Several months ago when I was doing spring cleaning I found a surprise in my closet... lots more gift cards! (what a good way to reinforce my cleaning habit!) My favorite one was a Simon Gift Card from the Stanford Shopping Center for $100. One of my little summer school students had given it to me as a present. She was the kind of kid you wish for- perfectly polite, hard-working, had a fabulous dad who volunteered in class practically every day, and she liked to give me presents (something I miss about teaching in PA!).I took several trips to the mall to try and decide exactly what to buy. I finally found the perfect little outfit for Andrew at a great sale and I went to go buy it. When the cashier swiped the card she said it didn't go through and there was no money on it. I thought, WHAT? I went directly to customer service to figure out the problem. I'm sure the rest of you smart shoppers know this, but I learned that the Stanford Simon gift cards could be used anywhere (not just Stanford Shopping Center) AND that they decrease in value every month that you don't use them. Lame!
I talked to the mall people and they said I could buy back my $$ for $15 plus some other surcharges. Pretty funny that I'm paying for something that was a gift and that I had never used.
Anyways, after calling customer service again and fighting for my gift card money... I FINALLY got my gift card today after several months of waiting and checking the mail. It ended up being only $62.50 after all the surcharges. So dumb!... but I am so excited!
I'm planning for it to be my Mrs. Fields cookie card. Remind me when I get a gift card again to SPEND IT and not wait 4 years :) We're heading to the mall tomorrow!
3 comments:
I noticed that about some gift cards - lame. I went through all our remaining wedding gift cards a little bit ago to make sure none of them started losing value - unfortunately there are a couple that have started to decrease, so I'm trying to be less indecisive and actually buy something :)
I thought that was illegal in CA? I know other states allow it but when I bought my sister one they said that in the state of CA they can decrease the amount! Maybe just dinner gift certificates....or I am losing it:) So glad you have a $60 cookie card, that is great!
How do I know which ones start to go down in value? I still have some left from our wedding. I thought it was illegal in CA, too. That giftcards weren't allowed to expire. Maybe they can decrease to almost zero but not expire.
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