Unused Gift Card $0 balance

[99Michelle99]

Spoiler

Spoiler

My daughter received a $25 gift card for her birthday. She tried to use it today at Sephora but it had a $0 balance. The card and PIN numbers were still hidden under the security strip. I scratched it off at home to check the balance. The card had a 14, not a 16, digit card number so I could not check the balance online. I contacted the number on the back of the card and spoke with a customer service representative. She checked the card number and said it had a zero balance. my daughter received the card on February 22, 2025. That’s the same day that the card was purchased. The card was used online for a $25 purchase on February 26, 2025. 

The customer service representative told me that I should contact the person who gifted the card to my daughter and have them called their credit card company and maybe that they could get their credit card company to reverse the charges since the card was not usable. I really don’t understand how a card that still had the card number and the pin number covered with the security strip gets used online unless someone hacked into a database to steal these numbers. After looking at the posts on this community, it seems like this is a recurring problem and this doesn’t make me feel real comfortable about giving my daughter’s friends Sephora gift cards as gifts. 

[wendddaay]

I gifted a gift card and the same thing happened. I contacted my bank but was told nothing can be done. Sephora doesn't help AT ALL

Sorry this happened to your daughter

[LaurieBT]

@99Michelle99, I'm sorry to learn of this experience!  It looks like your private messages are turned off, and you can adjust your preferences in your Community settings (on the browser only, not the app). If you would like to send me a private message with more information, I'll look into this.

Alternatively, you may contact our live chat at https://www.sephora.com/beauty/contact-us or call 1-877-SEPHORA (1-877-737-4672). If the chat is unavailable, please keep the page open until the next agent becomes available. Thank you!