One of my favorite consumer advocacy blogs, The Consumerist, has a chilling tale of a retail roundabout in which a customer makes a return to OfficeMax, is given a gift card, and is then unable to use that gift card to buy anything. Rinse, repeat: the cycle continues for SEVERAL gift cards:<\/p>\n
I’ve had this gift card for over six months now. Or should I say multiple gift cards from OfficeMax for over six months now. Let me explain.<\/p>\n
After I received the card I looked on their website and didn’t see a monitor that could replace my 24″ screen so I found something else to buy with it. I purchased a laptop using the MaxAssurance gift card. About a week later I get an e-mail saying that the laptop isn’t available for purchase anymore. Hmmm, that’s strange. No biggie I thought, stuff happens, so I called up OfficeMax who then issued me a new gift card. I asked if they could refund to the MaxAssurance card to which they told me no, that they’d have to issue a new gift card.<\/p>\n
TWO WEEKS LATER, I get a new OfficeMax gift card in the mail. I check the amount on it and see that it’s the right amount. I keep it on my desk a while until I see something that catches my eye on OfficeMax.com – a computer this time. I go through the checkout process and purchase the computer (which was IN STOCK, like the laptop was). I get no e-mail from OfficeMax this time so I figure it went through and I’d be getting in the computer in a few weeks. A week later, I still have not heard anything so I login to my OM account and check my orders.<\/p>\n
This time, it says that the computer has been “discontinued” and that it would not be shipped out. Gee, thanks OfficeMax for letting me know. I check the Gift Card balance \u2014 which was $0.00 \u2014 and immediately called up OM and talked about the situation. Once again they couldn’t refund the money to the card and said that I’d have to wait for a new card to be re-issued to me.<\/p>\n
TWO WEEKS LATER, I get yet another OfficeMax gift card in the mail. About a month goes by before I see anything else that interests me. This time it’s a computer again.<\/p>\n
Any guesses what happened?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n