Great, what do I do now? My gift card won’t work!

What Is Scrip Fundraising?

From time to time the FundScrip MemberCare and AdminCare Team receives telephone calls from its Group Supporters or Group Administrators who’ve bought a gift card from one of our Participating Retailers and for some unknown reason it doesn’t work once they are ready to pay for their purchase at the cash.  Although we truly sympathize with the awkwardness and embarrassment this may cause for our you or your supporter – for various reasons (outlined below) it does happen on the occasion.

There are a few reasons that a gift card will not scan properly:

• Training issue: The clerk is not properly trained in the redemption process.
• Delayed activation issue: The retailer was slow to apply the balance to the card.
• Un-readable: The card has become demagnetized, usually because it was damaged or is defective.
• Previous usage: The supporter has forgotten that they already used the card and the balance is no longer available.

So what can be done if you have a card that won’t scan properly?

1. Ask the clerk to manually enter the serial number on the back of the card. This will allow them to access the funds if the card is defective or act as a secondary proof that the card has not been activated.
2. If the card still won’t work, ask for the store manager or head cashier to assist.  Important: Do not leave a gift card at the store if you feel that it could still be holding a balance.
3. Refer to the back of the gift card for a phone number or website that you can use to verify the balance. Some sites will even give you the history of usage of the card or advise you if the card has yet to be activated.
4. Contact us via our Online MemberCare Form and select ‘Gift Card – Defective – Won’t Scan’ option from the Issue pulldown menu. In the body of the form, In the body of the form, please include the serial number of the card, denomination, as well as, retailer name. After verifying with the retailer, we will advise you if you are required to return the card to us to be replaced or refunded.

Some parting words of wisdom – Given the technology available today, there is usually a way to verify the activity history attached to a particular gift card. We hope that you or your supporters never need to use the information provided in this post, but felt it was a good idea for you to be aware. Since 2004, FundScrip has delivered thousands of gift cards each and every week across Canada and have relatively few reported cases of cards that do not scan properly.