Bought a Gift Card Charged and Card has ZERO Balance

[Karyn8]

I am on a Princess cruise. I bought a $500 gift card, got the email with gift card number and pin. Went to guest services to redeem and it has ZERO balance. My charge card was charged (NOT pending YES charged.  Princess says they can't redeem a zero balance card. AARP chat says too bad contact the merchant. What is AARP's problem? I'm out $460 with a bad card, what is AARP going to do about this?

[r856768p]

I bought a Jersey Mike's Gift Card and it says it has zero balance and I have never used it. Haven't been able to get a hold of anyone from AARP. I only used part of one of my Ralph's Gift Cards, had $22.73 left on it and it wouldn't let me use it, said it had zero money on it. I thought I could trust the AARP electronic gift cards, but won't be buying them anyone. 

[AjS461079]

Oh yeah the gifts cards are a horrible idea. I had an issues with 4 carnival cruise cards and well I had the run around until I made a specific call and as soon as I did it was resolved after taken several days . I then went and google aarp gift cards and whoa a lot of upset people out of money galore! My advise personally is to just buy the gift card at the original site . When I went back and got my carnival gift cards on carnival it was in my email in less than 5 min . Charges dropped aarp 450 bucks because it wasn’t delivered. Lesson learned. For the headache I’ll pay the actual merchant not go through aarp again for any gift card. Sorry that happened to you. 

[AARPConsumerCare]

@r856768p,some merchants allow users to load their gift card balance onto the company's mobile app. You may want to confirm this was not requested.  AARP Rewards does not have access to your gift card usage and transaction history, you must work directly with the merchant.  Please review the bottom of the digital gift card for information on contacting the merchant directly for assistance. - Zainab M
 

[Karyn8]

I got the run around from AARP rewards. They said call Princess cruises and they will tell you where the gift card was used if it was used. I called Princess gift card support and they said no such card number was ever issued. I called my bank to dispute the charges, there was nothing more I could do.

[AjS461079]

Oh I’m so sorry! There is some real issues here with AARP. This is cause for concern! I would have the cruise line if they could to send you something stating zero balance and show you’ve certainly not used it as it was nothing on it to start with. Then I’d seek  action because that  is selling products etc with no value for money. Wrong in every way! Omg I’m just so outraged right now. Seeing people being done like this as myself in somewhat the same situation mine is pending and I’ve already called my credit card and let them know what’s been going on with aarp so they placed an alert on my account. After I read all these grievances and how much people have lost! Shame on aarp!

[Karyn8]

I went on the chat and told them what happened. They said it was a merchant problem not AARP who only sells the merchant cards. I have a copy of the transcript. I went on the Princess web page to do a balance inquiry on a gift card and entered the card numbers and it came up ZERO Balance. When I get home in a week I will have to dispute the charge. What a sham this is and not to mention a whole lotta work to dispute the $460 I got charged. Of course there is the 8% discount I missed out on since I'll be paying my on board account at full price.

[AjS461079]

Karyn on my credit card where it shows still pending 360.00 it clearly states merchant aarp not carnival  . So, they are lying look at yours and click on the transaction it’ll show you who the merchant is. I was told that and replied no it states AARP as the merchant. I will be disputing mine my card company told me give it 3-5 business days and if it doesn’t go it’ll fall off or I can dispute the charges. I explained everything to them and now AARP has been doing this to members since around 2021 -22 I’ve read back on all the threads here and it’s been ongoing. People don’t get their money back, have to do so much to even get someone to help etc  I will never use them again for a gift card! It’s not worth the hassle. I really do hope you get your money back! It shouldn’t be hard because all they have to do is look at these post in the community to see that it’s a lot of that going on and nothing being done when they investigate the dispute and chat .