The Great Gift Card Fiasco
January 3, 2012 6:06 PM Subscribe
Bloomingdale's seized the $700 balance on my wife's gift card, and customer service is treating us like crooks. Now what?
In January 2011, my wife bought two Bloomingdale's (henceforth BD) gift cards on eBay. She was concerned that the eBay sellers might still try to use the card numbers online, so she used these two cards to purchase a third card from Bloomingdale's web site, thus consilidating the balance of $700 in a new card number known only to her.
Fast forward to October 2011. She tries to use the gift card to buy something from BD's web site, and it is declined. Apparently, the balance is now $0.
We called customer service, and were told that the entire balance had been spent in a transaction in California in September. "How is this possible?" we thought, "Only $WIFE knows the magic card number", and we live in NY. We initiated a fraud claim with BD.
After a few more weeks of back-and-forth with customer service, we were told a new story: There was no California transaction. It turns out that BD deliberately deleted the $700 balance because "the original two gift cards were compromised". However, they refuse to supply any more information, saying that we need to take it up with eBay.
My guess is that "compromised" means one of the eBay gift cards was purchased with a stolen credit card number, but it seems very unlikely that BOTH cards, purchased from different sellers with good reputations, would be fraudulent, and I am loathe to accuse two eBay sellers of fraud without supporting information nearly a year after the sales in question. "Compromised" may also mean that one of the eBay sellers later reported a card as stolen and had it reissued.
As it stands, we have exhausted options with standard customer service. I was persistent and escalated this issue, eventually reaching a manager who has a name and a direct phone number. However, this person has become hostile, and has insinuated that my wife's "laundering" of the two original gift cards is suspicious and criminal behavior. BD apparently now believes that we are scammers and is uninclined to help us.
We are considering small claims court as a last-ditch option. We would argue that BD's gift card terms of service do not reserve the right for BD to arbitrarily seize the balance of a gift card, and that a gift card purchased from BD's website should be thought of as any other product, and not subject to seizure without due process of law. Regardless of the provenance of the original eBay gift cards, they were accepted by BD's website, and BD is in the wrong to cancel a transaction with no refund nine months after the fact and with no notification.
So, Metafilter, will small claims court just be a waste of time? Do we have any other options? Can we file a claim in our own jurisdiction (which has no BD store), or should we drive to NYC? I do plan on trying to contact executive customer service first (per The Consumerist), but I'm not sanguine about that.
I have been carefully documenting every interaction with customer service since it became apparent that they weren't going to help us.
In January 2011, my wife bought two Bloomingdale's (henceforth BD) gift cards on eBay. She was concerned that the eBay sellers might still try to use the card numbers online, so she used these two cards to purchase a third card from Bloomingdale's web site, thus consilidating the balance of $700 in a new card number known only to her.
Fast forward to October 2011. She tries to use the gift card to buy something from BD's web site, and it is declined. Apparently, the balance is now $0.
We called customer service, and were told that the entire balance had been spent in a transaction in California in September. "How is this possible?" we thought, "Only $WIFE knows the magic card number", and we live in NY. We initiated a fraud claim with BD.
After a few more weeks of back-and-forth with customer service, we were told a new story: There was no California transaction. It turns out that BD deliberately deleted the $700 balance because "the original two gift cards were compromised". However, they refuse to supply any more information, saying that we need to take it up with eBay.
My guess is that "compromised" means one of the eBay gift cards was purchased with a stolen credit card number, but it seems very unlikely that BOTH cards, purchased from different sellers with good reputations, would be fraudulent, and I am loathe to accuse two eBay sellers of fraud without supporting information nearly a year after the sales in question. "Compromised" may also mean that one of the eBay sellers later reported a card as stolen and had it reissued.
As it stands, we have exhausted options with standard customer service. I was persistent and escalated this issue, eventually reaching a manager who has a name and a direct phone number. However, this person has become hostile, and has insinuated that my wife's "laundering" of the two original gift cards is suspicious and criminal behavior. BD apparently now believes that we are scammers and is uninclined to help us.
