Posted on 12/31/2013 4:57:14 PM PST by matt04
Target is in hot water again after it emerged that a reported 40,000 gift cards sold over the holidays were not properly activated - leaving them with no value.
The latest debacle comes just a week after the retail giant suffered a massive data breach which saw hackers access information to an estimated 40 million customer credit and debit cards.
Now the store is under fire for scanning the wrong code on gift cards when handing them over to shoppers, meaning that the value was not activated, KMSP in Minnesota reported.
It means that when the recipients of the cards head to the register intending to use them, they will apparently have no value.
...
However, it may be a struggle to get through on the phone line as the store is experiencing a high volume of calls, KMSP reported.
One shopper affected by the debacle is Jennifer Sheldon, from Camillus, New York, who told the Syracuse Post-Standard that she was shocked when her $200 gift card failed to swipe at the store.
Sheldon, a mother receiving disability payments, had received the card from 'a needy family Christmas giveaway', she said, and 'felt on top of the world like I had just won the lottery'.
She went to Target hoping to stock up on milk, eggs, juice, diapers for her baby, clothes for her daughter and a toaster oven - but was told that the card had no value on it.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
The cashiers wished us a Merry Christmas every time we went to Target in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
That’s great!
Being a single mom in America today means Uncle Sam is the father. We’re not supposed to judge of course, but wouldn’t society be so much better if a lot of these dependent moms practiced a bit of morality, like in getting and staying married or not having sex outside of marriage in the first place? It must be nice to screw up (no pun intended) and put the rest of us taxpayers on the hook for one’s mistake, a la single mom style, eh?
BTW, this has nothing to do with the Target gift card screw up, but I couldn’t resist after you mentioned the single mother in the article. We keep subsidizing moral failure “for the kids” and then wonder why we keep getting more of it. Sad, really.
Whenever I give a gift card as a gift, I include the sales receipt for that GC. That way, if it doesn’t work, there’s a way to prove the value and that it was definitely purchased and supposedly activated.
40,000? Wasn’t it 40,000 credit card numbers that got hijacked, too? Weird.
The whole Target fiasco smells of an inside job or at least inside help. Also, there were several stories about Apple products purchased at Target that the boxes only contained filler items rather than Apple products.
Walgreens had to take a big loss several years ago.
Gift card balances all over the US were being stolen in California. You went to use your card and found the balance wiped out.
The gift card was in your hand but the balance gone.
I still wonder about it being an inside job.
I dont know how they did it. It might even still be happening. After that incident, I keep a close track on gift card balances.
The obvious solution would be to put NO limit on all such cards & let the customers shop away to their heart’s content .... I understand this worked *really* well a short while ago at another retailer ;-?
X1,000
Walmart must have profited by their troubles.
I’m so glad I’ve never shopped at TARGET. I decided to boycott the store when they no longer would allow the Salvation Army bell ringers at Christmas time.
one method used in that senario is theives getting the gift card numbers from thr cards displayed on a open rack, typically a supermarket or similar store that sells gift cards to various chain stores and restaurants in pre determined values. The keep checking the numbers of cards they know exist until someone buys one, then they presumibly use it online.
That’s happening all over in Cook County vis a vis the Boy Scouts. Just when we need a place where boys can learn to be men.
“They always seem to find a single mother or similar for any story where a big eeeevil corporation has a problem that affects numerous people from all walks of life. “
I hope this big eeeevil corporation takes it up the south pole for their ineptness and failing to protect their customer’s financial data and now hosing up 40,000 gift cards.
https://corporate.target.com/corporate-responsibility/
Yep. Always the single mom, black, lesbian, with 80 kids who was just trying to buy a toaster.
Unsold Christmas stuff? YOU DONT SAY!!!!
Pffft. How is that different from any other store?
It isn’t. It seems like more than usual. And it still isn’t selling. I noticed the same at other stores.
Meh, I don’t buy stuff at Target anyway. Their sporting goods department somehow fails to overlook firearms and ammunition, so I see no reason to try buying anything else there.
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