Giftcards.com
Reviews and Complaints

Purchased a $100 egift card from this company on 12/24/23; they never sent me the gift card. They sent an email stating the transaction didnt go through, but I verified it did. I submitted 2 inquiries and received a case number for both. They never responded to the cases. I called the customer service number and talked to two different agents and they still would not refund my money and kept saying the transaction didnt go through, even after I provided them with proof of the transaction. I finally had to dispute the transaction with my credit card company.

I was gifted some visa gift cards from this company and they were in an envelope. It was 8 cards with $50 a piece on them, totaling $400 (don't know why that was that chosen denominations but that's what it was) I saved them for a rainy day. I went to activate them--they weren't even ever activated-- and my balance on each was $0. The cards saved for a rainy day were stored in an envelope. In small print on the BACK of the paper holding the card, that's within an envelope, it states that there is a $4.95 "monthly maintenance fee" charged each month after a year. How would I have known that? So, I guess the gift cards were purchased months prior to me receiving, and then I sat on them to save them, and therefore they are zero. Also, they run out faster monthly with 8 @ $50 each then 1 @ $400 each. So I thought I had $400 and I have $0. The bank made $400. I called and explained the situation and tried to get it fixed. Stating they were never even activated and these were given as a gift and I don't know what competitor does this, that's why I saved them. But they wouldn't help. Really disappointed. Bad business model. Sketchy banks being sketchy.

So, I got this gift card from my dad that he got a year ago, but it was never activated and had a 0 balance. I was pretty bummed out, but I decided to call GiftCards.com to see if they could help me out. I talked to a few different people, but it seemed like they were deducting inactivity fees even though the card was never used. I thought that was pretty unfair, so I asked if they could reverse the fees.

The guy I spoke to said he would take care of it and that I would get an email in 2 business days. I waited 4 business days and didn't get anything, so I called back to check on the status. They told me it wasn't submitted yet and that I would have to wait another 2 days. A week went by and still no refund.

I called again and the guy said it was being worked on and would take another 6 to 10 business days. I waited patiently, but after 15 business days, I called again to find out what was going on. That's when they told me they needed my dad to call in to provide his information.

I explained that my dad travels a lot and isn't available, and that's why he gave me the gift card in the first place. I offered to give them any information they needed, like my social, birthday, and address, but the guy said they needed to speak to my dad because it was policy.

I was pretty frustrated at this point. It seemed like they were just stringing me along and wasting my time. I mean, why didn't they tell me a month ago that they needed to speak to my dad? It just seemed like a horrible policy and a horrible way to treat customers.

Overall, I would not recommend buying gift cards from GiftCards.com. Their customer service is terrible, their policies are unfair, and they just seem like another company trying to rip people off. Save your money and buy gift cards from somewhere else.

I recently had a frustrating experience with GiftCards.com when trying to purchase over $1,600 worth of gift cards. Unfortunately, the system kept stating that there was an issue with the card and never gave me an invoice number. I tried calling customer service, but no one ever answered and the prompts were confusing. When I finally got through, they stated that they didn't see an order from my account.

I decided to call my card company and found out that there was a pending charge on there since 12/6. I called GiftCards.com again and got transferred to a representative named Ana. She gave me a customer service number and said that it would take 2-4 business days to resolve the issue. However, I never received any updates.

I called again on 12/9 and spoke with Alex, who promised that I would receive an email by the end of the day. Unfortunately, I never received anything. I called again on 12/12 and spoke with Emerson, who asked me to send a snapshot of my bank statement showing the transaction. I stayed on the line until he received it, but he still told me that it could take up to 2 hours to process.

After waiting for a few minutes, he transferred me to Alex again, who told me that it would take 5-7 business days for the transaction to drop off and that there was nothing they could do. Unfortunately, because of this glitch in their system and no one wanting to assist me, my team members will not be getting their gifts at our holiday party.

It's frustrating that it would have only taken the first person I spoke to to take the initiative instead of saying that there was nothing they could do. I hope that GiftCards.com can improve their customer service in the future to prevent situations like this from happening again.

I gotta say, I've been trying to activate this $200 gift card from GiftCards.com that expires in 2021. And let me tell you, it's been a real pain in the you-know-what. After what felt like hours of trying to get this thing activated, I finally found out that my card is invalid due to inactivity. And get this, the money has been given to the state! Can you believe it?

So, I try to call customer service to see if they can help me out. But nope, the automated answering machine just hangs up on me because my card is "invalid." Great. So, I try the live chat service and they just defer me and say someone will call me. But do they? Nope.

