sam_goh

The # on the back of the gift card seems to be outsourced overseas. Didn't have a lot of traction and a lot of wheel spinning/script reading. Finally transferred to main Hyatt support and there has been quick action. 4 of the compromised GCs will be replaced, for some reason 1 GC is "inactive" and will need to be tracked down. Gift checks are no longer issued and are not an option.

Mary2e

I had 2-$25 EGC which I received from MyPoints last October. They both had pins. I checked them last night and one of them was drained in April and the other is still good.

I called in and after being transferred to several people, and finally to consumer affairs, I was told that unless I had the receipt they could not do anything. Luckily, I still had the email from Mypoints with the link the the card and I forwarded it to the rep. With any luck, I'll get the $25 back. It appears they will not replace them for anyone unless they were purchased from Hyatt. That's why I hope that the email/link I sent them is enough.

What is the point of having pins if they still can be compromised? And why are they still selling them? This is a big problem.

**UPDATE*** I received a replacement EGC in email about an hour ago. I sent in the proof around 7pm last night. No complaints from me.

jasonpaulF

I recently had this issue as well about a month ago but was not so lucky, consumer affairs didn't care to replace my drained one, so I ended up having a friend who works at one of the Hyatt locations find out the location and a better time frame where it was used and calling my credit card company, I can ask him to find out where it was used if you would like? What was the ECG number that had been drained? and I can ask and see if maybe he can help.

Mary2e

Thank you. But I had the documentation from when I received the card from MyPoints and it was replaced in under 24 hours.

They did tell me that without the receipt they would not have been able to do anything.

britinva79

I went to use a $200 GC that I had bought using the Amex sync deal last December. They swiped the card at the hotel and they told me it was empty. It seems that someone drained the card two months ago. I guess I should have paid closer attention to the balance. Luckily the hotel manager happened to be there and he checked my history of stays and where the card had been used and agreed to reach out to Hyatt Gift Card customer service on my behalf. Great proactive customer service to help resolve the issue. Hyatt is going to send me a new card, which I will need to use quickly to avoid the same issue I think.

sam_goh

Most of my GCs have been replaced. Hyatt corp sent 4 EGCs with pins. The 5th card in the sequence which hasn't been hacked yet (and that I can 100% guess the number to), will not be replaced as it hasn't been compromised. A last card that was inactive, the property itself had to replace. Unfortunately they only have cards without pins.

THECLIPPERS

Got screwed again from CardCash. Beware of this unscrupulous company.

tom911

That really doesn't tell us much. What happened?

GeorgeLopez

I guess I've had good luck. I've bought tons of Hyatt Gift Cards from Ebay and Paypal Gifts and have never had an issue. The GC's that I have don't have pin codes, not sure if that makes a difference.

Daniel DelPercio

I have been repeatedly lied to by Hyatt staff and to top it off, have had some $250.00 stolen from me with no explanation other than, "Oh, your gift card expired!"

First, the staff wouldn't let me book the hotel with a gift card - but made me pay up front with my credit card, promising me that I would be able to use it upon checkout.

Upon checkout, they told me that the card had expired and I was out of luck!

$250.00 stolen from me by Hyatt.

The manager of the Hacienda Del Mar in Dorado, Puerto Rico told me to leave the card with her and they would take care of it, someone would call me and of course the Hyatt wouldn't just steal my money like that...

Well, they did steal my money just like that. No phone call ever came, the charges stay on my credit card and they kept the gift card. Lies followed by more lies.

THIEVES!

I don't know how they get away with this.

This was not handled professionally at all -
* I have no explanation
* I was repeatedly lied to
* The staff was unprofessional
* I have had $250.00 stolen from me by Hyatt with no explanation whatsoever.

These gift cards are a scam; I will never stay at a Hyatt again. I hope they enjoy their stolen $250.00 because they will never get another cent from me as long as I live.

BTW - This isn't over.

tom911

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

Where did you buy the gift card?

Where do you live? California, as an example, prohibits gift cards from expiring. I can't recall purchasing any with expiration dates on them.

Tom in Sydney, Australia today

sam_goh

Heart skipped a beat yesterday when I used one of the 5 $1K GCs I had replaced. New employee said sir, there's only $100 on this card. Turns out false alarm and was able to use, at a *very* nice exchange rate 18.8pesos per USD at checkout.

writetorich

I AM LOOKING AT A SELLER who I had a bad experience with so I am not mentioning their name, -- "Don't want to advertise them :"

However they had about 300 cards ALL in precisely even denominations
from a high for precisely $200 , followed by $100, Followed by $50.00 yesterday at a" flash sale"

I have to think that the certificates come from Hyatt directly to these shady third party sites.

what do others think?

i.e. Hyatt is using a private channel to sell certificates and hope to build incremental additional revenue.


