Edit: Coles finally refunded the gift voucher in full.

I thought there would be no issues when I purchased a $55 Coles Mastercard gift card as a Christmas gift, but my friend was never able to get it to work at all despite following instructions and seeking help. 

On closer inspection these gift cards are Coles branded and Mastercard licensed, not owned or supported by either Coles or Mastercard. I would not have purchased had I known this. The fine print states they are owned by "Heritage and People's Choice Ltd bank". I called Heritage Bank's Fraud department: they pulled out of these gift cards in February 2024. Edit: a channel 7 reporter investigated this matter and found that Heritage Bank gave me the wrong info and they do still own Coles Mastercard gift cards. They did pull out of many gift cards in Feb 2024.

The support website listed on the card is a dead link: http://colesmastercardbalance.com.au/ doesn't work and redirects to https://www.mybalancenow.com/. There is little to verify that mybalancenow is legitimate, it gave me several errors, and it also still refers to Heritage Bank as the owner. 
The customer service number on the gift card, +61 07 5660 6022, advised me that they weren't sure why the card wasn't working, they weren't sure why "colesmastercardbalancecom.au" was redirecting, and that I could return to the point of purchase for a refund. I went in person to Coles today with the receipt, and the store manager advised me that he was not authorised to offer refunds for gift cards under any circumstances. The Coles customer care line and the gift cards line both did not assist (hung up on me actually). 

Edit: the above websites are legitimate, not fraud like I feared they might be. They're just really bad quality.

I have asked Coles for a refund, which they have refused. I encourage Coles to remedy this and am considering an ACCC complaint re this product's advertising and a card chargeback for the purchase. 

Edit: Coles provided a refund eventually. I have contacted the ACCC re misleading advertising and poor quality of this product.

Many people have been having similar issues with Coles Mastercard gift cards, unable to use the card at all or get their money back: 

https://www.productreview.com.au/listings/coles-gift-mastercard

https://www.productreview.com.au/listings/coles-gift-mastercard/q-and-a

I've tried loading the money into my Amazon account's funds, and it gets declined every time.

I've tried directly purchasing things with the card and amazon doesn't accept it.

I think MyBalanceNow is preventing me from uploading the money onto Amazon, because I was able to upload a different gift card (Master Card Gift Card) into my Amazon funds with no issue. Secondly, I think Amazon is preventing me from buying things using the card directly. This is because the transaction only appears in MyBalanceNow when I am trying to put the money on my Amazon account's funds, while Amazon doesn't process the order at all when I use the card directly at check out. According to someone at a MyBalanceNow call center, this is because Amazon isn't able to verify an address, or something along those lines.

Is there a way I can either use the money on Amazon directly, or transfer the money to another service that will let me use the money on Amazon?

Right now, I'm thinking my best bet is probably to buy an physical Amazon gift card at a store and lose the couple dollars of sales tax, so does anyone know which stores sell those?