fact that you have to pay more than the money value just to get/activate a gift card, I'd honestly rather just stick with giving the person money if that's the direction that we decide to go in.
I haven't had any problems myself, but I don't get or give many of them. Last one I got was to Kohls several years ago and to this day in have never even stepped I to a Kohls. I think my family finally figured out that giving me a $20 card to a store that is a 45min or more bus ride away won't motivate me to go there. Unless you know the recipient shops at that place a lot, don't give a gift card. Cash is better because them thu can look at more stores if they don't find the right thing the first time.
