- Report: #119590
Complaint Review: YourGiftCards.com
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| YourGiftCards.com YourGiftCards.com
Mountain View, California U.S.A. |
|
YourGiftCards.com Scam Ripoff Will DELAY and DENY Fulfilling your Gift Card as long as possible Mountain View California
*Author of original report: These people are crooks - still no gift card, lots of b.s.!
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After dealing with this online marketing company, I am convinced that they are as shady as can be. Their entire premise for making money is obviously based on the strategy that by making it EXTREMELY DIFFICULT, TIME-CONSUMING, and FRUSTRATING for the consumer to get the free gift card, most will eventually give up. YourGiftCard.com must be operating on a razor thin profit margin because clearly, they stand to lose money every time they have to fulfill on one of those restaurant gift cards!
I began dealing with this shady enterprise about 6 months ago, when I decided to click on their ad for a free $50 Applebies certificate. I had already planned to subscribe to Netflix, so I figured - what the heck - might as well get a freebie out of it. Little did I know that six months later, I would still not have the gift card.
What should have immediately tipped me off is the absurdly long and pointless series of steps you must complete to get the card. Basically, after "signing up" with a merchant, you have to register with YourGiftCards.com. Then, you have to wait on an email confirmation (mine of course didn't come; I had to contact them repeatedly). Next, you have to click on some link in the email and "verify" your status. Then, you have to wait about a month for them to verify that you really did join Netflix or whatever, and they have to confirm your credit card. Then, you wait and wait for your account status to say that you are verified and can therefore request an award certificate. Next, you get to click on a link and print the award certificate. Then, you must mail the award certificate to their post office box in Mountain View, California. And, assuming they get it and process it, you are to allow "six to eight weeks" for processing!!
Now, why should this process take months and involve so many steps? Isn't it obvious that it's designed to discourage and frustrate you so you'll go away?
Well, I'm at the six month mark...still nothing. I've had to send numerous emails to these folks at each step of the process before getting a reply. Now, it's been 2 months since I sent in my "certificate" - but still NOTHING. I'm going to give it another couple of weeks before I begin sending complaints to every consumer agency I can think of. These people need to be put out of business.
Eric
Atlanta, Georgia
U.S.A.
I began dealing with this shady enterprise about 6 months ago, when I decided to click on their ad for a free $50 Applebies certificate. I had already planned to subscribe to Netflix, so I figured - what the heck - might as well get a freebie out of it. Little did I know that six months later, I would still not have the gift card.
What should have immediately tipped me off is the absurdly long and pointless series of steps you must complete to get the card. Basically, after "signing up" with a merchant, you have to register with YourGiftCards.com. Then, you have to wait on an email confirmation (mine of course didn't come; I had to contact them repeatedly). Next, you have to click on some link in the email and "verify" your status. Then, you have to wait about a month for them to verify that you really did join Netflix or whatever, and they have to confirm your credit card. Then, you wait and wait for your account status to say that you are verified and can therefore request an award certificate. Next, you get to click on a link and print the award certificate. Then, you must mail the award certificate to their post office box in Mountain View, California. And, assuming they get it and process it, you are to allow "six to eight weeks" for processing!!
Now, why should this process take months and involve so many steps? Isn't it obvious that it's designed to discourage and frustrate you so you'll go away?
Well, I'm at the six month mark...still nothing. I've had to send numerous emails to these folks at each step of the process before getting a reply. Now, it's been 2 months since I sent in my "certificate" - but still NOTHING. I'm going to give it another couple of weeks before I begin sending complaints to every consumer agency I can think of. These people need to be put out of business.
Eric
Atlanta, Georgia
U.S.A.
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 11/23/2004 08:46 PM and is a permanent record located here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/YourGiftCardscom/Mountain-View-California-94039/YourGiftCardscom-Scam-Ripoff-Will-DELAY-and-DENY-Fulfilling-your-Gift-Card-as-long-as-pos-119590. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year.
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Search Tips#1 Author of original report
These people are crooks - still no gift card, lots of b.s.!
AUTHOR: Eric - (U.S.A.)
