Five Reasons Why You Should Never Buy an Amazon Gift Card

An Amazon gift card sounds like a perfect gift. It is sold everywhere. It can buy pretty much anything. And everybody shops at Amazon, right?

So who would not want an Amazon gift card? That would be me. And a whole bunch of other people. Here are five reasons why.

Reason #1: You will lose money

On August 15, 2020, a friend gave me a $100 Amazon gift card. The card was nicely packaged in a factory sealed envelope but when I tried to apply it to my Amazon account a few days later, I got the following message:

Already redeemed to another account

We had a problem redeeming your gift card. This gift card claim code has been redeemed to another account.

I called my friend to check where had had bought the card and they sent me a copy of the receipt from a local grocery store showing the matching gift card code dated August 15, 2020. Now what?

Reason #2: You will waste time

A logical place to start would be Amazon, right? I contacted customer support and explained the problem. The customer support rep (CSR) asked me to provide the gift card number, the claim code, pictures of the card, copy of the store receipt, and the details about the purchase, which I did. He said that the store had activated the card on August 15 and confirmed that the card had already been redeemed by a different account, but he would not give any other details citing privacy reasons. The CSR told me to wait a few days for the investigation to complete.

Before I get to the outcome of the “investigation”, I’ll tell you this: I spent a lot of time on the phone, writing and responding to emails, collecting copies, screenshot, photos, and bouncing between different support reps. A lot of time.

Reason #3: You will get no help

A few days after I reported the theft to Amazon I received the following response:

Hello,

I’m following up on your recent contact to our Customer Service department.

I’ve just reviewed the details of the gift card you specified and see that, unfortunately, the claim code you have received is not available for use as it has been redeemed by someone.

I do understand your concern that the gift card has not been redeemed by you however, for security purposes I am unable to provide you with any further information.

Please understand that we are unable to resend the gift card or refund the order as it has been purchased directly for the store and not from Amazon.com.

If I relate to myself, I can completely understand how frustrating and annoying the situation can be when something like this happens but I hope you understand my limitations.

I really wish I was able to refund you for the above gift card right away by taking the required action but please understand, when you purchase gift card from a store, your order is neither sold nor fulfilled by Amazon.com. Therefore we at Amazon Customer Service don’t have access to the tools that are required to take any actions on these gift card orders.

However, I found a way to take care of this for you, to receive a refund, I request you to please contact the bank that issued the debit/credit card used to check what option the may have.

As mentioned in our gift card fine print, the risk of loss and title for gift cards pass to the purchaser upon our electronic transmission to the recipient or delivery to the carrier, whichever is applicable.

The terms and conditions for Amazon.com Gift Cards are posted on the Amazon.com website here:

http://www.amazon.com/gc-legal

Once again I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to you in this regard.I appreciate your patience and understanding.

If there is still something that I missed to mention or I could still do to assist you with this issue, please let me know by using the below link and we will be happy to assist you with your concern.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/contact-us

Thank you for your understanding and co-operation in this matter.

Best regards,
Akshata A

Thank you.
Amazon.com

In short, Amazon suggest to have the buyer request a refund from the bank for the gift card purchase. One tiny, little problem here: while it may (or may not) work if a gift card buyer used a credit card, it is not an option if the buyer used cash or a debit card. Like in my case.

I called Amazon again and exchanged a few emails, but it was all in vain. One rep suggested to check with the store that had sold the card. I did not see the point (the store did whether the store was supposed to do: sold the card, activated it, the car package was not tampered in any way) but my friends who had bought the card went there anyway and talked to a manager. The manager referred them to Amazon (no surprise).

Reason #4: You will feel bad

If you bought Amazon gift cards in the past and never had issues, consider yourself lucky, but be aware that your luck will eventually run out. Do a search for (amazon gift card) and (already redeemed to another account) and see how many hits you get. It happens more often that you may think and while you can find a story with a happy ending, majority of cases remain unresolved with victims taking a loss.

Reason #5: Your friend will feel bad

I shared this story with a local Facebook group and a few people mentioned that it had happened to them or someone they knew. While some people report the problem, others may not want to get their friends upset, so they take a loss quietly. One of my Facebook friends said:

I received a $25 gift card from a student and it was $0 when I went to use it…. I didn’t have the heart to tell them.

Understandable. And sad.

P.S.

I understand that theft and shopping come together, so the fact that bad guys steal Amazon gift card redemption codes does not surprise me. What surprises me is how disinterested Amazon seems to be in addressing the issue.

Since Amazon gift card redemption codes get stolen pretty often, what is Amazon doing to address the problem? Does Amazon work with vendors to see if there are any security gaps in the gift card purchase process? How do thieves know when to apply the codes, since it has to be done after the card activated at the point of sale? Is there a weak link on the Amazon side? On the vendor side? Anywhere in between?

I am also wondering why Amazon would not trail the transfer of the redemption codes. They know who applied a stolen redemption code to their account. Assuming these are not hackers, can’t Amazon ask them how they got the code? But Amazon does not seem to care, and as long as they don’t, I will never buy an Amazon gift card. And neither should you.

P.P.S.

After not getting anywhere with the store that sold them the gift card, my friends opened another support request at Amazon and a few days later they got a positive response:

Hello,

Greetings!

This is regarding the follow up where I mentioned that I’ll contact you back once the issue has been resolved from our end.

I’m sorry for the inconvenience you’ve been facing because of your gift card issue worth $ 100.00.

However there’s no need to worry, as I’ve checked with the concerned teams for an update and I’d like to notify that our team has resolved the issue and added the gift card balance of $ 100.00 to your Amazon.ca account.

You can view your balance and usage history in Your Account here:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/css/gc/balance/

Your gift card balance will be automatically applied to your next eligible order. If you don’t wish to use your gift card balance, you’ll see an option to choose whether you’d like to “Use your Gift Card or Promotional Balance” on the “Select a payment method” page. Any unused gift card balance will remain in your account until it’s applied to an order. This option is not available for 1-click orders.

To learn more about using your gift card, visit our Help pages:
http://www.amazon.com/help/gc

I hope this brings a smile on your face and my efforts to correct the situation are to your satisfaction.

Thanks for your patience and cooperation in this regard.

We look forward to see you soon. Have a nice day!
We’d appreciate your feedback. Please use the buttons below to vote about your experience today.

Best regards,
Meghna G.
Amazon.com

I’m not sure if this post had anything to do with it (I sent Amazon the link), or if it the outcome depends on a person handling the support ticket, but anyway, count this one as a happy ending. For now.