Whenever I buy a gift card at a grocery store the cashier always hands me a small receipt separate from the regular receipt. I’m told it’s the activation receipt. It serves as a confirmation that the gift card now has value on it. Without activation, if someone just steals the gift card off the shelf, it won’t work.
I usually don’t do anything with the activation receipt. Seeing that the card activated successfully is good enough for me. Until this last time.
I bought a $100 Visa gift card from the grocery store Safeway because the store had a $10-off Just for U digital coupon in its mobile app. After a $5.95 purchase fee I would still make an easy $4. Why not? After I bought the gift card I went to a few other stores for some other stuff. By the time I remembered the gift card the next day, I couldn’t find it. I looked for it in my car and in my recycle bin. No, it’s gone.
Then I remembered the activation receipt. I still had it together with my store receipt. The gift card racks in the store are branded Gift Card Mall. I went to the website giftcardmall.com. It’s run by a company called Blackhawk Network. There is a link at the bottom for reporting a lost or stolen card. The link shows a phone number 888-524-1283. I didn’t have high hopes because I didn’t have the card number. The gift card wasn’t registered to my name. Anyone who found it could use it. Maybe it was already used up. There’s no way to prove it wasn’t me. I figured it couldn’t be any worse because I was already out $96 at that point.
I called the 888 number. The customer service rep asked me when and where I bought the card. I gave her the information off the store receipt. She gave me a case number and she asked me to send a copy of the activation receipt to an email address referencing the case number. I did as instructed. I included my address and phone number in my email. Two days later someone called and left a voicemail saying they would send me a replacement. In another week a replacement card came in the mail. It worked, just like that!
I’m surprised that a lost gift card can be replaced and how easy it was. They very well could’ve said tough luck. Lesson learned: take a picture of the gift card together with its activation receipt as soon as you buy the gift card.
Despite complaints I often hear against financial institutions, I continue to be amazed by the consumer protection and the integrity of the system in this country. Just a few weeks ago I received a $0.27 check from a prepaid card that I closed. It was the interest due to me for a partial month. Sometime last year I received a $100 check from an escrow company relating to my mortgage refinance several years ago. The letter said they had an internal audit and they determined they owed me this $100.
In all these cases I wasn’t expecting the money at all. You’d think they would just keep the money to themselves, but no, they sent the money to the customer. In all these years in doing business with numerous financial institutions I can’t think of one instance a bank, a credit union, or a brokerage firm cheated me. I paid very little in fees to begin with. Any fees I did pay were well disclosed up front. My experience makes me trust our laws, regulations, and institutions.
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Sam Seattle says
Harry, thanks for reassuring me on the consumer protection and the integrity of the system in this country.
As an immigrant, I am grateful living in America. In the country where I came from, there is hardly any consumer protection, nor integrity of the system.
Mark Zoril says
Your experience with the banking systems is similar to mine. My bank, US Bank, has made nothing on me over the years. For going on 30 years now. I use all of their services for free and do not have any loan or investment products with them. However, they have rarely made a mistake and their customer service has been quite good.
C J says
Are they the right one to contact for lost eBay cards too? I called the number you provided & it didn’t go as well for me. It was going fine until he asked for the 19 digit store number on my Kroger receipt. I could not find it, & still have no idea what he was talking about. Kroger is closed now so I can’t call them until morning. What on earth is a 19 digit store number? I really don’t see this on my receipt. When I asked him where it was located on the receipt he didn’t know. I googled it & still nothing is coming up for a 19 digit store number! Can someone help please? My gift card has been missing for 3 days & I am stressing out about it.
C J says
I did everything you said, but blackhawk network could not help with the eBay card. EBay cards are complete scams, and I am reporting them to the BBB. You are very lucky you got a replacement.
May I ask what kind of gift card you purchased? EBay will not replace a card with all the receipts, and the card #. My only guess is they just keep the balances once you report them stolen. Never use the eBay card without having full knowledge of this!
Harry Sit says
Mine was a Visa gift card.
C J says
Thank you for your response. I most likely will switch to the Visa gift card if I ever use a gift card again. You probably had to pay a fee to have it reissued. Better than losing your balance entirely!
Christina Flores says
I teturned something to Walmart and they reloaded a gift card and its been lost so now they will not give me a new one because Ii dont have the card. Only the activation receipt. Help
Patricia Marsh says
What is the fax number to vanilla gift card
Vincent says
Having just been through this experience, I learned a valuable lesson. CAlling the main number at Visa or Mastercard won’t help. You need to contact the issuing bank. Make sure you take a photo of both sides of the card when you get it, and definitely before you mail it. You need to know which bank sold it. Mine was MetaBank, and I had never heard of them. The card was sent certified, but still lost in the mail. MetaBank did send a replacement, but I had the receipt, and needed the numbers on it. I wished I had had a photo of the card. It would have saved some time. I had to go back to the store an dlook at the cards on the rack to determine which bank sold the card. Then I Googled their customer service number. Then it was easy.
Square lay says
I just had purchased not even an hour ago at 1:40 a.m. Lincoln county Kentucky time and some junkie crackhead drug addict I guess low life inside it’s still my kids diapers and our dinner tonight is there any way possible I can get that back as long as I have that balance and the receipt I was given when I bought the card from Walmart in Stamford Kentucky I just think if you can’t there’s system needs to be recharged and there should be a new law stating that a customer loses a gift card as long as they got the activation receipt then they should be able to receive a new one and cancel the other one just like a debit card you know that same thing right wrong Emma I’d say I’m right Walmart y’all should totally think about AKA we should totally think about your new partner Justin Muse about putting a law to wear if you lose your gift card you keep your activation receipt and you can cancel the old card and now you can use your actuation receipt which shows the same numbers besides the pen maybe it doesn’t know as the new gift card think about that I already thought about it be a good idea if I want to put me in though don’t cut me out real good people to help for family out