Be careful when buying Itunes gift cards!

[Owen280]

Hi All,

Just a warning for anyone buying an Itunes gift cards over the festive period (and any other gift card I guess).

Make sure they are activated in the shop and you keep the shop receipt for them.

Now the sad story of why:-

My daughter was given an ipod touch and 2 gift cards worth £40 for her birthday at the weekend. Both were bought from high street stores, but were apparently not activated at the till.

I contacted Apple but they refuse to help unless we provide them with a scanned receipt showing the purchase and the gift cards. As they were gifts, we obviously do not have the receipts. Net result £40 unusable credit.

I don't know how this can actually happen that a store does not activate them, but I have a very disappointed 8 year old who was hoping to get some new games and the new Olly Murs album.

So my advice is just be careful!

 

[gkpm]

I've never ever seen £20 iTunes gift cards, think they just come in £15, £25 and £50 values?

What do they look like? An chance of a photo?

 

[gkpm]

£15 + £25 = £40

Image is attached...

Ah got it, sorry for some reason thought they were both the same value. That's fine then.

Any chance whoever gave them can return to the store?

Tesco once mishandled my card purchase (via vouchers) and I had to go back to have them properly activated. Took ages to sort out, think they must have called the whole hierarchy.

 

[norealplan]

iTunes gift cards have 2 barcodes on them. One of them is for stock keeping purposes (on the cardboard back), the other is for activation when they scan at the tills and connect to the apple servers (on the actual card).

I imagine the shop assistant scanned the top barcode (the stock keeping one) and not the one on the actual card. If they had scanned the correct one, the person buying would have got an activation receipt as well as a traditional receipt.

Best thing to do is find the place where they bought from and explain the situation. They might be able to look up the transaction if they have a date and tme?

 

[bpsmith]

Yup, and refuse to leave if it's not sorted!

 

[Owen280]

iTunes gift cards have 2 barcodes on them. One of them is for stock keeping purposes (on the cardboard back), the other is for activation when they scan at the tills and connect to the apple servers (on the actual card).

I imagine the shop assistant scanned the top barcode (the stock keeping one) and not the one on the actual card. If they had scanned the correct one, the person buying would have got an activation receipt as well as a traditional receipt.

Best thing to do is find the place where they bought from and explain the situation. They might be able to look up the transaction if they have a date and tme?

Thanks for the information - but surely the till would not charge the buyer unless the card is activated e.g. the till would ask the operator to scan the second bar code before allowing them to move on?

We are looking in to it but surely there is a problem when 2 separate cards are bought from different stores in different parts of the country and both are unactivated or is my daughter just very unlucky?

 

[norealplan]

It depends how the stores have their till systems set up. For instance that stock keeping barcode will probably be associated with a price. So when you scan the "wrong barcode" it still shows up with a price and prompts for a payment method.

Sorry I hadn't appreciated it was 2 different stores. You've either had very bad luck or Apple servers playing up on the same day when purchased?

 

[gkpm]

We are looking in to it but surely there is a problem when 2 separate cards are bought from different stores in different parts of the country and both are unactivated or is my daughter just very unlucky?

And which stores were these?

Most gift card sales are handled by Paypoint, the retailers are not connected to Apple's servers..

 

[Theydon Bois]

Removed the attached image. It did nothing other than make the thread and your case appear like a joke when people are trying to help.

 

[Theydon Bois]

I don't know how this can actually happen that a store does not activate them,

Becasue they are sometimes left on the side of shelves and so could be pocketed quite easily, but I am assuming this was a retorical question anyway.

Not iTunes vouchers, but I bought Ticketmaster Voucher cards at the weekend and you normally get multiple reciepts, one for the purchase and one for each activated giftcard

Is it possible to for the purchasor to go back to the shop and say that cards were not activated? They could give times and dates and bank statements - I would for £40.

 

[gkpm]

Is it possible to for the purchasor to go back to the shop and say that cards were not activated? They could give times and dates and bank statements - I would for £40.

Definitely yes, while the receipt may help in most cases you won't even need it as they should be able to look it up on their systems.

The till in many stores won't actually let the operator complete the transaction without activating the cards, so it's odd the OP had problems with 2 different ones. That's why I asked if he knew where they were purchased.

 

[bpsmith]

I had a similar problem with the Clinton Cards deal before. The till wouldn't validate the cards but wouldn't complete the transaction and let me pay until iTunes cards validated. Can't see how this could happen anywhere else either!?!

Are you sure this is legit?