This is just a reminder to keep documentation of EVERYTHING related to gift cards that you buy. I discovered multiple friends have had the same issue and made the same mistakes, so I wanted to get this PSA out there. I know most of you are totally on top of things, so you can ignore this post if so. 🙂

Inactive iTunes Gift Cards from Sam’s Club

I recently had an issue with Sam’s Club iTunes gift cards. They were sold as four $25 cards in a blister pack for a total of $100. I purchased 3 of these packs. I took all the gift cards out of their packaging back in December and scanned them, along with the packing slip.

I usually save the packaging, but I guess things got pretty crazy in December and for some reason I tossed them because I can’t find them anywhere.

I recently tried to redeem a card and then discovered that all of the cards were not activated. I confirmed with Apple Support Live Chat that all 12 of my $25 cards were not activated.

I heard from a friend that Apple could activate gift cards if you provide proof of purchase and the front and back of each card. I tried that and got this response:

I checked back with our Gift Card Review Team. I have found that since the original packaging of this gift card is not available, we are unable to verify it. Please accept our sincere apologies that we are unable to assist you further in replacing the inactive card unless we receive an image showing the back of the original multi-pack packaging.

iTunes Store Customer Support

Sam’s Club Runaround

I also tried Live Chat with Sam’s Club, and they said:

Thank you so much for your time, I’m trying to activate the gift card but at this moment our system is having and issue, however could you please contact us at 888-746-7726 option 3 option 5 option 2 option 2

Sam’s Club Live Chat

So I called, and the phone agent says that she can’t activate it either and has to send it to the back office. They called me back a day later and said that even though I have the packing slip, they still need each individual blister pack and they’ll be able to activate it over the phone. I told her I don’t have that anymore because it was so bulky, and she said unfortunately there is nothing they can do, and iTunes gift cards are non-refundable.

I managed to figure out which set they came from based on the sequential serial numbers on the bottom left corner of each iTunes gift card, but this doesn’t help since I still don’t have any information from the blister pack.

The Sam’s Club Member Service Center has a case open for me to see if there are any other options. I’m still hoping for a refund as a friend told me that he was able to get a refund without the packaging too, but that was nearly a year ago, so things may have changed.

Lessons Learned

  1. DON’T GET LAZY. Always keep a digital copy of EVERYTHING. The cards, the packing slip, any activation slips, and the blister pack if there was one.
  2. DON’T PROCRASTINATE. Know how long you have to dispute a credit card charge. With Amex, it looks like around 5 months.
  3. DON’T BE STUPID. Don’t cancel a card that you might need to file chargebacks on!