Vanilla Gift Cards
reviews and complaints

I bought 2 $50 gift cards for my niece and nephew for graduation gifts. Circumstances changed for one of them, so I only needed 1. I activated 1 card at around 12:45 pm. I tried to use it at Ulta Beauty around 1:30 pm and it said "card not authorized". When I got home, I called the number to see if the card was really activated and it said purchase for Donna Worstell $50 on Amazon for a blood pressure cuff. So, I still have one gift card and I'm trying to figure out how to get my money off before it gets taken. I wish I had read these reviews before I purchased those cards.

I brought a 100 dollars gift card for my granddaughter that's in college. I brought it from Walgreens in Chicago at 7510 N Western sent it to her that's about 5 hours away from Chicago when she finally got it about 2 weeks when she started college she opened it and noticed that some of the numbers were scratched off so it was defected and couldn't be used so I'm not asking for my money back I need a replacement card for the one that didn't work

I originally bought a $50 gift card for my daughter to take on field trip that I could not attend. This was not the first time I have purchased a card and had never had an issue. The card was activated and had the funds available. I attempted to use the card as payment for items at the Zoo and the card would not read and the staff at the store would not try to enter manually. I tried the card the next day and it still would not read the card. The staff at this store did try to enter the numbers by hand and the transaction declined. After waiting almost 30 minutes on hold I finally reached a live person. This person kept repeating the expiration date was entered wrong.

I explained over and over that no one entered an expiration, the card would not Swipe and entering the card number manually did not work. After another 20 minutes they finally agreed to replace the card and it would take 7 to 10 days. I think they should have expedited the card since issue was clearly on their end. Next time I choose a different company and never again use Vanilla.

Purchased on 6/2 at Walmart. Tried to use at another retailer 2 days later and kept saying card error after creating a pin at first time use as instructed on back of card. Called cust. svc. was on hold for 56minutes when I get someone who has a very strong accent and spoke broken English. When I told him the issue and not being able to create a pin he told me he "reset the card" and to try again. If can't use again call back. No thanks after holding almost an hour. He had the nerve to tell me to go back to the store and ask them to help me create a pin. Seriously! I asked for a supervisor and was on hold another 37mins until I hung up. What a scamming POS company! Now I'm out money and they refuse to help!

My Son purchased a vanilla gift card at Walmart. Upon opening the card i noticed the security code was scratched completely out unreadable and the strip looked swiped. I called vanilla ASAP to order a new replacement. They told me the card had $100.00 on it YEAAA good i caught it on time. A week later no card i called vanilla again just for them to tell me the card cannot be replaced the balance was $0.00 it was used in California i love in Illinois - THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE MY son is out $100.00

I do believe someone within the company for vanilla is doing tlhis !

I purchased the card at my local Food Lion Store in Mechanicsville, VA at their Bell Creek Road location. The date was April 7, 2023

Store:02575

Pin number on the receipt:[protected]

I checked my balance because my card was rejected twice. I made one purchase on Amazon on 4/15/23 -$69.61

3 other purchases were made by some other than me,

4/20/23 to BGBDEF,COM o6002EFBBoA=$439.99

4/25/21 toRFDVES.com-01001ADE6585-$39.99

4/29/23 toZEVDED.com-02oo2E416Ca5-$47.92

I bought a Vanilla gift card. It exposed and I asked Vanilla to block the card and file for a replacement. The company was supposed to do that but after 3 months I did not received any replacement. After calling the customer service several times they told me the replacement card is activated somewhere else than your location. They filed dispute but now after two months I have not received any thing. I am pretty sure they are scam and they just want to wast time to make me tired but I will not and I will take this case to the court if they do not refund my money.

We (business) purchased a Vanilla Visa (Physical) Gift Card from their ONLINE website to have sent to our co-worker. When it arrived, our co-worker opened, activated it, and went to use it on June 5th, only to find out the $300 balance was depleted!

They did call and Vanilla created a case for them to try and get the funds back, however, we're not sure if how long that will actually take (they said 45-90 days).

