HotelSwatTeam
Active Member
What is the name of your state? Florida
I am wondering if companies who look for any excuse or "mistake" to remove money from a gift card and pocket it themselves may be violating federal and state law as might be equivalent to a fee/expiration date?
I have had many experiences of companies treating people gift card as a personal piggy bank and taking that money for almost any reason possible.
Perhaps to fully understand the problem, you might have to know a little of the history of gift cards.
They were heavily marketed as the perfect gift for birthday, kid's graduation, father's day,etc... However if the person did not use the immediately, the gift card would be riddled with hidden fees and expiration date so when people finally got around to using them, most if not all of the money would be missing. It was basically like companies printing their own money without having to deliver the service.
Around 2008, many federal and state consumer protection laws came into place forbidding these expiration dates, and various other fees basically saying the gift card was good until you used them. The intent of the law was to prevent the company from getting their hands the money without providing the promised service. I assume there might also be general rules against thief or banking/financial instruments in place also?
Anyway, I have found a lot of companies which still seem to find ways and excuses to take money off the card without providing the service. However, they NEVER CALL THEM A FEE OR EXPIRATION DATE. However they have the net effect as being a fee or expiration date.
I can go into great detail about the situation however generally speaking I think that companies may be looking for ways to return to the old days of using gift cards as their personal slush fund without having to spend money on the goods/services that go along with them.
I can give you 4 good examples from 4 completely different companies doing exactly this but in totally different ways however I'm not sure if that might make things too complicated.
Please let me know if you would like the simplified examples to go along with it? Each one of these examples probably should be its own post.
Thanks.
I am wondering if companies who look for any excuse or "mistake" to remove money from a gift card and pocket it themselves may be violating federal and state law as might be equivalent to a fee/expiration date?
I have had many experiences of companies treating people gift card as a personal piggy bank and taking that money for almost any reason possible.
Perhaps to fully understand the problem, you might have to know a little of the history of gift cards.
They were heavily marketed as the perfect gift for birthday, kid's graduation, father's day,etc... However if the person did not use the immediately, the gift card would be riddled with hidden fees and expiration date so when people finally got around to using them, most if not all of the money would be missing. It was basically like companies printing their own money without having to deliver the service.
Around 2008, many federal and state consumer protection laws came into place forbidding these expiration dates, and various other fees basically saying the gift card was good until you used them. The intent of the law was to prevent the company from getting their hands the money without providing the promised service. I assume there might also be general rules against thief or banking/financial instruments in place also?
Anyway, I have found a lot of companies which still seem to find ways and excuses to take money off the card without providing the service. However, they NEVER CALL THEM A FEE OR EXPIRATION DATE. However they have the net effect as being a fee or expiration date.
I can go into great detail about the situation however generally speaking I think that companies may be looking for ways to return to the old days of using gift cards as their personal slush fund without having to spend money on the goods/services that go along with them.
I can give you 4 good examples from 4 completely different companies doing exactly this but in totally different ways however I'm not sure if that might make things too complicated.
Please let me know if you would like the simplified examples to go along with it? Each one of these examples probably should be its own post.
Thanks.
