Newmarket
June 28, 2008 09:57 PM
Newmarket woman shocked when 1 card deemed worthless
By: Sean Pearce
A Newmarket woman and her daughter are urging consumers to heed the
term “buyer beware” when it comes to purchasing gift cards from
shopping malls.
Family
members bought several gift cards for her daughter, Chesney, around her
birthday last September and for Christmas, Marsha Alexander said.
The
cards were purchased with the assumption her daughter would be able to
spend the value on the cards at her leisure, but when the pair tried to
go shopping with them recently, they were shocked to discover they had
significantly depreciated in value, Mrs. Alexander said.
“I was
pretty upset by it,” Mrs. Alexander said. “(Chesney) was in there to
spend her birthday and Christmas presents and ended up being told she
didn’t have nearly the amount of money on them that she thought she
did.”
The shopping excursion started at Zellers one Sunday
afternoon. Mrs. Alexander and Chesney, 14, entered the Upper Canada
Mall retailer and picked out items for purchase thinking they had $70
to spend.
When the time came for payment, Chesney presented
two of the three gift cards, worth $30 each, but was told she could not
use two Upper Canada Mall cards in one transaction at the store.
The
cashier then said she could make the two individual cards into one HBC
gift card to complete the sale and that’s when mother and daughter were
informed the cards were now worth only $23 each.
Surprised and disappointed, Mrs. Alexander and her daughter decided they had better spend the remainder while they were there.
They
headed to Shoppers Drug Mart and spent about $10. Chesney presented
another gift card for payment only to have it declined outright; she
was told it was now worthless.
“My daughter was devastated and I was angry,” Mrs. Alexander said.
“I told all of the ladies there, ‘These gift cards are useless and they don’t work.’”
Mrs.
Alexander said she’s still irritated by the incident, because nothing
she read about gift cards indicated they would start depreciating so
soon after buying them.
The only indication there might be a
time limit on them is an expiry date written on the back of the cards,
which says they are good until March 2009.
“I don’t understand how it works that if you don’t use these cards right away they start losing value,” she said.
“Money is money.”
Legislation
designed to stop retail gift cards from depreciating over time was
introduced by the province last May and came into effect Oct. 1.
It seems, however, some gift cards were exempt from the law.
The
legislation was only intended to apply to gift cards issued by stores
and not those offered by shopping malls, Ministry of Government and
Consumer Services spokesperson Greg Dennis said.
The gift cards issued by malls are more complicated, Mr. Dennis said, as they are handled by third parties.
The
government opted, at the time, to defer action on those cards to ensure
legislation was enacted prior to the holiday spending season.
The
good news, however, is the government is nearing completion on
regulations designed to prevent situations such as the one described by
Mrs. Alexander.
“There have been some developments on that, but I can’t tell you too much just yet,” Mr. Dennis said.
“We’re just kind of finalizing the details.”
Those details may come to light as early as September, Mr. Dennis said, but that’s little consolation for Mrs. Alexander.
For her, cash will be king from now on.
“I’ve
told everyone not to use these and that you might as well give cash or
a cheque,” she said. “I won’t be buying them again.”
Upper Canada Mall’s head office spokespeople could not be reached.