Wednesday, December 16, 2009

A TIMELY PSA……BECAUSE I LOVE YOU THAT MUCH

gift-certificate
A friend of mine who had a birthday yesterday mentioned a gift certificate she received for her birthday.  This instantly brought to mind a disaster that I experienced when purchasing a gift certificate from this very same company.  I asked my friend if she received the online version of the gift certificate and if so, did she have any problems with the process.  She confirmed that she did receive the online GC and that she has purchased and received several gifts in this format and has never had a problem.  She assured me that if I had any problem with this company that I should take it up with customer service because their support is top-notch.

Yeah…………..about that…………………..in my experience………….not so much.

I have the sort of job that often finds me doing personal errands for my boss.  Earlier this year, I purchased an online gift certificate from a well known online company (who was dubbed Glamazon.com by my favorite comedian, Mike Birbiglia) as a gift from my employer to her 12 year cousin.
 
***I’ve linked the story here but since many of you won’t click to read, allow me to summarize: MB had a bad experience with a television purchase which was only resolved to his satisfaction when it was revealed that he had a blog which is read by “millions”.  The company made a one-time exception to their policy as long as he didn’t mention their name in his blog………….hence……Glamazon.com.  It’s really a funny story if you have time to read it.***

So, as I was saying.  I purchased the gift certificate for the cousin.  A week or so later, I received an email from the cousin’s mother saying that there was a problem with the GC.  I called Glamazon.com and was told that the GC was already redeemed.  However because it wasn’t issued to me, she could not tell me what was purchased with the gift certificate or where the item was shipped.  I was told the cousin would have to call to get that information.  The cousin is a 12 year old girl who was easily overwhelmed by the situation but she gave it the old middle school try anyway.  She was told that because the GC was purchased by someone else(me), Glamazon.com could not give her any information about what was purchased with a GC that was issued to her and emailed to her email address. I could go on and on about how many calls were made to Glamazon.com to resolve this matter but in the end I had to get the cousin’s Glamazon.com account name and password and with both her account info and mine, I was finally told that while they couldn’t tell me what was purchased, they could tell me that it was shipped to ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ in Maine.

No, that wasn’t really the name but there were so many letters that I lost count and I would challenge any one of you to pronounce it.  Because I’m thorough, I made sure that the cousin didn’t know this ABCDEF……(his nickname).

Once again, I called Glamazon.com to inform them that the cousin did not know the person to whom the item was shipped and clearly the GC # had been stolen.  I was told that would have to be handled by another department and I would hear from them within 48 hours.
 
A week came and went without a word from “the special department”.  Several calls were made to Glamazon.com in an effort to resolve this disaster called a hundred dollar gift certificate.  In the end, I turned to Bank of America, who was the issuer of the credit card used to purchase the GC.  The amount was immediately credited to our account pending investigation into the case.  A month later, I was informed that BOA agreed that fraud had been committed and the case was closed.

The moral to the story, folks, is go ahead and get that GC online if you dare but if I were you, I would choose to have the card actually sent snail mail instead of an e-certificate.  Jane assures me that she has never had a problem but if that were to happen to me again, I could not be held responsible for my actions in a court of law.  Justifiable rampage, I’m sure.


Hugs,
Smart Mouth Broad


21 comments:

injaynesworld said...

Well, isn't that just a big ol' freakin' pain-in-the-patooty! Thanks for the heads up.

Now if I may be so bold... Word verification? A humongous pain. If you disconnect it you will have happier and thus more commentators and nothing bad will happen. Honest. If you get Disques, I will marry you.

cheatymoon said...

Ack! What a pain in the ass. I have been a longtime customer of Glamazon. Gave them some business this season. Ack.

Hey, SMB. How are you?

Mike said...

I hate doing anything on line except blogging! I still pay my bills with paper checks. I don't do gift cards, because it limits you to a certain store. I would rather give someone cash or check.

Wsprsweetly Of Cottages said...

I have never given a GC online, nor have I recieved one..but after reading this post...I think I will stick to the "a card in hand" way of doing things.
Yep, done business with Glamazon..just no GC's. :)
Thank, SMB!
Mona
I...don't think I have word verification...do I??? Hmmmm.... It certainly doesn't keep me from commenting though.. :)

Anonymous said...

