Target Disney gift card nightmare

This is a good reminder to check your cards! When I planned my first trip I bought the gift cards $50 at a time when I made stops for weekly items. I dutifully put them in a box and left them there until it was time to pay for the rooms and I called Disney. Thankfully there was only one that hadn't been activated and I was able to get it sorted easily. This time I know better!
 
This is a good reminder to check your cards! When I planned my first trip I bought the gift cards $50 at a time when I made stops for weekly items. I dutifully put them in a box and left them there until it was time to pay for the rooms and I called Disney. Thankfully there was only one that hadn't been activated and I was able to get it sorted easily. This time I know better!
Yikes! Like those stories of people who show up to the park to buy their tickets only to find out the gift cards they bought months ago weren’t activated! ACK!
 


I called the target 800 number on my receipt. Card was not activated and they have no explanation. They said I could go back to store and get refund or have a check mailed. They are mailing me a check. From now on I am only getting Paypal from Swagbucks even though the first one won't be discounted.
Fwiw Walmart sells Disney gift cards & you can purchase with a Walmart gift obtained from SB.
 
The bolded is the information I was looking for. Sounds like it's maybe just an issue with Target's system at the present moment with information transmitting in the POS system. If receipts are saying ACTIVATION SUCCESSFUL but aren't actually activated I totally get the frustrations.

I wonder if it's just Disney gift cards impacted or other entertainment gift cards like Starbucks, etc.

This happened to me yesterday when I bought a Starbucks GC and 2 Chick fil A GCs. None of them were activated and my receipt had said that they would be activated within 3 hours. After four hours, I called Target and they told me to call Starbucks, etc to see what the issue was. Starbucks told me that that card was never activated. Luckily, I live 5 minutes away from my Target so I went there and demanded that they fix the issue. They couldn't figure out what was wrong and ended up refunding all three cards to my RedCard and the interesting thing was I got $2 cash back from the Target GC i used to buy sunscreen.
 


This happened to me yesterday when I bought a Starbucks GC and 2 Chick fil A GCs. None of them were activated and my receipt had said that they would be activated within 3 hours. After four hours, I called Target and they told me to call Starbucks, etc to see what the issue was. Starbucks told me that that card was never activated. Luckily, I live 5 minutes away from my Target so I went there and demanded that they fix the issue. They couldn't figure out what was wrong and ended up refunding all three cards to my RedCard and the interesting thing was I got $2 cash back from the Target GC i used to buy sunscreen.
Oh that just sucks. Soo it's an issue with Target's system then with cards that need to be activated. Luckily you weren't far away!
 
I find it ridiculous that Target expects customers to wait for up to 3 hours to have the gift cards activated in the first place! That's unacceptable.
 
Just wanted to update yall :)
We went to our local Target tonight and I purchased 56 Disney gift cards with my Red card. I asked the lady at the service desk before purchasing if they had cleared up the gift card issues from earlier this week. She stated yes that there had been some sort of issue with them not activating timely but it had been resolved. We proceeded with our purchases. When i got to the car i called 1 of the cards to ensure it was activated and it was. When we got home i used disneygiftcard.com and was able to ensure that all 56 active and i was able to transfer them as i wanted.
 
I just got home from my local target and all Disney gift cards have been pulled from the displays.
Oh wow! I was having trouble finding all that i needed yesterday and the lady at customer service was able to look up in their system how many they had in their store. I could only find 16 of the $100 cards but they had over 500 in the back. She sent me to the electronics desk and they brought me out 4 plastic sealed packs of 10-$100 cards. In no way did any of them act like they wouldn’t be carrying them anymore.
 
At my target they were all pulled too but my husband found a $25 one hanging on an end cap. I just started doing swagbucks in hopes to exchange the target giftcards for disney but looks like target is catching on boo. Better go make sure my disney gift card is active! I had a target one I got from buying baby stuff and a receipt printed out saying wait a fwe hours. I waited like 3 days still nothing I went back and they tried to give me problems. Eventually they gave me the $15 in leui of the gift card!
 
FWIW - Target in nashua NH has plenty of Disney GCs at the kiosks and checkout stands tonight! I was actually looking for a target gift card and they have very few of those but plenty of Diane cards!!
 
