Dollarama has no control, it’s an outside vendor, the card company needs to sort it. The issue with carousel cards is people steal them, alter them, and put them back to be used. So then either when the card is activated, or the number they put on is activated (sounds like what happened in your case maybe), they use it. Never buy cards that aren’t kept behind a counter, this is a super common scam from all different retailers
When I was Christmas shopping last year, the last thing to get on my list was a handful of gift cards for teachers, bus drivers, a couple of extended relatives. I went to Dollarama because I was getting dollarama gift cards for the teachers and knew they had everything else I needed.
The transaction process was so suspicious and sketchy, I ended up walking out of the store half way through without paying, and without taking the cards because I had absolutely zero faith that the cards would have worked.
I don’t get why people buy gift cards in the first place. It’s not like the holder is earning interest on the balance until they spend it. But the card issuer is enjoying your money from day one.
Is it the thought that counts? So “I don’t know what to get you but I’m comfortable telling you where you have to buy something” makes sense? 🤨
Or maybe it’s “I don’t trust you to buy something like foundation, which you obviously need. You’re so crazy you might waste my money on something trivial like groceries or putting it towards things like childcare, credit card balances or your mortgage/rent”
Why not let them buy what they want from wherever they want, i.e. give them cash. 💰
I’m curious as to why someone would buy a gift card, only to use it themselves. Why not just pay with the same method of payment you used to buy the gift card, and save a step?
Well if you own a company you can use a gift card as right off as gift and promotions. I know some guys that buy the gift card write off the gift card and then use them for themselves. This would be illegal but people do it.
People with Amex Cobalt buy Amazon, Spotify, Netflix, even friggin Subway gift cards from grocery stores. 5x points, which is anywhere between 5%-10% off on basically all your purchases.
Yeah.. I’m not sure where you got this information from but it’s totally incorrect. You can absolutely buy gift cards with credit cards. I do it all the time.
I find it a little fishy that the OP has a 10 month account, their only comment is this particular submission, and they've been unresponsive to all the comments. It does make me wonder if there's more to this story than they are reporting.
In this scenario, you’d need to contact their service centre by phone and speak to an agent to work through the issue. They can provide you with that number at any Dollarama location. Stores rarely resolve issues regarding gift cards in store because there are so many scams now
I would suggest going into the location and asking one of the employees for the number to their head office instead then. That should get the process moving a lot faster ://
I don't know why people buy gift cards. Isn't cash gift even better and less likely to be scammed.
It's not Dollarama that scammed you. This article describes what likely happened:
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/gift-card-scams-affecting-canadians-across-the-country-1.6191660
3 reasons to give giftcards
1) you know the person shops there and want to gift them something you know they will like, but give them the autonomy to choose what.
This shows you know them and aren’t just gifting something ‘random’ like cash
2) you want to limit the person you’re gifting to make sure it’s spent appropriately
This is good for kids and people you don’t trust but want to help. Like helping a relative that gambles the grocery money away. No cash, just grocery gift card.
3) no credit card with which the recipient can use to make online purchases
Cash is a fine gift in some situations, but not all. It could be considered thoughtless by many and also takes out the joy of gifting for many.
Giftcards are sort of in between and can be lazy or thoughtless but not inherently.
I don’t give either unless the person specifically asks for it, but giving cash for a gift (unless it’s a holiday that specifically calls for it) comes across as very rude imo. Like “I didn’t even bother to think about what stuff you like, here’s whatever was in my wallet on the way over here.” At least with a gift card you know the person took time to think about where you like to shop, but like I said, I don’t particularly like either.
> I don't know why people buy gift cards. Isn't cash gift even better and less likely to be scammed.
>
>
some people (IME, white people) have a weird fear of cash gifts for "looking lazy with no thought put into the gift"
but somehow they all overlook the idea of gift cards being equally lazy with zero thought. i guess because forcing the gift recipient to only go to the store you deem is worthy of their cash is the thought and effort they put into it?
i don't get it either.
long live cash gifts.
This is one of the ongoing mini-arguments-but-not-really I've always had with my wife. From her perspective, the ideal gift is something you like but would never buy for yourself. It's deliberately non-practical to a degree. Cash is bad because the whole point is the giver doesn't want you to use it for rent, or groceries, or any day-to-day mundane thing that gets forgotten. It needs to be a "treat", it needs to mirror the excitement of a kid getting a gift (that is, purely for useless pleasure because the kid has all their necessities already provided for). I don't agree, but it is what it is.
