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...

[i-love-my-sheep]

Yep, it's causing all sorts of issues with new sellers. The reasoning behind it was to try and stop scam sellers, but it doesn't work because the scammers list a heap of $1 items and get their mates to buy them to get their feedback score up enough whereby they don't have their funds held (that was a long sentence, sorry!). 

PayPal tell you there are ways to get your funds released earlier, but for most, it hasn't worked unless they ring PayPal up. There have been a lot of complaints sent to the Financial Ombudsman Services. Mostly because long term establised sellers who open a new selling account are having these holds on their payments. it's got very messy.

[robinsonmarineparts]

NO.

[lyndal1838]

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@mark.wooba wrote:

Just finished speaking to PayPal about the $1500 purchase. PP representative said that physical Gift Cards ARE covered by the PayPal Buyer Protection. They are only not covered when they are digitally transferred gift cards.

She agreed the tracking number was not showing any activity and placed a hold on the funds.

I asked her to note on the case that the buyer (me) had been told that this transaction IS covered by the PayPal Buyer Protection.

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It seems that you were very lucky to strike a paypal rep who does not know the paypal policies.

Gift Cards are NOT covered for paypal protection.

[lyndal1838]

If the OP's son has given him legal advice I would say his son has not read the paypal T & C.....they are very clear....Gift Cards are not covered full stop.  It has nothing to do with digital delivery.

[lyndal1838]

Why should the son call you?   Is he involved in this discussion other than being mentioned in the OP?

[mark.wooba]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

It seems that you were very lucky to strike a paypal rep who does not know the paypal policies.

Gift Cards are NOT covered for paypal protection.

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You are wrong. I was insistent that she ask her supervisor if that is correct, and she did. The supervisor confirmed. She said that a physically deliverable item that Did Not Arrive (no proof of delivery) WAS a covered item. This is not a claim about missing credit (an intangible) ... that may be a different issue. If you are in doubt, call them yourself and ask. Easy as. I think the Buyer Protection Policy is written in the broad way it is to give PP a lot of wiggle room.

[polly.the.cat]

Ya!!!!    The SMALL PRINT, it is in every Contract, you will find it most likely at the very bottom of the Agreement you are undertaking.

Like lyndal 1838 has mentioned, l myself have always thought, or at the very least been under the impression "Gift Cards" are not covered, due to the ability of manipulated Fraud.

One should always read all the Provisions of an Agreement, what is covered or not covered, .....it is in the small print.

[black*poppy]

I would think that the OP's authority on the matter given that he has actually talked to Paypal would more accurate than YOUR reading of the T&C's.  I'm sure paypal know their own policies.

[polly.the.cat]

Sorry, this post is directed to mark.Pot   not to lyndal 1838.  My mistake, my keyboard has a mind of its own and a life of its own at times, l know that lyndal knows what she is talking about, so l was not correcting her.

Sorry, lyndal 1838. 

[black*poppy]

Name-call all you like, my statement still stands and you just look silly.

LOL