We are considering small claims court as a last-ditch option. We would argue that BD's gift card terms of service do not reserve the right for BD to arbitrarily seize the balance of a gift card, and that a gift card purchased from BD's website should be thought of as any other product, and not subject to seizure without due process of law. Regardless of the provenance of the original eBay gift cards, they were accepted by BD's website, and BD is in the wrong to cancel a transaction with no refund nine months after the fact and with no notification.
So, Metafilter, will small claims court just be a waste of time? Do we have any other options? Can we file a claim in our own jurisdiction (which has no BD store), or should we drive to NYC? I do plan on trying to contact executive customer service first (per The Consumerist), but I'm not sanguine about that.
I have been carefully documenting every interaction with customer service since it became apparent that they weren't going to help us.
I would say that by "laundering" the first two cards, BD could claim that you suspected they weren't right to begin with.
If I were a betting man, I would say that, unless your time and energy is worth nothing, you've already put more energy into this than the cost of the cards (I'm assuming you paid less than the $700 face value), I suspect you'll lose this battle.
posted by tomswift at 6:23 PM on January 3, 2012 [8 favorites]
If I were a betting man, I would say that, unless your time and energy is worth nothing, you've already put more energy into this than the cost of the cards (I'm assuming you paid less than the $700 face value), I suspect you'll lose this battle.
posted by tomswift at 6:23 PM on January 3, 2012 [8 favorites]
But Empress, they did give BD money- in the form of two gift cards from BD, redeemed to buy a new gift card. That new gift card, not the originals, was then zeroed out arbitrarily, and apparently under the claim that the original cards were obtained fraudulently. Which... that's really up to BD to enforce at the time of purchase. If the original GC numbers were used online to purchase a new card, then within seconds- or at most minutes- they should have notification if it was an already used card, or fraudulently created- and should have been able to notify anonymous about their rejected purchase. That they didn't implies that BD didn't realize, or mistakenly believes, that the GCs at the time anonymous used them are retroactively invalid. I suspect more likely that someone attempted to reuse the original GC numbers later, and BD's system flagged them as invalid- and then canceled all purchases made with those cards, including ones that had been made when they were still valid, such as the consolidated gift card.
For anonymous: I wasn't clear, but did they give any indication of when the card was zeroed out? I.e., you didn't notice for months, but did they not catch the alleged fraud on the original two cards until months later, or did they catch it right away and you just didn't notice because you didn't use the card until the fall?
Also, it's not clear why you're reluctant to accuse the ebay seller(s) of possible fraud: do they have stellar ratings, and a solid track record?
As for steps to take, this is classically where corporations have people over the barrel: the amount is big enough that you care, but too small for it to be worth your bringing in a lot of legal weight- and even if you did, their in-house counsel will always out gun you as an individual.
So one tactic is: Have you shopped with BD before? I think if you as individuals have a purchasing history with BD, you should bring that to bear with this "executive customer service" contact you mentioned. Pointing out that you have purchased other things from BD using your own CCs, and are feeling that BD has ripped you off by stealing your $700 when you used two gift cards to buy a single one, and therefore will never shop there again. Unlike Empress, I feel that regardless of the validity of the original cards, once they accepted those cards to pay for a new card, it's on them if they turned out fraudulent. However, you can't really sway them with logic or even the law, only with the weight of "You are losing an existing customer for life- is that worth $700 to BD?".
posted by hincandenza at 6:32 PM on January 3, 2012 [7 favorites]
For anonymous: I wasn't clear, but did they give any indication of when the card was zeroed out? I.e., you didn't notice for months, but did they not catch the alleged fraud on the original two cards until months later, or did they catch it right away and you just didn't notice because you didn't use the card until the fall?
Also, it's not clear why you're reluctant to accuse the ebay seller(s) of possible fraud: do they have stellar ratings, and a solid track record?
As for steps to take, this is classically where corporations have people over the barrel: the amount is big enough that you care, but too small for it to be worth your bringing in a lot of legal weight- and even if you did, their in-house counsel will always out gun you as an individual.
