Target just taught me a big lesson

[Iggyearl]

I'm not a big shopper, but it's my wife's birthday. Gift card from Target has worked before. So, there are no cards marked "Target" that say "Happy Birthday." I look down on the left and see a Target Visa card that says, "Happy Birthday." Great!! This will do the trick. Two $50 cards at the register costs me $110. Since there is one cashier open in the whole store (and a big line behind me), I pay and leave. Looking at the top right corner of the $50 card there is a small message that says "plus $5 Purchase Fee." My wife says later that Visa does that on gift card purchases. I should have gotten the card with the dog on it. Saved $10.

 

[tschwa2]

On the other hand, now she can use it anywhere, not just Target.

 

[WVBaker]

I'm not a big shopper, but it's my wife's birthday. Gift card from Target has worked before. So, there are no cards marked "Target" that say "Happy Birthday." I look down on the left and see a Target Visa card that says, "Happy Birthday." Great!! This will do the trick. Two $50 cards at the register costs me $110. Since there is one cashier open in the whole store (and a big line behind me), I pay and leave. Looking at the top right corner of the $50 card there is a small message that says "plus $5 Purchase Fee." My wife says later that Visa does that on gift card purchases. I should have gotten the card with the dog on it. Saved $10.

Not really a gift card person, but I'll bite, so to speak. What was different about the card with, "the dog on it"?

 

[clifffaith]

Not really a gift card person, but I'll bite, so to speak. What was different about the card with, "the dog on it"?

Dog card is a Target gift card -- no surcharge.

 

[wackymother]

And Target has other versions of its own gift cards with some really cute designs (other than the dog). Sometimes they have lenticular cards or cards with googly eyes! I used to love those for kid presents when our children were young.

 

[Passepartout]

I learned about this when I chose a short line at a local Albertson's. A couple guys ahead of me were buying gift cards for employees (it was just before Christmas) and the clerk was scanning them- dozens of them! I watched the screen readout as she scanned them and saw the $5 added to each card sale! That was an eye-opener to me!. Holy mackerel- no more Visa branded gift cards for me!

 

[mrsstats]

My bank has Visa Gift cards that don't cost you any extra as long as you maintain a balance of $250 in your account. I opened the account just for that reason

 

[pedro47]

This is why we purchased our gift only card at Naval Federal Credit Union. They do not charges any up front fees and their gift card never expires.

Plus, you can use their gift card any where.

Finally, the gift card amount only decreases as you use it.

 

[geekette]

And Target has other versions of its own gift cards with some really cute designs (other than the dog). Sometimes they have lenticular cards or cards with googly eyes! I used to love those for kid presents when our children were young.

Lifelong learner here, never knew "lenticular" so thank you.

 

[moonstone]

I learned about this when I chose a short line at a local Albertson's. A couple guys ahead of me were buying gift cards for employees (it was just before Christmas) and the clerk was scanning them- dozens of them! I watched the screen readout as she scanned them and saw the $5 added to each card sale! That was an eye-opener to me!. Holy mackerel- no more Visa branded gift cards for me!

Our DS used to buy about a dozen $100.00 VISA gift cards for his employees at Christmas. A couple of years ago he gave me one that he had bought in the batch as whatever I had asked for that year he didn't want to choose the model. He didn't really mind the $5. charge as he figured it was a small price to pay for the ease in buying something for his workers. When I took my card out of the package I saw that it was missing the last group of numbers, it had 12 instead of 16. Of course when I tried to use it, it was invalid. I called the 800 number and spoke to somebody. They asked if it looked like the card or the packaging had been tampered with, it had not. Then they asked me to take a photo or scan the front and back of the card and send it to them, which I did. After a week or so I got an email back saying they had other complaints and realized there was a printing/manufacturing problem which affected a whole batch of the cards. I was told to take the card with the original purchase receipt back to the store for a refund. Of course DS didn't keep the receipt. DS was embarrassed to think that the same thing probably happened to some of the other cards he bought although nobody said anything to him. He now goes to the bank and gets nice crisp $100. bills as gifts. VISA refused to re-issue the card or refund the cost even though they admitted the problem was theirs. I even contacted a consumer reporter with a Toronto TV news station who also got nowhere with VISA. Our whole family has quit buying those cards, and any gift cards we do buy we make sure to keep the receipt.


