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Does my Vanilla Gift Card expire?
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FINAL EDIT: Just in case anyone out there finds this and has a similar problem. The CFPB complaint process is great and did in fact lead to reimbursement of the stolen funds. Very relieved to have this outcome after such a lengthy struggle prior to filing a complaint. If you're having trouble with a dispute, I recommend looking into the CFPB.
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/
EDIT: I've submitted an official complaint to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and am hopeful this will bring this mess to an end.
Hi there. I hope this is the right sub as this is technically a prepaid card.
Last fall, we purchased a Vanilla Gift Card from Vons. We didn't use it right away, kept it safe and sound in its original packaging (edit: the number was not scratched off). Unbeknownst to us, before we even opened the package, all $500 had been spent on the card. (Our first attempted purchase was declined, which is when we found out the card had somehow been hacked/compromised.)
As expected, Vanilla was not easy to work with from the get go, and insisted I contact the merchant first to get refunded. There were well over a hundred small purchases on the Google Play store by the hacker, but I submitted every single one individually to Google as fraudulent charges. Fortunately, Google agreed these were unauthorized and refunded nearly all of the money.
However, only a small amount of these refunds made it back onto the Vanilla card, with hundreds still missing. At this point I had no choice but to submit a dispute using Vanilla's claim form, and they told me it could take up to 90 days to complete the review. I wrote a detailed, clear account with all my communication from Google proving they returned the money on their end.
90 days passed, and now they have me calling every 2-3 days; they ask the same questions ("When did you submit the dispute form?") and ask me the date of my email, revealing their dispute team hasn't done anything. I called today, and there has been no change. They've told me to call again in 24 hours, even though I'm supposed to receive an email when the case review is done. They're pretty much revealing that nothing will be done by the next time I call.
They refuse to write an email with their instructions for me despite being able to email me the dispute form, and when asked how long it will take, continue to say "90 days" even though we are well past that now. They said I can email their dispute team directly, but when I do, nothing comes back. I feel like I'm just being given the runaround. What's extra aggravating is that not only do they have the first $500, but they also have the money Google sent back to their bank. I don't even know what happened with this card in the first place... When I express concern that this process has already surpassed their stated deadline, they just sit in silence on the other end. This is a call center based in the Philippines.
What's the next step? In the user agreement it talks about arbitration for disputes. Can I initiate that process somehow? I'm a medical student, this money was much needed and I don't have much funds to combat this company. I've invested a lot of time into this (and it took hours just to submit each fraudulent charge to Google, the process is not very good and had to be done twice), I don't want to give up.
If anyone out there knows what I can do or has experienced anything like this, please share your insight. (If I'm on the wrong sub, please help point me in the right direction.) Edit: I did submit a letter online to Vons, but that didn't result in anything. I wanted to make sure that somehow Vons could have a record of what happened; unfortunately, I have found Vons customers on other forums that essentially the same thing happen to them as far back as 2019.
I've been trying to use a VISA vanilla gift card I got for my birthday a couple days ago. Every site has asked me for a Zip Code, and I've tried inputting my own, and the one of the store it was bought at. Neither worked. I also tried inputting the zip code of the person who bought it for me. I activated the card on the vanilla visa gift card site, but contrary to what I've seen, there wasn't a Zip Code option for where to set a zip code, though others had one on the very same site. As I was trying, I went back to the balance checking page on the vanilla visa gift card site, and it said:
ON HOLD Your Card is unable to be used at this time. Please immediately call the customer service number on the back of your Card.
However, the number on the back of the card is always a robot with 3 options. FAQs, Check my Balance, or Report my card stolen or missing. I really have trouble with using most robotic over-the-phone interactions, and almost always do better talking to a real person, however, there doesn't seem to be a way to get help from one. Only the robot, and my problem isn't one of the three things it offers help with.
I'm scared that some website got ahold of my card number and is stealing the money. The card had 100 dollars on it and I really can't afford to waste that kind of money right now.
If anyone has any insight on what to do or who to call, that would be really helpful right now.
Thank you.
There were news stories regarding this type of theft in the Washington DC area, as well as other parts of the country.
Yes, complain to the place you bought the card. Yes, complain to police. Yes, complain to your credit card company. Yes, complain to the vanilla card company.
Not complaining masks the size of the scam.
Reading the comments it is clear that some people misunderstand the question.
Can I successfully dispute the CVS charge on my personal credit card that I used to purchase these 4 gift cards?
The OP used a credit card to buy a bunch of gift cards which they now claim were drained. The OP is asking whether they can dispute the purchase of the gift cards, they already disputed the transactions that drained them.
The answer is - of course you can, but you won't succeed. In order for a merchant chargeback to succeed, the buyer must show that:
- either the transaction was unauthorized - that's not the case here, they did in fact purchase the gift cards,
- or they didn't get what they paid for - that's not the case here, the OP did in fact get the gift cards, the unauthorized charges appeared on the gift cards after the purchase.
Everything else is futile arguments. Yes, the OP has been scammed. No, noone will return the money to the OP unless they absolutely have to. Yes, the gift card company can probably identify this pattern of fraud. No, it doesn't mean that the OP should immediately be reimbursed, they still need to show that they are not in fact the scammer themselves.
It is unlikely that you can successfully dispute the purchase of the debit cards, since that purchase was authorized and not fraudulent. Unless you can prove CVS to be negligent, it is unlikely that you can prevail on any claims against CVS either.
I suggest discussing this with a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for a proper evaluation of your legal chances against any of the parties involved. I also suggest filing a police report for the fraud that occurred.
What you're describing is a pretty common theft scheme called "gift card drain": the scammers take unsold gift cards, scan them and then reseal them again in their original packaging and put them back on the store shelves. Once the cards are sold and activated the scammers have all the information they need to clear them out. There have been numerous news reports on this.
There are several people downvoting this answer because it is based on the assumption that the OP may be lying.
So just to make sure we're on the same page: everyone but the OP wil assume that the OP is lying and the OP is in fact the one trying to scam the system.
In order to prove otherwise, the right avenue is an unauthorized charge claim against the gift card issuer, which then will be investigated by the issuer and determined to be true or false. Everyone else will deny any claim because the OP cannot prove they did anything wrong.
For people keep claiming it's trivial to determine the OP is not lying - how exactly is that trivial? The scammers are not doing anything different from legitimate users, and there's no way to distinguish a legitimate transaction from an illegitimate one without knowing anything about the user (which in case of gift cards - the issuers know nothing of). So unless a claim is made and investigated - the issuers have no way of distinguishing those.
For people claiming the OP didn't get the goods - the OP themselves admits that they did. The card was in fact activated with $500 value, the draining occurred after activation (which is the delivery event). Any claim that the card was activated with $0 value is easily refutable, and a chargeback on that claim will not succeed.
As to tampered packaging - that's a valid claim only until the cash register.
While letting CVS know that they have a tampering problem is a good idea, it's not going to bring money back to the OP. They will not file an insurance claim unless they absolutely have to. For that - a police report would need to be made, for starters. Maybe a threat of a lawsuit.