Card Value Dwindled Down

I was in the mood to buy books. I was not in the mood to spend money. I'm doing my best to be a good steward and not waste precious dollars. So what do I do? I excitedly look through our gift card drawer. Gifts from family and friends. I remembered my good friend Nancy had given me a Visa gift card for my birthday last year. Loved it! Thanks, Nancy!

I go online to pick out the books I want. After some time I find the lucky lot. Decision made.I look at the info on the card that the gift card came in and see that I have to register it online if I want to use it for online shopping. No prob. I go online and register and am eventually lead to the 'balance of the card' page. It's a $25 gift card so, of course, I expect to see that on the site's page. WRONG! I see a bunch of administrative fees (there must have been about four of them!) that dwindled my balance down to $5.20! No joke!


At this point I scan the info on the card that the gift card came in. In large letters on the front it says '$25, Card good through 9.09'. Hmmm, I'm calling them up about this. It doesn't expire till 2009.I am saddened at this point because I'm thinking "Nancy was kind enough to give me this and now it looks like it's not worth the paper it's printed on."I call the company and a very nice lady answers the phone. I explain the situation to her. She explains...get this...that the card is not charged the administrative fee for the first 6 months (Oh! how very kind of them!). After that it is charged a monthly fee. Are they kidding??? I told her I wanted my full $25 back and asked her if there was anything she could do for me. She mentioned something about $8 (can't quite remember) and this did not satisfy me. I asked to speak to her manager. She said she could transfer me to another department (I don't remember the name). I said fine.

I was trying to keep my cool (after all, it wasn't her fault the way the company runs itself) but was perturbed at the insanity of it all. This was daylight robbery! As I waited the 10 minutes it took for someone to get back on the line I started reading the tiny print on the card. Sure enough I found the mention of the administrative fee. Mind you, in tiiiny print.

Finally a gentleman came on the line and I, again, explained the situation, trying to keep my cool (Ugh!) and mentioning how very disappointed I was that the card was practically worthless and that my friend, less than a year ago, mind you, had been sweet enough to spend $25 on me expecting me to get the full value for the card.I thought I was going to have to bicker back and forth with them on the issue. Thankfully, this gentleman immediately said that he would put the full $25 value back onto my card. Whew! I was happy and relieved. But still cautious about such cards. What are these 'administrative fees' anyway? Ridiculous!