NBC CT Responds Investigates Gift Card Grievances

If you’re looking for a last-minute gift idea, gift cards are an easy get.

But NBC CT Responds and our colleagues across the country have received more than 30 complaints about Vanilla gift cards just this year alone.

“The lady tried it a couple of times, swiping it and it wouldn’t go through, so she said call the company,” said Nancy Deaso of Monroe, who wanted to disappear at the checkout counter that September day.

The $350 Vanilla gift card she was given to celebrate her retirement wasn’t going through as payment.

She got it last year but was saving it for something special.

“A Pandora bracelet and charm for my birthday,” Deaso said.

She says she hadn’t rushed to use it since the expiration date was years away.

“I went home to call the company, to find out what was going on, why I was rejected, and she said ‘you don’t have money on it,’” explained Deaso, who said the customer representative said the card was wiped clean by someone shopping for soccer gear.

When Deaso told her she didn’t make those purchases, the rep told her to put in a dispute. Problem was her dispute was denied because she hadn’t submitted it within 60 days of the soccer purchases.

“I didn’t know it was used until I went to go use it, so how could I respond in 60 days?” she said. That’s when Deaso reached out to NBC CT Responds for help.

“I wish they would give me my money back. That would be nice.”

Deaso is not alone in her frustration.

In South Florida, parents pitched in to give a gift card to a beloved teacher and when she went to use it, the money on it was gone.

A Telemundo viewer in New York got a Vanilla gift card for her quinceañera. When she decided to shop, there was no cash on the card.

“Unfortunately, this is an all-too-common scam,” said John Breyault, a fraud expert with the National Consumers League.

He says typically a bad actor goes to a retail store and records the numbers off the back of gift cards.

“They then take that number back and load it into software that will actually ping the servers to find out how much money has been loaded onto these cards and they just wait until somebody buys them, loads money onto them, and then as soon as they get an alert that that’s happened, they use that information to buy merchandise and drain the funds off the card,” Breyault said.

In another twist, Vanilla gift cards a Cheshire resident received weren’t activated correctly at the store, so when he went to use the cards, they were denied.

He reached out to the company who said he’d have to go back to the place where the cards were purchased to get them fixed.

“And then I respond to them saying, ‘well, these were gifts, and we have no idea where they may have been purchased,’” said Ray Stewart. “At which particular point I kind of threw my hands up and I reached out to NBC Responds.”

NBC CT Responds reached out InComm Payments, the program manager and processor of Vanilla gift cards, about Deaso and Stewart’s predicaments.

An InComm Payments spokesperson tells us in part:

“InComm Payments takes concerns from cardholders very seriously. We review each complaint of fraud on a case-by-case basis to determine what occurred and devise an appropriate solution for the customer. We are proud of our strong track record of responding to customer inquiries and providing compensation for fraud victims as appropriate. While our policy and privacy restrictions prevent us from commenting on individual consumers, we regret that Ms. Deaso and Mr. Stewart were not satisfied with their product experiences….”

Right after we reached out to Incomm Payments, Deaso got a new gift card from the company.

“Really without you guys, this never would have happened,” she said.

In addition, Stewart’s cards were activated.

“Lo and behold after you folks had contacted him, they decided to do the right thing,” he said.

Our NBC Responds colleagues were able to help get the Florida and New York consumers their money back, too.

While Incomm Payments says it can assure their customers, “that only a very small percentage of cardholders report issues with fraud,” the company did provide us with steps consumers can take to protect their gift cards. This includes inspecting the gift card’s packaging prior to purchase and regularly monitoring transactions.

Consumer experts suggest buying one that’s at the back of the rack or behind a checkout counter. There’s less of a chance that someone’s tampered with it. Better yet, you can buy one online or just consider giving cash.

Deaso suggests if you get a gift card, use it sooner rather than later. She can’t wait to treat herself to something special with her well-deserved gift card back in hand again.