Comments on: Today’s moment of gift card FAIL

By: Dossy Shiobara

Dossy Shiobara — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:57:33 +0000

Unfortunately, I’m a geek and the kind of things I want to buy aren’t readily available in brick-and-mortar shops. Otherwise, absolutely, I’d just take these cards out and use them – definitely!

Thanks for the comment.

By: ocdgirl2000

ocdgirl2000 — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:54:01 +0000

I’m an old fashioned type of lady, you might not like my advice too much, but in these financially strapped days, you can’t get much value from online “new retail” shopping experiences no matter what the marketuing gurus try to sell you.

The better values lie in the antique malls, vintage and used shops, thrift stores (YES! the really nice ones like Unique,Value Village, and some large chains) accept credit cards, the gift cards, and will be more than happy to work with you! You’ll be able to find new books, and I mean NEW, with barely handled covers, maybe 1-2 weeks off the retail store shelves!

( Clothing still with tags on them, items in sealed boxes, gifts, candles, cards, stationery,jewelry (sterling silver and gold-where do you think I find antiques to re-sell?) and you meet some helpful sales people in the process.

Why, in the world, would you want to experience the frustration of being confused, having your cards rejected, having a simple transaction go haywire, and not even have a pleasant experience come out of it, after the 30 minute investment of your time?

Get out of the house, and enjoy those funny cards, get them redeemed at a place where you can get some “value” out of them! You might even be able to buy tons of holiday gifts for friends and family and “save” even more!
(hope this wasn’t too offensive-I’m such an old bag lady,lol!)

By: Dossy Shiobara

Dossy Shiobara — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:53:21 +0000

Steve: Good question … I’ve never phoned in an order with Amazon.com … can you even do that?

By: steve

steve — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:19:49 +0000

I hate to go back to the 80s here, but can you phone in an order with multiple credit cards?

By: David A. Harding

David A. Harding — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:21:01 +0000

I redeemed an electronic gift certificate from Amazon within 24 hours of purchase when I found The Gift for the intended receipient. That was only one gift certificate and it was purchased with a credit card already on account with Amazon. I suspect their fraud system worries more about what you want to do: make multiple gift certificate purchases with multiple previously untested payment sources. Also, the Visa you used for the Best Buy certificate might still have the $50 locked, which could show up in their fraud system and further make you look Suspicious.

As usual, your two best options are (1) do it and see what happens or (2) call them. I called Barnes & Noble because their website could only accept up to four gift cards and I had six. They were able to concatenate the balances into one card and give me the new number over the phone. I’ve never called Amazon, but if you do, I’ll be interested in hearing about the quality of their telephone customer service.

Good luck,

-Dave