At this time, since we don't know what the outcome will be yet, we would just like to let others know that even if you purchase from the website, it's not always guaranteed/secure your card won't be hacked in some way or form.

When I asked the customer service representative how they obtain their physical cards to send out to customers, she said the ordering department handles that (which really wasn't an answer) and she mentioned that someone could have intercepted the mail, opened it and took the information. I told her that it's not likely that happened, as it was delivered in a FedEx envelope and the co-worker said it wasn't tampered with (that they could see). I then mentioned that maybe they should do an internal investigation, as it was possible that someone could be doing this from the inside. (She of course didn't want to really hear this, but I told her again, that if it happens again, they should really consider it)

Well I just want to thank everyone at vanilla and all others affiliated with the gift cards. I bought a gift card to pay my phone bill so I could call the hospital because time was almost up. I was only about 45 min away but I wasn't going to make it. Well thanks to the gift card having errors and the awesome customer service from Walgreens I didn't get to say anything. After dealing with Walgreens and sitting on hold for 27 minutes on Walgreens phone I gave up. So thank you for that.. You all are the best. I pray you all will never need something so simple that would mean the world to you get ruined by someone who couldn't care less. I hope that everytime you see a gift card you think of me.

I received a Vanilla Visa Gift card for $300 in December 2022. I used it at Walmart.com & Walmart in-store in March. On May 31, seven unauthorized charges were made to Paypal using my gift card number. I reported it immediately to VanillaGift.com while the charges were still pending. Three charges for $46.66 each & four charges for $1.95 each. They froze the card so I can't use the $49.00 that is left, but allowed the fraudulent charges to go through the next day on June 1. When I called them back, they said that nothing could be done to recover the money once it had gone through.

On the Manage Your Card screen, the balance summary shows:
Activated: 05/06/2023
Expiration Date: 01/31
Original Value: $100.00
Pending Transactions: $0.00
Purchase: $100.00
Credits: $0.00
Available Balance: $0.00
Transactions:
05/16/23, 8:03PM: -$100.00
KROGER #644 - O2002EBC16A3
05/06/23, 3:24PM: +$100.00
Walgreens - [protected]
Available Balance: $0.00
My realtor who sold my house purchased the card on May 6th and gave the card to me on May 7th. It does not say on the website (balance.vanillagift.com), but I activated the card about a week later (I believe Sunday, May 14th). I attempted to use the Vanilla gift card at a store (Troy, Mo. Walmart) but was having trouble using it. It wouldn't scan. Record above shows there was a transaction on Tuesday, May 16th at 8:03pm at the Kroger next to the Walmart (Kroger #644 is in Troy, Mo. as well). I have never been to Kroger myself and found it odd the exact purchase in that grocery store was $100 on the nose. I'm not sure how the scammers did it, but I will never plan to use a Vanilla gift card again.

My wife gave me a Vanilla Gift card for $100 and I activated it. However, when I tried to make a purchase using the card, it was rejected for not enough funds.

I subsequently went online to check the balance and to my surprise, I was informed that the card was used to purchase items on Ebay totalling $94.00

I then proceeded to call customer service to explain the problem which took over 20 minutes before I was able to speak to someone. I explained the problem and was told they would investigate and get back to me. I waited Approximately two weeks and did not hear from them so I made another call and went thru the whole process again and to this date I have not heard from them. It has been almost 3 months since I've been waiting to get an explanation but no response. This is poor customer service and I will never buy another Vanilla Gift Card

Don't use Vanilla gift, it's a complete scam! You give your hard-earned money to gift someone, but the money got stolen, scammed, and used by someone inside the company. STOP buying these cards, and we need to make sure everyone knows how wrong this company is. The last Christmas, my parents gifted me a Vanilla gift card worth $300 but to our shock, the card had a fake barcode. This led to the money being loaded on someone else's card, which is unfair. The company's staff had to be behind this.

