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"Vanilla Visa" gift cards are a RIP OFF! Do not buy one nor consider giving it as a gift. The decrease the amount of the Gift card every month. When you try to use it, it declines over and over. When you FINALLY get to use it by applying half the money you were supposes to have... they the C>C. continues to decline!
I will NEVER get on of these again...further, I will email EVERYONE at work, neighbors and friends alerting them of this rip off Gift card.
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I buy these all the time and now the one I got for 75$ isn’t working saying system inconvenience and declining everywhere.
I right now am trying to get back stolen funds. I think they do it themselves. Well here we are at 60 days. They tell me I have to wait another 30 days. The dispute is with PayPal, that takes 72 hours to settle a dispute. This is over $100 dollars, and I am a dog with a bone, and I will make things very unpleasant for them. DO NOT EVER GIVE YOUR MONEY TO VANILLA GIFT CARD EVER!
These vanilla visa gift cards are a scam! This is my 2nd time buying it, I bought it to pay a bill over the phone and it was declined. So these people will decline the payment to the merchant and when you try the card again they’ll start taking 20% off your balance. Yesss and decline the Payment again so they can charge another 20%. It’s hard as hell to speak to a customer service agent and if you’re lucky enough to get 1 on the phone they’ll lie to you and tell you that it’s the merchant you’re trying to make a payment with charging the 20% so I don’t know how the hell I purchased it a second time but I was in a rush and here I am with the same problem, trying to make a payment on my tv and it’s declined, declined! DECLINED so Vanilla Visa gift card can keep taking that 20% off my card. So UNFAIR BECAUSE I DONT HAVE A VEHICLE TO GO MAKE THE PAYMENT ON MY TV IN PERSON SO NOW I HAVE TO PAY A LATE FEE ON MY TV! BUT IM NOT A SUCKER! THEY WILL NOT DO THIS TO ME! IM GOING TO SUE THESE MOTHER EFFERS AND VISA SHOULD BE ASHAMED TO PUT THEIR NAME BEHIND THIS POS CARD. VANILLA VISA GIFTCARDS ARE A SCAMMMMMM! Unless you go use it in person but by then there will be no money left on the card! I WILL PUT MY TIME AND EFFORT TO GET THESE DAMN CARDS OUT OF BUSINESS!
This [censored]ing card ruined my whole day. The money is there, but acts stupid holding the money for a damn hour. Tried using it countless times and it declines over and over. And the customer service is the absolute [censored]ing worst. I just want to rip the [censored] out of it. Worst decision I ever made.
Don't buy vanilla gift cards, time you purchased the card, the money on the card istud gone, fraudulent charges, and calling the phone number on back of card is a joke. Lost money to whom? Theven company does nothing, customer service takes forever to get to speak with a agent, and 50.00 bucks of my money is gone. This company should be put out of business asap
Complete garbage. Was sent a card for my birthday, cant even access it without a constant "system error has occured please try again later". Been like this since late december, now it's mid february. Customer service is entirely useless about all of it too. Please if someone decides to send someone a card, just send them money via paypal, bank or cash. Actually having to deal with a garbage non-working site/card is a lot more frustrating with them holding your funds hostage without respite then just sending someone cash or paypalling someone.
Better to just put these people out of business so nobody else has to suffer with this constant nuisance.
My daughter was given an $100 vanilla gift card for Christmas and there was no funds have the receipt and everything showing it was loaded. Call vanilla gift card and they say send a photo of the front and back of the card with my id and the receipt. I did so and a month later I call to check and still nothing gave me a case number but told me to go back to the store the card was bought at we have done that 3 times already and they tell us to contact vanilla cause it’s on there end. Was told I would get emails with updates from vanilla and when I just called back to go over what is happening with my case number now they are refusing to email me anything they say. I am about to go to the better business bureau and attorney general with they lying ways. They have a copy of my id they claimed they needed I am so frustrated with this. NOT EVER BUY VANILLA GIFT CARDS.
I recently received a replacement vanilla gift card. I learned that you can load vanilla card funds onto your Amazon gift card if you have one. I quickly did that. I didn't want another screw up with a vanilla gift card.
Vanilla visa gift cards are horrible. Don't ever buy one they are useless, this company needs to go and have a class action law suit on them. I am so sick of these company's ripping us off.
I got a $50 gift card with Vanilla and when I tried to charge ALL $50 at once, no way. They hold on to 15% of your purchase "for security reasons", then release it a couple days later... and it's ridiculous! After seeing that small print, I charged it to my Paypal acct card reader for $40 JUST to get something out of it, and my charge showed $48! So I waited a couple days and then I had $10 in my account (that $8 held and $2 I didn't pull out).