SUBMITTED: Saturday, December 04, 2004
It's now been 10 weeks since I generated and submitted my "certificate" to this sham of a business. Not only have I yet to receive my gift card (in this case, and Applebies restaurant $50 card), but I've learned that YourGiftCards.com basically has no customer service aside from automatically generated emails that are designed to delay and delay - obviously with the idea that you'll give up. Anyone else received any from "Tang" - the so-called customer service person (who either isn't a real person, or whose only job is to hit the "reply" button and send form-letter style responses to complaints)?
If this operation wasn't so clearly fraudulent, the situation would almost be funny. In response to about 10 emails I've sent to their customer service address, I've receive a number which say the same thing, more or less as follows: "YGC processes numerous gift card requests and we are shipping them off as soon as we can. If for some reason after 8 weeks you have not received your gift card, please reply with your name and address and we will investigate."
The funny part is that once is was past 8 weeks and I followed their instructions and resubmitted my information, they replied with exactly the same message as above!! Absolutely no "investigating"! Obviously Tang doesn't read his emails very closely!
Even more amusing, last week I sent a more pointed message in which I threated to file complaints and address this with Netflix, the sponsoring company in my particular case. I got an even more absurd email from the ubiquitious Tang. It stated:
{My email address} is not a valid email address. Do you have an alternate email address?
WHAT?!?! First of all, I've had the particular email account for years, and it was the same address I had used to sign up for the original offer, and to correspond with YourGiftCards.com!!! How could it be "invalid"? What does that even mean? Why would they be replying to me at an "invalid address"?
After these latest exchanges, I concluded that my original impression was correct. This company can only survive by fulfilling a small percentage of the promised gift cards. Their hope and intention is that the majority of consumers won't follow through with hassles necessary to get the gift card, or will give up when faced with the type of nonsense I've been encountering. I have sent a letter to the California Attorney General, but I don't expect much will come of that. What I do advise everyone who has had a similar experience is to WRITE LETTERS OF COMPLAINT TO THE COMPANIES THAT WERE LINKED TO OR SPONSORING THESE YGC ADS (e.g., Netflix, Columbia House, etc.). I these companies hear from enough people - especially if threated with cancellation of accounts (as I may do with Netflix), the companies themselves will refuse to do business with YourGiftCards.com, or at least will demand that they operate on the "up and up."
So, the saga continues. Even though this is small potatoes (a $50 gift card), the principle of the matter compels me to take further action. Mr. Tang - watch out. You may be looking for a new job sooner than you think...
If this operation wasn't so clearly fraudulent, the situation would almost be funny. In response to about 10 emails I've sent to their customer service address, I've receive a number which say the same thing, more or less as follows: "YGC processes numerous gift card requests and we are shipping them off as soon as we can. If for some reason after 8 weeks you have not received your gift card, please reply with your name and address and we will investigate."
The funny part is that once is was past 8 weeks and I followed their instructions and resubmitted my information, they replied with exactly the same message as above!! Absolutely no "investigating"! Obviously Tang doesn't read his emails very closely!
Even more amusing, last week I sent a more pointed message in which I threated to file complaints and address this with Netflix, the sponsoring company in my particular case. I got an even more absurd email from the ubiquitious Tang. It stated:
{My email address} is not a valid email address. Do you have an alternate email address?
WHAT?!?! First of all, I've had the particular email account for years, and it was the same address I had used to sign up for the original offer, and to correspond with YourGiftCards.com!!! How could it be "invalid"? What does that even mean? Why would they be replying to me at an "invalid address"?
After these latest exchanges, I concluded that my original impression was correct. This company can only survive by fulfilling a small percentage of the promised gift cards. Their hope and intention is that the majority of consumers won't follow through with hassles necessary to get the gift card, or will give up when faced with the type of nonsense I've been encountering. I have sent a letter to the California Attorney General, but I don't expect much will come of that. What I do advise everyone who has had a similar experience is to WRITE LETTERS OF COMPLAINT TO THE COMPANIES THAT WERE LINKED TO OR SPONSORING THESE YGC ADS (e.g., Netflix, Columbia House, etc.). I these companies hear from enough people - especially if threated with cancellation of accounts (as I may do with Netflix), the companies themselves will refuse to do business with YourGiftCards.com, or at least will demand that they operate on the "up and up."
So, the saga continues. Even though this is small potatoes (a $50 gift card), the principle of the matter compels me to take further action. Mr. Tang - watch out. You may be looking for a new job sooner than you think...
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