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We received a reader report over the weekend about a problem he had with Visa Gift Cards bought at Staples: when he opened the package, the gift cards were blank. In other words, they had no numbers. Here’s what I think you could do if this ever happened to you.
The problem: What’s the PIN? How do you check the balance?
If you’re planning to swipe your card to purchase something that costs the full value of the card or more, the lack of any numbers may not seem to matter much (since, for a regular purchase that runs as credit, you can just swipe the card and the payment terminal will recognize the info since that information is likely stored in the magnetic strip even if it didn’t get printed on the physical card.
However, if you intend to use your card(s) as debit, you know that the default PIN on these MetaBank cards is the last 4 digits of the card number. Blank cards present a problem there. Furthermore, if you’d like to check the balance or change the PIN online, you’ll need the card number for that as well. No card number is no good.
What to do if this happens to you
The reader who reported this problem has a magnetic reader, so he was able to get the information off the cards by swiping them. However, if you don’t have a card reader, what do you do?
Truthfully, I haven’t been in this situation myself (I’ve bought lots of Visa Gift Cards and never opened a package to a blank, nor have I heard of others having this issue, so I expect it is a fairly isolated occurrence). However, I think the first step is making sure you’ve kept your receipt. The Staples receipt shows a serial number (S/N) that should match the long bar code number on the bottom of your gift card. With the serial number, Blackhawk should be able to look up the card information to see when and where it was loaded. I’d recommend calling the number on the back of the gift card and explaining what happened. I would further expect that Blackhawk may require further information (perhaps the transaction confirmation number from the receipt and/or photos of the receipt and card, etc) and may need to investigate before re-issuing. However, I’d expect that they could indeed be reissued and I’ve read about this working in the past for a lost card (and in that case, within just a few days).
You could alternatively start at the store where you purchased the card. I would expect that in 98% of cases, the store is going to tell you to call Blackhawk. However, I did once have a (totally different) problem with a couple of gift cards and the store manager took cash out of the register and gave me my money back and said he’d have to follow up and get it fixed later. I think it’s really unlikely that a store manager would offer that kind of solution, but I imagine the likelihood decreases if you wait days to go back to the store. Most likely, you’re going to have to call Blackhawk to get this fixed.
A third solution, and likely the easiest, is the one recommended by THEsocalledfan in the comments: simply buy something cheap with the card. Your receipt after making a purchase with the card will likely show the last 4 digits of the card — and voila! You have the card number.
Bottom line
This (likely very isolated) problem is a good reminder to keep your receipts. It pays to be organized. If you don’t have a card reader and you’d chucked the receipt in the garbage on the way out of the store, I imagine you’d have a hard time getting any help on getting the card re-issued and then be stuck swiping it as credit (and hoping no cashier sees that it is blank as I can’t imagine anyone believing you that you opened the gift card and it was just blank). With the receipt, it should be relatively simple to get a replacement card re-issued.
H/T: Reader THEsocalledfan
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This happened to me recently when I bought a card from a Star Market. Opened the package and saw that the cards were blank. So I called the number on the back, and they sent me a replacement card that arrived in a week.
But here’s the kicker.
I go through the process of activating the card, try to use it and the card gets rejected. I call the number on the back of the card again, only for them to tell me the number on the back was printed incorrectly this time and that the account has been held on a 24 hour “soft” hold. This is absolutely absurd, and I will NEVER be buying another one of these cards, and will be warning anyone I know against purchasing them either. This is beyond negligible, and is completely incompetent business management.
Got a batch of these at Staples tonight. Called the number on the back of the card and gave them the long number on the back of each card. They told me the last 4 of the credit card and I used them easily at Walmart on MOs.
This is most likely a scam that has been happening at Safeway for a while and is spreading out to other providers.
https://milestomemories.boardingarea.com/does-safeway-have-a-rampant-gift-card-scam-issue/
Last year I bought a MCGC at Staples which I discovered was blank when I got home. Went right back to Staples, and the staff had never seen this before either. I had my receipt, so after management called Corporate, they gave me another MCGC and said they would sort it out later with the higher-ups.
A bad couple weeks to be working the phones for BHN. First the MCGC problems, now blank Visa GCs. They’re on a roll.
