Adorama robbed me

braveheart0707 · Nov 24, 2022

Few years ago I used some gift card balance to order stuff on Adorama, after some stuff (don't quite remember what happened), this customer service rep issued me a new set of coupon codes for my gift card balance.

I just remembered to use them this week and they don't work, and i emailed Adorama back and they said that the codes are expired, and they will not be able to issue me new ones?

What the heck? Gift cards are advertised as never expire, and when they gave me these "coupon codes" I was never informed that they would have an expiration date. And i showed them the email that I received containing these "coupon codes", nowhere on the email is an expiration date mentioned.

Now instead of just simply issuing me new gift card balance, they are pretty much robbing me of my money? I mean I always know B&H is a step above Adorama in customer service, but this is way way too much.

To mod: I am sorry if this is not the right forum but i didn't see any other more suitable ones. I am just extremely furious right now. Please move this elsewhere if it is inappropriate.

OldSchoolNewSchool · Nov 24, 2022

In some states, the attorney general will go after cases like this. See if there hasn't already been a ruling in your favor in your state.

FrancoD · Nov 25, 2022

"Few years ago I used some gift card balance to order stuff on Adorama, after some stuff (don't quite remember what happened), this customer service rep issued me a new set of coupon codes for my gift card balance."

Could it be that part of the outcome of that situation was that they would change your Gift Vouchers to "coupon codes" as some sort of compromise ?

( I don't know of course but given that you don't remember why, how can anyone here guess what had happened ? )

hikerdoc · Nov 25, 2022

‘‘(c) PROHIBITION ON SALE OF GIFT CARDS WITH EXPIRATION
DATES.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided under paragraph
(2), it shall be unlawful for any person to sell or issue a gift certificate, store gift card, or general-use prepaid card that is subject to an expiration date.
‘‘(2) EXCEPTIONS.—A gift certificate, store gift card, or general-use prepaid card may contain an expiration date if—
‘‘(A) the expiration date is not earlier than 5 years after the date on which the gift certificate was issued, or the date on which card funds were last loaded to a store gift card or general-use prepaid card; and
‘‘(B) the terms of expiration are clearly and conspicuously stated.”

Loading…

uscode.house.gov

quote extracted from page 20 of pdf

The CARD Act of 2009.

You should be able to readily clear up the issue if you can demonstrate your card was not over five yers old and did not contain expiration warning. Adorama likely has records available demonstrating dates of your purchases with the card and sale of the card.

The whole topic is interesting. Other sources indicate over half of gift cards go either unused or only partially used. A source of disappointment for giver who essentially wasted money, an accounting issue for merchandisers, and a source of displeasure for users who find their long lost gift card is now expired.

Doug J · Nov 25, 2022

hikerdoc said:
‘‘(c) PROHIBITION ON SALE OF GIFT CARDS WITH EXPIRATION
DATES.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided under paragraph
(2), it shall be unlawful for any person to sell or issue a gift certificate, store gift card, or general-use prepaid card that is subject to an expiration date.
‘‘(2) EXCEPTIONS.—A gift certificate, store gift card, or general-use prepaid card may contain an expiration date if—
‘‘(A) the expiration date is not earlier than 5 years after the date on which the gift certificate was issued, or the date on which card funds were last loaded to a store gift card or general-use prepaid card; and
‘‘(B) the terms of expiration are clearly and conspicuously stated.”

https://uscode.house.gov/statutes/pl/111/24.pdf

quote extracted from page 20 of pdf

The CARD Act of 2009.

You should be able to readily clear up the issue if you can demonstrate your card was not over five yers old and did not contain expiration warning. Adorama likely has records available demonstrating dates of your purchases with the card and sale of the card.

The whole topic is interesting. Other sources indicate over half of gift cards go either unused or only partially used. A source of disappointment for giver who essentially wasted money, an accounting issue for merchandisers, and a source of displeasure for users who find their long lost gift card is now expired.

Good find.

Cheers,
Doug

Aberaeron · Nov 25, 2022

braveheart0707 said:
Few years ago I used some gift card balance to order stuff on Adorama, after some stuff (don't quite remember what happened), this customer service rep issued me a new set of coupon codes for my gift card balance.