So then yesterday I kept at it and did a charge for $8, which of course showed as a charge for $9.20 against my $10 balance. Now today I'm showing a $2 balance and I'm going to charge $1.70 which will show as $2... then my balance tomorrow should be .30¢ and I swear it, I'll keep at it until maybe they can keep a penny of mine. Screw these guys. DO NOT BUY THEIR CARDS!
By the way... if you get one DO NOT try to use the entire balance with a purchase. Just subtract 20% (to be safe) and you won't get a DECLINE. I have a card reader for my Paypal / eBay business and I'm using it daily to draw out all the funds from it. They HOLD 15% behind for some reason and you'll get a decline if you try to charge up to your balance.
Today I saw I'm down to $2 and could only charge $1.65 to it. I swear that I'm going to go down to the last penny if I can. These people are a rip-off.
THAT SAID, unless it's an inside job... I have no idea how a thief can withdrawal the entire amount in one transaction because even legit customers like myself can't even do that. The card won't allow it.
I just got a vanilla gift card as a gift for Christmas. I was only able to use a small portion of it before it declined. When I went on their website to check my balance it said over and over Error Check Back Later. This has been ongoing for days. When I tried to call their customer service line I was on hold for hours for several days in a row and no one picked up. I couldn't check my balance there either. DO NOT BUY one of these cards. Totally pointless and frustrating.
received a $500 gift card for christmas. Used it once and then was hacked. Reached out to them- they had to do an "investigation"... call them back after waiting over an hour on hold and 3 months( because thats the time frame they asked for) and they tell me they do not see any discrepancy on the card ! I live in PA and the card was used in CA. WHAT A JOKE ! None of these people speak english either. Terrible terrible experience
My experience is the same as everyone else. First, the numbers wore off the front of the card. Of course it never worked at a merchant via the magnetic strip like it should. On 2 calls and in 2 emails they told me there was nothing they could do even though the numbers on the back of the card were intact and gave them all of the information. That was an obvious lie, so I made it easy on myself and filed with the BBB. You'll never guess what they discovered they COULD do! I had a new card within a week. Alas, now I am in the same boat as everyone else. Most all of the money is already gone. I'll now go through the motions with VanillGo only as part of the process. I'm fully aware they are nothing more than a scam and will do nothing but give me the run around. Then, in a month or two, I will set out to help others and hopefully help send someone to prison.
Please file with the BBB (Better Business Bureau), the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), and your state's attorney general. The BBB and FTC have easy to navigate sites, and at least the PA AG's website/process is user friendly also. The BBB form took all of 5 minutes, and the others look similar. We need to build up the number of hits in these databases to make VanillaGo stand out. These organization will help, but we need to feed them the data on the scope of the fraud. Don't assume they know.
Also, the class-action lawsuit link below was provided by another user. I went to the website, and it seems legitimate. It's a shot at getting some of your money back.
https://chimicles.com/vanilla-prepaid-gift-card-stolen-funds-class-action-investigation
Please take some time to help put a stop to this.
Absolutely terrible experience. Card didn't arrive, no tracking number, thrty-six minutes online so far waiting for help. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY OR TIME.
I purchased a gift card on August 2022 and I had $500.00 balance, I used the card one time and within 24 hours my card balance was $0.00. I filed a dispute for the merchants and a replacement card was issued 4 months later. I received replacement card on 12/1/22 and after calling getting the card activated, I used the card at a retail store and within a hour someone hacked my card from cash app. Now I have to wait again for the dispute to clear! This is the worst PREPAID CARD that I have every used! I do not recommend this card to anyone!
Don't ever buy Vanilla Gift Cards. I purchased one for 300.00 and the funds were scammed immediately. When I found out I called customer service and they asked me to wait a couple days. Days turned to months and they DONT care that you get scammed, ripped out, of course since it's not their money. Their customer service stinks! I will tell everyone how horrible their service is. When you call customer service they seem so unfriendly and fake. It's like you're speaking to a robot. No personality. No one that's genuine. No understanding. Poor poor service and not to mention thiefs. Don't buy these vanilla gift cards.
I was given two cards totaling $190 as recognition for work I'd done. I used about $20 from one of them. A couple of days later I went to use them and found that they had been charged out. I printed the name of the vendors and called in to open a case with Vanilla Visa Customer Care. I completed the paperwork and submitted it via email according to the instructions.. When I didn't receive a reply I called again (long wait on hold). I was told I needed to wait 45-60 days while they researched the case. When I didn't hear in 60 days I called again and they asked if I'd received a confirmation of my submission. I said that I wasn't aware that they provided a confirmation. I submitted the forms again. When I didn't receive a confirmation I called again. Long wait, same story. After submitting the forms three times (hours on the phone) I submitted the form by registered mail. I have confirmation that the completed forms were submitted. Guess what!?! No confirmation.