(BTW, there’s still no fix in sight for last week’s MCGC troubles, and even though lots of your readers are out thousands of dollars, you seem to have just moved on – hey, you might want to keep following that for all your readers that have been screwed over, no? oh, I see…you just want the credit card referral money, after that, you don’t care…OK, I get it).
The MCGC problems obviously really stink for all affected by them. I’m not sure how you’d like me to keep following up. As far as I have seen and as you just said, there has been no resolution / news, so there isn’t any update for me to report.
I certainly encourage anyone affected to continue to follow up with Blackhawk and the merchant. I don’t think it is either Blackhawk’s intention nor the merchant’s intention to steal your money; there is obviously just a disconnect in the system in terms of each side figuring out where the money is. If you see the comments on last week’s post, you’ll see that a reader suggests that the problem with the Mastercards is that the card is getting authorized to be totally drained and Blackhawk’s computer system effectively shuts the card off when it’s totally drained. When the grocery store computer system then goes to immediately refund the balance, it’s not working properly since Blackhawk’s computer has effectively shut the card off. That’s a reader theory and it sounds plausible to me, but I don’t know for sure what’s happening. I imagine that folks who have money tied up in it are continuing to follow up with Blackhawk about it and will get it resolved. If and when there is any news about how to resolve it, we’ll obviously report that. MS does have risks (and in fact anyone buying MCGCs has surely seen our regular warnings that those cards are more susceptible to fraud, so I think most are aware and accept that there is some inherent risk / chance that one will be out the money and need to follow up for a while any time we buy a MCGC). To be clear, that doesn’t make it suck less in the short term, though I think that the MCGC problem beats the fraudulent draining problem in that I imagine Blackhawk and/or the merchant will discover the disconnect eventually — and I think you’re totally right that the uptick in calls to Blackhawk from those folks who need assistance is likely to noticed and dealt with. In the MCGC instance, I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes a while to get the money back, but I think it’s unlikely that the money will be lost forever.
I’m not sure what that or this post (or indeed most of the posts on our site) have to do with credit card referral money. Sure, we have affiliate links for some cards. If they drove our content, we’d have neither written about this problem nor last week’s MCGC problem nor many of the other topics and deals we’ve covered since they don’t advance that agenda. Again, I can understand frustration from anyone affected. If we see a resolution, we’ll obviously post it.
Agreed! I filed 2 disputes with Blackhawk and have received two emails for each dispute. This is the latest reply: “Our Disputes team is currently working on your Case# ########, and will provide you with an update as soon as possible. Please be advised that dispute claims are resolved within 30-60 days, however, the overall process may take up to 90 days.”
There really isn’t anything anyone can do or say at this point. We have to wait for the resolution.
I think this is an organized scam rather than manufacture error. I once bought 4 VGC from Safeway and realized later that they are all blank. The cards were obviously made in different material (more like paper than plastic), with last 2 digit of card numbers scratched off. Luckily I saved the receipt and call the card issuer to see what’s going on – it turned out 3 out of 4 cards have been depleted value a few days after I bought them.
Lessons? Always check your VGC as soon as you bought them, ideally open the package right there. And use them as soon as you can.
It happened to me. I bought a VGC at Safeway and the receipt shows NOT APPROVED. The back barcode has last few digits scratched off (the number above the activation barcode, not CVV). Front card number is printed but back CVV is missing.
What did you do to resolve it? I called customer service but cannot get to a human being as I don’t have the CVV!
Or just dispute the transaction with your bank… you were sold something defective so you’re entirely in your rights!
Probably not worth drawing attention to your Visa Gift Card purchasing activity when there are alternate solutions unless you’re only buying one card here and there. Those doing volume likely don’t want to draw eyes to multiple transactions for VGC purchases.
Yep, quite a surprise to me. I didn’t even look at the cards when I walked into walmart. She already had put in the MO, and I swiped the first card, and bam, no numbers. I was completely befuddled.
One other suggestion, if you did buy something with the card, it may show the last 4 digits on the receipt. (depends on store) You then could drain the rest via MO. Note, the cards worked perfectly once I knew the numbers.
Duh — that’s the easiest solution. I just added it to the post. Thanks for commenting!
You may want to consider opening and copying your card details as soon as you purchase a GC. What would happen if you lost, or otherwise misplaced, a card before it’s drained? I take a front and back photo of each of my cards ASAP after purchase. Not worth the risk of losing $500+.