I end up resorting to emails and let me tell you, I've exchanged 30 (yes, THIRTY!) emails with them. And get this, many of their emails say they've tried calling me but got no answer. But my phone shows no record of their calls. What's up with that?

And don't even get me started on their robotic emails. They keep saying they need more information from me, but they don't even say what information they need! And they keep saying they didn't receive a response to their message, even though I've replied to all of them.

To top it all off, they've assigned me not one, not two, but THREE different case numbers. And when I ask for information on how to contact a supervisor, they completely ignore me.

Honestly, the incompetence of this company is mind-boggling. It's like they have no regard for standard business practices. I can't believe they're even still in business. It's like they're just out to plunder gift cards and make a joke out of those of us who buy and receive them. Ha ha, very funny GiftCards.com.

So, I wanted to get two gift cards from GiftCards.com. It was pretty easy to use the site and I got them ordered. I waited for a while and then I saw that my order was cancelled. I thought it was weird, so I checked my bank account and I had enough money. I called the bank and they said there was no problem with the $1 verification step. I tried to order again a few times after talking to my bank, but every time the order was cancelled. I sent a message to ask what was going on.

"CSRHD-*** has been addressed.
Resolution: Completed

Good Afternoon, Thank you for contacting GiftCards.com regarding invoice ***. Our compliance department has manually reviewed the order and is unable to approve it for processing at this time. We consider online security, which protects both our customers as well as our company, to be a top priority. Our goal is to make our customers smile, which is why we are so sorry to have disappointed you! Thank you, Kristi
Thanks for your continued support! "

It sounds like the same thing they say to everyone who has a problem. I called customer service and they said they have a two-tier security system and a compliance department. They have access to my information, but I don't. I asked to speak with someone from the compliance department so I could get more information, but they said there are no numbers in or out of the department. If this doesn't sound like a scam, I don't know what does. I ended up going to a real store to buy the cards. It cost more because of postage and everything, but I'd rather spend the money there than ever deal with this website or "company" again. If I could give less than 1 star, I would. I'm going to look for other review sites to warn more customers.

I recently had an experience with GiftCards.com that left me feeling frustrated and disappointed. I had a Banana gift card that I hadn't used in months, so when I stumbled across this site, I figured I might as well unload it. That was on the 3rd of January. They claim on their website that they pay you immediately. Sweet! Too bad that's a lie. I received an email on the 6th of January that said I had been paid and that they had mailed me a check in the amount of XXXX. They said I should receive this check within 5-7 business days.

Well, here we are, 7 days later, and I have nothing. I called to make sure that they sent the payment to the correct address, and the first "customer service" rep asked me to repeat my identifying information 4 times. Not sure if he wasn't listening, didn't understand English, or was deaf! He then told me that he would create a ticket and someone would get back to me in a few days.

Umm... NO! He finally transferred me to another "customer service" rep who told me that the check was, indeed, CUT on the 6th and I should have it in 15 days! What the heck! I reminded her of the email referencing 5-7 days, and she said, "oh no... that is just an estimate. And it was cut on the 6th but it may not have been sent until the end of the week or just earlier this week. And then it's up to the post office." Come on, lady. I get mail every day. Nothing --even if it's cross-country mail--takes more than a week!

The phone reps were definitely some of the worst trained I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with. It was frustrating to have to repeat my information multiple times and to receive conflicting information about when I would receive my payment.

To make matters worse, the moment I hung up, I received an email saying that my issue had been resolved. They must be joking! I can't believe it. It was an awful experience, and I will NEVER deal with them again.

So, I decided to try out GiftCards.com to order a gift card. I thought it would be a good experience since I've met some Blackhawk folks in my professional life, but boy was I wrong. It was a terrible experience and I learned my lesson. If you're thinking about using GiftCards.com, I suggest you go to your local big pharmacy or supermarket to pick up the card(s) you need directly.

First of all, the estimated delivery date was off by at least a week. You'd think they'd account for USPS delays, but no. I had to cancel my order because the bad delivery estimate made the order too late for the occasion. If your estimate is off by a week, I'd come up with a new formula.

Secondly, there is only one way to cancel an order and it is over the automated phone system. If you choose the option to check on an existing order, they ask for your card number. Because we're expected to have the number of a card we haven't received yet?!? Someone didn't bother to check the UX.

Thirdly, there is no way to go back on their silly phone system. They ask you for a number you don't have, and there is no way to go back to the previous menu. So you get stuck in a loop of a recording treating you like you're an idiot. IT'S A TRAP! You gotta call back because that's the most efficient answer Blackhawk could come up with.

