"PAY ATTENTION TO EVERYONE ELSE'S REVIEWS AND STAY AWAY FROM THIS HORRIBLE COMPANY!!! They will charge your credit card, never send you your gift cards, and then NEVER respond to your emails. You cannot get a hold of them on the phone, their phone system is a dead end and is all automated. This is a ridiculously fraudulent company."

"Avoid this company like the plague. They have some of the worst business ethics and customer service of any new startup.

I placed an order on the 8/27/14, and they charged my credit card. I patiently waited for them to physically mail me a sheet of paper that had my gift card information (why they can't just send it electronically to save time is mind-boggling).

After about a week of waiting, I check my order history and find that nothing is there. Then, I received a refund on my credit card for the amount of the order. All of this without any notification or warning. Complete radio silence over the entire experience, leaving me waiting for over 2 weeks total for what I thought I had purchased.

This happened to me twice consecutively, and after this last time, I don't even want to waste anymore of my time or money on this company. Cardpool is a joke, go use Plastic Jungle or any other gift card exchange. It wouldn't take much for it to be an improvement over this establishment of neanderthals."

"Cardpool is terrible. I ordered a gift card and never got it. Tried 6 times now to get it, leaving vms, sending emails and talking in person with their reps. I needed this for my friends babyshower which was at lunch today too late - thanks Cardpool. Now I need to try and get my money back since the card never arrived. "

"Took payment for my order but did not have the promised 24 hour processing time for ecard orders. Still waiting 5 days later with no explanation from Cardpool why order is still being processed!"

"Ordered a phone gift card that was supposed to be sent in 1 business day. Waited two days then had to contact them. They emailed back to say I had to call to confirm. I called to confirm and they said I would receive it in a few hours. Well a few hours later and stuff nothing. Have not had this issue at all with other sites that sell gift cards."

"I have ordered six times from cardpool and have had no issues from any of those orders. All physical orders arrived within a few days as expected. I have no tried ordering electronic giftcards."

"3rd time doing business with them. Always have done just the electronic cards (never physical). All went completely smoothly. Today was my biggest purchase of $1500+, no problem and already redeemed them at HD for a new Fridge. Not sure why so many people had bad experiences. I had my card #s in my email within 11hrs this time."

"TO this point I've ordered physical cards and had no issues, I immed recd confirmation and recd in less than a week through the mail. 2 days ago I bought 2 e-cards for Lowes and have not recd them or a confirmation email. My cc was charged immediately. I contacted Cardpool via email - the only way to do so- and someone sent a response today that they verified the cards WERE sent 7/26 when I already told them they were NOT. I responded again but have recd no response. May have to cancel my CC transaction. Disappointed :-("

"I paid $85 for an Applebee's digital gift card. When I tried using it, the waitress told me it had zero balance. I do not recommend this company."

"Reviewing as gift card buyer only - have not tried to sell any gift cards to cardpool.

After a few transactions, I must say I am pleased with the results. The first transaction took a few days to get through the verification process, where we did go back and forth trying to speak to someone live, but after answering a few questions that seemed a bit overly "intrusive" for this type of transaction (this isn't a mortgage, sheesh!), they processed my order and I received the electronic cards the next day, and the physical card in 3 days via postal mail.

They email back quickly, but must only have a couple phone reps... easier for me to call in to them, than it is to wait for them to call me.

Next transactions - double-ordered physical cards over a weekend, emailed cardpool, and they cancelled the order the next business day.

Ordered a mobile card on a Sunday and received it on Monday.
Ordered an electronic card on a Sunday and received in minutes.

All cards that I have tried to use, were successful and at the value advertised.

A bit nervous about the service at first, but I am a happy customer now that I know what to expect.

Plan ahead, and you can save a substantial amount!

Thank you cardpool, for this service!"

"The Whole Scam Explained:

cardpool.com is a shady company. it fails to disclose its contact information on its website, there is no customer service number, no support department phone number, which is clearly a red flag to customers. the company's address is a PO Box. all these information should raise a red flag to potential customers. No corporation should operate using a PO Box address. this address is disclosed to the customer only after completing the processing of the transaction online, so there is way for the customer to have prior knowledge of this information.

After the customer fill out the transaction forms electronically on the website, during the transaction processing, the customer is them provided with an electronic receipt of the transaction showing the transaction number, the total amount in US dollars to be mailed to the customer in the form of check. So, after you mail in your gift cards to them using certified mail with tracking information in exchange for cash as advertised on the company's website. the company receives the customers' gift cards after verifying the shipping tracking information. the company fails to notify the customer by phone or email that the cards had been received. After I researched the company, and found out their customer service number by a chance, which was posted by angry customers and on online forums and online review website, where hundreds of unhappy and scammed customers post their complaints. then, nobody answers the customers calls,nor all you can do is leave a voice message, which also raises another red flag about this shaddy business. So, several days or weeks had passed, then you receive a phone call from the same person, named something like "Teneisha" asking you some personal and inappropriate questions? for example, like, where did you get the cards? when did you get the cards? who gave you the cards? which cards was purchased and which card was bought? and so on ... then, you are informed by that same person that you should be receiving an email from customer service regarding your transaction by the end of the day. the company might claim that all these pratices are part of their verification process, but this is untrue the only verification process is to verify is the card is geniune, active, and has the balances that were disclosed by the customer. However, the company declines the transaction when it feels that it doean;t need the gift card, or that there is no demand for that specific credit card, which explains the company innapropriate practices of making the whole process lengthy on the contrary to what is advertised on their website regarding the lenght of processing and issuing a check.