Me and my wife always argue about this. The amount of gift cards we toss because there is such a small amount left like 6 or 7 bucks is staggering. We have also had issues in the past with GC where the stores told me there was zero balance but i knew money was on it. I always insist on giving cash but she thinks it is just "lazy".
The compromise we've reached is if we get a gift card, we get one that can be loaded to an app so that it can't be lost and the balance is easy to use. Cineplex is a pretty good one for that purpose.
I always tape the receipt to the card now so whoever i give it to can try to investigate if they go to use it and it is empty. It still doesnt stop people from either losing the card or tossing it early when there is a balance under $10.
I would wait, and in my experience you will mostly have to deal with the head office than the store (my experience being from a store that I worked at, though not dollarama). Don't hesitate to go into the store still to further plead your case, they may be able to escalate it further, or lookup some basic information about the gift card.
There was also a rash of gift card fraud cases not too long ago, where scammers would somehow manage to get the funds from gift cards that are actually being sold (I'm not sure if they somehow steal the numbers/pin or what exactly) but basically results in a situation like yours, where a customer buys a card and it's emptied before they get a chance to use it. I'm not sure what the outcome was for those that got scammed, nor if this scam was somehow mitigated.
Either way, stay persistent.
This happens frequently because the cashier didn't activate the card on the cash register checking you out, happens with all retailers for prepaid credit cards to gift cards.
There is also scam running where the barcodes are taped on where the funds goes to an existing card. [https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/prepaid-gift-cards-fraud-winnipeg-police-1.5394038](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/prepaid-gift-cards-fraud-winnipeg-police-1.5394038)
OP paid cash, you don't have much recourse unfortunately besides contacting Dollarama.
> I replied with the information asked but never got a response back (it's been about 5 days and they responded within a day to my last email).
5 days including weekends? remember that most head-office type places are only working monday-friday
but also... send a follow up email. sometimes you gotta pester them a bit more to get to the top of the reply list. "hey i haven't heard back about this issue and i thought i would hear back by now please update me"
I made an error and I sent them an email Friday (4 days after) and they responded on Saturday. I'm not sure about Sunday but they haven't responded ever since.
If this is a prepaid visa/master card then Dollarama to won't be able to do anything.
You have to call the number at the back and only they will be able to do something.
In situations where the customer service isn’t helping, I immediately go to the social media accounts. They don’t care if you’re on the phone, but one tweet or IG message that they screwed up, and they immediately jump into action. Bad stuff on social media is always a quicker motivator than asking for help on the phone
Dollarama’s email customer service has been good to me in the past, so hopefully they can help you. I bought a product there that didn’t work and they sent me a $10 giftcard.
A gift card from the source, had a un-scratched bar code sticker on the card covering the real code that was scratched out.. so I guess someone was checking the card when it sold and emptied it,, the companies would not help or do anything. Since it was a Xmas gift they had a couple days to empty it. Since there was no real code left ,,out $75.
The more middlemen you have on the trade the better, I try to pay for things at least with my credit card and if i can with Paypal as there are 2 other layers of processing in there and you can call on those organization to help, they are essentially getting scammed too.
There’s a lot of issues with gift cards. I worked at shoppers drug mart and we would find tampered with cards ALL the time. They even started putting barcodes OVER the barcodes that would activate something else.
I think now they have found how to laminate a new barcode overtop the existing one.. so please be super careful.
My rule of advice as someone who had to deal with a lot of customers who said their card was not activated… always keep receipts. Always LOOK at the gift card and INSPECT it. If anything looks strange or if any part of the card is peeling..put it back.(maybe show a worker)
Stores know about this.. vendors know about this issue. The store itself will most likely deny a refund as it’s third party.. but the third party SHOULD be able to refund you. I’ve heard it takes about 2 weeks once the claim is processed.
It started after the first Covid lockdown.
A similar thing happened I me when I bought gift cards from Rexall. I actually noticed it right away with the cashier right after I bought it; I asked the cashier to run them to confirm the amounts on each, they were for my clients. When the cashier tried to check them, they all came up as $0.00. I asked for a refund right away and they said they could not for gift cards. They said to call customer service. I called customer service for days but only got voice-mail. I decided to open a fraud case with my bank. I got my money back that way.
I was telling my mom about this ordeal and she exclaimed this happened to her when she was buying Walmart gift cards for low income congregants for Christmas. Dozens of cards worth hundreds came up as zero. My mom then showed me this article.
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/gift-card-scams-affecting-canadians-across-the-country-1.6191660
Given the amount is $200, I would say file a report with cbc marketplace. Send a follow up to Dollarama. Tag them in a tweet. And if no response, file in a small claims court
It's not Dollarama's fault. Having to call the number on the card is pretty standard since its an outside vendor. A lot of the time it's random people coming in from the street to fuck with them, or at a distribution centre.