I just remembered to use them this week and they don't work, and i emailed Adorama back and they said that the codes are expired, and they will not be able to issue me new ones?

What the heck? Gift cards are advertised as never expire, and when they gave me these "coupon codes" I was never informed that they would have an expiration date. And i showed them the email that I received containing these "coupon codes", nowhere on the email is an expiration date mentioned.

Now instead of just simply issuing me new gift card balance, they are pretty much robbing me of my money? I mean I always know B&H is a step above Adorama in customer service, but this is way way too much.

To mod: I am sorry if this is not the right forum but i didn't see any other more suitable ones. I am just extremely furious right now. Please move this elsewhere if it is inappropriate.

Gift cards presented years late give retailers a cashflow headache. However that should be more than balanced by those that never use the cards, which gives the retailer a 100% cash profit from that small minority.

It is also in the consumer’s interest to use the card within a reasonable time frame, not only to beat inflation but to avoid the risk of the card being cancelled, as above, or the issuer going out of business.

Personally I prefer not to receive or to give gift cards. Cash allows the recipient to spend wherever they want and on whatever they want, or even to save it. The gift card is a kind of retailer sponsorship that is tying the customer to that retailer.

Mako2011 · Nov 25, 2022

hikerdoc said:
https://uscode.house.gov/statutes/pl/111/24.pdf

quote extracted from page 20 of pdf

The CARD Act of 2009.

You should be able to readily clear up the issue if you can demonstrate your card was not over five yers old and did not contain expiration warning.

I don't think that's applicable in this case as the gift cards were already honored by the retailer with the consumers agreement and coupon codes were issued. Coupon codes do not fall under the 2009 act as far as I can tell. The circumstances under which the consumer agreed to using his cards for issue of coupon codes is unclear. He may have unknowingly or knowingly agreed to an expiration date

Paul Pasco · Nov 25, 2022

How long ago and how much money?

Doug J · Nov 25, 2022

Mako2011 said:
hikerdoc said:

https://uscode.house.gov/statutes/pl/111/24.pdf

quote extracted from page 20 of pdf

The CARD Act of 2009.

You should be able to readily clear up the issue if you can demonstrate your card was not over five yers old and did not contain expiration warning.

Click to expand...

I don't think that's applicable in this case as the gift cards were already honored by the retailer with the consumers agreement and coupon codes were issued. Coupon codes do not fall under the 2009 act as far as I can tell. The circumstances under which the consumer agreed to using his cards for issue of coupon codes is unclear. He may have unknowingly or knowingly agreed to an expiration date

Page 19 of the law includes this definition.

"STORE GIFT CARD.—The term ‘store gift card’
means an electronic promise, plastic card, or other payment
code or device..." (my emphasis)

Do the coupons qualify as other payment code or device and are they subject to the same time restrictions and other qualifiers? No doubt this has issue has been raised before.

Cheers,
Doug

pmgnut · Nov 25, 2022

I don't know all the details but In this case it sounds like a purchased gift card morphed into coupon codes somehow . Considering the business they do they should most definitely honor those codes for customer sat reasons at the least, being they were technically paid for initially. I would escalate that issue for sure with the higher ups at Adorama. May I ask exactly why your gift card balance was transferred to a coupon code in the first place? I would think it would have been transferred over to another gift card for the balance.

msu79gt82 · Nov 25, 2022

braveheart0707 said:
Few years ago I used some gift card balance to order stuff on Adorama, after some stuff (don't quite remember what happened), this customer service rep issued me a new set of coupon codes for my gift card balance.

So you exchanged a gift card balance for some coupon codes several years ago and you don’t recall what happened.

Gift cards are real money/currency that typically have no expiration date, as per most states current law. A coupon code has no real monetary value; a coupon code offers a discount on a future purchase and every coupon code that I’m aware of has expiration dates. Coupon codes are not gift cards.