So one tactic is: Have you shopped with BD before? I think if you as individuals have a purchasing history with BD, you should bring that to bear with this "executive customer service" contact you mentioned. Pointing out that you have purchased other things from BD using your own CCs, and are feeling that BD has ripped you off by stealing your $700 when you used two gift cards to buy a single one, and therefore will never shop there again. Unlike Empress, I feel that regardless of the validity of the original cards, once they accepted those cards to pay for a new card, it's on them if they turned out fraudulent. However, you can't really sway them with logic or even the law, only with the weight of "You are losing an existing customer for life- is that worth $700 to BD?".
posted by hincandenza at 6:32 PM on January 3, 2012 [7 favorites]
But Empress, they did give BD money- in the form of two gift cards from BD, redeemed to buy a new gift card.
Not if those two gift cards were stolen FROM BD; then it's "using stolen merchandise to get other merchandise."
I'll grant that if THAT is the problem, Bloomingdale's could have been better at communicating that. But Bloomingdales did say that at least one of those cards was "compromised", which sounds an awful lot like they may have been originally stolen or obtained illegally.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:45 PM on January 3, 2012 [4 favorites]
Not if those two gift cards were stolen FROM BD; then it's "using stolen merchandise to get other merchandise."
I'll grant that if THAT is the problem, Bloomingdale's could have been better at communicating that. But Bloomingdales did say that at least one of those cards was "compromised", which sounds an awful lot like they may have been originally stolen or obtained illegally.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:45 PM on January 3, 2012 [4 favorites]
Check with your State's Attorney office locally, and find out if there are other similar cases first. They may already have a contact and a work through for this.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 6:46 PM on January 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by halfbuckaroo at 6:46 PM on January 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
I'm surprised Bloomingdales let you use gift cards to buy gift cards. That is usually forbidden in the terms of service.
posted by birdherder at 6:50 PM on January 3, 2012 [10 favorites]
posted by birdherder at 6:50 PM on January 3, 2012 [10 favorites]
I personally avoid gift cards and gift certificates like the plague, because they're obviously a scam on the part of the retailers - I am completely baffled as to why anyone buys them - but I looked at an Amazon one that was given to me for Christmas and in the "Terms" section on the back of it, it says that the card can't be "transferred for value", which I'd suspect is some way of prohibiting it from being resold.
So I would wonder if the Bloomingdales ones your wife bought have such a provision; if so, I would think that they can trump any argument you would make by saying that buying the original cards on eBay was invalid in the first place. All the cards are in their hands, as it were.
posted by XMLicious at 6:53 PM on January 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
So I would wonder if the Bloomingdales ones your wife bought have such a provision; if so, I would think that they can trump any argument you would make by saying that buying the original cards on eBay was invalid in the first place. All the cards are in their hands, as it were.
posted by XMLicious at 6:53 PM on January 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
I'm surprised Bloomingdales let you use gift cards to buy gift cards. That is usually forbidden in the terms of service.
Not necessarily. I've used a $200 Nordstroms gift card to buy 4/$50 cards. The original card was from trading in rewards points, but I had the split done at a Nordstroms store. It was done easily and quickly without questions or suspicion. If you can split cards, not sure why it would be against practice to combine cards.
posted by raztaj at 7:00 PM on January 3, 2012
Not necessarily. I've used a $200 Nordstroms gift card to buy 4/$50 cards. The original card was from trading in rewards points, but I had the split done at a Nordstroms store. It was done easily and quickly without questions or suspicion. If you can split cards, not sure why it would be against practice to combine cards.
posted by raztaj at 7:00 PM on January 3, 2012
splitting and combining gift cards isn't of itself that big a deal, as it is done for convenience (add all the $5 Starbucks cards you got for Christmas to your gold card balance) and regifting on a regular basis. The Starbucks card management site has a handy online utility for doing so.
I expect they are essentially shooting straight with you. I don't find it at all hard to believe that both cards were bought with hot CCs, possibly even without the knowledge of that seller (although I wouldn't buy from them again, because frankly, I doubt it). I do e-commerce for a living, and the security seminars I've attended have demonstrated that there is a vast underground CC "market," and laundering them by buying gift cards is a prime method for use. I used to have a gift certificate option on one of my stores, and the fraudsters headed that way like bees to flowers.
