Sunday, October 9, 2016

More Rite-Aid From Last Week & Stolen Gift Cards

Well you can't replicate these Deals since they ended Saturday evening but here is a second trip/transaction I did at Rite-Aid on Friday.........


I did the M&M's double dip Plenti points again and the Spend $30 Vitamins/Get $10 in Points Deal.

3 x M&M's sale $3=$9.00
5 x assorted Centrum Vitamins sale $6.99=$34.95
2 x Herbal Essence shampoo sale $2.50=$5.00
SubTotal......$48.95

Coupons Used
1 x Spend $20/Get $2 off Transaction Rite-Aid CatalinaQ=$2.00
1 x $1.50/2 M&Ms IPQ=$1.50
5 x $4/1 Centrum vitamins IPQ=$20.00
1 x $4/2 Herbal Essence ManuQ=$4.00
Coupon Total........$27.50

$48.95-$27.50=$21.45 + .05¢ tax=$21.50 OOP



After receiving $16 back in new Plenti Points this transaction would "cost" me $5.50 + $16 in current Plenti Points.
So I wanted to use one of the 2 Rite-Aid gift cards I had bought last year right before Christmas.
Last Holiday Season there was actually a deal one week where buying a R-A branded card got you free Wellness/Plenti points.  They hardly ever offer points when buying R-A cards, just name brand cards for other businesses so I had jumped on this Deal.

My 2 cards were totally unused(by me)until this moment.
So I swipe the first card and the register tells the cashier this gift card has no money on it.
Tried again, same result.
So I swipe the second card and the same result.....no money left on this card.


I am stymied.
The cashier says I'll have to call corporate and find out what is going on.
Ugh!

So a call on Saturday happens.  The CS person runs the card numbers and says these cards were used in full this past March at a store in California.
WTF?!?
She is told we haven't been to California since 1969 and live in Pennsylvania so these charges are fraudulent.
Evidently the card number was stolen and put onto a new fake card where they were used on the left coast.

She continues to say that they had a large batch of R-A gift cards with stolen information last Christmas season.  It looks like it was either an inside job within Rite-Aid(shipping/distribution area before the physical cards were sent to individual stores)or someone got a hold of the information at the facility that manufactured the cards.
Anyway, a new card with both amounts combined is being mailed to me and hopefully this time the card information is secure.

*Rite-Aid has since last year changed their gift cards to include a pin number(under scratch-off material)on the physical card which you need to use the card online and these cards are harder to fake with that feature.

As for my transaction above, I also had a prepaid Visa gift card so I put the $5.50 due on that card and used $16 of my Plenti points to cover that $21.50 in charges.
Getting $16 in new Plenti points meant this transaction cost me $5.50 in gift card coin for 2 bottles of shampoo, 3 bags of candy and 5 containers of vitamins.
Still not a bad deal, right?

Have you ever had gift card information stolen?  Tell us about it.

Sluggy




6 comments:

  1. Several years ago TheHub received a substantial gift card to best buy from one of their corporate connections. We held on to it for a few months then our house phone system went on the fritz. This was a great way to replace it at no cost to us. Turns out 2 folksthey had employed at Christmas were taking the card numbers and using all the monies from purchased gift cards. Best buy did honor the cards, and did prosecute the 2 people responsible.

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  2. Yes, CVS gave me a $10 gift card that had no money on it! Still not resolved.
    pparsimony

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  3. Wow! never heard of a hacked gift card. Luckily, they are honoring them/by replacing them.

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  4. I've never had gift card info stolen. The first Christmas after I moved to Florida, X sent my son a Target gift card in the mail. It never showed up here. X had it canceled and sent a new card. He was furious because he's a nasty old crab who thinks everyone is out to get him (and "they" are because they can't stand him). The past two years I've purchased $100 gift cards at Panera for Christmas because they give a free $20 gift card with the purchase and I love Panera. Last Christmas the gift cards didn't work. My son and I went to Panera to eat and when they couldn't figure out what was wrong with the gift cards, they very generously gave us our meal without charge. Then I called Panera corporate. They said that because of a technical problem, the gift cards expired soon after the first of the year. They emailed new gift cards to me immediately. They were polite and apologetic.

    Love,
    Janie

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  5. I'm so sorry that that happened to you and shocked that they gave you the money back. Both of my kids got gift cards from Toys R Us one year and both had nothing on them even though the person that bought them had the receipt. They never got the money back. And there was even something on the news about how cashiers were voiding out the gift cards and keeping the cash. BS, I tell you!

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  6. No, I rarely buy gift cards or get them. I just got my power back on in the middle of the night WHEW. It's the pits not having power but I'm so glad all is well here and I didn't have to throw away a lot of food since I don't keep it around. Sluggy, have you ever counted all your bottles of shampoo/conditioner LOL? I wash my hair every other day and a bottle lasts me months- I don't like conditioner so rarely use it.My soninlaw had my daughter cleaning and throwing away stuff after the storm- I'm wondering how much she did purge haha. She's the opposite of me and more of a hoarder!

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