I purchased online gift certificates for my Dad for Father's Day and for his birthday and e mailed them to him because Amazon.com pitched this as a convenient way to send a gift to friends and family.
When my dad tried to use the gift certificates they did not work and when he contacted Amazon.com they told him it was just a computer glitch and they walked him through how to use them. My dad followed their detailed instructions to no avail.
He repeatedly tried to get them to allow him to use the gift certificates and then gave me his information so that I could try. I placed an order for him using the directions Amazon.com had given him to make the certificates work online. The form required you enter a credit card, but said it would not be charged unless the total was over the amount of the certificate. My dad ended up being charged for the whole total and NO credit for the gift certificates were given.
After all the attempts we had both made I decided to charge back my Discover account where I originally charged the certificates. Discover investigated and then said that since it had been over 6 months since I purchased them, there was nothing they could do.
I am now in the process of sending letters to the BBB and as many other agencies as I can that will hopefully get the word out to other consumers NOT to purchase gift certificates online from Amazon.com.
I had done business with them many times in the past, but after this incident I can no longer have faith in a company that will treat customers this way (and over $75 worth of gift certificates too).
It would seem that they can easily see in their records that the gift cerfiticates were never used and there should be plenty of record of my dad (and me) trying to use them. With all our attempts they are not willing to do anything to correct the situation.
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