Save your Receipts: A Cautionary Tale

[HDS]

I'm posting this as a Public Service Announcement, catharsis, kapparah - something.

After reading this, I'm sure some will say I'm just a poor idiot, and maybe I am, but I imagine that I'm not the only poor idiot in this way, and if my story can help some people, at least I'll have contributed to a little less idiocy.

Confession: Until now, I have been... less than exemplary about keeping my receipts for GCs. I do try pay attention that the amount I'm paying at the register makes sense based on the number of GCs and the fees (duh), but barring any rebate of some kind, I've just been junking the receipts.

This week, I hit two $200 Visa GCs that wouldn't load to BB. I went to the GiftCardMall website and got an error. I called, and was told they were never activated, and I can either fax the receipt and other info, or should go back to the store.

Luckily, I had a pile of reward receipts sitting around from recent Staples promotions. When you look at the receipt, they print with a long code from the back of the GC, above the bar code, not the actual card number from the front. Unluckily, I struck out with those receipts, though they did help me narrow down the possible transactions that could have given me the dud cards. The problem - I still could have bought them from one of five different stores (yeah, I get around).  and I... don't... have... the... receipt.

Without the receipt there is no proof I ever purchased the cards and both GiftCardMall (the Visa card provider) and Staples have essentially no reason to treat me like anything other than a fraudster trying to get free money.

Even if Staples could do some kind of a transaction search for my card codes, a. they probably won't find them because - hello - the cards weren't activated, and b. why would they do this for someone they think is a potential fraudster? I may still ask them to do this, but I'm not particularly hopeful.

I think my only recourse will be to dispute the charges with Chase, and that's pretty dicey, for obvious reasons, even if they end up crediting me. If anyone has any other suggestions, I'm all ears.

Otherwise - let this be a lesson to anyone - like me - who wasn't keeping their receipts until after the cards have been cleared. Ordering online from Staples will help with this tremendously, since you have to activate the cards yourself, and you'll know immediately if there is a problem, with plenty of documentation. But if you buy cards from stores - any cards, from any stores:

Keep your receipts until the cards are cleared, or at least until you verify activation somehow. Just do it. The alternative is way worse.

[AnonymousUser]

ה' ימלא חסרנך. Thanks.

[tzifanya54]

So are you saying that even with the activation slips printing out.... This is still a possibility?

[HDS]

So are you saying that even with the activation slips printing out.... This is still a possibility?

Apparently so.

I will now be checking balance on GiftCardMall (or similar) for each card I buy, while holding the receipt. Annoying, maybe. But better than the alternative.

[HDS]

ה' ימלא חסרנך. Thanks.

Thanks.

[incendia]

Staples MIGHT be able to pull up transactions from your credit card # or staples rewards #

[Super Speed]

I personally keep my receipts even after I clear them, you just never know.

[sam i am]

HDS, Do you have the original packing from GC? The # on package should be on receipt. So that would help staples find it for you.
You might add to the PSA that you should save cards as well, if there is ever a credit issued, it would go back to card. This once happened to me. I keep most stuff, but am very disorganized and it took hours to match the right card that had the credit.

[Fan of Dan]

I personally keep my receipts even after I clear them, you just never know.

+ 1 I used to keep my bluebird receipts for many months just in case. Thanks for bringing peoples attention to this OP.

[HDS]

HDS, Do you have the original packing from GC? The # on package should be on receipt. So that would help staples find it for you.
You might add to the PSA that you should save cards as well, if there is ever a credit issued, it would go back to card. This once happened to me. I keep most stuff, but am very disorganized and it took hours to match the right card that had the credit.

You mean the cardboard that is so annoying, both in store and at home? Have I been keeping that, but throwing away the receipts? No.

Also, I'm not sure that the $200 GCs have any ID numbers on the cardboard - you have to pull off the annoying cardboard tab in the back to scan them - it would make much more sense from a cost-of-packaging perspective if all the packaging was the same. Other GCs might have ID numbers on the package, though, true.

I hadn't learned that lesson from what happened to me <smacks forehead> but now that you mention it, I supposed keeping the cards after draining them is a good idea too, yeah.

[HDS]

+ 1 I used to keep my bluebird receipts for many months just in case. Thanks for bringing peoples attention to this OP.

BB receipts you at least have on your BB account online, but yeah.

I saw somewhere that WM is putting QR codes on all their receipts shortly so that you can scan them into your smartphone for safekeeping.

[PBaruch]

The package from the GC's, or at least the Visa GC's at Staples is generic.  I believe its the same for the MC GC's.  The only identifying numbers are located on the GC itself.  Keeping the packaging therefore is pretty much useless for tracking purposes.

Also, Staples now emails receipts if you want that, which is a convenient way to keep track of the receipts. 

