Circuit City ripped me off on gift card Greensboro North Carolina

Since Circuit City was going bankrupt and I had a gift card from them I decided to use it. I called the 888 number on the back to see how much money I had on it. There was $21.24. I drove the 45 miles to Circuit City and after much searching in the dark, dirty and bad smelling store I was able to locate a few items. I was amazed at the high price of marked down items but wanted to use the gift card before it was useless.

My total came to $39.03. I swiped the gift card and nothing happened. The cashier asked for the card and tried it on her machine. After her swiping it several times it finally went through and said I owed $17.79. I swiped my bank card and pressed the credit button. It asked was $17.79 correct and I press yes. I waited for the spot to sign on but it never appeared. The cashier started swiping my gift card again.

The cashier did this several times and told me to swipe my bank card again saying it didn't take the first time. I swiped it again and went through the same process. The cashier swiped my gift card again then started calling on the phone keying in my card number. After about 5 minutes of swiping my card she tells me the card is no good. I told her it was. She said there was not a balance. I said it wasn't now since it had already come up on the machine taking off the $21.24.

She said there was nothing she could do. I said I wasn't leaving without my $21.24 and asked was there a customer service or anyone around. She replied very snotty that she was customer service. I asked who could I talk with. She told me to call the 1-800 on the website. I took my card without my purchase and went outside.

I got my blackberry out and looked up the website. I couldn't find a number so I went back in the store and told the girl that there is not a 1-800 number on the site and could I see the manager. She told me I needed to understand that if the card is not any good it's not any good. She finally went got the manager or whom I thought was the manager. I explained the story to him.

He looked it up on the computer and told me my card was active but it had a zero balance. I told him because it got swiped off. I asked him if he could look up and see the transaction that had been made on the machine and he told me no and that my card is empty. I kept trying to explain what had happened and he just held the card out to me saying "Take your card".

I grabbed it out of his hand and stormed off. He called after me and smiled and said to have a good day. I called back and told him to kiss my ?. He told me he could see to it that I was never allowed to step foot in the store again. I yelled back Why bother. In less than a month there will not be a store.

I got in my car and called the number on the back of my card to check the balance. The lady said it was zero. I asked if she could tell me when it was used. She named the date and amount of the initial card, the date of the time I used it before and today's date 2/14 that $21.24 was used. I told her I was at the store and they were saying my hard had zero. She offered to stay on the line so she could talk with the manager.

I went back to customer service and asked to speak with the manager. A different man arrived so I had to explain the whole story again and I asked where the original guy was and he said he didn't know. This person checked the card and said it was zero. I gave him my phone and let them talk to the gift card lady.

He realized that the money had been taken off my card and asked the lady to reset my card. She said she couldn't do that since she was only information. The manager said he could not find a record of the transaction in the computer. He said if he could then he could help me but wanted me to know there was not much he could do since they are liquidating.

All that became of this was I got ripped off for $21.24 from Circuit City. Since the manager said he could not find a transaction on the computer I was out of luck yet I could go to Circuit City website and file a claim against them. He stated he has to tell about 30 people a day to do this. I found this mind blowing and still do not believe the transaction could not be found.

I am still left with the question that they have not been able to answer. What happened to the transaction that took away the money off the gift card? My bank card so far has not been charged the $17.79. I never signed my name to release the funds for that but somewhere Circuit city made $21.24.

Pamela
Siler City, North Carolina
U.S.A.

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