Do others agree?


Also I think that if the theft occurred from the lower discounted cards i.e 10% directly from Hyatt incentives, it is inside fraud by Hyatt employees.
Why would it be so hard for Hyatt to look at the video camera at check out , where all or part of the cards , whether from Hyatt or Card Pool etic and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.

Now a card sold by an individual for 213.32 can be fraud by either the individual lister or the discount broker ( remember they don't carry inventory.
There are no costs of goods sold . My hassle has been declined for "security reasons". I literally spend a huge amount of money on line and have had problem with a paltry $50 purchase as a new customer.
I think they operate on low , tight margins are are overly leery .


However back to my point of question, If a site has several hundred cards for precise even denominations $200 , $100 who could the seller be?

Also had does a consumer come into a $213.32 card??? either a reservation is refundable or its not. I have not seen vouchers issued instead of cash refunds as a compromise.

Whereas Amtrak has an official policy of issuing e vouchers on non refundable fares cancelled before travel.

A certain seller had a "24 hour flash sale at 23% off yesterday with well more than $200 cards -- all at even denomination amounts.

who do people think is the seller ( I say Hyatt ) and why can't Hyatt either:

1=improve I.T. for security
2- prosecute useage ( theft)
3- stop selling through these channels if they won't do either of the above.

For G-d sake , the 10% directly from Hyatt where one would think that there is ZERO transaction risk , get "stolen" -- This has to be Hyatt employees. Sure Hyatt makes good on their OWN "official" sales, but its a lot of hassle for 10%


Also it says not valid with other hyatt "special offers"?
Could I book a virtuoso reservation and pay with these?
Is that premium travel agent another "special offer"?
what constitutes a special offer?

sam_goh

Your post is a little hard to follow since you're a little passionate about this.... but ok here we go.

Cards can be even denomination (as that's normally how any gift card is sold) or odd (e.g. left overvalue having been used at a stay elsewhere). I don't think odd values are definitely fraud.

I also do not think that fraudulent gift cards are being sold directly by Hyatt for "incremental revenue". This makes no sense given that they are replacing any GC that was directly sourced from themselves and licensed resellers and eating the cost.

What Hyatt is not reimbursing, is cards sold by 3rd party vendors, or may have been sold second hand to resellers. Contrary to what you believe, the COGS is not 0 to resellers. They still have to pay their suppliers, e.g. whoever sold them the gift card. And yes, their margins are tight.

Also, while it could be employee fraud, I don't think that's the most likely issue. I can tell you that their numbering system is compromised. It is trivial to buy one working card, and be able to extrapolate 9 other cards with 100% accuracy. If one were really bent on mayhem, you could buy cards from all over, extrapolate the numbers and then quick resell/scam/use. Each card gets you 9 other potential cards.... and you see how this is becoming an exponential problem.

So let's think about things that Hyatt can and cannot do. They are really hemmed in by backwards compatibility.

Replace all cards - nope no can do, millions of cards out in the wild, without ability to trace ownership. Think about all the random cards still out there, who do you even start contacting?

Require pin - another easily defeated mechanism. As Mary noted above, her pin cards were hacked. How? An example would be chip cards today being cloned. Backwards compatibility is easily exploited. When you swipe a chip card, the mag stripe tells the card reader this is a chip card, please insert instead of swipe. Well... a cloned mag stripe can be programmed to say this is not a chip card, and then it allows the mag stripe version of transaction processing. That could be one possible way that pin on the Hyatt GCs are being negated.

Prosecute people who use stolen GCs. I admit when I had $6K of GCs compromised this was my first inclination. But if you think about it further - how many innocent people might get caught up in the wash? There are plenty of FT'ers that have bought GCs because of discounts. Is it their fault that the GCs were stolen? How would you even prove they knew in a court of law? Imagine the PR backlash if Hyatt started demanding payment from clients after the fact?

And lastly - Hyatt GCs can't be easily processed other than at a hotel. Their reservations system isn't possible, nor by other 3rd parties. If you have a rate that is non pre-paid, and can pay at the front desk, you can pay using GCs. Otherwise you're SOL. As a side note, one workaround is to prepay a rate using a credit card, then asking for a refund and paying using a GC at checkout when on property, but that's a lot of hassle.

Mary2e

Also note that Hyatt isn't selling the cards directly. It's a fulfillment service located in MD.