Finally, dud GC's are not as uncommon as one might think.  Those people that do this quite a bit probably know.  I have gotten duds on multiple occasions.  Usually the cashier catches the error that it didn't activate but sometimes not.  Once I bought 4k worth that never activated.

As for me personally, I keep the receipts until the CC statement comes and then shred them all.  And yes, its a big stack.   

[HDS]

Update:

Staples CS is pretty unbelievable (in a good way) so far.

I submitted an email through their site and I got back a ridiculously prompt email with a bunch of info for me to provide in order for them to dig up store receipts. I forwarded them a small spreadsheet, compiled from my CC transactions, dreading that they'd say "Uh, seriously?!" but they didn't, they said I should receive more info, or the receipts themselves in the mail, in 7-10 business days. It's also possible, they said, that they won't be able to get the receipts, so there's that too.

I'm taking it one step at a time but even if they do get the receipts, if I was the victim of a card switch at the register the codes on the backs of my cards won't appear at all.

Let's see what happens next. I'll keep you posted.

[HDS]

Update 2:

Corporate Staples seems to have struck out, for now. Although the CS rep was extremely quick to respond to me and engaged in the request, there is no way, apparently, for them to track my request for receipts, which seems kind of bizarre. They have no idea if they are in the mail and I might see them tomorrow, if the request failed, or if it is still in the queue and I might get them at some point in the future. They suggested I contact the office of the president of Staples for credit or relief.

Meanwhile, I was at one of my regular Staples recently and I made an offhand comment about checking the receipt before I left the store to make sure that the cards activated correctly. The manager (standing right there since we needed him to enter numbers), says "Oh yeah, we fixed that recently." "What?!" "Yeah, we had a register that was ringing up gift cards and allowing the customer to buy them, but wasn't activating them correctly!"

We talked a bit more, and he assured me that they have access to store purchase records going back a few months. I didn't happen to have the CC with me on which the unactivated cards were purchased, but if I bring it and the GCs next time I'm there, there's a good chance the manager can at least tell me if they were from his store, and best case, actually activate them. I may try this with a few other stores and see where it goes. I have some hope that I'll see the $400 at some point.

[HDS]

Update 3: Final

I finally got tired of wondering what was happening with this. I seemed to have hit a dead end with corporate Staples so I stuck a rubber-banded around the two unactivated GCs and the two possible CCs I'd used to buy them and kept them on me at all times. I'd walk into a store, ask for the manager, explain the story, and wait the 10-15 minutes while they went through their records. Annoying, but I realized it was the only chance to get my $400 back. To their credit, no manager told me to buzz off, or that he/she couldn't or wouldn't do it - remember, I don't have the receipt! - everyone took this seriously and searched their records via my CC numbers.

Today I finally found the store! After a full 20 minutes or so, the manager came back and showed me a copy of the receipt he'd been able to print out - months old - which had both cards rung up, but without activation codes. He apologized and said that I wasn't the first person to come in with this issue. They realized that they had had either a scanner or a software problem and had replaced a register recently to fix the problem.

He quickly pulled two fresh cards out of a new shrink-wrapped package and activated them for me for free, carefully showing me the activation codes on the receipt. Yay!

(I think he did a double take when I offered to buy the rest of the package, but he rung me up no problem.... )

Morals of the story:

1. Check your receipts on your way out of the store to make sure your GCs activate correctly.

2. It's smart to keep the receipts at least until you use the cards successfully. Plus, if there is ANY chance that their funds might get refunded or returned, keep the receipts and the cards even after you use them! (Evolve has been known to reject a payment, for instance, if you used the wrong biller and you don't have an account where you sent the money, they will refund it to the card(s) it came from. Others have posted tragically about this kind of thing on the forums.)

3. Staples was pretty awesome in this entire process.

Speaking for myself, I know I have the tendency to take for granted the stores and employees who make my MS possible. If they are efficient, well that's what they're supposed to do. And if they are slow or can't help me, I take it personally that my time has been wasted when all I needed them to do was something seemingly very simple.

Here was a situation where I needed Staples to rise to the occasion and go the extra mile and they really did, with flying colors. Kudos and more power to them!

Give your local Staples manager a little extra smile for me when you see them next.

[A3]

Wow thanks for the update and good for you. You dealt with it. In a great way as well.

[HDS]

Wow thanks for the update and good for you. You dealt with it. In a great way as well.

Thanks!

[ckmk47]

I'm so happy it worked out for you!

A note to corporate commending the manager is a way to really thank him.

[PBaruch]

Since you bought more GC's (at the same time your problem was corrected), check to see if the receipt contains a code to participate in an online survey.  If so, I suggest you take that survey.  The managers actually read the surveys and it helps them a lot.

PS:  Glad to hear your problem was resolved.

[Super Speed]

I'm so happy it worked out for you!

A note to corporate commending the manager is a way to really thank him.

+1