Blackhawk should get rid of this site and stick with the kiosks. The people I've met at Blackhawk are more than smart enough to realize how crappy their online system is, but I'm also positive that they don't care because online orders likely account for a tiny fraction of their revenue. Still, that's no excuse. If the cost of fixing the system is greater than the income generated by it, they should get rid of it.

Once I finally got a human on the line, it was easier to deal with, but their excuse for the late delivery is BS. Most other online vendors I use get their delivery estimates right, what is GiftCard.com's problem? I was really disappointed with the whole experience and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

So, I wanted to buy a gift card from GiftCards.com. I tried twice, but both times something went wrong. The first time, I accidentally gave them the wrong phone number because their agreement document was so long and confusing. I didn't want them to sell my number to marketing companies, so I tried to be careful. But even though they took $1 from my bank account, they canceled the transaction a few minutes later. I was confused and frustrated.

The second time, I used my real phone number, but the same thing happened. I was really annoyed, so I called their customer service. They told me that they review every purchase to make sure everything is okay. But there was nothing wrong with my purchase! I used my real information and my Discover card, so there was no reason for them to cancel it. I think they just don't like to sell to people who don't have big, well-known banks behind them. That's not fair!

I also read some reviews that said people have trouble using the gift cards they buy from GiftCards.com. That's not a good sign. I think they sell to people who don't have good options for disputing a bad purchase. If I had given the gift card to someone and they couldn't use it, I would have had to go to my bank to try to get my money back. That's not a good situation to be in.

Overall, I don't trust GiftCards.com. I think they might sell your information, too, because they ask you to create an account before you buy anything. I would recommend that people stay away from them. It's better to be safe than sorry!

I recently made two orders of Apple Store gift cards from GiftCards.com, one for around $200 and the other for around $70. However, when I went to use the $200 gift card the day before yesterday, I was shocked to find that it had a ZERO balance! This was a huge problem for me as I had an urgent purchase to make for an upcoming foreign trip and needed my iPad to be delivered within seven days. This completely messed up my purchase plan and left me feeling frustrated and disappointed.

I immediately contacted the customer service representative at GiftCards.com and was told that they would call me back on the same day to resolve the issue. However, I waited and waited, but no call came. The next day, I decided to order my iPad from eBay instead, as it was cheaper than buying it directly from Apple.com. However, it would have been even cheaper if I had been able to use the gift cards that I had purchased from GiftCards.com.

Three days after the promised date to contact me, a representative finally got in touch with me about the missing $200 gift card. They offered to refund me for the missing card, but when I asked for a refund for the other $70 card that I had purchased, which I could not use because of the missing $200 card, I was told that this was against their policy. I was extremely frustrated by this, as I felt that my interests were not being taken into account. Even if I did get a refund for the $70 card, I would not have gained anything - I would have just gotten my money back. Meanwhile, I had already paid more for my iPad from eBay than I would have if I had been able to use the gift cards.

Now I have a $70 gift card that I have no use for and have lost valuable time trying to resolve this issue. I feel that someone should be held responsible for the lost interest of the customer, but GiftCards.com seems unwilling to take any responsibility for their mistake.

While I understand that from a policy perspective, orders with no problems will not be refunded, I feel that this situation is different. The missing $200 gift card is directly related to the $70 gift card that I cannot use, and it is unfair that I should be left out of pocket because of GiftCards.com's mistake. I also feel that the customer service representative I spoke to was rude and unhelpful, interrupting me and not being friendly at all.

Overall, I am extremely disappointed with my experience with GiftCards.com and will not be purchasing from them again in the future.

Me and my hubby bought two gift cards worth $100 each from giftcards.com for our family on the mainland as a Christmas present. The first card was delivered to our daughter in Illinois without any issue. However, the second card didn't seem to arrive in a timely fashion. My son waited and waited, until over three weeks had passed and still no card had arrived. We were worried and didn't know what was wrong, so we finally decided to call giftcards.com. To our surprise, we found out that USPS showed the card had been delivered nearly two weeks earlier! But my son never received it.

According to them, the card was used the same day it was stolen from his mailbox and only a few cents remained on it. We were terribly upset and asked what recourse we had, since the card was NOT used by my son and daughter-in-law. We offered to call the police, to report it to USPS, whatever we needed to do, in order to cooperate with an investigation and get a refund or replacement. However, giftcards.com was NOT at ALL helpful and basically blew us off, saying we should report it to the credit card company we funded the card purchase with. The credit card company (Costco) is reviewing this, but according to them, the seller of the card should deal with this situation. They have declined to refund our purchase as of today, due to the fact the PURCHASE was legitimate. The secure delivery of the product was not.