Let's face it, you may have gotten the angle wrong, but you suspected fraud of another type when you combined the cards. You knew the sellers were possibly not legit. Why are you going to assume that Bloomingdale's is at fault, and why would you expect them to eat it? I'd say you bought $700 (less the discount) worth of experience.
posted by randomkeystrike at 7:29 PM on January 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
I expect they are essentially shooting straight with you. I don't find it at all hard to believe that both cards were bought with hot CCs, possibly even without the knowledge of that seller (although I wouldn't buy from them again, because frankly, I doubt it). I do e-commerce for a living, and the security seminars I've attended have demonstrated that there is a vast underground CC "market," and laundering them by buying gift cards is a prime method for use. I used to have a gift certificate option on one of my stores, and the fraudsters headed that way like bees to flowers.
Let's face it, you may have gotten the angle wrong, but you suspected fraud of another type when you combined the cards. You knew the sellers were possibly not legit. Why are you going to assume that Bloomingdale's is at fault, and why would you expect them to eat it? I'd say you bought $700 (less the discount) worth of experience.
posted by randomkeystrike at 7:29 PM on January 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
I'm curious: Their Gift Card Terms and Conditions state "This card is redeemable only for merchandise and in-store services at Bloomingdale's (USA stores only) and bloomingdales.com. It may not be redeemed for cash (except as required by law) or applied as payment or credit to any credit card account" - and you "would argue that BD's gift card terms of service do not reserve the right for BD to arbitrarily seize the balance of a gift card, and that a gift card purchased from BD's website should be thought of as any other product, and not subject to seizure without due process of law." To me, it's pretty clear that you couldn't purchase another card with the first two, at least not online.
To continue, you say "Regardless of the provenance of the original eBay gift cards, they were accepted by BD's website, and BD is in the wrong to cancel a transaction with no refund nine months (emphasis mine) after the fact and with no notification."
My question is - did they really cancel the $700 card in October, or was it canceled soon after the transaction that created it - maybe in September, or even immediately after the combined purchase - and your wife didn't know until she attempted to use it? Not that this makes a huge difference in the end - but from a store's perspective, it just means they suspected fraud in the former transaction, not the latter. I think you need to find out when and how this happened, and see their paper trail. Are you absolutely certain there was no follow up from them - not even something that might have been flagged as spam or deleted without opening because it lookd scammy on your end?
At any rate, they would not necessarily refund $700 to you, especially in that case and not online. They've covered that in their stated policies too: They would refund it to the original purchaser, unless as per this page, as the buyer, you walked into a store with the cards and the receipts from the purchase.
I'm afraid, just from years in working retail and just looking at their policies now, that they've pretty well covered their butts here, though I am not a lawyer. I'm just answering as someone who worked retail long enough to know what would happen if and when this was attempted in any of my former workplaces. You feel you're being treated like crooks, but your action was typically suspicious, even if you were/are genuinely not aware of that. Because you're not the only one they have to deal with, you're going to be tarred with the same brush.
Perhaps making an appointment to sit down in person with someone with authority, bringing in all of your paperwork - the ebay transactions and the original two cards and the purchase information for the $700 card - and working with them like you're a team trying to solve the mystery, rather than acting (it must be said) like the many, many people who look as guilty as you do in this (and who, unlike you, are definitely not innocent in their attempts). Do go to NY, and be absolutely civil, show your honest intent, and use positive language and be a customer they want to keep, and you'll have a better chance at resolving the dispute at least somewhat favorably. You may need and want to collect information from them to help you with a claim from ebay or PayPal (and good luck there!) if you do need to proceed in that direction, while you're at it.
posted by peagood at 8:15 PM on January 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
To continue, you say "Regardless of the provenance of the original eBay gift cards, they were accepted by BD's website, and BD is in the wrong to cancel a transaction with no refund nine months (emphasis mine) after the fact and with no notification."
My question is - did they really cancel the $700 card in October, or was it canceled soon after the transaction that created it - maybe in September, or even immediately after the combined purchase - and your wife didn't know until she attempted to use it? Not that this makes a huge difference in the end - but from a store's perspective, it just means they suspected fraud in the former transaction, not the latter. I think you need to find out when and how this happened, and see their paper trail. Are you absolutely certain there was no follow up from them - not even something that might have been flagged as spam or deleted without opening because it lookd scammy on your end?
At any rate, they would not necessarily refund $700 to you, especially in that case and not online. They've covered that in their stated policies too: They would refund it to the original purchaser, unless as per this page, as the buyer, you walked into a store with the cards and the receipts from the purchase.