Customer service over the phone can be such a nightmare. I had a gift for a grandchild shipped to my billing address instead of the ship to address last week.. It also was a Glamazon.com problem. Won't even get into it... just know that it was annoying and they didn't correct like I asked them to.. UGH

Di
The Blue Ridge Gal

Oh, and they didn't gift wrap it like I paid them to do either!!

Liz Mays said...

I love Glamazon but I shall be exceptionally careful with online gc's from now on, because that was an absolute nightmare story.

♥ Braja said...

Glamazon? Word verification? I'm where?
:))

Brian Miller said...

what a nightmare...i know there are scammers out there, but a little grace would be nice...

Beth said...

Definitely justifiable for a rampage. You go, girl!

Deb said...

What an ordeal. I better redeem mine quick. We get gift certificates from glamazon at work for keeping our inboxes clean. Thanks for the heads up.

Jan said...

Part of MY job is printing 7 million of those "physical" gift cards that our clients, all retailers, sell in their stores and mail to their customers if their requested.

On the back of each and every one is a disclaimer that says "Treat this card like you would cash - we cannot issue a refund if it is lost, stolen or used by an unauthorized party."

I also am responsible for several ecommerce sites that issue electronic gift vouchers, and each of those also has a similar disclaimer. We, as a society that does business online more and more, don't often read the "fine print" when we click that little checkbox that asks if we've read the terms and conditions of the transaction. Our bad.

NO business runs 100% perfectly all the time, I'm sorry to say. But I'm glad you were able to resolve the matter through your bank.

Arkansas Patti said...

I would keep word verification. I didn't have it and got sex pill spam.
I don't mind your verification. I kind of get amused at some of the choices of words. Only other choice to prevent spam is what I use which is "will be shown after approval".
I do shop Glamazon and so far all is good. Will probably avoid GC though. Thanks.

midlife slices said...

You certainly get in some pickles because of that boss of yours. I hope she knows what a jewel she's employed and compensates you WELL.
HUGS

Delaney said...

I have been going through a similar problem with the customer support for my computer I bought that has a Win7 upgrade. I bought the computer from the website (nationally known brand)yet they can't seem to verify that I have proof-of-purchase in order to get the upgrade which, of course, is being issued by a 3rd party. I have been fighting with this ever since Nov. 20th when ALL of the upgrades were supposed to be mailed out.

It always seems to be something doesn't it??

Unknown said...

I'm so sorry you had GC purchase and redemption problems at Amazon because as I told you, I never have and neither have any of my kids... and we give each other Amazon GCs like they're going out of style. What makes it worse is that you didn't get the kind of customer service they're trulu noted for so what I would do, dear heart, is send Jeff Bezos an email, telling him everything that occured!

Hope you got the name of the person(s) at Amazon you spoke to; I learned a long time ago to always get their names and write down all the info so I have ammunition if all doesn't go well with whatever company I'm having a problem with.

Unknown said...

I'm so sorry you had GC purchase and redemption problems at Amazon because as I told you, I never have and neither have any of my kids... and we give each other Amazon GCs like they're going out of style.

What makes it worse is that you didn't get the kind of customer service they're trulu noted for so what I would do, dear heart, is send Jeff Bezos an email, telling him everything that occured!

Hope you got the name of the person(s) at Amazon you spoke to; I learned a long time ago to always get their names and write down all the info so I have ammunition if all doesn't go well with whatever company I'm having a problem with.

Pseudo said...

You make me glad I'm not online shopping this year...

Heather said...

My goodness! After all that, I think I would have handed over the cash to the girl!

CocoDivaDog said...

Hi there SMB,
Ugh. Thanks for the advice!

TONY LETTS said...

I know how you feel. I have trouble with Microhard - the rubbish computer company

K Dubs said...

dirty rotten rat bastards! What a pain in the buttocks. I'm glad that BoA resolved it for you, though. I have bought and received GC's from there and never had a problem, but maybe now I'll just go for the "wish list" approach instead..