Recently, I purchased a Vanilla gift card on 05/14/23 for my beloved niece. I double-checked the barcode of the card before buying it to ensure it was not counterfeit. However, they still somehow managed to get the card number. After loading $100 on the card, someone already used $70. My niece went to watch movies and spend some of the funds before she realized there's only $1.77 left. Shockingly, someone used Paypal to transfer $1.77 to their account. It was so wrong to see my niece's lovely gift going to waste like this.

In conclusion, I urge everyone not to use Vanilla gift. It's not right for the company to let employees steal from customers. And it's not fair for hard-working people to spend money only to be scammed and stolen from. Please BOYCOTT THIS COMPANY as we don't deserve this kind of treatment. It's time we teach them a lesson.

I recently received a $200 Vanilla Visa gift card as a Christmas present, and at first, everything seemed to be fine. After reading the instructions, I activated the card, and checked the balance online with ease. I assumed that purchasing items with my gift card would be a breeze, and decided to buy something from Amazon.

The order appeared to have gone through without a hitch, but the next morning, I received an email stating that my order had been declined. Suspecting a technical issue, I tried to log in to my account online, only to discover that my access was denied.

Feeling understandably frustrated, I called customer service for assistance. I was informed that my card had become infected with a virus due to suspicious activity, and that it couldn't be reactivated. After exchanging heated words with the representative, I was promised that a new gift card would be sent to me.

A week later, I received the new card and was happy to see it worked fine upon activation. However, my optimism was short-lived, as my card was once again deactivated after trying to purchase an item online that cost more than $50. Frustrated and irritated, I contacted customer service again to find out what the issue was this time. It turned out that spending large amounts of money at once triggered a red flag, which led to the deactivation of my card.

Overall, this was not a pleasant experience and I would urge anyone thinking of purchasing a Visa gift card from Vanilla to reconsider. It’s a shame that what should have been a simple purchase turned into a frustrating and arduous process.

So, I was excited to buy a Vanilla Gift Card way back in October of twenty-two. I bought it from Walgreens, and when I got home, I found out that some of the numbers on the card were missing! Can you believe that? I was so angry because I had paid over $6.00 for it and was looking forward to spending it. I called Walgreens thinking they could help, but they said I had to talk to Vanilla Gift Card since they had nothing to do with it anymore.

Now, it was like a game of hot potato. I had to wait on hold for over an hour before I even talked to someone from Vanilla Gift Card. And when I finally did, they spouted a bunch of nonsense that made no sense to me. I mean, who talks like that? It felt like they were trying to avoid giving me my refund.

So, I called them again a few days later, and they told me to fax a copy of my receipt and the gift card. I did that, and it's been months, but I haven't received my refund yet. Can you believe it?

I wasn't going to let them get away with it, though. Nope, not me. I wrote a letter to the guy who runs Vanilla Gift Card, and I also wrote to the Better Business Bureau. And guess what? I'm still waiting for a response!

I don't think it's right for them to just take people's money like that. It's not fair! I say we should all sue them and get them out of business for good. They're a bunch of thieves, and that's all there is to it.

This has got to be one of the worst experiences I've ever had. I ordered a Visa e-card from the Vanilla website and sent the email containing the card information to the intended recipient. When they tried to activate the card, the balance was correct but there seemed to be an issue with it. The website told us to call the number on the back of the card for help.

When I called the customer service, I was told that the number was found on some other site by their system, but they couldn't tell me which one. I asked them to send a replacement e-card to my recipient's email but they said it was not possible. Instead, they told me they would send a replacement card by mail which would take 7-20 days to arrive. It was urgent for my recipient to have the money today, but they showed no concern.

To make matters worse, I tried to speak with a supervisor but failed twice. The first call was cut off before the supervisor even answered and the second one was also cut off just as the supervisor was announcing herself. It was obvious to me that these guys had no intention of helping us and didn't even know what was going on. They simply read from a script and kept apologizing despite not being able to do anything to fix the problem.

In all honesty, I wouldn't recommend using Vanilla if you have any other options. They don't seem to want to help and their service is not reliable. I would advise anyone to stay away from this company and find another provider that's more trustworthy.