I'm afraid, just from years in working retail and just looking at their policies now, that they've pretty well covered their butts here, though I am not a lawyer. I'm just answering as someone who worked retail long enough to know what would happen if and when this was attempted in any of my former workplaces. You feel you're being treated like crooks, but your action was typically suspicious, even if you were/are genuinely not aware of that. Because you're not the only one they have to deal with, you're going to be tarred with the same brush.
Perhaps making an appointment to sit down in person with someone with authority, bringing in all of your paperwork - the ebay transactions and the original two cards and the purchase information for the $700 card - and working with them like you're a team trying to solve the mystery, rather than acting (it must be said) like the many, many people who look as guilty as you do in this (and who, unlike you, are definitely not innocent in their attempts). Do go to NY, and be absolutely civil, show your honest intent, and use positive language and be a customer they want to keep, and you'll have a better chance at resolving the dispute at least somewhat favorably. You may need and want to collect information from them to help you with a claim from ebay or PayPal (and good luck there!) if you do need to proceed in that direction, while you're at it.
posted by peagood at 8:15 PM on January 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
Interesting read here brings up other possibilities...
posted by peagood at 8:21 PM on January 3, 2012
posted by peagood at 8:21 PM on January 3, 2012
Mod note: From the OP:
The new card's balance was zeroed out in September... nine months after its purchase.posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:36 PM on January 3, 2012
I'm hesitant to accuse both eBay sellers of fraud because I don't think I'm getting the whole truth from BD about which card(s) were compromised: that two cards from independent sellers both happen to be "compromised" is statistically very unlikely. Also, because BD refuses to give me any details with which to support an eBay claim. I will pursue eBay action, but considering that a year has passed and I have no evidence besides BD's vague claim, I don't really expect to get anything back from that.
My wife does have a history of shopping with BD. We will bring that up with executive customer service.
Slinga has it for why people buy eBay GCs on eBay: Gift cards can't be redeemed at the store for cash, so people with unwanted GCs sell them at a discount in order to exchange them for real money. My wife says she got around a 10% discount on these (in hindsight, obviously not worth the headache). One of our original eBay cards actually came with a return receipt for some other product that had been exchanged for a gift card. My wife was trying to protect from being ripped off by "laundering" the card into a new one (with a new number), but she didn't expect the Bloomingdale's itself to steal her money. The lesson about buying gift cards from untrusted sources has been learned.
My feeling about this whole thing is what hincadenza lays out: BD accepted the original cards at time of purchase and is now confiscating the result of that purchase. At the time of purchase, the cards were valid, and we had no way of knowing otherwise. They can do this because it's virtual; if my wife had used the two original gift cards to buy a designer coat, we would all be appalled if Bloomingdale's came into my home nine months later and wordlessly seized the coat. But they can apparently get away with it when the thing purchased exists only as a number in their database.
I expect they are essentially shooting straight with you.
I would be more inclined to believe that if (a) they hadn't at first told us a bullshit story, and (b) they could furnish us with more information with which to support an eBay claim.
...but your action was typically suspicious
I agree, and I wouldn't have a problem if they had suspended the card. But what they've done offers us no means of redress, which is really infuriating when you actually are innocent.
IANAL, but I think you might at least have a shot at this in small claims, or at least in getting a settlement from them in return for not having to show up in small claims. The question there is, as other posters have mentioned: what is the value of your time? Getting the thing filed in small claims and then going there and contesting it could easily take 4 hours. If they offer to settle with you at $350, would that be worth it? If so, go for it.
posted by Aizkolari at 8:57 PM on January 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Aizkolari at 8:57 PM on January 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
You didn't buy from an authorised reseller, why should BD help you? I used to work for a software company and we used to do exactly the same with people who bought from eBay. We didn't care one bit about the money they lost, and honestly, that was the risk they took by trying to save a few $.