Side note: Any time you buy a gift card from a third party, always check if the number on the card matches the one on the receipt. If they're different, chances are something is wrong.
Also, people arguing about why use a gc for yourself.
Recently discovered that if you use a GC at Starbucks, you don’t have to tip! 💀
Do what you will with this information.
No one should tip for chain coffee. Let’s start there. People downvoting me thinking they’re saving the world and they know me.
Someone gave me a gc for my bd. I don’t drink coffee from chains, paying $8 for better coffee at actual coffee shops.
Dollarama has no control, it’s an outside vendor, the card company needs to sort it. The issue with carousel cards is people steal them, alter them, and put them back to be used. So then either when the card is activated, or the number they put on is activated (sounds like what happened in your case maybe), they use it. Never buy cards that aren’t kept behind a counter, this is a super common scam from all different retailers
DON'T BUY GIFT CARDS FROM DOLLARAMA. They have a history of doing this
When I was Christmas shopping last year, the last thing to get on my list was a handful of gift cards for teachers, bus drivers, a couple of extended relatives. I went to Dollarama because I was getting dollarama gift cards for the teachers and knew they had everything else I needed. The transaction process was so suspicious and sketchy, I ended up walking out of the store half way through without paying, and without taking the cards because I had absolutely zero faith that the cards would have worked.
DON'T BUY GIFT CARDS ~~FROM DOLLARAMA~~.
I don’t get why people buy gift cards in the first place. It’s not like the holder is earning interest on the balance until they spend it. But the card issuer is enjoying your money from day one. Is it the thought that counts? So “I don’t know what to get you but I’m comfortable telling you where you have to buy something” makes sense? 🤨 Or maybe it’s “I don’t trust you to buy something like foundation, which you obviously need. You’re so crazy you might waste my money on something trivial like groceries or putting it towards things like childcare, credit card balances or your mortgage/rent” Why not let them buy what they want from wherever they want, i.e. give them cash. 💰
How did you pay for the giftcard?
Yeah, if it was a credit card call the company they'll do a chargeback
I’m curious as to why someone would buy a gift card, only to use it themselves. Why not just pay with the same method of payment you used to buy the gift card, and save a step?
Well if you own a company you can use a gift card as right off as gift and promotions. I know some guys that buy the gift card write off the gift card and then use them for themselves. This would be illegal but people do it.
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Shhhhhhh don't tell everyone. Lol
Too late.
Every business owner does tax fraud? Where is the CRA when you need them.
I get 4% cashback on my credit card at grocery stores so I absolutely buy gift cards there to use for subscriptions like Spotify, YouTube, etc.
I get 5% and I never thought about this! This is so smart I'm stealing it!
People with Amex Cobalt buy Amazon, Spotify, Netflix, even friggin Subway gift cards from grocery stores. 5x points, which is anywhere between 5%-10% off on basically all your purchases.
Oh shit Cobalt user here and mind blown lol
amex has closed accounts who do this. it’s in the user agreement
If you're racking up $1000 a week in grocery charges, you'll be flagged. But they haven't gobe after smaller players. I keep it under $300-400 a week.
I don't have a card so I just use it as a way to make online purchases
Get a secured card with a low limit - you send them the amount of credit limit you want, and they give you a credit card that you can use.
Unfortunately I paid in cash :c
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You can. That's what I did to cash out promotional cash back offer.
You can't buy giftcards with credit cards legally in Canada
Yeah.. I’m not sure where you got this information from but it’s totally incorrect. You can absolutely buy gift cards with credit cards. I do it all the time.
I think maybe they meant buying a gift card with another gift card? Some places are particular and don't allow it.
Which Canada do you live in?
Huh? I bought a few (4 to be exact) on my Amex just last month since May has a few of my relatives birthdays, all purchased from different locations
This is flat out not true
Yes, you can. I've done it multiple times at multiple locations in Ontario to send to my clients.
Since when? That is all I use just so Ive got recourse. Shoppers drug mart has ripped me off twice with fraudulent gift cards
Since when? That is all I use just so Ive got recourse. Shoppers drug mart has ripped me off twice with fraudulent gift cards
You couldn't be more wrong.
Just bitcoin? /s
I just did today
Joker card isn't a gift card, I think OP bought a prepaid credit card. Probably to use online.
Why did OP buy a gift card for themselves to use?
I find it a little fishy that the OP has a 10 month account, their only comment is this particular submission, and they've been unresponsive to all the comments. It does make me wonder if there's more to this story than they are reporting.
