Experience with fraud on purchasing gift cards via marketplaces (ebay, raise, card..)
Mar 15, 2014, 10:31 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 248
Experience with fraud on purchasing gift cards via marketplaces (ebay, raise, card..)
Recently on slickdeal saw the starbucks gift card discount offer on raise.com just wondering your experience with purchasing from them (ebay, cardpool, cardcash....) in terms of fraud. Would purchasing egift cards be any safer or riskier then physical gift cards?
Mar 16, 2014, 6:16 am
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 248
FWIW The starbucks egift card looks legit so far (registered the "card" on starbucks website with the amount being what I paid). I also purchased a Jockey egift card which was cancelled by the website which I assume means they thought it was fake.
Mar 16, 2014, 6:55 am
#4
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Land of the parrots and parrotheads
Programs: Several dozen
Posts: 4,820
You will find I do purchase a lot of discounted gift cards over several sites. At least a couple thousand worth a year. Many are discounted B&N gift cards as ADK, Jr.'s college bookstore honors them. My experience has been <1% have had issues. I suggest you go with cardpool or cardcash or other dedicated sites that do some seller checking or guarantees versus ebay. Physical cards and electronic cards have the same level of risk.
Mar 16, 2014, 9:32 am
#5
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 293
You will find I do purchase a lot of discounted gift cards over several sites. At least a couple thousand worth a year. Many are discounted B&N gift cards as ADK, Jr.'s college bookstore honors them. My experience has been <1% have had issues. I suggest you go with cardpool or cardcash or other dedicated sites that do some seller checking or guarantees versus ebay. Physical cards and electronic cards have the same level of risk.
Mar 16, 2014, 10:09 am
#6
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: PHL
Programs: All
Posts: 65
I buy several thousand a year as well from the big players. Use Giftcardgranny to compare who has the best prices on a particular card at a particular time. Only once did I have a problem with a card being used after I bought it and then I was given a credit from cardpool in short order.
Just make sure you use up the cards within the guarantee window.
Just make sure you use up the cards within the guarantee window.
Mar 18, 2014, 11:11 am
#8
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 28
I purchased a Starbucks gift card on Raise. I checked the balance when I got it and everything looked good. I transferred the balance to my registered Starbucks card to continue using the rewards program. The seller then reported it stolen.
Starbucks shut down my account, which was over 5 years old and zeroed my balance without contacting me (transferred+pre-existing balance). Hold times for customer service exceeded an hour and a half. There is no way to talk to the fraud department, customer service told me they would mail anything in excess of the fraudulent gift card balance to me in 30 days. They never sent it, but I was able to dispute my last load through Chase.
There was no hold time when I called Raise. They credited back the money I had paid for the gift card and apologized profusely. The agent specifically said they value my business and hoped that I would continue to do business with them. (I know customer service agents are all supposed to do this, but Starbucks didn't seem to care and this guy sounded genuinely distressed.)
This was in July of last year. I have continued to do business with Raise with no issues, but have no intention of returning to Starbucks.
Starbucks shut down my account, which was over 5 years old and zeroed my balance without contacting me (transferred+pre-existing balance). Hold times for customer service exceeded an hour and a half. There is no way to talk to the fraud department, customer service told me they would mail anything in excess of the fraudulent gift card balance to me in 30 days. They never sent it, but I was able to dispute my last load through Chase.
There was no hold time when I called Raise. They credited back the money I had paid for the gift card and apologized profusely. The agent specifically said they value my business and hoped that I would continue to do business with them. (I know customer service agents are all supposed to do this, but Starbucks didn't seem to care and this guy sounded genuinely distressed.)
This was in July of last year. I have continued to do business with Raise with no issues, but have no intention of returning to Starbucks.
Mar 18, 2014, 1:58 pm
#9
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 260
I've purchased over $15,000 in gift cards from Raise, Cardpool, and GiftCardZen in the last year.
Very rarely do I encounter any duds. When I do they've always been great about refunding the money within a few days.
I can't speak to the other retailers, but I have complete confidence in the three above.
Very rarely do I encounter any duds. When I do they've always been great about refunding the money within a few days.
I can't speak to the other retailers, but I have complete confidence in the three above.
Dec 9, 2014, 8:56 am
#10
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Dreamland
Posts: 926
I purchased a Starbucks gift card on Raise. I checked the balance when I got it and everything looked good. I transferred the balance to my registered Starbucks card to continue using the rewards program. The seller then reported it stolen.
Starbucks shut down my account, which was over 5 years old and zeroed my balance without contacting me (transferred+pre-existing balance). Hold times for customer service exceeded an hour and a half. There is no way to talk to the fraud department, customer service told me they would mail anything in excess of the fraudulent gift card balance to me in 30 days. They never sent it, but I was able to dispute my last load through Chase.
There was no hold time when I called Raise. They credited back the money I had paid for the gift card and apologized profusely. The agent specifically said they value my business and hoped that I would continue to do business with them. (I know customer service agents are all supposed to do this, but Starbucks didn't seem to care and this guy sounded genuinely distressed.)
This was in July of last year. I have continued to do business with Raise with no issues, but have no intention of returning to Starbucks.
Starbucks shut down my account, which was over 5 years old and zeroed my balance without contacting me (transferred+pre-existing balance). Hold times for customer service exceeded an hour and a half. There is no way to talk to the fraud department, customer service told me they would mail anything in excess of the fraudulent gift card balance to me in 30 days. They never sent it, but I was able to dispute my last load through Chase.