We, similarly, would block a customer's account if we were informed this was purchased with a stolen credit card (which would typically be some time after purchase, tho usually not 9 months). This would, again, mostly be accounts purchased on eBay, so their "user" wasn't the guy who'd used the stolen card, but we would absolutely not offer any assistance to them. They were not a legitimate customer of ours.
eBay will probably not help you either after all this time... and who knows, one of your two sellers may have quite a few more customers like you. Presumably you also left them positive feedback when the cards first cleared. Caveat Emptor indeed.
posted by ClarissaWAM at 10:56 PM on January 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
We, similarly, would block a customer's account if we were informed this was purchased with a stolen credit card (which would typically be some time after purchase, tho usually not 9 months). This would, again, mostly be accounts purchased on eBay, so their "user" wasn't the guy who'd used the stolen card, but we would absolutely not offer any assistance to them. They were not a legitimate customer of ours.
eBay will probably not help you either after all this time... and who knows, one of your two sellers may have quite a few more customers like you. Presumably you also left them positive feedback when the cards first cleared. Caveat Emptor indeed.
posted by ClarissaWAM at 10:56 PM on January 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
I have a solution. It's a headache, but worth it at this dollar amount.
You need to escalate above this supervisor to the executive office via written return receipt letter.
At the very least you need to ask for documentation so you can pursue via eBay. But more importantly, BD honored your original transactions and it is REALLY not clear why you are now out the $700. Similarly, the customer service rep did not need to get hostile OR deny you documentation about a transaction you are on record making via their website.
Yes you could also have a lawyer friend draft this letter. Even if the letter costs you $50 to $200 through an attorney, you still stand to recover $650 to $500.
Ask for a replacement gift card.
Follow up with a polite phone call. Hopefully they will contact you first.
Good luck.
posted by jbenben at 11:00 PM on January 3, 2012
You need to escalate above this supervisor to the executive office via written return receipt letter.
At the very least you need to ask for documentation so you can pursue via eBay. But more importantly, BD honored your original transactions and it is REALLY not clear why you are now out the $700. Similarly, the customer service rep did not need to get hostile OR deny you documentation about a transaction you are on record making via their website.
Yes you could also have a lawyer friend draft this letter. Even if the letter costs you $50 to $200 through an attorney, you still stand to recover $650 to $500.
Ask for a replacement gift card.
Follow up with a polite phone call. Hopefully they will contact you first.
Good luck.
posted by jbenben at 11:00 PM on January 3, 2012
This may be not be do-able, but could you do a charge-back on the credit card that you used to buy these two non-working gift cards? I mean, it sounds like you didn't get what you were supposed to receive...
posted by blueberry at 11:43 PM on January 3, 2012
posted by blueberry at 11:43 PM on January 3, 2012
"Hot Potato refers to gift cards that are “hot”, because it was purchased with stolen credit cards or goods. Unfortunately, if you end up buying one of these “hot gift cards”, you’ll be left holding the bag and become an unsuspecting victim in helping identity theft rings launder money. This is one of the hardest scam to spot unless the seller is desperate to sell their “hot gift cards” at a very low price. A good practice is to quickly use up the gift card and not let it sit around."
I think your wife walked straight into the middle of a common credit card scam on eBay, maybe on one gift card, maybe on both. Your wife was clearly aware of the risk of a fraud, but she didn't recognise that the fraud might not only be against her, but also against Bloomingdales. From Bloomingdale's perspective she looks absolutely complicit in the scam. I would take this up with PayPal/Ebay, but I'd have low expectations of seeing the $630 again.
posted by roofus at 5:14 AM on January 4, 2012 [2 favorites]
I think your wife walked straight into the middle of a common credit card scam on eBay, maybe on one gift card, maybe on both. Your wife was clearly aware of the risk of a fraud, but she didn't recognise that the fraud might not only be against her, but also against Bloomingdales. From Bloomingdale's perspective she looks absolutely complicit in the scam. I would take this up with PayPal/Ebay, but I'd have low expectations of seeing the $630 again.
posted by roofus at 5:14 AM on January 4, 2012 [2 favorites]
One of our original eBay cards actually came with a return receipt for some other product that had been exchanged for a gift card.
That could just be another layer in the (potential) laundering scheme. You steal a card, go to Bloomingdales and try to buy a nice jacket. If the card doesn't go through, you make a panicked face and apologize profusely. If it does work, you ask for a gift receipt, and then wait a few days and return the jacket. "Someone bought me this jacket, but it's not my style, can I have store credit to buy some underpants?" Now you have a gift card and a gift/return receipt. Dump it on ebay and off you go.
