"I paid for 3 Boston Market gift cards so I can order Thanksgiving dinner from Raise.com. 2 $50 gift cards and 1 $25 gift card. When I placed an online order on BostonMarket.com, the $50 cards went through but the $25 card did NOT. I got a message from the website that said "The gift card number you entered is invalid. Please verify your gift card number." So I made several attempts to retry the $25 with no luck. Same response from BostonMarket.com. I contacted Raise C/S via chat and spoke to Zen. I gave her the card Serial Number and it took her 10 minutes for her tell me that the card had a full balance and to retry my order. I retried with Zen on the line but still same result. After another 15 minutes of "researching" Zen offered to relist my card and wait for it to be resold to someone else. I told her I just wanted a replacement card so I can complete my Thanksgiving order. Zen said that they don't have any replacements in inventory to replace this card. I told her that this was not acceptable. I just needed the card I paid for to go through. She then said that she escalated to her Supervisor and that they were going to provide a replacement card. I said thank you and waited. Now we are 1 hour into our chat; Zen returns and said that her supervisor looked into the issue and can not provide a replacement. Zen also suggested that I use the card at the physical restaurant and also accused me of not knowing how to use a gift card online and that it could be very tricky. As I was making another attempt to order on BostonMarket.com, Zen logs off the conversation with No Solutions. So I had to pay for the remaining balance out of my pocket on BostonMarket.com, paid for a gift card I could not use and wasted half of my day dealing with Raise.com. I will let everyone know about my first and final experience with Raise.com.
"
"I got a new customer code $5 off and made my first purchase for over $600 the next day they sent me an email saying it was the last day of a 10% off promo. When I asked to honor the better promo they said they couldn’t because my order already processed. Of course it had, these are virtual gift cards! Worst first time experience, I’ll be sure to share with my friends!"
"I love this service, the phone help Center is helpful."
"I purchased a $250 Ross Stores gift card from Raise which I planned to give to my wife as a gift at a later date. When the card arrived, I verified the balance at $250. I then placed the card in a safe place and forgot about it until today - 18 months later. Guess what... the balance is now ZERO. Of course, I'm reasonable and understand that Raise has a guarantee which has long since passed. Unfortunately, they are willing to do NOTHING. I guess that's fair - they support the card for one year, then the card balance becomes your problem.
I'm writing is so that anybody dealing with Raise understands... IT IS VERY POSSIBLE THAT A CARD YOU PURCHASE FROM RAISE CAN BE COMPROMISED BY A PREVIOUS DISHONEST SELLER AT ANY TIME IN THE FUTURE. YOU HAVE NO CONTROL OVER WHO OWNED THE GIFT CARD PREVIOUSLY. IN MY CASE, THE DISHONEST PREVIOUS OWNER LIKELY COPIED THE GIFT CARD NUMBERS, SOLD THE CARD TO RAISE, WAITED A PERIOD OF TIME, THEN EMPTIED THE BALANCE.
My fault, I guess, for not checking the card balance multiple times before one-year guarantee from Raise expired.
Raise gift card buyers beware.
"
"Awa helped a lot for my issues"
"Quickly resolved my issue I had with a gift card purchase. This was the first time I had ever had an issue but it was resolved and will definitely continue to be a raise customer "
"Layla helped me resolve an issue with an egift that the retailer was not able to process. I received excellent customer service and a full refund."
"Messed up my 1st order w/Raise, could not print out my certificate .
Ava was extremely patient, professional, and got the job done!"
"Layla was extremely helpful, polite, and friendly. Thank you!
"
"They will let you list sell and upload your gift card as a seller using a VPN. But they won’t let you withdraw to your same PayPal account that you’ve been using or have a check dispersed to the account if you’re on VPN. No option to withdraw funds via their App or mobile site. Money laundering?? Contacted CSR who disconnected chat and would not answer questions. Very bizarre... their recommendation was to go to a library to withdraw...????"
"Issues tend to come up every once in a while, right? But it's how a company deals with it. Wayne and his supervisor helped out in an efficient manner, and I am very appreciative for their help in my situation."
"Great products and very responsive and helpful customer service makes for a great place to buy from. I am a repeat customer and come back often. "
"I love(d) Raise. Saving me tons of money, it's like having a coupon when there's no coupon. And it's so simple to use, esp with the smartphone app. I could be out somewhere and I want to get some Starbucks, but my funds are low. Get on the Raise app and order another discounted card. It's delivered almost instantly and I can put it on my Starbucks acct.
