Gift cards the biggest fuck job.
 

got $100 in sharper image gift cards. go to the store buy some stuff and the change is $4.34 . I ask can I get that in cash? No it stays on the card, So now sharper image gets $4.34 for doing nothing because I doubt I will ever use it.

I remember reading some where that a few 100million a year in gift cards goes unused ... that's fucked up

big companies like Target, Wall Mart, Best Buy, etc... make millions from un-used gift cards. They actually saved some large companies from bankruptcy...

I believe it, I got a barnes and noble one I got for my bday a couple of years ago with a $1.77 on it. I forget to take it with me so I never use it.

A) you can still use the girft card. Anything over $4.34 that you'd just pay in cash

B) it's a GIFT card so I'm assuming it was a GIFT. So you didn't pay for it anyways. So STFU already.

oh it's way worse than that - do you know the % of gift certificates that don't get used before the expiry date? it's tens of millions of dollars and I think I read that there is a consumer law, maybe federal, that will make gift cards with expiry dates illegal. hard though to feel bad for anybody - somebody gives you a gift card you see the expiry date is a year, if somebody can't get off their lazy ass to go redeem it for something it's their own fault.

Thats called the natural shave

Next time you are in California bring your card and I think they will have to give you cash for it.

gift cards are a total fucking con job

he said cron job :1orglaugh

I dont shop there and even though its a gift its 4.34 the buyer of the gift gets fucked out of. If you dont like the thread you dont have to post. lol

that's right. i got FUCKED! :)

Um yeah. Basic business, guys. :)

amazon got some shady shit to their cards too, i try to use it from canada no luck to buy hdtvs and ship em here. But the gift certificate got locked to the canadian account..... shadiesh

Gift cards are now getting banned in some areas why?.

1.Some dont even let you pay the difference ,ie you have $6 left on the card and you offer to pay the other $4 to a product costing $10 and the store say no.

2. Some cards charge a monthly maintaince fee of like $1-2 bucks a month

the list of scams on gift cards is well known to canny shoppers :winkwink:

ps..and yes tony404 I agree its a total rip off

amazon is shady, I had a couple hundred dollars disappear from my gift card balance due to being expired and I contacted them to remind them that gift cards can't expire if recieved in California and they basically said sorry with no explaination and put my balance back.

It's smart biz....

i guess it's better than someone buying you something you don't like

Actually that is why they loved them so much in the beginning, the get the money up front and possibly some people will never use it logic. But that was being short sighted and greedy way of thinking. Now most of them have realized that when people come back in to use the cards they not only potentially get a new customer who has never been there before and may keep coming back, but the person never spends the exact amount, they spend more, and in some cases a lot more on other items while they are there. So the money they were making from people not using the cards was less then the new customers and sales they gained from people coming into use them. You will actually see some companies doing contest and prize give aways to get people to come in and use their gift cards.

The scam was back when they put expirations on that shit. I remember 1 year expiration was common for most gift certificates. Thats bullshit, how can you expire something that was paid for with cash to your store. I believe the govt stepped in and it was changed to several year min expiration date or none at all.

Tony, if you don't plan on going back you can sell it on ebay. I most cases you should get about 75% or so of the value of the card. So you should be able to find someone to buy it for about $70 on ebay if you want the cash instead.

It's called "breakage" and the national average is 15% that never gets used !