FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - issues with Hyatt gift card

Aug 23, 2016, 6:38 pm

#280

seawolf

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Join Date: May 1998

Location: NYC

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Posts: 14,638

Quote:

Originally Posted by SportsTech

I agree with Mary2E, there's a fairly simple audit trail for almost anyone who paid for a card that was drained. I still have the PDF for the cards I bought from Cardcash, and a Paypal receipt to prove I paid for them. And I have (Hyatt) Visa card receipts for every Hyatt stay between the time I bought the electronic gift cards and the time I tried to use them. So I can prove that I bought the card, and I can prove that I didn't use it. Someone else did, and Hyatt can easily find out who it was; what they do about it I don't need to know - but I hope they (Hyatt) follow through and bust somebody, and they should make me whole regardless.

More to the point of this post's title - I bought my first set of these cards on eBay after Hyatt confirmed - in this forum - that the eBay seller was legitimate and that Hyatt sometimes sold these cards to resellers. I would never have purchased a card from a private individual on eBay, but a legitimate reseller? Sure, since hyatt told me it was ok:

Here's the thread this quote came from.

Small Claims would never find in favor of the eBay buyer when the seller proves - via Kalboz' first post in this forum - that the cards had the balance they were supposed to have when Kalboz first got them,

In my opinion, this is a lot better class action suit than Small Claims action; I think a good attorney could prove, with a bit of discovery, that Hyatt sold Cardcash the remaining balance of the gift card inventory at a huge discount knowing that some of CardCash's customers would experience fraud, and I'm further guessing that they promised to reimburse CardCash for claims that occurred within CardCash's 45 day refund window - giving Hyatt a way to get out of the business and essentially paying CardCash to take the heat from anyone like me who was dumb enough to buy a card that I didn't use within 45 days. CardCash has to have known about the fraud issue before they got into bed with Hyatt, it's all over the 'net, and I bet there's correspondence somewhere that proves Hyatt would make good any of CardCash's losses.

Very sleazy behavior on Hyatt's part, and I'm sorry I (and Kalboz, and anyone else who bought these cards in good faith and got ripped off) ever listened to Hyatt's representation that the deals/dealers were legit. And I'm outraged that Hyatt hasn't taken any responsibility for the mess I believe they knowingly created.

If you can track the the card as You->CardCash->Hyatt, then easy to claim you are rightful owner as you indicated. But who knows if Kalboz's card and others on ebay is the same.

It could been Kalboz->elizabethperez55->CardCash->Hyatt or it could be Kalboz->elizabethperez55->elizabethperez55's uncle->another ebay account that is fly by night=trial goes cold and from Hyatt's side they sold it Jane Doe but used by John Smith. Kalboz might have receipts showing payment was made to elizabethperez55 and also provide evidence Kalboz was not at the hotel at the time the gift card was used. But it doesn't necessarily mean Hyatt should make Kalboz whole.

My point is Hyatt knowing when/where it was used is not enough to "make whole" until you go thru the legal system to establish who is the real owner.

In the meantime, I would think the continuing losses from replacing gift cards of those purchased directly from Hyatt would give them financial incentive to change/fix their gift card security shortcoming.

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