YourGiftCards.com Scam Ripoff Will DELAY and DENY Fulfilling your Gift Card as long as possible Mountain View California

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...