Frozen Gift Card

[adst_5575]

I bought a $200 eBay gift card at My Gift Card Plus using my account and my credit card. I then made a $145 dollar purchase on eBay and received my item. I attempted to to make another purchase a few days later with balance and it was $0. Upon contacting support I was informed my card was frozen.  No notice, email nothing. I spoke with eBay every day for 7 days. I sent the receipt of purchase, the credit card receipt of purchase all my accounts two separate times and all I get is its still in process. I'm furious. How can ebay just go into my wallet and take money without notice? They had not yet given me cause as to why they took it. I feel like they robbed me. I want to file a lawsuit, they stole from me and Im not having it

[eburtonlab]

The last time I used an eBay gift card to fund a purchase the card number was attached to the account and the unused balance appeared as a line item on the checkout page with a check box to apply it to future purchases.

Does the balance of your gift card amount appear at the bottom of the checkout page?

[amg572]

Did you ever get your issue resolved?  I purchased an eBay gift card ($200) from Target. There were a lot of negative reviews saying the card did not work, along with several saying that it did work and people just weren’t following directions, etc.

Of course I’m like, “Well, I always read instructions, I’m very methodical, I have a Paypal, I will have no problems” ...said with a hint of judgment toward those who couldn’t figure out how to use their gift card . 

Well, I definitely got knocked down to my proper place, haha. As soon as I tried to buy something, yep...card shows zero balance. It shows two hundred on the clickable target link, but it shows zero on eBay’s check your card balance. **bleep**?  Did someone steal my money already, lol?

I call in and they say that I do indeed have two hundred on the card, but it was frozen to prevent fraudulent activity. Frozen immediately after it was purchased. Before I even had a chance to use it a single time. So weird. 

I chatted online with a couple of different agents, all super polite...they sent me the link where I had to take photos of the email showing I bought the card and both recipient and sender’s addresses had to be visible. That turned out to be a problem as on my phone, target’s email would not show. On the PC, my email would not show. I snapped pics of both and hoped for the best. Then another pic of something, I don’t even remember what it was. Both pics had to have a handwritten note with my username and date visible in the pictures and a few other specificities like, no cropping, no photocopies, etc.

Sent those in and I’m still waiting to have this verified and I don’t even know if they are going to accept it since I had issues getting the entire email addresses to show up. I’ve invested about an hour so far, which yeah, it’s not a ton of time but it’s still frustrating as usually when you buy a gift card, the only time invested is that to purchase and then do your shopping. I’m so, so glad I actually bought this to use myself for a surprise gift for my spouse and not for an actual gift given for someone else to use. I would have felt terrible giving them such hassle heavy gift. 

[simba6]

Just another reason to never buy gift cards.   You will just have to keep calling until they explain the issue.

[amg572]

I am starting to come around to your “no gift card” way of thinking. I just got an email back regarding my document submissions and they rejected it because my photos were not clear enough. In order to capture everything they wanted on the email PLUS the handwritten note with my username and today’s date, I couldn’t get my phone super close to the screen. It’s definitely readable I made sure of that before I submitted, but it’s apparently not readable enough 😕. So no resolution on my end yet, but I shall try again when I’m not in such a frustrated headspace. 

[chapeau-noir]

@amg572  Take a screen shot of the pages and send them as image files - it'll be much clearer than trying to take photos with your phone.  I have a snip-it app but I believe Windows 10 (if you're using it) has their own clipping programs.

Also, you can just take a screen shot directly on your phone if you can get the app to work there.

This business of locking your card and putting you through all of this is ridiculous - I hope you get it resolved.

[ctkcollectibles]

Also experiencing the same problem with a "frozen" eBay gift card. I got a $100 eBay gift card from my in-laws. I tried to use it, but the redemption code wasn't working. Chatted with several eBay reps and finally got someone to explain that the card still had a balance, but was frozen because of suspicious or fraudulent activity. They sent me an email with a link where I sent pictures of the receipt and the gift card along with a handwritten note with the date and my user name. That was 5 days ago. I chatted with an eBay representative yesterday that said I will get an email the next day, but I never got an email. So, I'll try chatting again today. But, judging by the posts I'm seeing. I feel like they're just going to give me the run around. 

[jiache_94]

Bought $2500 of ebay gift card from a place where I bought Amazon/hotel.com/Doordash gift cards for years without problems.

After three submissions for photo receipts and 20+ days, they are still freezing my cards with 0 transparency and a real person to talk to.

JFC no wonder Jeff Bezos has Ebay by the balls. 

[simba6]

That's silly.  If you have a credit card, just pay with it. Far more protection and you don't give control to a third party that might not give your money back to you.  You also get real protection with a credit card.  A gift card only gives you problems.

[midech_96]

My eBay gift card just got freeze and am far from the store i bought it 

[wanderinglittle]

This also happened to me

[soh.maryl]

Did you know there are some people who don't actually have credit cards?

[ang.7705]

Same issue. Had $500 worth of eBay cards. Went last night to purchase 3 laptops (kids Christmas). 2 the gift cards worked but 1 didn't ($200 balance). After HOURS of talking to their "customer service" someone finally told me it had been frozen. The other people were fine to let me believe it had a $0 balance.

I purchased 2 laptops and need to buy a 3rd to match so my kids all have the same model (there was only 1 left last night) but because they froze my card for what they say is for security against fraud I can't purchase it unless I buy with cash which will come out of my budget and leave me (when they finally resolve) with $200 from eBay that I don't need at that point. They said was up to 14 business days. How are you just going to take my legitimate money for 14 business days. I understand the fraud protection but then put in a better system where it freezes it but when I call you can confirm and unfreeze. 

The guy just kept saying to go to this link, put the documentation (receipt, picture of card, etc) and wait. He kept making it like I was the problem when I wasn't satisfied with that "solution". I told him, if I take your rent money on the 31st and say I'll give it back to you when I'm ready - but now your rent is late - just because I give it back to you later doesn't mean that I didn't cause you unnecessary stress (possibly eviction). He just kept acting like, well we are going to give it back to you later... whats your problem. 

I'm beyond frustrated how no one could understand why this is not okay.

[bigdawg805]

The gift card you purchased through a third party could have been bought through fraud. In those cases yeah the vendor will freeze the card once they are notified fraud has occurred so they aren't ending up double hit with a CC charge back and losing x amount in gift card purchases. People stealing credit cards often purchase gift cards and then try to sell them off to people or gift card buying sites to fence their ill gotten gains.  As someone who worked a very long time in loss prevention and dealt with this type of stuff I'd recommend never buying a gift card third party especially at a discount unless you are dealing with a major reputable vendor i.e. Walmart/Target/Amazon, etc. 

[kh-leslie]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.