Gift Card already redeemed Issue

Hello

I just bought a $50 Apple gift card from Target, I unsealed it, scan the code using my camera, and it says it's already been redeemed. How is that possible?? Support tell me 'your code has no value, it was already redeemed by another account and we cannot tell you by whom". Unbelievable!! It feels like a total scam! And apparently there's nothing to do! Really unbelievable that a company like Apple uses/don't do anything against scam like this...

MacBook Pro 13″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Nov 20, 2020 12:46 PM

Top-ranking reply

KiltedTim

Level 10

226,128 points

Posted on Jan 21, 2021 5:07 AM

Nope. When a gift card is sold, any gift card... Apple, Amazon, restaurant, etc., it is activated at checkout by the cashier. If they fail to activate it correctly, it has no value. This is to ensure that someone can't just pocket a gift card at the big display and walk out with thousands of dollars worth of gift cards...

You have to take this up with the store where you purchased it. Someone at the retailer had to activate the card, then use the value and return it to the display where you picked it up, or you had to leave it somewhere where someone could steal the code from it and use it before you attempted to redeem it.

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53 replies

Aug 7, 2021 3:16 AM in response to walkyle

That has nothing to do with this discussion. This discussion is the fact that “Apple” gift cards that are sealed and supposedly tamperproof or showing up after purchase as already being redeemed.

Tinaluna

Level 1

8 points

Oct 24, 2021 4:45 PM in response to KiltedTim

I bought a apple gift card and it was already redeemed

Oct 24, 2021 6:27 PM in response to C525Pilot

What if the card says it has already been used???

Nov 6, 2021 11:08 PM in response to Bud1ight

If they are able to enter random numbers and combinations then APPLE SHOULD BE SUED FOR LACK OF SECURITY. Imagine wanting to gift a $500 worth of card and it has already been redeemed by someone else

Dec 31, 2021 2:37 PM in response to 66PBB

The same thing happened to me yesterday. And I was told the same thing as you. I am out $50 now. This is so unjust. How is the customer protected?

elon273

Level 1

8 points

Dec 31, 2021 9:36 PM in response to Nicolas Rizo1

Every time I use my Apple gift card it is already redeemed

Aug 8, 2021 1:42 PM in response to Eric--F

It seems that all who have had an issue with Redeemed Apple Gift cards, purchased their gift cars from Target. This is really concerning as I have the same issue on multiple Apple Gift Cards purchased from Target. What is the legal way to figure out where exactly the issue is coming from?

[Edited by Moderator]

Sep 27, 2021 1:10 PM in response to shingofromnewton

I did get some movement on this. No refund. You can forget that. But I did discover that Target has a different process on how they activate the cards. Odds are you probably went through self-check out when you made your purchase. The Apple cards sold by Target have two barcodes. One at the top and one at the bottom. The one top has to be scanned first before the one on the bottom. This activate the card. Target is the only one that does this. The clerk showed me when I went to go make a purchase

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Gift Card already redeemed Issue