Posted on 12/25/2006 9:13:03 AM PST by rellimpank
Why? They do it with every other product. If you get a tie for Christmas and then try to return it 2 years later you won't get your money back then either. The gift cards are just another product that the merchants sell.
I have to agree that basing your life decisions on what you see on the Man Show is probably not a good idea
Also, gift cards are a great gift. Using your example, if a person went to the Gap and spent $50 on something you didn't want then how would you be any better off. You could return it but then you face the problem of possibly hurting the giver's feelings and in either scenario you still have to physically go to the Gap.
With gift cards you don't have to know the person's size or what sort of clothes they prefer. If you know the store they like then that is good enough.
Gift cards also keep your house from filling up with useless "thoughtful" junk that people buy you Christmas. I'd much rather receive a $15 gift card from someone not very close than even a $30 "thoughtful" gift.
Dumb comparison for the obvious reason that you still have something of value-- the tie-- versus an expired gift card. In speaking of b.s. like this, it makes little difference to argue whether the general public is right. Public sympathy leads to legislation as with the minimum wage law.
It was a big issue on why we traded one of the best members of the U.S. Senate (Rick Santorum) for an empty suit (Bob Casey). Santorum was theoretically right in voting against the minimum wage increase. I would rather have a senator who was a little less pure on an issue which was of limited relavence than another empty suit rubber stamp for MoveOn.org.
Be careful that you understand what is being written before you play the "bs card".
A gift card is a product that the merchants sell. It is no different than a gallon of milk or a tie. You are confusing gift cards with store credits which are similar but two different things.
Do you think that if you buy a year's membership at a gym and never use it that you should get a refund after 2 years?
Many items are that are purchased at a store are completely valueless after two years - even if they were never used.
Well you know, GOP apologists probably should have spent more time explaining to the GOP that they had become the christian-socialist party and that it was going going to cost them the election since socialist voters vote for the Democratic party.
My son, CW, named after a Mormon friend of mine who doesn't drink the evil brew, he doesn't either, pointed out a Star-bucks stand, swill, garbage, my Italian relatives would say "This is Espresso!!", with a throwing of arms, a low day in my life and a waste of $4.00"
Duh, for the children...
The logic is, if someone gets screwed out of their money for whatever reason the benefiturary should be the government, not some private party... In other words, the government always gets first dibs...
self ping
They do. When they roast their beans they do, in fact, over roast them to give them a distinct 'Starbucks' flavor.
Pure Bull S*^%.
I'm wondering just how it is that you know that his statement is BS. And just how is it that you know it is pure?
I hate starbucks coffee but love the gift cards - if they are given to me. They have other stuff there. And you can always take it back for a refund and get the cash.
There were a couple of anti-Starbucks snobs I used to work with that would always give me the gift cards that they had received (lots of people and companies in the Seattle area tend to pass them out fairly frequently). I'd use them for emergency sandwiches for quick lunches and some hard items. It worked out to a few hundred dollars worth of stuff over time. It's just a "living off the fat of the land" sort of thing.
Easy solution - no expiration date.
People do not realize that gift cards are the Next Big Thing.
It turns out that they are MAJOR profit centers for companies, including American Express, Visa and MasterCard. I am actually working on a project where they are willing to handle the creation and distribution of $50 gift cards and only charge companies $47 for them. The company gets a 6% profit right off the top, and AmEX sits on literally BILLIONS of unspent money which is accruing interest daily. They also have proven formulas as to how many of the cards will simply be lost or thrown away. It is a TON of money!
It is free money. And lazy people GIVE it to them. Now the government wants it. Fascism has many faces.
There are gift cards, and there are gift cards with expiration dates. The former should be left alone. The latter should not exist. Taking those funds from the company does sort of make sense.
I hate when gift certificates expire. The dollars they were purchased with certainly did not expire
The smell gives it away.
Y'all got one hell of a sniffer there. =;^)
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