I purchased a $100 Visa gift card from a Kroger in Arkansas. When I tried using the gift card, I kept getting a "card reader error" message. After several attempts, I ended up having to use my debit card. I tried using it in the next couple of days at a couple of different merchants. It was refused at ALL of them! So, I called the number on the back of the card and spoke with a customer service rep. who I had a very hard time understanding and I kept getting "stock" answers to my questions. Finally, I got her to understand that although the card had a $100 balance, I couldn't use it anywhere. So, she took my name and address and told me that I would receive a replacement card in 7 to 14 business days. I emphasized the fact that in the meantime I had to use my debit card for the purchases that I bought the gift card for and that being on a fixed income was a strain, because I was actually spending money that the gift card would have been used for. So, for that long of time was to say the least an inconvenience. When I finally got the replacement card and tried to register it, I was told it had a 0 balance. I asked them how that could be considering I had just got the card in the mail. I was told rudely that somehow the $100 got spent somewhere in Georgia at a store I had never heard of. When I asked how that could be seeing that I just got it in the mail. I then was told the $100 was taken off the old card that couldn't use even though it had had $100 on it. So, now the replacement card was useless and had a 0 balance because someone had used even though I couldn't. So, the new card had a 0 balance. Then, I had to dispute the that and was told they had 90 days to see if I had a legitimate excuse for replacing the $100 gift card. So, my $106.95 is placed in limbo for up to a total of 5 months! I think that this is the WORST customer service I've EVER dealt with! It's time consuming, annoying inconvenient and frustrating. I'll NEVER do business with them again!
Desired outcome: Please refund my $100 IMMEDIATELY! I shouldn't have to suffer because of YOUR poor security measures and 5 months is WAY too long for this to be resolved.