The problem with these gift cards is simple; there is NO protection for the purchaser if a card is stolen, and they have absolutely NO security for card activation. It would be SO EASY to send an activation code separately in the mail, or even by email to the recipient, so only they can activate the card. We paid eight dollars for this 50 cent envelope to be delivered, yet they couldn't be bothered to send a separate secure activation code for the card?

My gift to my son was ruined, and we lost $108.00. It was a terrible experience, and we learned the hard way how easy it is for a rogue postal employee or a neighborhood thief to steal your gift, apparently with no consequences.

Therefore, I would advise everyone to STAY AWAY from purchasing gift cards from any company that doesn't offer secure activation and that doesn't offer a guarantee against theft. It's not worth the risk of losing your hard-earned money and ruining your gift-giving experience.

I recently ordered a virtual gift card for Mother's Day from GiftCards.com on May 8th. I was charged immediately after hitting submit, but unfortunately, the virtual card was not delivered to my recipient's email. I was a bit surprised because most virtual cards are delivered right away, but I decided to give it 24 hours before taking any further action.

The following evening, I decided to contact GiftCards.com via telephone. I was connected to a call center where I spoke to a representative who had a bit of trouble speaking English. He explained to me that the card would be delivered within the next hour because my information was being verified by a third party. I was a bit confused and asked him to explain what information needed verification and if I could speak with the third party to find out what was taking so long to deliver the virtual card. Unfortunately, we went back and forth for a while, and I eventually asked to speak to a supervisor. However, the representative wouldn't provide me with the supervisor's name that I was going to speak with. After being placed on hold for approximately 20 minutes, I was finally connected to another individual who was also having trouble speaking English. He explained to me that a third party was reviewing the information, but he couldn't explain what they needed to verify. He promised me that the card would be delivered within the next hour or he would submit a "request" to have the $4.95 service fee for the purchase refunded.

On May 10th, I contacted GiftCards.com again and spoke to another representative who also had trouble speaking English. He explained to me that my information was still being verified by a third party before the card that I paid for two days ago could be delivered. He gave me two options, which were to continue waiting or to cancel my order. I asked to speak with a supervisor again, but unfortunately, I was placed on hold for so long that I eventually gave up.

As of now, my virtual Visa card has still not been delivered, the refund of the service charge was never credited, and I am still waiting. I am afraid to cancel the order because of the customer experience I have experienced so far. I think that when I do, the charge will never be returned, and I would be out the amount I have spent.

They keep sending me an email saying my case has been resolved. They have no idea what to do. I purchased a $250 gift card and have used all the funds except 17.89

Now the card is blocked and I cannot use 17.89

They are trying to help me since last 6 months so that I can use 17.89 but I feel they are harrasing me by sending the following reply.

Mind it, even after receiving the resolved emails (I have more than 20 of them) I cannot use the remaining balance.,

Subject: GiftCards.com - Contact Us

Hello,

We have resolved your Case CS6761180. Please see the comments for your resolution.

Resolution Notes:

Hello Ritesh,

Thank you for contacting GiftCards.com.

We apologize for the inconvenience of not being able to activate the card

Allow us to inform you that the card ending in 1174 is activated and ready to be used.

Your feedback is important to us. You might receive an email survey to rate your experience in this contact.

For faster assistance, our live chat support is now available on our website. If you would like to try it out, please visit the following link and click the bell in the lower right corner: https://www.giftcards.com/contact-us.

Please note that our chat agents are available Monday through Sunday from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM CST.

Should you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact us back.

Your business is greatly valued, and we are happy to help you.

Regards,

Amy A

Customer Care Specialist. II

Giftcards.com

Thank you for the opportunity to assist you!

I was trying to purchase gift cards when you blocked it. Suspected of fraud I wanted my card released so i can use it. I called the bank and they said everything was good on their end and that the merchant is doing it. I wasn't asked if something was wrong . I've started doing allot of purchases online because I had a stroke and don't get to shop. Now I need my credit card its been under review by you long enough.
William Heidelberg
[protected]@gmail.com
I can't speak because of the stroke so I email.

