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]

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@isudiro13 wrote:
lol... well I live in NSW, seller is in QLD 🙂

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My seller was in VIC, but that card was also used at Liquorland in SA

Same scammer.

He's monitoring eBay card auctions and when he sees a card number (as you can in some listings), he clones it.

It's simple to get the PIN at the coles card website, just start at 0001 and keep going to 9999. AFAIK the site does not lock you down after say 10 or 20 attempts. I wrote to Coles about this but they blew me off (cnuts)! 

I was luckier than you in that my seller made good on the funds, seeing that he had made the mistake of posting the give-away photo

[kzb888]

Well sometimes mail does have a way of ending up all over Australia before it gets to the correct destination 

And my previous post was just a bit of banter 

[isudiro13]

Thanks, 

I can print the gift card history online and see that the card was used on the 5th, and from the auspost tracking history that i picked it up from the post office on the 8th.

Before I submit the ebay money guarantee, I actually sent email to ebay rep and she replied positively below, so hopefully gift card is covered by ebay money guarantee...

Thanks for contacting eBay about the significantly not as describe Coles myer gift card you recently received. I'm more than happy to help you in this concern.

I understand how frustrating it is to wait for the item to arrive and then will found out that the item is not usable or zero balance. No worries, since the item is significantly not as describe, all you need to do is to open a track request. here's how:

1.    Find the item under My eBay and select Purchase history.

2.    Locate the item and click Return this item.

4.    Choose the reason why you want to return the item, create a message of your concern and then choose the carrier then click request a return.

5.    The seller now has 4 business days to respond and make things right.

6.    The seller may respond with:

a message

a refund

a partial refund

Be sure to open a request no later than 30 days after the confirmed or estimated delivery date to be covered by the eBay Money Back Guarantee. You may open a request after this time to communicate with the seller but it won't be covered by the eBay Money Back Guarantee.

We're glad that you communicated with us and brought this matter to our attention. I want to assure you that this case was taken into account when we evaluate the seller’s performance.

Thank you for choosing eBay and always keep safe.

[isudiro13]

Yep 

[robinsonmarineparts]

Ok, all the best, please keep us updated.

[isudiro13]

I actually sent email to Coles Myer and they told me to go get police report so they can investigate further.

Regardless of the outcome from ebay, I will file police report and get Coles Myer to investigate

[mark.wooba]

I wish you well, friend. It's a horrible feeling, being cheated.

This could be a difficult case to resolve, because the seller sent it to you in good faith and the credit was debited by a 3rd party after the item left the seller's hands.

I just hope the eBay MBG works for you! Holding thumbs here.

[kopenhagen5]

You guys may have uncovered a scam that none of the card issuers or authorities are aware of yet.

[robinsonmarineparts]

How do you know that the seller sold it in good faith>

Don't say that it was used in S.A  so it can't be the seller.

[isudiro13]

well the seller had 150+ feedback @ 100%