So, Number One: the company purposely fails to discloses all this shady and inappropriate verification process to potential customers on their website because they keep the gift cards as long as they can if there is no demand for it, in other words, no customers willing to buy that specific card or the amount on it, then the company notifies you after weeks have passed by email which reads as follows: We regret to inform you that payment could not be approved for this transaction. Your transaction will be canceled and your cards returned to you. Do not contact the verification department for customer service; they do not handle customer service requests"
Number 2: after receiving email by MR/MR SLINCOLN stating the transaction was cancelled, the company takes weeks again to mail the gift cards to the customers back, without using a secure shipping method such as the one required by the company like Certified mail and tracking information. so, the customers never know if in fact the company shipped back their gift cards, or the gift cards went missing because the company fails to use certified mail with tracking in order to not be liable for not sending the cards back. so, basically this is the sophisticated scamming process that cardpool.com uses to steal hard working peoples' money.
"

"The seem to be very shady. they stopped my order because I ordered two cards for a total just over $100, so not a lot. I was shopping that night online at the intended store's and never received my ELECTRONIC CARDS. Really? How hard is it to issue electronic cards? I ahve called for several days to find out what is going on and they still telling me they need to verify my identity, but they have taken the money out of my account so I can't use it to buy want I wanted from my store when it was sale price. Now, I have called the number given and NO ANSWER on the phone... This is a company, right. I don't know anymore. I would be a primary shopper elsewhere from now on. This switch was a BIG mistake. "

"I've tried to buy an e-card from them twice. Both times, well after their 24 hour promise to email the card, they've sent this email:
------------------------------------------
We are sorry for the inconvenience with your order. We wanted to let you know that we've issued a refund in the amount of $xx.xx, which you should see reflected in your credit card statement and/or Cardpool gift card balance within a few business days.

We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused. Please email us at ****@**** if you have any further inquiries.
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So I emailed support after the first time and got a promise of a response after 24 hours.
-----------------------------
Thanks for getting in touch with us! We have received your email and try to answer all support requests within 24 hours but please note we are experiencing a large back log due to the post-holiday volume. Please know that your email is very important to us and we will get back to you as soon as possible! We answer in the order they were sent to us so sending us multiple emails regarding same issue will only delay a response. We apologize for the inconvenience.

IF YOU ARE EMAILING REGARDING YOUR SELL TRANSACTION, PLEASE NOTE WE ARE TWO WEEKS BEHIND ON PROCESSING THE MAIL AND ARE WORKING AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE TO PROCESS YOUR TRANSACTIONS. WE APPRECIATE YOUR PATIENCE WHILE WE DEAL WITH THE BACKLOG AS WE RECEIVED HIGHER THAN EXPECTED VOLUME POST-HOLIDAY. IF YOUR CARD WAS MAILED TO US ON OR SINCE JAN 25TH, PLEASE GIVE US TWO WEEKS TO PROCESS. WE HOPE TO BE CAUGHT UP WITH PROCESSING BY 2/21/14 AND WILL RETURN TO 24HR PROCESSING TIME AT THAT TIME. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.
-------------------------------
Needless to say, I've never received anything else from them, and it's been a week. So their system is happy to process your order and charge your credit card, but then, for some reason, they'll send an email saying that they've issued a refund.

It's hard to understand how anyone can screw up a business model as simple as this, but apparently their software is creaky at best and their support is non-existent.

Good luck to anyone willing to give them a try."

"Have used cardpool twice with no problems. Ordered electronic gift cards for two different online retailers and both were delivered with an hour and worked without a hitch. I will use them again."

"I purchased a $100 Home Depot E-Card and that had no balance. This obviously doesn't instill confidence. I notified Cardpool immediately by email (which is the only way to contact them listed on their website - which, again does not instill confidence). Despite their on-line assurances to reply to inquiries within 24 hours, after six days later no response whatsover. The only response was an automated email claiming "high holiday volume" (in April!). If a company cannot process high holiday volume by April, the problem is inadequate staffing (or customer service), not holiday volume. They provide no phone contact information, and based upon other reviews, calls are unanswered anyways and directed to email. This reflects a serious lack of appreciation for customer service. I decided to dispute the charge. As for Cardpool...Never again, for me. Any savings on gift cards, are outweighed by the inconveniences associated with dealing with them. "