This is an update. At this point I have submitted the package 3 times via email and once via certified mail. Receipt was confirmed via certified mail. Also in two followup conversations it was indicated that they had the dispute package. In follow-up calls I have been repeatedly asked to resubmit the package. We are coming up on 8 mos. I have been promised twice that I would be contacted by a supervisor. That has not happened.Today I was promised an email response within a week. I have recorded the last two call. . I am done. If I do not receive the email by 3/15 I will file a complaint with the State Attorney General and the Trouble Shooter for our local newspaper.
I'm glad I'm not alone. Although I truly am upset that we've had such bad experiengces with this card. I was given a gift card as a birthday present. There was 53.00 left. When I went to use what was left there was a 0 balance. I know for certain I didn't spend it. It was difficult as heck to get customer service if which left a lot to be desired. I filed a claim in September and have not heard anything from them. It's a shame when a company is so trifling that they run scams on people who are giving gifts to loved ones.
Found this online if anyone is interested. Looks like there are attorneys looking at Class Action...Link below:
https://chimicles.com/vanilla-prepaid-gift-card-stolen-funds-class-action-investigation/
I'm reading all these comments and the exact same thing happened to me. I put $400 on a card at a Walgreens as a birthday present for my 12 year old step daughter. Got home and made sure the balance was there and it was activated. Hour later, we go to the mall and someone had gone in and took the $400 dollars...The charge was from Kmart.com. Spent half a day calling and calling both Kmart.com and Vanilla gift card and the customer service (on both) was HORRIBLE...Filed a fraud complaint with Vanilla I've now been waiting 8 weeks and nobody will even respond to my emails. You certainly can't call anyone so has to be done via email. If this keeps happening and this company is doing nothing about it and they know it keeps happening, looks like a Class Action Lawsuit needs to take place. Either this company (Vanilla) is the one scamming or they are aware of others scamming and doing nothing about it.
After reading all the comments of the same thing happening, I only wish I would have read before I bought the card. Something is definitely "fishy"...If anyone out there is planning on purchasing one of these, DO NOT SPEND YOUR MONEY. YOU WILL LOSE THAT MONEY!
If there are any attorneys on here, would welcome some legal advice.
In the meantime, Still waiting on reply back from Vanilla Gift Card much less the money back.
Thank you for sharing your experience, I wish I read all these comments earlier. It is definitely scamming out there.
I received a $300 Vanilla gift card during my welfare dinner on May 3, 2022, at 7 PM in California. On November 13, 2022, I tried to use the Vanilla visa gift card and learned there was zero balance (The package does not appear to have been tampered and I have the purchase receipt). A Vanilla rep told me that the $300 has been used in Long Beach, California (some 400 miles away) on May 2, 2022, at 10:17 PM (the night before I received the gift card). I then filed a dispute with the representative and received a case number via email. I was told it will take 45 to 90 days to complete the investigation.
Today, January 4, 2023, I called Vanilla since I haven't heard from them. After 50 minutes of waiting on the phone, I spoke to a representative; I was told that they completed the investigation on November 21, 2022—they did not find any discrepancy. The money just vanished.
Same problem with my Vanilla Visa - Gift Card.
Doesn't work, get rejected by every online website I tried. Get nothing but run around from staff. They say I need to call and convince the merchant to accept their virtural card.
total SCAM
customer service is terrible. You are lucky to get a person to answer. Your call gets automatically cut off after 30 mins. I asked to talk to a supervisor. Got put on hold again, DON'T BUY THIS CARD.
I purchased this card and every time I have tried to use it it says it’s locked and they will mail me a card ? I got this card because my bank was maling me a card now I can’t get anyone to help me I’m so pissed ! This is no way to run a business and will be filing federal charges today! I have nothing but a attitude and time to burn I will make it my life’s purpose to end this company! Absolutely ridiculous scam and also will file a complaint with Walmart for selling me this pos prepaid scam card ! You will not keep my money! Promise!
Got a Vanilla Fraud Card as a gift. $400 were put on the card. I opened the packaging and the card had a bunch of numbers scraped off the front of the card. Initially, I thought it had stuck to the packaging, but after a lot of research it had clearly been opened, re-packaged, and put back on the shelf at Walgreens. The $400 had been used at Target in Phoenix, AZ and I am in Chicago. The customer service is horrible, and I would almost guarantee they do not even contact me after I emailed them all of the info they asked for...my license, the receipt, and a photo of the card. Cannot believe this scam of a company cost me $400.
