Like many others before me, actually the last negative review just came a week before this review, it's another story of buying a bad gift card. I didn't have much of problem with giftcardzen before as I have been using them for the past 8 months. I've spent almost $2000 on Home Depot cards within 8 months with giftcardzen. I'm a consumer that would like to save a few bucks, but at the end of the day, I didn't save anymore with giftcardzen then if I were to just go to Home Depot and get the gift card myself.
If you are interested in the story, here it is: I've bought 13 home depot gift cards from giftcardzen in the last 8 months worth just under $2000. Some of those cards were "printable". I didn't have any problems with anyone of the gift card other than just 1 printable card with a balance of $124.36 or at least that was the balance I thought I had on it. It was only when I went to the store, the clerk told me that this particular card had $0 balance on it. Baffled, I had to call Home Depot to ask what happened with it. The Home Depot customer service could only provide me with when the card was used and at which store. It turned out it was used during the time I was on an airplane (going overseas) and on their online store. I checked my receipts and I have records of all my other gift cards, but just not this one. After confirming I did not use this card and getting off the phone with Home Depot, I decided to contact giftcardzen. Their customer representative filed my case and then said they would investigate and get back to me. Then 3 weeks went by and not a word. So I had to follow up with them to see if they had made any progress of my case. Their representative emailed me back to say that they have concluded that I have used the card. If I weren't able to provide them with more evidence then the case is closed. Well... Home Depot cannot give me anymore info than I already got from them, giftcardzen has no other evidence. I replied saying that I could provide evidence that I wasn't in the country when this card was used, but I am not able to get anymore details from Home Depot. The rep replied saying that then they cannot really do much about it. I then replied again to say that I have used their service in the past and all of cards I got were good except for this card. After a few hours the rep's manager called me up. I do applaud them for being fast about it and the manager was courteous, but the conclusion were still the same. I did learn that they can track when the "printable" card was sent to my via e-mail and when the pdf file was opened. Because the date the card was used was after the date I opened the pdf file, they concluded that I must have used it. Well, it's kind of at a stalemate, no new evidence and each side has a story of their own, but giftcardzen wasn't at loss here since they still got to charge my credit card, for a gift card I wasn't able to use.
Conclusion: While giftcardzen's customer service is decent, they weren't able to resolve issues such as bad gift cards. It seems like I am not the only one with this problem (google their review and you'll know). If they had just said "sorry, we can't find any evidence, but here, we'll give you half the balance back as store credit", I would have been satisfied and continue to do business with them. It's a shame, I'm not trying to scam them and I know they are just trying to do business. I'm sure they probably have to handle many bad gift card requests on a daily basis, but surely they can do better at verifying where/when/what the gift card was spent on instead of just telling me, I've spent it. Right now, I think I have bought my last gift card from giftcardzen. I'll take my business somewhere else unless they make contact with me and try to win back my business.
Giftcard Zen Reviews
Like many others before me, actually the last negative review just came a week before this review, it's another story of buying a bad gift card. I didn't have much of problem with giftcardzen before as I have been using them for the past 8 months. I've spent almost $2000 on Home Depot cards within 8 months with giftcardzen. I'm a consumer that would like to save a few bucks, but at the end of the day, I didn't save anymore with giftcardzen then if I were to just go to Home Depot and get the gift card myself.
If you are interested in the story, here it is: I've bought 13 home depot gift cards from giftcardzen in the last 8 months worth just under $2000. Some of those cards were "printable". I didn't have any problems with anyone of the gift card other than just 1 printable card with a balance of $124.36 or at least that was the balance I thought I had on it. It was only when I went to the store, the clerk told me that this particular card had $0 balance on it. Baffled, I had to call Home Depot to ask what happened with it. The Home Depot customer service could only provide me with when the card was used and at which store. It turned out it was used during the time I was on an airplane (going overseas) and on their online store. I checked my receipts and I have records of all my other gift cards, but just not this one. After confirming I did not use this card and getting off the phone with Home Depot, I decided to contact giftcardzen. Their customer representative filed my case and then said they would investigate and get back to me. Then 3 weeks went by and not a word. So I had to follow up with them to see if they had made any progress of my case. Their representative emailed me back to say that they have concluded that I have used the card. If I weren't able to provide them with more evidence then the case is closed. Well... Home Depot cannot give me anymore info than I already got from them, giftcardzen has no other evidence. I replied saying that I could provide evidence that I wasn't in the country when this card was used, but I am not able to get anymore details from Home Depot. The rep replied saying that then they cannot really do much about it. I then replied again to say that I have used their service in the past and all of cards I got were good except for this card. After a few hours the rep's manager called me up. I do applaud them for being fast about it and the manager was courteous, but the conclusion were still the same. I did learn that they can track when the "printable" card was sent to my via e-mail and when the pdf file was opened. Because the date the card was used was after the date I opened the pdf file, they concluded that I must have used it. Well, it's kind of at a stalemate, no new evidence and each side has a story of their own, but giftcardzen wasn't at loss here since they still got to charge my credit card, for a gift card I wasn't able to use.
Conclusion: While giftcardzen's customer service is decent, they weren't able to resolve issues such as bad gift cards. It seems like I am not the only one with this problem (google their review and you'll know). If they had just said "sorry, we can't find any evidence, but here, we'll give you half the balance back as store credit", I would have been satisfied and continue to do business with them. It's a shame, I'm not trying to scam them and I know they are just trying to do business. I'm sure they probably have to handle many bad gift card requests on a daily basis, but surely they can do better at verifying where/when/what the gift card was spent on instead of just telling me, I've spent it. Right now, I think I have bought my last gift card from giftcardzen. I'll take my business somewhere else unless they make contact with me and try to win back my business.