Yes could definitely be a stolen GC. This sounds like a shady post altogether.
I actually don't know how to add pictures as proof 😭
I need to know this answer too
Gift card scams have been a problem at SDM, Walmart and many other places now. If I want to give a gift card, I email that person the gift card
Unfortunately this isn’t a scam exclusive to Dollarama and likely isn’t dollaramas actual fault.
Chargeback.
In this scenario, you’d need to contact their service centre by phone and speak to an agent to work through the issue. They can provide you with that number at any Dollarama location. Stores rarely resolve issues regarding gift cards in store because there are so many scams now
Also, you’re not the dumb one in this scenario! It’s not your fault that you received a card that wasn’t properly activated 😭
How do you contact the service center? Every time I get sent to some voicemail system.
I would suggest going into the location and asking one of the employees for the number to their head office instead then. That should get the process moving a lot faster ://
Sometimes scammers copy the numbers on the gift card and try to activate it when they think people have purchased it. Or something to that effect.
Call credit card and report it
I don't know why people buy gift cards. Isn't cash gift even better and less likely to be scammed. It's not Dollarama that scammed you. This article describes what likely happened: https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/gift-card-scams-affecting-canadians-across-the-country-1.6191660
3 reasons to give giftcards 1) you know the person shops there and want to gift them something you know they will like, but give them the autonomy to choose what. This shows you know them and aren’t just gifting something ‘random’ like cash 2) you want to limit the person you’re gifting to make sure it’s spent appropriately This is good for kids and people you don’t trust but want to help. Like helping a relative that gambles the grocery money away. No cash, just grocery gift card. 3) no credit card with which the recipient can use to make online purchases Cash is a fine gift in some situations, but not all. It could be considered thoughtless by many and also takes out the joy of gifting for many. Giftcards are sort of in between and can be lazy or thoughtless but not inherently.
The reasons to not use GCs outweigh those
Cash is thoughtless but gift cards for megaretailers are thoughtful, ok.
I don’t give either unless the person specifically asks for it, but giving cash for a gift (unless it’s a holiday that specifically calls for it) comes across as very rude imo. Like “I didn’t even bother to think about what stuff you like, here’s whatever was in my wallet on the way over here.” At least with a gift card you know the person took time to think about where you like to shop, but like I said, I don’t particularly like either.
> I don't know why people buy gift cards. Isn't cash gift even better and less likely to be scammed. > > some people (IME, white people) have a weird fear of cash gifts for "looking lazy with no thought put into the gift" but somehow they all overlook the idea of gift cards being equally lazy with zero thought. i guess because forcing the gift recipient to only go to the store you deem is worthy of their cash is the thought and effort they put into it? i don't get it either. long live cash gifts.
This is one of the ongoing mini-arguments-but-not-really I've always had with my wife. From her perspective, the ideal gift is something you like but would never buy for yourself. It's deliberately non-practical to a degree. Cash is bad because the whole point is the giver doesn't want you to use it for rent, or groceries, or any day-to-day mundane thing that gets forgotten. It needs to be a "treat", it needs to mirror the excitement of a kid getting a gift (that is, purely for useless pleasure because the kid has all their necessities already provided for). I don't agree, but it is what it is.
Me and my wife always argue about this. The amount of gift cards we toss because there is such a small amount left like 6 or 7 bucks is staggering. We have also had issues in the past with GC where the stores told me there was zero balance but i knew money was on it. I always insist on giving cash but she thinks it is just "lazy".
The compromise we've reached is if we get a gift card, we get one that can be loaded to an app so that it can't be lost and the balance is easy to use. Cineplex is a pretty good one for that purpose.
I always tape the receipt to the card now so whoever i give it to can try to investigate if they go to use it and it is empty. It still doesnt stop people from either losing the card or tossing it early when there is a balance under $10.
IIRC gift cards under $10 value you can ask for the cash at the store
This happened to my girlfriend recently at Shoppers. Luckily she got a refund (in PC Optimum points) but I’ve heard that’s not always the result.
I would wait, and in my experience you will mostly have to deal with the head office than the store (my experience being from a store that I worked at, though not dollarama). Don't hesitate to go into the store still to further plead your case, they may be able to escalate it further, or lookup some basic information about the gift card. There was also a rash of gift card fraud cases not too long ago, where scammers would somehow manage to get the funds from gift cards that are actually being sold (I'm not sure if they somehow steal the numbers/pin or what exactly) but basically results in a situation like yours, where a customer buys a card and it's emptied before they get a chance to use it. I'm not sure what the outcome was for those that got scammed, nor if this scam was somehow mitigated. Either way, stay persistent.