I am hoping someone here will help me. I placed an order on 6/27, order number 9365268, for 2 gift cards. One in the name of Dianne Evans the other for Paul Pulcini each for $75, total of $150. I never received the cards and contacted GiftCards.com, case #CS5047471. I was told the cards would be reissued.
The cards were reissued however once again I did not receive them. The reason they were not received was because the company, on the addresses, put Dianne‘s name with my address on one envelope and Paul's name with my address on the other. Because of this I was informed, by the Post Office, they were returned to GiftCards.com because those names/people do not reside at my address. This, again, was an error by your company.
You can see from the original order the cards were to be mailed to my name and address. When I tried to inform you again about this on your website referencing the case number CS5047471 I received an email back saying the case was closed on 7/25/21 because I did not respond or your email. The only email I received was to comment on the results on the case. I did not realize there was a time limit and I wanted to receive the new cards before saying I was satisfied with the results and I did not receive the cards so I am not satisfied! They were returned to you due to the way they were addressed, those people do not live at my address.
Once again, please reissue the cards for 75.00 each. One with the name of Dianne Evans and the other with the name of Paul Pulcini. They should be mailed to me as follows:

Deborah Maynard
187 Pine Street
Columbia, CT 06237

I expect you to give this your prompt attention as it is now the third time they are being ordered and this is unacceptable. If you cannot do this correctly kindly just refund my money and I will purchase elsewhere.

Thank you,
Deborah Maynard

I purchased a giftcard for myself using a picture I took that has emotional value to me. The amount was fairly large, $500. This card sat in my wallet for a considerable amount of time unused. Three years passed, and I accrued $123.75 in dormancy fees and $376.25 was escheated ( reported to my state of residence as abandoned property- more on this later). Giftcards.com graciously and immediately refunded my $123.75 in dormancy fees. I was instructed to contact my state treasury department to recover the confiscated funds, but I was informed by my state they had no record of monies belonging to me being turned over to them. I was then assigned a "level II review". It has been almost two weeks now, I have only been able to contact my reviewer once, and the regular representatives I speak to can only read case notes that the review is still in progress. I would like restitution based on: Due diligence was not done. GC.C is required by law to notify me that an escheatment is/will occur, which they did not do. This card was purchased by me, for me, so the addresses are all the same, and I am still living at that address. I am not difficult to find. The funds were not turned over to my state of residence. I have not lived in any other state for 30 years, there would be no reason to turn the funds over elsewhere. I did an online missing property search of all states, and my name appears in none of them. I would think there would be an electronic record within the business to determine exactly where these funds were sent. If they are unable to determine the funds were sent outside the company, then they are still be in possession of them, and must turn them over to the legal owner and claimant ( me)! One would think that a business would keep better records for things of this nature. Perhaps an internal or external audit needs to be done to examine the business practices of what actually becomes of money that is reported as being escheated.

I have ordered a gift card from www.giftcards.com website and I was sure there was enough money on my card to pay for it.
I was not able to pay for my card and contacted customer service to get some help. They said that payment did not go through because there was no money on my card! I checked my bank statement and it clearly showed that GiftCards received the money and that I did pay them. Contacted GiftCards again and it took me nowhere! They kept telling me I never paid for my order! Scammers! I had all the proofs but they still refused to believe me!
So in the end I lost my money and did not get the card!

Horrible service! This is not the only site where you can find this kind of gift - personalized prepaid credit card. So give yourself a favor - order it from another seller! I planed this photo personalized card as a birthday gift for my friend's 10 years old daughter. I paid some extra for the faster delivery ( option offered by giftcards.com) to be sure this card will arrive in advance and I will have enough time to pack and wrap everything together for a birthday girl. So I paid for 2-5 days delivery and after 11 days my card still is not here. I call there customer service several times and every time I call they promise that the card will be delivered tomorrow. I already had 3 " tomorrows" but no card. Not even sure if it will be delivered at all.Probably there is no need to mention that I've missed birthday ( of course). Company doesn't look concern about this problem and doesn't make any attempts to track my order down. Don't waste your time and money - order the same product from any other company on the market. For example, giftcardlab.com has much better reviews and looks more reliable. Good luck!

I placed an order to have a pre-paid Visa sent to my daughter. This is the email they sent me after my purchase: [Thank you for placing an order with GiftCards.com. We have received your order and because of the nature of our product (high risk of fraud), we review each order with our screening system before it can be processed. Most orders that are not high risk are processed immediately. After your order has been reviewed and processed you will be sent another e-mail. If your order is higher risk, the order may be delayed.]

I never heard from them again. The following week, my daughter called to tell me that it never came in the mail. I looked up my invoice number on the return email and found the following information: Order Date: 11/10/2010
Status: Processed
Processed Date: 11/10/2010
Your package is being mailed by USPS First Class. The ship date for the package is (11/11/10 [Thu]) and the estimated arrival date will be (11/23/10 [Tue]).

Today is 11/30/10 - still no gift card. I emailed them today. The instant reply thanked me for my feedback. I certainly hope that a real person will read the email and get back to me.