Monday, January 02, 2006
Gripe Gripe Gripe
This year for Christmas, we received, among other things, gift cards to a toy store and to a conglomerate of restaurants. I'm grateful for the cards; the children get to pick gifts by themselves, and the wife and I can go to eat. However, I don't understand why the cards, which have the value you pay for them, would charge you to have them. This makes little real sense to me. If I give my wife $25 in cash, she can spend it anywhere she wants whenever she wants. When you buy a gift card, you have to use it in a specific amount of time (my cards say if not used in 12 months or 24 months) or they will start charging you "administrative fees" - basically charging you for money for buying a card you can only use at their stores. While it's highly unlikely I'd go that long without using the card, in theory you could find a point where you've waited so long to use the 25 bucks (or however much) that you've lost the entire amount. Is it really so difficult for the stores to make profits that they have to charge you for spending your money on them?
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3 comments:
randomly, in california, it's illegal for gift certificates and gift cards to have expiration dates and administrative fees.
so i was surprised to see that they expire and charge fees in colorado. i may or may not be mistaken, but i believe if you call chili's before the 12 month period ends, you can reactivate them. but i may be wrong. it's hard to say, my brain is somewhat unreliable these days.
I just read the article Matthew cited, and it makes such good sense! No more gift carding for me; from now it will be cash. That is, if I don't come up with a specific gift first.
That is a rather good idea. I therefore announce that I will now accept cash from everyone who once gave anyone a gift card!
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