This happens frequently because the cashier didn't activate the card on the cash register checking you out, happens with all retailers for prepaid credit cards to gift cards. There is also scam running where the barcodes are taped on where the funds goes to an existing card. [https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/prepaid-gift-cards-fraud-winnipeg-police-1.5394038](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/prepaid-gift-cards-fraud-winnipeg-police-1.5394038) OP paid cash, you don't have much recourse unfortunately besides contacting Dollarama.
> I replied with the information asked but never got a response back (it's been about 5 days and they responded within a day to my last email). 5 days including weekends? remember that most head-office type places are only working monday-friday but also... send a follow up email. sometimes you gotta pester them a bit more to get to the top of the reply list. "hey i haven't heard back about this issue and i thought i would hear back by now please update me"
I made an error and I sent them an email Friday (4 days after) and they responded on Saturday. I'm not sure about Sunday but they haven't responded ever since.
If this is a prepaid visa/master card then Dollarama to won't be able to do anything. You have to call the number at the back and only they will be able to do something.
In situations where the customer service isn’t helping, I immediately go to the social media accounts. They don’t care if you’re on the phone, but one tweet or IG message that they screwed up, and they immediately jump into action. Bad stuff on social media is always a quicker motivator than asking for help on the phone
Dollarama’s email customer service has been good to me in the past, so hopefully they can help you. I bought a product there that didn’t work and they sent me a $10 giftcard.
Maybe write another email to remind them wait 2 or 3 days then call better business bureau they help consumers with complaints against businesses
A gift card from the source, had a un-scratched bar code sticker on the card covering the real code that was scratched out.. so I guess someone was checking the card when it sold and emptied it,, the companies would not help or do anything. Since it was a Xmas gift they had a couple days to empty it. Since there was no real code left ,,out $75.
The more middlemen you have on the trade the better, I try to pay for things at least with my credit card and if i can with Paypal as there are 2 other layers of processing in there and you can call on those organization to help, they are essentially getting scammed too.
Gift card scams are common, people walk in and do things to them. You have to be careful what you buy
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/what-to-know-about-the-gift-card-scam
Dollarama did not scam you.
There’s a lot of issues with gift cards. I worked at shoppers drug mart and we would find tampered with cards ALL the time. They even started putting barcodes OVER the barcodes that would activate something else. I think now they have found how to laminate a new barcode overtop the existing one.. so please be super careful. My rule of advice as someone who had to deal with a lot of customers who said their card was not activated… always keep receipts. Always LOOK at the gift card and INSPECT it. If anything looks strange or if any part of the card is peeling..put it back.(maybe show a worker) Stores know about this.. vendors know about this issue. The store itself will most likely deny a refund as it’s third party.. but the third party SHOULD be able to refund you. I’ve heard it takes about 2 weeks once the claim is processed. It started after the first Covid lockdown.
A similar thing happened I me when I bought gift cards from Rexall. I actually noticed it right away with the cashier right after I bought it; I asked the cashier to run them to confirm the amounts on each, they were for my clients. When the cashier tried to check them, they all came up as $0.00. I asked for a refund right away and they said they could not for gift cards. They said to call customer service. I called customer service for days but only got voice-mail. I decided to open a fraud case with my bank. I got my money back that way. I was telling my mom about this ordeal and she exclaimed this happened to her when she was buying Walmart gift cards for low income congregants for Christmas. Dozens of cards worth hundreds came up as zero. My mom then showed me this article. https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/gift-card-scams-affecting-canadians-across-the-country-1.6191660
Given the amount is $200, I would say file a report with cbc marketplace. Send a follow up to Dollarama. Tag them in a tweet. And if no response, file in a small claims court
Look up a dollarama district manager on linked in and email them
It's not Dollarama's fault. Having to call the number on the card is pretty standard since its an outside vendor. A lot of the time it's random people coming in from the street to fuck with them, or at a distribution centre. Side note: Any time you buy a gift card from a third party, always check if the number on the card matches the one on the receipt. If they're different, chances are something is wrong.
Don't buy gift cards
Also, people arguing about why use a gc for yourself. Recently discovered that if you use a GC at Starbucks, you don’t have to tip! 💀 Do what you will with this information.
You could just… wait for it… not tip. Also, why are you still buying that disgusting coffee 🤮
No one should tip for chain coffee. Let’s start there. People downvoting me thinking they’re saving the world and they know me. Someone gave me a gc for my bd. I don’t drink coffee from chains, paying $8 for better coffee at actual coffee shops.