Pre-emptive "I HATE Gift cards" thread for week of Dec. 26

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I know they're coming...

I can sense them...

I can smell them...

I can hear them already...

An army of kids, most between the ages of 5 and 15, loaded to the brim with <gamestore> or Visa/MC gift cards and ready to spend them.

I have doubt I will see much of the following in the coming days:

- Folks using upwards of FOUR or more giftcards on a single transaction

- Kids who get pissed off at me because they don't know well enough to add tax to their purchase and suddenly their gift card isn't QUITE enough to cover whatever is they are trying to buy.

- Discarded/used up gift cards strewn about the store like drink bottles on the side of a road.

- People bitching that their VISA/MC/Amex whatever gift card has more on it than they think they do

- The same people demanding a discount if their card comes up short

- People who ask me "what have you got for $5/$10?" because they desperately HAVE to use that gift card and don't want to spend a penny extra.

- Bitching from these same people when they realize the small amount on the gift card won't actually buy much.

[Sapphire Silk]

In all fairness . . . I gave my nephew a Game Stop giftcard, not a Visa/MC one.

I'll just go an hide now.

[Lurking Sockpuppet]

Both my kids ask for and get gift cards from Memaw because all those electronic things confuse her. O.o

[Jester]

I have exactly one gift card I'll be using this year, and it's for amazon.com, courtesy of Mom, so I won't be bothering ANYONE with my gift card, as I'll be using it directly from the comfort of home.

Yeah, I rock. I know.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I gave my brother a $20 card from Bulls-Eye . . . but that's was only b/c it came included when I bought his 320GB Playstation 3 console.

He's already decided what he's using it on . . . it's going toward accessories for the PS3.

[Slayer]

I don't really see the problem with people using lots of gift cards for one purchase, but everything else I can agree with. I hate when people can't add things up properly before heading to the cash.

[DeltaSierra]

I received a bunch of gift cards for Christmas and I'm thrilled - one was for Amazon.com (downloaded some books to my new Kindle,) the rest for the mall near my college so that starving-student moi can get consumables when classes start in Jan. Oh and a Tim Horton's card from Mom - I get myself a cuppa every morning on the way to class I'm a happy girl, and I try my best to never be a SC/EW

[bainsidhe]

Ah yes, the joy of gift cards after Christmas. Our store couldn't keep up with the amount of GCs being authorized all at once, so it would auto-decline cards half the time and you'd have to ring them again. Time consuming and customers would go into a panic about why the card was declined. And forget using them at self checkout. SCO successfully ran GCs only 5% of the time. And all of this anguish before even dealing with sucky customers.

[cindybubbles]

I once received a $10 Bay gift card. Realizing that I could not buy many of their products with it, I shopped at the flagship store's PharmaMart (pharmacy and grocery) department and got two bags out of the card. Of course, I had to pay a little extra, though.

[Tito]

Sorry, but I got gift cards for my nieces & nephews. Sorry! *runs and hides*

[HappyFun Ball]

My apologies.. I'm a lazy Christmas shopper who just purchases Visa Gift Cards at my bank..

[Tito]

Don't worry, if you do happen to get any of them, they won't be sucky. They're good kids.

[Catwoman2965]

I know where you're coming from; most of the time I don't mind customers using gift cards to purchase, but its the ones who don't know how much is on their Visa/Am Ex card, so if there's an odd amount, we have to enter it, the card wont work if we simply swipe it like a cc, and get pissy when we nicely tell them they have to call the number on the back to find out how much is on it. Some of my CWs will offer to call for them, but not me. Sorry, but if you have one, nad you've used part of it, it behooves YOU to know what remains on it.

SCs who wander about the store, looking for items to buy so they won't have to spend any more than the gc is for.

And this happened in my store a couple of years ago; corporate had the BRILLIANT idea of both mailing and giving out blank gift cards, all packaged nicely, saying in the event you need a last minute gift, you can go online or call and PUT MONEY on said blank gift card, and then voila, instant gift for Aunt Gertrude who shows up at the last minute.

However, as we all know most SCs can't read and certainly don't pay attention, so we had many many coming in, trying to use the blank, UNactivated gc, and getting upset when told that sorry, you have to put money on it to use it. Corporate doesn't just send them out to you out of hte goodness of their heart!

[Aethian]

Okay folks it's not the gift card buyers that some clerks have probems with. It the SC's who don't know how to use them properly or act up because they dont keep track of how much they have on them.

Please stop appologizing for being one of those who bought gift cards. Specially those who do that because it's easier to send or give then a item where someone may be a different size, look better in a different color, or who have already too many toys.

[XCashier]

I don't mind my store gift cards at all; it's the Visa/AmEx/etc. gift cards that give me trouble. If the person does not keep track of precisely how much is on it, odds are it won't work in our machines. That's when it gets to be a royal nuisance.

I love our store gift cards; easy to sell, easy to use, fun to spend someone else's money!