Gift Card Nightmares!

[mark.wooba]

I have an unbelievable story to tell here. I like buying Gift Cards on eBay because you sometimes get them at a nice discount. I rely on the eBay Money Back Guarantee, which appears prominently under the Buy button on gift card listings (I don't rely on PayPal with gift cards, because I know PayPal explicitly excludes gift cards from their buyer protection policy). In the small print, eBay does exclude "intangibles", but items sent by registered or trackable mail cannot be defined as intangibles.

This last month, I've been stung 4 times buying gift cards:

1) CARD ARRIVED WITH $440 MISSING CREDIT

Bought a $500 Coles gift card, but when it arrived it only had $60 credit. The PIN was still covered up. Turns out that the Seller had put a photo of the card number on the listing, so someone had taken the number, executed a brute force attack on the Coles gift card website until they got the PIN (Coles should stop this, you can execute unlimited tries with the PIN on their site, or could as of when this happened), then the thief had cloned the card with a magnetic strip reader/writer, and used $440 credit at Liquorland in SA (I am in QLD, seller in VIC).  Fortunately the seller was very nice and refunded me, and they took it up with the police, so this never became a PayPal or eBay claim.

2) SELLER USES ME FOR A CHEAP LOAN

Another seller sold me a $230 card and simply never sent it. 2 weeks later she emailed me "sorry, there is no crdit on that card and I have to refund you". The paypal refund was "pending" for 6 days, then failed. I wrote to seller asking for immediate refund. She then refunded me properly. The only explanation that fits is that she needed some money over Xmas, an interest-free short term loan, so sold a fake card to get it!

3) SELLER SELLS ME CARDS THAT NEVER ARRIVE

Another seller sold me a $400 Woollies card that simply has not arrived. It was supposedly sent by registered mail. Numerous attempts at getting the registration number for tracking purposes did not meet with success. I did get one email, via gmail, saying "I am so sorry for the problems with your purchase. I am looking into it now and will get back to you very very soon." I heard no more (that was 2 days ago). Ebay case opened, waiting for seller response, and no response after 2 days.

4) SELLER SELLS ME $1500 BUNNING GIFT CARDS, NO TRACE

Last week I bought about $1500 worth of Bunnings Gift Cards from a seller with a seemingly good feedback record. I was immediately given an Auspost Platinum Express Post reference number (next business day delivery), but 3 days later the number shows no activity on the Auspost site, the seller is not responding to messages, and it seems to have gone missing! I called Auspost and they say they have no information on that tracking number and that the sender must contact them...

Note that these purchases all happened more or less in the same time period, around Xmas and New Year, so I am now **extremely** wary of buying gift cards again on eBay.

I have yet to test whether the eBay Money Back Guarantee looks after me. I've been a member for 15 years and spent tens of thousands of dollars through eBay, so we'll see how they look after me. I would not have thought items sent via registered post, and clearly not sent (no tracking), could be written off as "intangibles". And there are legal implications to putting the "eBay Money Back Guarantee" logo under the "Buy" button on a listing, I am told (my son is a lawyer). So we'll see.

Comments welcome...

[digital*ghost]

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@mark.wooba wrote:
Yes, I brought that up to both CSRs I spoke to, and both assured me that this INR case would be covered.If it were a SNAD they may have said something else.

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I understand am not trying to dispute what the reps told you, or try to cause argument over that, 🙂 just thought it prudent to show that what they've said doesn't match the actual policy (with a view to others in the same position reading this thread and being under the impression the outcome will be the same as yours, when it may not be at all), as these eligibility requirements apply to both INR and SNAD (except in the case of custom made items, as noted above only SNAD isn't covered - the rest, it's meant to be INR and SNAD). 

[mark.wooba]

Let's see what happens. I was told the case gets resolved today.

[isudiro13]

I'm having issue similar to your case #1 with Coles Myer gift card.

Bought gift card $150 value of ebay on 1/1/15, Seller sent through registered post 2/1/15, Delivered on 8/1/15

when I tried to use it on the 8/1/15 the balance was $0

Tried to check the balance online and found out the balance was used at liquorland on the 5/1/15

Then I called the gift card hotline and found out it was used in liquorland in SA.

Unfortunately for me the seller does not want to return the money.

He stated that "I have provided proof item was sent with security cover intact on Jan 2nd. I feel all liability is now on the buyer to contact the appropriate bodies about any balance differences incured after the gift card left my possession"

I have submit the ebay money back guarantee and will ask ebay to step in on 15/1 and see how it goes.

[robinsonmarineparts]

Was it posted on the 2-1-15?

[isudiro13]

Yes it was.

can see that on the auspost tracking history online. 

it had post office stamp on that date as well on the envelope.

[black*poppy]

It could be a case of card cloning.

This was C&P from an earlier post in this thread:

Here's some interesting information for anyone buying GIFT CARDs on eBay: Google "cloning gift cards" to see how you can get ripped off.
https://www.google.com/search?as_q=cloning+gift+cards

If the eBay listing makes the card number visible, in any way (even if it is blurred or not completely blurred) someone will clone it and you will get a dud card.

[kzb888]

Looks like the postie stopped at liquorland first before he delivered it,did the postie look a bit **bleep** when he handed it over???

[isudiro13]

Yes that's probably what happened

[isudiro13]

lol... well I live in NSW, seller is in QLD 🙂

[robinsonmarineparts]

Ahh that's me then.

That's a tricky one, i have no advice for you, but i wish you nothing but the best with it.