Everyone who is on this please be very careful cause my identity and millions of people's idenitys have been stolen by family members and our loved ones and all of these things are very serious and to be honest if you see
Never ever ever buy a Vanilla gift card for yourself or anyone else this is the third time that this has happened to me where I have money on the card and it cannot be used online or at POS it is terrible the money is always on the card and the company knows the money is on the card the card is activated but I can never use the card every time I call them they have another fruitless suggestion my question is where is my money and how do I get
I have a $250 vanilla prepaid paid card. It shows online a transaction for $75 that was accepted thrn a second transaction for $75 that shows pending from 07/09/22 and I've taken screen shots of it and I've also recorded the first conversation as you can clearly hear me say that I'm recording this conversation and are you ok with it. She said yes sir can I have your card number. After arguing for 3 minutes I then told her that conversation is bieng recorded like I asked and that I was not asked if I could be recorded , as per automated response at first.
Anyway she said I made a transaction for $150 and was accepted yet thats not true and then I asked for a supervisor and he told me same thing and said that online checking on there site is false.
What should I fo now. They owe me $75
Vanillagiftcards are a complete scam. I am at a lost for words. I lost $400 dollars and i still have the card and receipt. I am calling the number on the back of the card daily. I get the same response and run around from these people. They are total scammers and i am going to do everything in my power to make sure nobody ever buys another Vanillagiftcard ever again. They are thieves. We have to do something about this. Let the media know. Anything to get the word out on these crooks.
Just had the same thing Happen to me yesterday. I had a 350 dollar gift card given to me for my birthday on September 30 this year. I had been using it to buy groceries , gas etc for about a week and a half. I checked my balance on the 14 th of October and it still had 160 left on it. I used it once yesterday morning around 7 for a 10.00 purchase. Between 7 and 1 that afternoon scammers had used it at 3 different online stores and I was left with 40 cents on it. I tried to use it at a store about 12 and realized something was wrong. I called vanilla and basically was told there was
Nothing they could do. 🤬🤬since they card is a GIFT card they don’t know who is using the card to make transactions , I could have lost the card someone found it and used the balance etc , I could have given it to a friend and they used all the balance , since the card has no named end user there is no way to enforce any wrongdoing by other party’s …hence scammers. Ohhh it just pisses me off. I was planning on a couple more weeks of groceries and gas with the balance. Gift cards suck! Don’t use them. Just give people the actual cash ! The worst part about these gift cards is you can’t just cash them in at a atm machine either ! 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Vanilla Gift Cards are a scam. Checked my balance this morning with no problem. Went to use my card an hour later and the card was declined. I had a fraudulent pending transaction for $410. Took an hour to get a hold of customer service. When I did, they just gave the run around. This has happened to thousands of people. Every website that offers company reviews has hundreds of the same complaints regarding this company. It’s time to take this company down. Anyone want to start a class action law suite with me?
I bought a vanilla gift card because I'm disabled and shop on line. I got my tax refund for 325.00 and put 150.00 on the card. I got up the next morning and tried to do an online purchase. It kept saying my card is denied. So I called and they told me that a pending purchase in the amount of 150.00 was made @ 3am in Nevada. I live in Indiana. My money was gone before I even had a chance to purchase anything. I was devastated. Now I'm just angry. I called customer service and was told they would send me the paperwork to file a claim to try to get my money back. It's been a month to the day today and I still haven't received the paperwork. Vanilla Gift Cards are a scam and walmart should be ashamed for continuing to sell these cards.
I will! They did me the same way. Took 500 off my card Aug 1 and told me I had until nov 1 to get refunded yet Nov 1 comes and I CALLED AND THEY TOLD ME I STILL HAD TO WAIT.
These Visa Vanilla gift cards are a royal pain.
I have three of these cards, two with various amounts of unused funds, third card unused, should indicate full amount.
Online website for activation and/or balance, web page continues to respond "invalid number".
Finally I needed to contact by Visa Vanilla by phone. Phff! Good Luck. recording prompt also claim card numbers are not valid. if capable of getting the right option to speak with someone. On the third call I pressed option "0" to report a card as stolen or lost. Finally a representative!
The Rep. on phone, pleasant and professional but heavy accent and hard to understand.
Apparently, the two cards with unused balances had not been used within a certain amount of time, therefor they were deactivated. Who knew?!
