A couple of months ago, I bought a multi-hundred dollar Walmart gift card, using cash, for my VIP membership renewal.  When I logged in earlier this week, I found that I was no longer a VIP member.  I contacted TER support, and they told me that the gift card processor cancelled the payment and provided me with a reference number and contact information for the processor.

When I contacted the processor, they claimed that the gift card, that again, had been purchased with cash money, had been invalidated by Walmart.

First, WHAT THE FUCK!?

Second, has anyone one had any success in getting credit for an invalidated gift card payment?  

the Walmart owners are whores themselves and consider TER is working for the competition.  Lol

Thanks cdl for responding.

Based on the (lack of) responses, I was starting to think that maybe the message didn't post.  Or, I was committed a message board faux pas.

You actually made me snort-laugh

I would contact walmart's  corporate office and demand my money back for the gift cards.  

eom

I thought the Walton family had enough money.  Who knew?

Go Target....Expect more/Pay less.

I think you used TER GC processing company to pay for VIP?  
http://payment.intrabilling.com/services/billing/theeroticreview/theeroticreview/start
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Walmart GCs are on the dropdown list. A few hundred on a Walmart Card should be good for a year or so of VIP.  
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TER formerly used a GC monetizing company called paygarden.com .  Are they still using paygarden or is "intrabilling" some other company? Paygarden has an on-line "Contact Us" form.  
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Something happened in the money chain:
You paid cash (let's say $350) to W-M and got GC ####.
You used the TER interface to sell GC #### to paygarden. Let's say they paid $300 for the $350 card.
Paygarden pays the $300 directly to TER on your behalf for VIP.
Paygarden  sells $350 W-M GC to the public at a discount, say for $325.  
Paygarden makes $25 on the whole deal.  
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I am guessing that paygarden validated W-M GC #### before paying out $300 for it.
Then, I'm guessing, a scammer who copied the card numbers from cards at the brick and mortar W-M emptied the card.
When paygarden checked again, before selling it to the public, they found that the $350 card had been drained.  
Their deal with TER probably allows for recovery of funds from TER in such a circumstance.
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That's guesswork on my part leading me to think that it wasn't your fault, nor paygarden's fault, nor TER's fault. I think a scammer who copies numbers from cards at the brick and mortar stores "got lucky." Their computer program was running and checking dozens (hundreds?) of numbers copied from GCs. Most of them are still on the rack in the store with $0 on them. Your $350 was found and their computer program spent it or did something to get the $ from the card.  
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I think that GC scams might be a federal offense (going thru financial institutions like banks and across state lines). Google for "gift card scams" and related.  
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Do you still have your (paper) receipt from W-M? It has the GC card number and date, etc..
Do you have the plastic card itself?
WalMart should be able to ask the GC company (bank?) to track activity on that card. Once it turns out that someone in Nigeria used it to buy a pair of loudspeakers that were sent to someone in Boise, ID, they MIGHT be able to track them down further ... and maybe prosecute them. LE can at least keep the address in Boise, ID on their radar for more scam purchases.  
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I don't think GCs come with rip-off guarantees but you can ask W-M to look into THAT card and ask them who bought what with it when.  You have the transaction numbers from the paper receipt which the scammers do not.  
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Then, you might have to mention paygarden to W-M: "I bought the W-M GC card to make a purchase overseas using paygarden. What purchase? A hand carved figurine from Geppetto's Carpentry Shop in Italy. What item? A Pinnochio figurine. What, do you think I'm lying to you? It doesn't matter what I was trying to buy, SOMEONE scammed the card and drained it before I could pay!"
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But keep in mind W-M's problem. How do they know that you weren't in on the scam, bought the card and tried to use it TWICE?  
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You already contacted TER? Ask TER if they are still using Paygarden. Contact paygarden (or whoever) and ask for advice / help. Even if there is no way to get your money back, maybe you can help get a GC scammer off the streets and internet.  
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GOOD LUCK!
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EDIT: GC scams. When buying a GC at a brick and mortar store, make sure that the scratch-off part is intact. If it's scratched off before you buy, it means that someone copied the numbers and is scanning ("check balance") for activation and loading of money onto that card.  Even if the PIN or S/N is still covered I think that scammers have other ways to drain store bought GCs. Google for GC scams and how to avoid them.

-- Modified on 6/17/2021 5:01:09 AM

you can check the balance on the Walmart website.  I've included the link in the "Link URL" box below.  You can check either physical cards or eGift cards.  I don't have a Walmart gift card presently, but you also might be able to see the activity on the card as well via the link provided.  I've done it through my own Walmart.com account in the past, saving the gift card to my account profile directly, & there both balance & activity can be checked.

And cheap whores, at that.

Gift card number was likely stolen, so there wouldn’t be a balance.

Processor isn’t going to help much, so better off bothering Walmart about this fraudulent Walmart gift card since they likely manage the data for Walmart branded gift cards and all that jazz…

On the back of Walmart gift cards, there’s also a link to report gift card fraud on Walmart’s website and a support number to contact them as well…

The gift card number was stolen, so I would report this to Walmart directly if I were you.

BTW, when shopping for physical gift cards, always…
- Check that the protective stickers are on the card  
- Check that the PIN number on the back isn’t showing
- Get a different card if you spot any tampering or other problems  

  No.

TER made no money, so no credit.

Charge it to the game.

Something similar happened to me. I took the card into walmart, grabbed something off the shelf and tried to pay for it. Surprise! The card worked fine...AT WALMART. Fuck walmart. Only way I'll walk in one is to piss in their commode.

impposter, thanks for taking the time to reply.

To address a number of your suggestions:
- The notification came about 6 weeks after originally submitting the GC.
- The scratch-off part of the GC was intact when I submitted the information to TER.
- I do not have the original receipt.  Neither do I have the spent GC.
- TER did alert me to the issue and gave me the contact/reference information for paygarden.
- I contacted paygarden
- paygarden responded by saying that WM "invalidated" the card.  No reason was given.

I could contact WM and plead my case.  But, as I no longer have either the receipt or the card, I suspect that my chances are slim.  Also, the main goal of paying with a GC, that I purchased with case, was to protect my anonymity.  I fully expect that if I contacted WM, they would require personally identifiable information.  As I would not be willing to provide such information, I've chalked the whole episode up as a learning experience.

I've adopted the policy of using GCs from retailers that may not be as popular with scammers (e.g. Home Depot).  And, for smaller amounts (e.g. $50).  Slightly less convenient.  But, lower risk of loss.

P.S. It appears that TER uses multiple processors, depending on the brand.  When I submitted the HD card, I received a confirmation from intrabilling.  Or, intrabilling is a intermediary service (TER to paygarden to intrabilling to WM).

Thanks Phoenix,

As the entire motivation behind paying with a GC was to preserve my anonymity, contacting WM would counter-intuitive.

As you've said, I've chalked it up to the game.