PROBLEM SOLVED
BY CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT
Help! My Visa gift card replacement is missing in action
When Janice Hansen loses her $100 Visa gift card, the company promises to replace it. But the replacement never shows up.
Q: My son bought me a $100 Visa gift card for my 81st birthday. Unfortunately, I lost it. I reported it to the customer service number of the card issuer, Blackhawk Network, and emailed them the original purchase receipt from Whole Foods, where my son bought the card.
They opened up a case and sent me an email promising they would send a replacement card within 10 business days. I waited, but the card never came. I called back and they said the case was closed.
I persisted. They said they’d send me another card. But it never came, either. I called and verified my address. The same thing happened again. On the fourth try, they said someone would call me in 48 hours. Nothing.
Blackhawk Network’s representatives were always polite but never gave me any information about why I was having all this trouble getting a replacement. They would never confirm that they sent a card. Surely they can tell I never activated the original card or any other cards they supposedly sent me. Can you help me? — Janice Hansen, Port St. Lucie, Fla.
A: If Blackhawk Network promised a replacement, then it should have sent one quickly. It’s not clear why it didn’t. It looks like you gave the company your correct mailing address several times. But the gift card didn’t show up.
But let’s take a quick step back. Gift cards are like money. If you lose them, they’re gone. Under certain limited circumstances, you can get a replacement if you have a receipt or a card number. There’s no guarantee, though. In fact, most card agreements specify that they won’t replace them.
If your son ever gives you another gift card, please treat it like cash. And I speak from personal experience — I’ve lost several gift cards given to me by relatives as holiday gifts I was too embarrassed to tell them that their cards had disappeared.
I’m not a fan of gift cards. They’re restrictive and easily abused by scammers. You’re better off using another payment method. The sooner we move toward a fully digital, blockchain-enabled currency, the better. But I digress.
Blackhawk Network’s web page looks more like a business-to-business site. They’re trying to sell other companies on their gift card services. But it’s not clear if it’s a site where customers like you can get help. I’ve reviewed the correspondence between you and the company, which you started by using the “contact us” page on the site. It’s impossible to determine what went wrong.
According to one estimate, gift cards worth more than $3 billion went unused in 2019, and will probably never be redeemed. That benefits the company issuing the gift card, but not someone like you, who may have misplaced it. We also publish the names, numbers and email addresses of the <a href=”https://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/blackhawk-network-customer-service-contacts/“>Blackhawk executives</a> on our consumer advocacy site, Elliott.org.
I contacted Blackhawk on your behalf. A representative said, “I wanted to let you know that the Blackhawk Customer Service Team has confirmed the information with Mrs. Hansen to provide a shipment of a replacement card.”
Christopher Elliott is the chief advocacy officer for Elliott Advocacy. Email him at [email protected] or get help with any consumer problem by contacting him at http://www.elliott.org/help
© 2021 Christopher Elliott.