I gotta say, this Vanilla gift card thing seems like a total scam to me. They say you can use it "anywhere a visa or mastercard are accepted," but let me tell you, that is just not true. I've tried using it on a bunch of different websites and most of them won't accept it. Which is a huge bummer, cuz that means I can't use it like a regular old gift card, where you can put the balance towards a purchase and then pay the rest with a credit or debit card. Nope, with this thing, you gotta find a website that will actually take it, otherwise you're outta luck.

And it's not just websites either - I've tried using it at gas pumps and it won't even work there. I mean, come on! What kind of gift card can't be used to buy gas?! It's ridiculous.

Plus, they make it super hard to use the whole amount on the card. You can only use it for purchases that are less than the balance on the card, and sometimes even 20% less! That's just sneaky if you ask me.

But the worst part is their customer support. It takes forever to get in touch with anyone, and even then, they can't give you a list of websites that accept the card. You gotta contact each website individually and hope for the best, or risk getting declined and looking like a fool.

All in all, I would not recommend the Vanilla gift card. In my opinion, it's a total waste of money and a big fat disappointment.

I had a really bad experience with Vanilla gift and wanted to share my thoughts for anyone else who may be considering using their services. First off, it took forever for them to even accept that I wasn't a fraudulent person and that I deserved my refund back. I had to contact the Better Business Bureau and the Department of Justice before they even listened to me. Once I finally got my money back though, they said they were going to send me a new card from them, but that was a lie. They also started a new investigation after they said they were done.

It's clear that this company's customer service is not trustworthy and that's definitely not something that any of us want to deal with when we're trying to get our money back from them. So, my advice to anyone who is thinking about using Vanilla gift would be to be really careful and make sure that you know what you're getting into before giving them your money. I contacted the Dollar General where I bought the card from as well and they were no help either.

If you do happen to run into any issues with Vanilla gift, I recommend that you also contact the Department of Justice and the Better Business Bureau. And, if you're able, boycott this company altogether. They are not operating ethically and they're causing a lot of people a lot of frustration. In my opinion, they shouldn't be allowed to continue operating. Hopefully, their employees will get laid off and they'll have to deal with the same suffering that they've caused others. So, good luck to anyone who has to deal with Vanilla gift, I hope you don't have to go through what I went through.

I got a Vanilla gift card from vanillagift.com in August 2022, but when I went to use it, the store declined it because someone had used it at an online casino outside of New Jersey, which was totally not cool! I reported the issue to Vanilla customer service on the same day. They told me that I needed to start a dispute process to recover my $500. I sent them all the information they requested, including a confirmation email I received from them, but I never heard back from them. After a few days, I decided to call them. They told me they would start the dispute process and that I would receive a call from them shortly, but that call never came.

Frustrated, I called again and again, and each time they simply told me that my case was being investigated. Four months after the fraud, I called them again to get an update and was shocked at the response. They told me they had denied my dispute application, but without giving me any reason. I demanded the phone number of the dispute center, but was told there is no phone number. That's total bull!

It's like Vanilla gift didn't care that someone stole my money. I'm really mad at them for not helping me get my money back. They received payment for the gift card, but now they're not giving me what I paid for. I would suggest you stay away from Vanilla gift cards until they start treating their customers fairly. I cannot in good conscience recommend this service to anyone.

I gotta tell ya, Vanilla gift is the worst. I only bothered to buy a dang gift card from them for my kid and they couldn't even get that right. My kid tried to buy some stuff but the card didn't wanna work. So she called up the Vanilla people and they said it was all taken care of, but the card still didn't work after they supposedly fixed it. I had to get involved, but since I wasn't the one who first called, there was a big fuss about who owned the card. Ain't that something? Anyways, the lady on the phone wasn't helpful at all. I even asked to talk to her boss, but of course I got put on hold for another darn half hour. I was so ticked off after being on hold for a total of more than an hour with no fix in sight. They're basically stealin' from my kid, can you believe that? Vanilla gift is a joke and they should be shut down. Don't ever waste your money on them.