Walmart Gift Cards - What a Scam!

As Christmas approached this year, Walmart advertised how exciting it was for gift recipients to receive Walmart gift cards. Their ads claimed that the excitement of the gift card came twice. First the recipient had the excitement of receiving the gift card. Then he or she had the excitement of choosing perfect gift">the perfect gift to purchase with the gift card. With so much excitement, it is supposed to make perfect gift">the perfect gift no matter the recipient.

Unfortunately, this was far from the case for people nationwide. While hoping to use their gift cards to purchase items on sale the day after Christmas, these customers were being told that they could not use their gift cards on their purchases. Instead, Walmart was demanding payment only by check, cash, or credit card on December 26.

Many of these customers had spent their time selecting items, getting just what the wanted to purchase, only to be told in the check-out that their gift cards would not be honored. Rightly so, these customers were leaving carts, filled with their intended purchases, sitting by the check-outs. Instead of being purchased, these items were being sent back to the shelves, leaving more confusion in the aisles for employees and customers alike.

One of my neighbors was affected by this scam. She is a retired woman in her late 60s, living on a very tight budget. She had put off purchasing her arthritis medications, knowing her family would be giving her Walmart gift cards this Christmas, as they have for the past three years. The day after Christmas, she took her gift cards to Walmart, filled her cart with her medication and almost a month's supply of groceries, and headed for the check-out. Rather than purchasing her items, however, she was one of the many customers who left her cart for the Walmart employees to put away. She could not use her gift card, and she did not have any other way to purchase the items she needed.