Perhaps if you can find a record of your transactions you can figure it out. I can easily see previous transactions on my Adorama online account. Do you have a receipt? Do you know when and what you bought? Do you even recall what you originally purchased and what the issue was? Coupon codes are often offered to pacify/settle issues.

There must have been some sort of issue otherwise you wouldn’t have contacted customer service for the gift card exchange to coupon code to have occurred.

Mako2011 · Nov 25, 2022

Doug J said:
Page 19 of the law includes this definition.

"STORE GIFT CARD.—The term ‘store gift card’
means an electronic promise, plastic card, or other payment
code or device..." (my emphasis)

Still don't think it applies as the original was already transferred and the user agreed to new terms. Like the many modern Coupon Codes with an expiration date don't fall under the Act. I suspect the OP didn't take note of the "fine print" when he took the deal.

robgendreau · Nov 25, 2022

Mako2011 said:
Doug J said:

Page 19 of the law includes this definition.

"STORE GIFT CARD.—The term ‘store gift card’
means an electronic promise, plastic card, or other payment
code or device..." (my emphasis)

Click to expand...

Still don't think it applies as the original was already transferred and the user agreed to new terms. Like the many modern Coupon Codes with an expiration date don't fall under the Act. I suspect the OP didn't take note of the "fine print" when he took the deal.

A coupon code is usually a discount off a purchase. So not akin to a gift card. Some coupons don't even let you keep a balance. Often they're percentages off. And so on. And usually the terms are on them. If I rep'd the OP I'd want to see the copies of the coupons. They usually have fine print, and unfortunately failing to read them can be a big problem. Still, seems that if there's a documented history of moving from a gift card balance to coupon that Adorama ought to make it right in some way; it's not like they're really losing anything but customers.

Mako2011 · Nov 25, 2022

robgendreau said:
Still, seems that if there's a documented history of moving from a gift card balance to coupon that Adorama ought to make it right in some way; it's not like they're really losing anything but customers.

My experience with them is they normally do... in this case though we don't have all the facts and background. They may have "made it right" in the issuance of codes and the OP didn't take advantage. Not enough facts

Rambow · Nov 25, 2022

Never buy anything from them again.

Instead, buy from Amazon, the official sponsor of Dpreview.com[thumbs up].

hikerdoc · Nov 25, 2022

Do you have actual examples and text of “current state laws” that supercede the federal definition of “no expiration date” as “at least five years after issue”.

The OP has left out too many details to come to conclusion that he was robbed by Adorama.

hikerdoc · Nov 25, 2022

Mako2011 said:
hikerdoc said:

https://uscode.house.gov/statutes/pl/111/24.pdf

quote extracted from page 20 of pdf

The CARD Act of 2009.

You should be able to readily clear up the issue if you can demonstrate your card was not over five yers old and did not contain expiration warning.

Click to expand...

I don't think that's applicable in this case as the gift cards were already honored by the retailer with the consumers agreement and coupon codes were issued. Coupon codes do not fall under the 2009 act as far as I can tell. The circumstances under which the consumer agreed to using his cards for issue of coupon codes is unclear. He may have unknowingly or knowingly agreed to an expiration date

I agree that we are missing key details in regards to the accusation. I have made the assumption that duration of validity of any retailer coupon code given at some undisclosed time years back, to cover unused balance on a gift card, did not extend beyond the federal requirement that defined a period of five years as an exclusion to no expiration date. OP should be able to easily retrieve invoice from Adorama site, verify payment method and card data, coupon codes, and seek relief if Adorama has wronged him.

braveheart0707 · Nov 25, 2022

60a791d8ae39459690bef2ae4cf9b894.jpg.png

This is the email they sent me with the codes. Short and simple, and does not mention an expiration date AT ALL.

braveheart0707 · Nov 25, 2022

braveheart0707 · Nov 25, 2022

What I suspect happened: the gift cards I got in 2018, which had no expiration dates, (because some of them that did NOT get re-issued are still usable) got mistakenly re-issued into these "coupon codes" which does have an expiration date, which is the mistake of the customer service rep who did it. This is the same customer service rep who is telling me that she can't re-issue these codes. She know she screwed up and just won't admit/fix it.

Adorama robbed me

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