~Diane

 

[mentalbreak]

Our DS used to buy about a dozen $100.00 VISA gift cards for his employees at Christmas. A couple of years ago he gave me one that he had bought in the batch as whatever I had asked for that year he didn't want to choose the model. He didn't really mind the $5. charge as he figured it was a small price to pay for the ease in buying something for his workers. When I took my card out of the package I saw that it was missing the last group of numbers, it had 12 instead of 16. Of course when I tried to use it, it was invalid. I called the 800 number and spoke to somebody. They asked if it looked like the card or the packaging had been tampered with, it had not. Then they asked me to take a photo or scan the front and back of the card and send it to them, which I did. After a week or so I got an email back saying they had other complaints and realized there was a printing/manufacturing problem which affected a whole batch of the cards. I was told to take the card with the original purchase receipt back to the store for a refund. Of course DS didn't keep the receipt. DS was embarrassed to think that the same thing probably happened to some of the other cards he bought although nobody said anything to him. He now goes to the bank and gets nice crisp $100. bills as gifts. VISA refused to re-issue the card or refund the cost even though they admitted the problem was theirs. I even contacted a consumer reporter with a Toronto TV news station who also got nowhere with VISA. Our whole family has quit buying those cards, and any gift cards we do buy we make sure to keep the receipt.


~Diane

Interesting. Did you try your first 12 numbers with any the 10,000 possible last 4 numbers? One of them should hit if it was only a card printing problem and the actual activation was tied to a 16-digit card number.

 

[geekette]

Our DS used to buy about a dozen $100.00 VISA gift cards for his employees at Christmas. A couple of years ago he gave me one that he had bought in the batch as whatever I had asked for that year he didn't want to choose the model. He didn't really mind the $5. charge as he figured it was a small price to pay for the ease in buying something for his workers. When I took my card out of the package I saw that it was missing the last group of numbers, it had 12 instead of 16. Of course when I tried to use it, it was invalid. I called the 800 number and spoke to somebody. They asked if it looked like the card or the packaging had been tampered with, it had not. Then they asked me to take a photo or scan the front and back of the card and send it to them, which I did. After a week or so I got an email back saying they had other complaints and realized there was a printing/manufacturing problem which affected a whole batch of the cards. I was told to take the card with the original purchase receipt back to the store for a refund. Of course DS didn't keep the receipt. DS was embarrassed to think that the same thing probably happened to some of the other cards he bought although nobody said anything to him. He now goes to the bank and gets nice crisp $100. bills as gifts. VISA refused to re-issue the card or refund the cost even though they admitted the problem was theirs. I even contacted a consumer reporter with a Toronto TV news station who also got nowhere with VISA. Our whole family has quit buying those cards, and any gift cards we do buy we make sure to keep the receipt.


~Diane

Wow! thank you for sharing this serious customer service FAIL.

 

[bogey21]

I don't think a fee is all that outrageous for a card that can be used anywhere. Target is not a charity. Maybe $5 is too much but I don't have a problem with a fee...

George

 

[Talent312]

... He now goes to the bank and gets nice crisp $100. bills as gifts...

DW's former employer gave envelopes stuffed w-$100's for Christmas bonuses.
They averaged about $5K, but it was only a 12 person office.
Her job was to add it to the payroll and pay the withholding taxes for each.
,

 

[presley]

I've had similar experiences that have been posted here. I used to buy the Visa cards at the grocery store (so convenient to grab while buying groceries), but then I decided that if I was going to spend an extra $5. on the card, I'd rather give the $5. to my employees and starting giving cash instead.

I still buy Target cards once in a while, especially when I am mailing it to someone. I never mail cash, but if I hand an envelope to someone, it most likely will have cash inside of it. Since my credit cards often have cash back on gift cards (if purchased at grocery store, etc), I will buy those on occasion, but mostly that's for my own use.

 

[Timeshare Von]

Gift cards are money makers for the retailer and the banks. It doesn't seem like a lot of money, but the fractional percentages add up.

 

[jme]

OP, on this purchase, YOU were the Target.

 

[geekette]

Gift cards are money makers for the retailer and the banks. It doesn't seem like a lot of money, but the fractional percentages add up.

Yep, and a pile of disposable plastic.

 

[rickandcindy23]

We buy our store gift cards at our local King Soopers (Kroger) and get fuel points. I buy when fuel points are 4X. So we save $35 ($1 per gallon up to 35 gallons) buying the cards like Amazon, Target, Kohl's, Penneys, Macy's, etc. and for every $250 spent, we get $35 in free gas. Saves a bundle, and we get 1X point on our Chase Sapphire Reserve to boot. I know we would get the points on our Chase, wherever we buy, but I love the $35 savings in gas. The only drawback is we usually don't use them all and give the gas discounts to the kids. I also have oddball gift cards around here that I need to use, so I keep them alphabetized in small index-card sized file box. I do keep the receipts with the cards.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Yep, and a pile of disposable plastic.

And unused little bits on each card add up for the retailer and the card distributor. Big profit.

 

[Talent312]

Many restaurants offer extra bonus cards for GC buys around holidays.
I just used one with a GC at Carrabba's. The GC card has $0.80 left on it.
No way am I going to let that go to waste.
.

 

[Timeshare Von]

Many restaurants offer extra bonus cards for GC buys around holidays.
I just used one with a GC at Carrabba's. The GC card has $0.80 left on it.
No way am I going to let that go to waste.

We buy the G/C for ourselves at our favorite places as it give us a 20% discount thanks to the bonus cards!