This happened to me yesterday when I bought a Starbucks GC and 2 Chick fil A GCs. None of them were activated and my receipt had said that they would be activated within 3 hours. After four hours, I called Target and they told me to call Starbucks, etc to see what the issue was. Starbucks told me that that card was never activated. Luckily, I live 5 minutes away from my Target so I went there and demanded that they fix the issue. They couldn't figure out what was wrong and ended up refunding all three cards to my RedCard and the interesting thing was I got $2 cash back from the Target GC i used to buy sunscreen.

Let me join the group of non-Disney messed up gift cards. Bought three phone cards yesterday and got a call from my dad that none of them are activated. I have the receipt and he has the cards, so I can't fix this until next weekend (or at least I hope I can fix it).

This really is unacceptable. Of course folks here are upset (understandably so) that the Disney cards they bought for themselves don't work. But what about gift cards actually given as gifts that aren't activated. Smaller amounts than the Disney stash, to be sure. But how many gift recipients are going to be like "hey, that gift you gave me didn't work". And then who gets that money? Target probably ends up with that somewhere on their balance sheet. Since they didn't activate the cards, I'd guess the money isn't going to the 3rd party merchant. And for those that never try to fix this issue (don't realize it in time, lose the receipt, give it as a gift), how much is Target pocketing?
 
Let me join the group of non-Disney messed up gift cards. Bought three phone cards yesterday and got a call from my dad that none of them are activated. I have the receipt and he has the cards, so I can't fix this until next weekend (or at least I hope I can fix it).

This really is unacceptable. Of course folks here are upset (understandably so) that the Disney cards they bought for themselves don't work. But what about gift cards actually given as gifts that aren't activated. Smaller amounts than the Disney stash, to be sure. But how many gift recipients are going to be like "hey, that gift you gave me didn't work". And then who gets that money? Target probably ends up with that somewhere on their balance sheet. Since they didn't activate the cards, I'd guess the money isn't going to the 3rd party merchant. And for those that never try to fix this issue (don't realize it in time, lose the receipt, give it as a gift), how much is Target pocketing?

When I called Target about my unactivated card they did not admit it was a known issue even though I told them I knew of others buying gift cards that were not active. They did admit that mine was useless and refunded me (check coming in the mail -soon I hope). I mentioned what you stated here about gift recipients and the embarrassment it would cause the gifter. She didn't seem too concerned. I am hesitant to ever buy gift cards from Target again. Maybe if they were being more transparent and apologetic I would feel better, but this whole situation is making me want to shop elsewhere.

I don't use my 5% redcard for gift cards as I have only been buying gift cards with money earned on sites like Swagbucks. So from here on in it will be Paypal when available or amazon.
 
When I called Target about my unactivated card they did not admit it was a known issue even though I told them I knew of others buying gift cards that were not active. They did admit that mine was useless and refunded me (check coming in the mail -soon I hope). I mentioned what you stated here about gift recipients and the embarrassment it would cause the gifter. She didn't seem too concerned. I am hesitant to ever buy gift cards from Target again. Maybe if they were being more transparent and apologetic I would feel better, but this whole situation is making me want to shop elsewhere.

I don't use my 5% redcard for gift cards as I have only been buying gift cards with money earned on sites like Swagbucks. So from here on in it will be Paypal when available or amazon.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I hope it wasn't too painful to convince them the card was useless since I'll have to do that soon.

I suspect they aren't too concerned about losing business on gift cards themselves (and the phone reps probably aren't too concerned or knowledgeable regardless), since I doubt there's much margin on 3rd party gift cards (if anything is left after the 5%). But if they don't get their act together and I stop shopping there for all my groceries that's what they'll care about. And I think that may be coming soon since a new Woodman's is coming near my house, which has better prices and enormous selection.
 
Just got this email from target. When I called last week they told me they would mail me a check. Guess I am getting a direct refund via Target debit. Hope this will go into my checking account and not be held as a credit on my Red Card.

Thanks for your patience while we worked on your gift card concern. I'd like to inform you that your refund has been processed back to your Target debit card for the amount of $50. You should see the refund reflected within 3-5 business days.

Again, we apologize for the activation issue on that card and are taking steps to ensure that doesn't happen again. It was a rare technical issue, and we really appreciate your understanding. Thanks for shopping Target and hope you have a great week!


Sincerely,


Jason

Target.com Guest Services
 

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