Gift card with no balance??

[TeaBea]

Sounds like this is a problem that’s pretty widespread recently judging from the posts here, but I just tried to use a $50 gift card that my mother in law bought me for my birthday in October—Sephora’s app is now saying there’s a zero balance. I just removed this from the card backing and scratched off the PIN tonight and have not used this at all. Has anyone else gotten this resolved? 

[Jennrcarp]

Same thing happened to me today!! Got gift card for Christmas, went to use it today and $0!! Didn’t even scratch off the back! This is so frustrating. Any resolution??

[TeaBea]

Nope. They told me this was purchased through a third party and therefore they can’t/won’t help me. This was a gift and I do not know where it was purchased as I did not purchase it—I assume Safeway? From the comments here it does not seem like this is limited to any one retailer. But I don’t see how Sephora is allowed to disclaim responsibility for it in any case and I will be filing complaints with regulatory agencies about it. 

[TeaBea]

And I’m pretty well done with Sephora at this point. I’ve been VIB Rouge since 2014 or something but I can shop anywhere if this is how it’s going to go.

[Eluangasa]

Just had the same thing happen to my daughter, $50 gc. We checked it $44… not even 5 minutes later it was down to $13. 

[keelybt]

@Eluangasa I'm sorry to hear that! I will send you a PM.

[keelybt]

@TeaBea I have sent you a PM. 

[TeaBea]

This did not provide any resolution. I was told this was not Sephora’s problem and that I needed to dispute with wherever my mother in law bought the gift card. I will be filing complaints with the CFPB and the FTC about this and I encourage others to do the same. Consumers do have some protections around prepaid gift cards under Regulation E, and when I asked about whether Sephora’s compliance department had weighed in on the customer service strategy of telling customers to go deal with third parties about this I got no further response. Sephora is selling these cards and profiting from them—they should be responsible for making us whole, and I plan to consult regulators about what our legal protections are. 

[Carmen543]

I just encountered the same thing.  Got a gift card from my parents, but checked to see a $0 balance. Leaving this comment here hoping for resolution