Bloomingdales is within their rights to say caveat emptor to you for buying the gift card on ebay, but it sounds like they screwed up by letting you buy a new gift card with the old one. My guess is that they do not have the original $700 that was spent by the potential scammer, that it got charged back to them. And that's why they are being dicks: as far as they are concerned, you aren't their customer.
What I would do is demand to see some documentation that proves their story. Be nice to them, even if they don't deserve it. They should be able to provide documentation that shows the thread of card numbers reaching back to the original purchase, and then a chargeback notice for that original purchase. If they can give that to you, you can probably try to charge back your ebay purchases. If they can't give you that, sue them in small claims. Your goal is to get your $700 (or $630) back from someone. If Bloomingdales doesn't have it, they should be happy to assist you. If Bloomingdales can't prove they don't have it, they are on the hook for the dough.
posted by gjc at 5:26 AM on January 4, 2012
That could just be another layer in the (potential) laundering scheme. You steal a card, go to Bloomingdales and try to buy a nice jacket. If the card doesn't go through, you make a panicked face and apologize profusely. If it does work, you ask for a gift receipt, and then wait a few days and return the jacket. "Someone bought me this jacket, but it's not my style, can I have store credit to buy some underpants?" Now you have a gift card and a gift/return receipt. Dump it on ebay and off you go.
Bloomingdales is within their rights to say caveat emptor to you for buying the gift card on ebay, but it sounds like they screwed up by letting you buy a new gift card with the old one. My guess is that they do not have the original $700 that was spent by the potential scammer, that it got charged back to them. And that's why they are being dicks: as far as they are concerned, you aren't their customer.
What I would do is demand to see some documentation that proves their story. Be nice to them, even if they don't deserve it. They should be able to provide documentation that shows the thread of card numbers reaching back to the original purchase, and then a chargeback notice for that original purchase. If they can give that to you, you can probably try to charge back your ebay purchases. If they can't give you that, sue them in small claims. Your goal is to get your $700 (or $630) back from someone. If Bloomingdales doesn't have it, they should be happy to assist you. If Bloomingdales can't prove they don't have it, they are on the hook for the dough.
posted by gjc at 5:26 AM on January 4, 2012
Have you reached out to the ebay sellers and asked them to reach out to Bloomingdale's to resolve this? Wouldn't they have a paper trail of who gave them the card? Assuming that they're not laundering money here and are operating legitimately, they should help you out. The only thing is that they may no longer have paperwork from a year ago.
I would do this and what gjc says above.
posted by vivzan at 9:34 AM on January 4, 2012 [2 favorites]
I would do this and what gjc says above.
posted by vivzan at 9:34 AM on January 4, 2012 [2 favorites]
This may be not be do-able, but could you do a charge-back on the credit card that you used to buy these two non-working gift cards? I mean, it sounds like you didn't get what you were supposed to receive...
Assuming a CC was used, the limit of time to do a charge back is 6 months.
posted by randomkeystrike at 3:13 PM on January 5, 2012 [1 favorite]
Assuming a CC was used, the limit of time to do a charge back is 6 months.
posted by randomkeystrike at 3:13 PM on January 5, 2012 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
Look at it this way - say your wife innocently bought a stolen crock-pot at a tag sale, then ultimately decided it was too small; but then she saw that said crock-pot had a mocked-up "gift receipt" inside that looked real. Your wife used the "gift receipt" to exchange it for another crock-pot, and the clerk wasn't paying attention and let her trade it in. Then a month later the manager of the store studied the receipt more closely and saw it was faked, and called you to pay for the new crock-pot.
From your perspective, yes, you were an innocent party -- but from the store's perspective, you used a faked receipt to trade one crockpot for another, and so you still got something from them for free. So trying to get money out of the store doesn't make any sense -- instead, you need to be trying to get money back from the person who had the tag sale.
You didn't actually give BD any money. Yes, it's bad customer service on their part, but the courts aren't going to be looking at "bad customer service", they're going to be looking at who gave money to whom. And you didn't give BD any money, so they don't owe you any that I can see.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:17 PM on January 3, 2012 [5 favorites]