There was no hold time when I called Raise. They credited back the money I had paid for the gift card and apologized profusely. The agent specifically said they value my business and hoped that I would continue to do business with them. (I know customer service agents are all supposed to do this, but Starbucks didn't seem to care and this guy sounded genuinely distressed.)
This was in July of last year. I have continued to do business with Raise with no issues, but have no intention of returning to Starbucks.
I had bought a card from raise.com a couple weeks ago. I get Starbucks' POV here - except the wholesale cancellation of the entire card w/o notice, call or email (they email 2x's/day for everything else).
The first line for SBucks said nothing can be done except send me a new Gold card in the mail with a zero balance. I said please send, but get me up a notch on the CSR chain please - she said OK, but they likely wouldn't be able to do anything.
I did reason with the next person, and I think that helped resolution - I said it was fair to deduct the raise.com portion, but felt that Starbucks was always a consumer-friendly co, and this just felt "cold" - he agreed, and we figured out the correct balance that he would credit to my new card.
I called Raise right after, in 3 rings someone picked up, in 5 minutes they profusely apologized and submitted a full refund to my CC and couldn't be more pleasant and wanting to earn more business.
I'd just be careful with SBucks - I asked the Raise.com CSR about other co's she'd experienced like this - she said mainly seems SBucks aroudn holidays and in the summer cracks down like this... sometimes Dunkin.
Jan 26, 2015, 6:10 pm
#11
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 109
I got nailed by a Raise Starbucks card. I was annoyed at Raise for not warning customers that it could happen given it's a recurring issue. Yes, they refunded my money, but I still had to open a new Starbucks account. GiftCardZen now has a disclaimer about adding them to Gold Accounts (for good reason). In the future I'll buy one discounted card at a time and only add it when my previous balance is at or near zero. That way worse thing that happens is I have to make some phone calls.
Jan 27, 2015, 1:49 am
#13
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 503
Another vote for Raise. TCB offers 5% CB on most stores and 1% on a select few stores. If there is an eGC available on Raise (and it's not a store that is a bonus category on any of my CCs) that's how I do the purchase. There's no reason not to as I'm guaranteed at least 1% CB on top of my CC points/miles, plus whatever the discount is on the GC's face value. This is a great way to double dip too. I bought a $75 (for $71) Nordstrom GC to buy a Valentines Day gift for my fiance from something from Nordstrom. Got 5% CB from Raise for the GC purchase and 6.5% from Nordstrom for buying the actual item. After CB and the discounted GC I'll have paid $62.58 for a $75 item. Not bad for a couple extra minutes of work.
Just an FYI for others, even though a lot of eGCs on Raise say they're for online use only, I've had success going to stores and getting them to go through the GC replacement process, like they would for a damaged gift card, at customer service and getting a physical GC issued.
Just an FYI for others, even though a lot of eGCs on Raise say they're for online use only, I've had success going to stores and getting them to go through the GC replacement process, like they would for a damaged gift card, at customer service and getting a physical GC issued.
Last edited by ILGfly; Jan 27, 2015 at 2:00 am
Jan 28, 2015, 9:34 am
#14
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 90
Another vote for Raise. TCB offers 5% CB on most stores and 1% on a select few stores. If there is an eGC available on Raise (and it's not a store that is a bonus category on any of my CCs) that's how I do the purchase. There's no reason not to as I'm guaranteed at least 1% CB on top of my CC points/miles, plus whatever the discount is on the GC's face value. This is a great way to double dip too. I bought a $75 (for $71) Nordstrom GC to buy a Valentines Day gift for my fiance from something from Nordstrom. Got 5% CB from Raise for the GC purchase and 6.5% from Nordstrom for buying the actual item. After CB and the discounted GC I'll have paid $62.58 for a $75 item. Not bad for a couple extra minutes of work.
Just an FYI for others, even though a lot of eGCs on Raise say they're for online use only, I've had success going to stores and getting them to go through the GC replacement process, like they would for a damaged gift card, at customer service and getting a physical GC issued.
Just an FYI for others, even though a lot of eGCs on Raise say they're for online use only, I've had success going to stores and getting them to go through the GC replacement process, like they would for a damaged gift card, at customer service and getting a physical GC issued.
Jan 28, 2015, 2:32 pm
#15
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Fort Myers, FL
Programs: Hilton Gold, SPG & IHG Plat, & every airline program that I can join
Posts: 2,279
I too, buy a ton of gift cards from different sites. Cardpool is my favorite in that they refunded when I had a card emptied after the sale by the previous owner. Raise had to refund a bunch of Starbucks ecards that had no balance on any of them, and also on one that a guy never sent. I do not like the sites that simply list a card from someone who has to mail it to you themselves.
I prefer physical cards, but that said, make sure that you use it in the guarantee time. I waited too long on a Bass Pro card and someone drained $178 off of it in CA (I am in FL) and i was SOL.
On the selling end, Cardpool cant be beat, they ACH into my account and also pay the postage for the shipping into them.
Lastly, Cardcash exchange from Walmart seems ok. I exchanged some of the $100 Target 10%off Black friday cards into WalMart cards at 96% on the $
Cheers!
JudyJFLA
I prefer physical cards, but that said, make sure that you use it in the guarantee time. I waited too long on a Bass Pro card and someone drained $178 off of it in CA (I am in FL) and i was SOL.
On the selling end, Cardpool cant be beat, they ACH into my account and also pay the postage for the shipping into them.
Lastly, Cardcash exchange from Walmart seems ok. I exchanged some of the $100 Target 10%off Black friday cards into WalMart cards at 96% on the $
Cheers!
JudyJFLA