Rep decided to cancel all three cards and send the total card balances, within 7 - 10 days.
You might think that it would come as one card with the total amount. Nope, another three cards.
All over again the same process rejected on line balance check and phone contact.
Save yourself the ridiculous process and aggravation on top of being charged the extra fee for each card when purchased.
.
Vanilla gift cards are a scam! Every time I receive a Vanilla gift card from somebody they never activate! Don't ever buy a Vanilla gift card ever ever ever! They're a fake gift card company who steals your money once purchased! I've never been able to use not one of them once I received them and try to activate them. Customer service is horrible and have hung up on me. Maybe if they helped the customers with this problem and gave them some type of retribution for their customers, there wouldn't be so many complaints from others on the same issue. That being said, ill make sure to tell anybody and everybody I know to never purchase one of your cards. You need to start figuring something else out to help get people's money back when this happens to them.
I received 200 gift card. I went online to verify the balance and kept getting error messages so I called and got a verification that 200 was on the card so I went to the store. Card was declined so I went to website that worked now only to see a charge for 200 had been posted...I called vanilla who refused to do anything g other than tell me to call back in a week...
This transaction should have been stopped while it was pending not when it's posted.
SCAM. 2 min after checking my balance on the automated phone line my balance was wiped out with a purchase for the exact amount of the balance on the card. Filed the paperwork for fraud with them and now crickets.
The same thing happened to me! I was told that the investigation would take 44 to 90 days!
Obviously hackers are getting into their online site! That's the only explanation for it happening so quickly! Meanwhile the crooks are out here smiling, shopping, having a field day at your expense! And injury upon insult...you are out of money for 44 to 90 days!
It's so humiliating you check your balance, everything is fine and in under 2 minutes your card gets declined! You find out why! Someone took all your money!
There needs to be better security for honest paying citizens! Two step authentication!
Did you ever eventually get your money back?
This card is most definitely a scam customer service is horrible and the card is a straight waiste of money. Do not get the card anyone who is thinking of getting one
I bought a vanilla gift card for 170 and 2 hours after buying it, when I went to use it I no longer had a dollar balance, that has happened to me several times, I recommend that you do not buy with them, you buy it and since the active one uses the money and they say it was cloned, the situation of this company is very strange, they have to investigate it
Someone gave me a $100 vanilla gift card. I made a few transactions and had a $58 balance left. I got to albertsons and the clerk tells me my balance is 24 cent! I check my transactions and someone hacked my card for my $58 and used on a website I've never even heard of before and money is just gone. DO NOT BUY THESE CARDS. PLEASE BEWARE PEOPLE ARE HACKING THESE CARDS AND ARE STEALING PEOPLES HARD EARNED MONEY!
My buddy at work got me a card for 40.00 yesterday. But by the evening the money was gone. Someone went online and spent $39.75. The cards are compromised so purchase them at you own peril.
I bought a vanilla visa gift card to use for a bill and it wouldn't let me use it and now I looked at the balance and it shows the 30 I put on it as being sent to some lady I don't know and I didn't send any money to her. I want my money back now my bill is over due and have interest charges. Vanilla visa gift card I will be telling everyone I know don't trust jt.
I received a Vanilla gift card. And it had been used by someone else. They declined my dispute and then continued to say that they did not receive my dispute even though I had an email confirming that they did in fact receive it. Weird. Weird, weird company. Do not get this gift card.
Do not, I repeat, DO NOT buy this gift card. Not only is it not accepted anywhere I tried, but I just checked my balance and someone hacked into it and used it on Amazon. This company is an absolute JOKE. Their so-called "customer care" is an even bigger joke. There is no live human to talk to. It's all automated. Why is that, you ask? Because they don't WANT to talk to you because they are a sham of a company. I reiterate: DON'T USE THEM!
This year my son with special needs his first job this summer! He decided to buy me a vanilla visa gift card using most of his first check! He was proud of the gift, it’s the first gift picked out, bought and paid for it himself! I tried to use the card on Amazon at 9pm Monday, it wasn’t accepted so I thought I needed to activate it! At 10:20osh I went to balance.vanillagift.com were they ask you to put in the card information, and there was a balance of 75$, I added a pin number and ZIP Code and try to get on Amazon! But it still didn’t work so about 20 minutes after adding the card info I went back and did it again! This time it showed a zero balance and A pending charge for $75 to a business that cannot be found online and the phone number that vanilla gift card representative gave me is no longer in service and can’t be Google!
I would say stay far away from this company because they happy part of the scam! Or how would this fake business that doesn’t exist no the card number expiration date and pin$