Slow Giftcard Deactivation=$4000 loss

Did Erika spend your money on the card before she deactivated it? I
had an associate charge a ton of things on my card one time and it
took a lot of time and effort, but they were eventually convicted of
doing it. I don't know if this could have happened to you or not, but
if you didn't spend it, someone did!!!
bargainmom08

Erica may have deactivated it too late. But this wouldn't be her
fault. Perhaps there was a transaction going through before she could
get to deactivating the card? As other posters said, she can't be
responsible to stop purchases, she can only stop the card being live
itself.And also, why did you wait 4 days to contact them again? Good
luck getting $4,000 back.

Like others have said, you should protect a card worth $4000. Many
gift cards say right on them to protect them as you would cash.

That aside, I like the idea of reviewing the tapes. BB has a pretty
complete camera system with everything monitored, so if they can track
the card number back to the date, time, store and register, then there
is likely some footage and you can identify the person. Speak with the
store manager, and see if they can help you out. Explain to them your
situation and how the customer service dept. for gift cards is poor.

If this happened in one day, I am assuming you have some idea of how
the card went missing. Just curious, if I had a card worth $4000, I
would punch a hole in it and chain it around my neck.

I gave my son a Best Buy Gift card ($500.00) for his birthday last
year as a housewarming gift for his new home. Of coruse, it was
misplaced so I called, spoke with a rep who cancelled the card since
it had been activated and gave me a reference number in case I needed
to call back or had any issues. They sent me a new gift card within 10
business days.
Evidently between the time we received the new card someone attempted
to use the old deactivated one in PA (we live in Ohio. Because it had
been deactivated they confiscated the card and before they could
notify the police the person left the store.

You should have gotten a reference number for the phone call from the
rep who cancelled the lost card. I am assuming they do give these as I
did receive one.

I feel for you, because 4K is a lot of money, but you have to see that
on their side it can sound suspicious. A $4,000 gift card is probably
not typical. I am certainly not saying that you did anything wrong but
to buy a huge gift card Friday and to report it lost on Sunday would
raise red flags at BB. If this woman told you it was deactiviated and
it wasn't, that is a problem. I would get the police involved, it may
be the only way you get you have any chance of getting your money back
and it will show BB that you don't have anything to hide. Best Buy has
a great security system and probably has everything on tape. I'm sure
if you get the police involved they can provide tapes and this person
can be prosecuted. G

I can't imagine why anyone would buy a $4,000 gift card in the first
place. However, when I worked retail, if a customer lost a gift card,
then it was lost and there was little to nothing that could be done.
Gift cards should be treated like cash by the person buying them. I
can't even begin to tell you how many people would come into the store
and say they lost the gift card they bought before they got home. The
only time we were able to deactivate a gift card was Monday through
Friday and only if it had not been used yet and the customer had a
receipt that showed the card number and it was purchased at our
location and not at a different location.

Hopefully Best Buy can check the security footage and help you track
down the person who found your gift card. If they replace it, then
consider yourself extremely lucky. They are under no obligation to do
so however. You should contact the police and report the card stolen.

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I do not understand the "it has't been deactivated" message left for
you, early on in this process. Is that supposed to mean, "it couldn't
be deactivated"? You'd think they'd care more about someone's $4K
purchase.

I think it was you who dropped the ball. You somehow *lost* (not
misplaced) a $4000 gift card the day after you bought it.

If you could locate the person who used the card, you might have legal
recourse to pursue getting your money back. My guess is you are out
of luck.

You can imagine how this kind of thing would be perfect for fraud. A
friend is given the card. The card holder calls to report it lost.
Around the same time the friend is using it, before it is deactivated.
I am not saying you did this, but the point is that it isn't like a
credit card, where your loss is limited. A gift card has to be
ptected carefully, especailly one worth $4000.

You will probably have to pursue the person that took your card with
the police. BB knows when the transaction took place so I would start
there.

I have had some stupid theives in my day so it might be easier than
you think. It may even turn out to be someone you know after
reviewing tapes.


Good Day

You submitted a request for the card to be deactivated on June 7th,
which was a Sunday. The people in charge of deactivating lost gift
cards do not work on the weekends. I assume that when they came in
Monday morning they start their work from the 1st request and so on.
Since you called on a Sunday they probably had a whole bunch of
requests from Saturday to process first. (I wonder why so many people
are losing Gift Cards?)

Lets face it, you lost the gift card. You dropped the ball, not Best
Buy. Please be more careful in the future.

wasn't deactivated on Sunday. They then probably have to deactivate
requests in order. Are you sure Erika said she had deactivated it, or
is it possible she said she had submitted a request (as she did later
on)?
Either way, I find it strange that this department isn't available on
weekends. I would imagine that's when most cards would be lost and/or
used.