pepper08088

Hi Guys
I have a problem. I bought some visa gift cards from staples last month, but one with $200 was not activated, what should I do? When I called the number on the card, I was told to contact the seller. but I checked the receipt. it seemed that no card number is printed on the receipt.

Besides, I bought some 200 visa debit cards from three office max last month. There is one that was not been activated. The worse thing is that I can not know which office depot that I bought from among those three.What should I do?

Stripy

I'd start by figuring out if you which brand of Office supply store you went to (bolding mine). You start of by saying the problem was with Visa GCs from Staples but you then go on to name two more office supply stores.

townhurst

I thought when you buy your gift card, it automatically activates itself?

Man, you're out of luck.

You should have used it right away or check the balance.

pepper08088

Sorry, my bad, simple to say, one is from staples, another is from office max.
they are both not activated

ckgunn01

Oh the pitfalls of playing the game, but not playing it well. You might be able to figure it out and get your money, but not without spelling out to the credit card company (I'm assuming chase) exactly what you did. May not be worth it.

pepper08088

Yes, I am out of luck. First time, I bought 10 from staples, one of them has not been activated. Second time, I bought many from three office max since there was a 10 off 200 deal. One has problem, I can not tell which office max that I bought from.

pepper08088

you are right.

ALadyNCal

I had this happen at OM last month. Fortunately, in with my Amazon GCs, I had bought a Cheesecake Factory GC. I went to the CF a to go order and immediately found out the cards weren't activated. Went back to OM and spent an HOUR getting it sorted out. But I had the original receipt and the little print outs that OM gives you (Staples and OD don't seem to print those out).

Not sure there is a resolution without the receipt

pepper08088

Thanks, that is what I am worried about, the gift card from staples, I bought on 6.1, I had the receipt, I will go and try to talk to their manager. However, about the card from office max, I can not know which receipt is for it, since I have a lot of transactions.

nwflyboy

Always keep your receipts until you have unloaded any gift card, and know which card goes with which receipt. Paper clips and sticky-notes are all you need to keep things organized. If you fail to do this very basic step, you leave yourself open to liability, as you have discovered. Honestly, if you're not careful about such things, you probably should not be playing this game.

You can try to go back to the store and/or contact the CG vendor, but without a receipt, I wouldn't count on much sympathy from either.

If that fails, consider it a $200 tuition payment.

pepper08088

Thank you for your reminder, I will be very careful next time. Thanks again!

babycakes01

Check your credit card statement.

I had something similar happen. A card I was buying from OM would not activate. The failure to activate message was received at the register and the transaction was cancelled with an account credit being automatically issued. The charge appeared on my credit card right away but it took the credit about five days to show up.

+1 on keeping all receipts with the cards.

pepper08088

Thanks guys, I will also do this.

recklessmax

You don't have anything to worry as long as you have the proof of purchase
The customer service for the gift card , cannot help. You can take the proof of purchase to the merchant and they should be able to provide you a complete refund. If a merchant sells a gift card which does not get activated at register customer is entitled to a full refund back to the method of payment or a replacement card which is fully activated by doing a cashin -cashout

If you lost your proof of purchase , you might need to do a little more work and headache. You will need to first have them retrieve the receipt using the credit card you used to pay for the gift cards by working with the manager or the book-keeper at the store. The receipt should have the numbers of the card activated and not activated.

The key is to keep the receipts till the cards are fully used and done with

satman40

I have then put mine in a bag along with the receipt. they can also email you the receipt.

Keep them all together till you are ready to activate them.

Yes it has happened to me, and I had my paperwork.

The Manager set on it for 60 days, and after that the credit cards company decided in my favor.