But recently something happened:
I bought a Fandango gift card and Fandango has 4 different types of gift cards, some of which is without a PIN number. This can be problem because purchases on FandangoNOW (a division of Fandango) requires gift cards WITH a PIN. Now, Raise does not make these distinctions between the 4 types of cards. I didn't know of these distinctions and Raise didn't appear to either. If they did, their redemption information omitted some additional information.
So I had bought a Fandango card from Raise, knowing that last time I was able to use it. However, this time it was a Claim Code Only gift card. This card type did not have a PIN and FandangoNOW will not accept it. So I was stuck with a card I can not use.
Naturally, I contacted Raise via their website first, saying that my card has no PIN. The first response appeared canned, but don't take my word for it, take a look for yourself:
-----Begin email response from Raise--------
Thank you for contacting Raise Member Services. I hope this email finds you well.
Your Fandango eGift card has an alphanumeric serial number, so there is no pin required. I apologize for any inconveniences you may have experienced, but you should be able to make a purchase with your gift card!
If you had any issues while trying to make a purchase, it may have been due to the temporary technical difficulties that the Fandango website was experiencing.
I hope that I was able to resolve any questions you may have had today.
Please feel free to reach out with any other questions or concerns you may have.
Have a wonderful day!
-----End email response--------
As you can see that doesn't help.
(A side note: while the emails are going back and forth, the card number for this order is blocked. It just says "pending response", so I can't do anything with it in the mean time.)
I replied and explained:
-----Begin, my email response--------
I spoke with Fandango and found out that for certain purchases, the gift card must have a PIN number, and in my case, the purchase I want to make, requires a PIN. But what I received is "Claim Code Only".
Fandango actually has 4 different kinds of gift cards:
1. Card Number and PIN
2. Claim Code Only
3. Card number and Claim Code
4. Digital Gift Card.
Raise neglected to make any distinctions between those. Therefore I was uninformed about this. So the one I bought can't be used because the type of purchase I'm making requires a PIN.
I now need a refund for this.
-----End, my email response--------
Raise responds back, saying they gave me a refund, but despite them saying they were "happy to provide a refund", check out what they say afterwards, in the form of "Reminders".
You think I "forgot" about these? Or I didn't read these?
-----Begin, Raise email response--------
Thank you for contacting Raise Member Services!
As an exception [exception was bolded] to our guarantee, I am happy to provide you with a refund for this gift card.
As a reminder, our 1 Year Money-Back Guarantee covers your purchase price for gift cards that are not active, have an inaccurate balance, if the gift card received is a different brand than ordered or if the gift card is not received within 30 days from the date of purchase.
I have issued a refund for the total amount of $21.33 for the Fandango gift card in order R#######. The refund will be credited to your original payment method within 3-5 business days.
As a reminder, redemption details are available for each brand on the Raise website, which can be found right below the price of the gift card.
As Raise is a marketplace, trust and safety are our top priorities. Our Gift Card Support Team will continue to review this order, and we’ll reach out to you in the event that we need any further information. Please let me know if there is anything else we can help with today.
-----End, Raise email response--------
I took the "exception" and "reminders" as, "You know, we're doing this as a favor, right? It's basically still your fault."
Yes, I also know about the redemption details. You think I didn't read that part? Again, I bought a Fandango card before and used it for the same purchase and it was fine. That just so happened to be a card with a PIN number.
I also understand the 1 Year Money-Back Guarantee doesn't explicitly cover this.
But you understand my problem right? I have a card I can't use, due to not being informed of card types.
GRANTED, I didn't know about the 4 types of cards either. But had Raise provided the better details of the card types, I would have certainly evaluated which card type I need to buy."
"I've had generally good experience with them before. The electronic cards arrives immediately after order and they have one-year guarantee which are both good. But recently I'm having huge difficulties with the checkout. It kept telling my credit card can't go through. It used to be one card failing but the other card working, until one day both cards failed. I talked to their customer service and was told my provided billing address doesn't match the record with the bank, which is ridiculous. There is nothing wrong with the address and I use the same address with hundreds of other shopping website with no problem at all. Same card, two weeks ago it worked and now it failed and no change has been made to the card whatsoever and you tell me the billing address doesn't mach?? Now what's even more annoying is that even the card didn't go through, the bank will hold that amount as a pending transaction for DAYS which affect my available credit limit. "
"The gift card I bought turned out to be a promo code and not an actual gift card. I complained and they emailed me back that it will respond to my request within 7-10 business days. That is too long to get my money back. They used to be very quick with resolutions I am not sure what happened. "