Sunrise Banks, N.A., St. Paul, MN 55103 Visa U.S.A. Inc.; Blackhawk Network California, Inc.; giftcardmall.com/mygift Card Spending Restriction Nationwide

I was given a $25.00 Visa Gift Card for my birthday.  I took this $25.00 gift card and my grandson to a very fun business in Burleson, TX called "Grump's"  A local specialty Hamburger Shop.  We each ordered a bacon cheesebger with fries for him and onion rings for me along with 2 regular drinks.  The total came to $20.17 including tax.  Acceptable because they are really, really good burgers.  No problems right?  Wrong.......  The young woman at the register said I owed her $2.83 more than was on the card.

I asked why, because it was a $25.00 card and the total did not reach that.  The owner of the restaurant said to just foget the extra amount.  He was busy and it wasn't worth the hassle He was a businessman who wanted to move the process along.  I thanked him for not being any more embaressing in fornt of my grandson and we sat and got our burgers.  Outstanding.

I just now got off the phone with "Hector" who said he was the "Supervisor " on duty at 1-888-524-1283  giftcardmall.com .  Now Hector told me that the whole problem was that restaurants routinely charge 20% extra to cover tips whenever they have a debit card presented.  I was told that there was $4.83 left on my card for use but it could not be used for 7 days because it was sequestered to ensure there was enough money on the card to cover the bill plus the tip.  I told him there was no tip because if it was automatically charged, then it's not a "service gratuity"(tip) but a service fee and that was not disclosed.  Whateve else it may have been, it was not customer service, The whole discussion from "Hank" and "Hector" was obfuxscation to hide the fact that I was unable to use 19.3% of the face value of my "gift".

In my estimation this is a violation of banking laws under Dodd/Frank or the Fair Credit Reporting Act.