I just got off the phone with one of the strangest phone calls I’ve ever had. I had bought a $100 egc from Macy’s back on 6/7. Eleven days later, I go to check the balance on the card and it shows $0. For frame of reference, I had bought many gift cards before and after this gift card. For some reason, just this one gift card seems to be bad. I call up their gift card hotline and this is how the conversation went.
V: Hi, can you tell me what’s wrong with this gift card?
M: The gift card is unavailable at this time due to a fraud investigation.
V: Huh? How did this even happen?
M: I can’t say
V: Do you know when it’ll be available?
M: No.
V: Okay hold on. I bought a $100 gift card and it shows a $0 balance.
M: No, it does have a balance. It’s just unavailable.
<at this point, I was giving her the ‘WTF are you crazy’ eye and tone over the phone>
V: Okay, what should I do here?
M: I don’t know. Try disputing it with your bank.
V: I will.
Of course I immediately filed a dispute, but the phone call was just so very odd. Horrible customer service from Macy’s.
Congratulations on getting unbanned.
My first thought: Uh oh, Vinh’s trying to get banned again!
How strange that only one in the middle of a batch was bad.
Sounds like they might’ve outsourced it to Citi’s IT.