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...

[mark.wooba]

My initial optimism was misplaced. Referring back to case #3 in my original post, the Woollies card arrived 10 minutes ago by express post, but when I go to check the balance at https://manage.everydaygiftcards.com.au/ I get the error message: You have failed to log in to the Card transaction summary page. Please check your 19 digit Card and PIN Numbers and try again

This is a used or suspended card.

[polly.the.cat]

mark,  With the Woolies ones, it should say after you put in the 19 pins, e.g.  Balance $18.67   or Balance $0.00  and there should be a 1300 number there for you to call, and get a on-line History of the Transactions for that said "Gift Card".

It could be some one has Sold you a Doggy Card, or a used one. Try to talk to a Woolies Supv.  Hope it works out for you.

[mark.wooba]

I called the 1300 number and got the automated message: "this card is cancelled" There was no option to talk to anyone. I've emailed them

[polly.the.cat]

Okay, now we are getting somewhere. You see when the card has zero Balance on it, means that all purchases have used up the Credit of your card.  NOW, when it said to you that the card has been Cancelled, well, that is a different matter.  The only two persons who can cancel the card you have are 1)  The Original Purchaser (not you.)  & 2)  Woolies themselves, due to a Card Reported Lost, Stolen, or could even be by internal Staff Theft, (not unheard of)

What area & State are you in ?   Please do not give me your address, l do not need it.  What is the closest Woolies to you ?

I will try to put you in contact with your Local Woolies Operations Manager, it is the least l can do for you. 

[mark.wooba]

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.

[mark.wooba]

Thanks, I am in a rural area but I can ask my local Woolies manager, whom I know well.

This case is already with eBay and I think it's up to the seller to simply refund me now. He sold me a cancelled card ... what more it there to say?

[polly.the.cat]

Okay mark, all good, will leave it in your hands.  Please come back here to tell us the outcome, so that we all may learn for the future.

Sorry that you have had to go through this.  Go Get The Seller !!!!!  At the very least, an explanation is due to you, if not more.

Follow it through though, do not let up.  Hope that the outcome is a good one for you.

[2011.narelle]

Your original post was more a statement asking others to comment.

You already had your answer on what to do when things go wrong with these transactions & you informed posters of how it was going to go.

It's an odd thread.

So you know the local Woolies manager & you claim to get these gift cards at a bargain yet sometimes pay more than the face value of the card.

Why do a large amount of gift cards sell for above the face value?

50% of these above price cards are BIN,not my figures but University of Chicago study on this phenomenon.

[mark.wooba]

I never buy above price BIN, afaik. Maybe sometimes on auctions ... get caught up with it. I am continuing the thread because I said I would relate how these problems pan out. Others have asked for updates.

[2011.narelle]

Nov 15 Woolies Wish Card,Value $478 but you paid $500

Nov 19 Coles Gift Card,Value $50 & you paid $52.11

Postage perhaps on top of that.