I bought wrong $500 worth of gift cards from Coles, instead of The ultimate Home gift cards (which 15% off), I bought Home gift card from The Card Network. I realised 5 minutes after I paid.
Unfortunately, Coles could not refund me, I have called the The Card Network, they could not refund me either. It seems the only way just swallowed the lost of 15% x $500 discount.
I was wondering if there is any other options? Has anyone made similar mistakes in the past, what did you do?
Thank you
Really nice Christmas present.
yes agree Really nice Christmas present.. for the TCN people not for EdWong
Yeah, I guess I can use it. 3 years validity helps.
As an ozbargainer, hard to accept failed to get the discount.
Well, we are not quite in the double demerit period, so looks like you won't lose your OzBargain licence on the spot.
However this calls for an immediate enquiry, to see if you are fit to be an OzBargain member. It will be covered up investigated, the outcome will be released when everyone is watching the cricket and forgotten about it convenient.
Royal Commission it is!!
The purchase price at the checkout should have triggered an Acute Ozbargainer Reaction (AOR) and prevented the transaction from proceeding.
You may wish to speak to a doctor who may assess your fitness to Ozbargain.
Wont take long to spend the $500 at Coles
Just use them to buy the weekly specials you need
Too easy
And how are you supposed to use Home gift cards at Coles, pray tell?
You’ll use it very quickly if you pay things like electric bills, rates, gas. $500 doesn’t go far nowadays.
How do you use the Home gift card to pay for things like bills and rates, pray tell?
@kerfuffle: The writer said:
“ I bought wrong $500 worth of gift cards from Coles, instead of The ultimate Home gift cards…”
If they purchased the Coles credit card gift cards they can be used to pay rates etc. i did this with the recent coles mastercard gift card promotion. Instead of paying the whole bill if over $250 you can pay in lots of $250 over the phone. Just specify the amount when you make payment.
@ibuy: Read the entire sentence again instead of being selective with your quoting, and tell me where they bought Coles gift cards.
I bought wrong $500 worth of gift cards from Coles, instead of The ultimate Home gift cards (which 15% off), I bought Home gift card from The Card Network.
Comprehension isn’t your strongest suit, is it?
@kerfuffle: But your question was how do you use the home gift card to pay rates etc. I have addressed that the Coles Mastercard gift cards can pay bills and not the home gift cards because I said “IF THEY PURCHASED THE COLES CREDIT CARD GIFT CARDS”. I never said that they did buy the Home gift cards. The key word here is IF.
However the start of the post was that they bought wrong $500 of gift cards from Coles.
They then said they bought cards from the card network.
Better read your post again. You’re not much better are you? Rather than slanging people take a look at yourself and if all you want to do is put people down then that’s pretty poor. The forums are about helping people. It’s really sad that you seek to just put people down with comments like the above and you seem to get some joy in doing so which is pretty sad.
I put in a reply with best intentions on trying to help people. Not to have a slanging match with someone which does not help. But what happens sometimes is some people end up being trolls and just can’t be nice about something and seek to benefit from someone’s comments when they appear to have made an error. If I have a way of getting those cards as you asked to pay other bills or a future post that asks a question from you that helps you then I probably won’t bother to reply to you because you’re not worth helping out when you post comments about someone’s abilities but take a look at yourself first because I’m sure you’ve never made a mistake in your lifetime have you?
@ibuy: Let me spell it out for you in plain English, since you still have difficulty comprehending what was said in the OP.
Why am I putting you down (as you put it)? Because you gave the wrong advice in relation to the OP’s situation. Unlike you, I can own up to making mistakes.
@kerfuffle: You still haven’t understood my reply. My reply talks about ColesMastercard gift cards because IF They had purchased that then it would enable them to use it to pay other bills. And it’s not about owning up to mistakes because I wasn’t referring to the Home gift cards in my reply. I was referring to IF you bought the coles gift cards.. but then you’re perfect so you can’t do much about someone who is perfect. I don’t have an issue about making mistakes because unlike you I am not perfect and never claimed to be. But there is an issue with you and way you put people down and address things. If someone makes a mistake then you don’t put them down because you become a negative person. You help them learn but do it in a way that is positive. But then you’re not about helping people learn in a positive way, you’re just a sad person who likes to make nasty comments about people and you have no idea of their background and yet you pass judgement. If someone makes a mistake that does not give you the right to put them down, then again it is a reflection of you and your attitude. A very poor attitude and outlook on people. All I can do is feel sorry for you at this point. Your replies have only served to show what a poor attitude you have. A person makes a mistake so you must say something nasty to them and it is justified because they make a mistake? It’s no longer about the issue at hand, it’s just about how you treat someone which is poor. If a person makes a mistake and crosses the street by mistake when the walk sign is red and gets hit by a car I guess you’d put them down too and say that they’re not very intelligent, right, because they made a mistake? I have a friend whose daughter used to call her younger brother doofus all the time until I said that you know you have more experience than him and you should help him instead of putting him down all the time because it’s not going to help him. She was only 12 but at least intelligent enough to stop calling him doofus and started talking to him in a positive way and they both got on much better. I guess a 12 year old has a much easier time with attitude change.
Gift it to the misso at least you get the brownie points which you can’t really put a price on… or can you?
tell ozb members…
oh you done it already
Wouldnt you have checked the price after it scanned and notice there's no discount?
Yeah i dont get how many people end up in this situation. Dont people look at the screen or take notice of what they are being charged before paying?
anyone made similar mistakes in the past, what did you do?
Suck it up. You aren't the first and you won't be the last to make this mistake.
I realised 5 minutes after I paid.
Rule number 1…. Always check the pricing is valid BEFORE you pay….
It seems the only way just swallowed the lost of 15% x $500 discount.
Correct…. Gift cards are non refundable and can't be exchanged for cash etc.
Just going to have to suck up the mistake and learn for next time.
can you use gift cards to buy gift cards?
no, because then the 15% off could be used repeatedly to make it free!!
this is my fear buying gift cards - i only will buy ebay/amazon
or under 100
It still has jb hi fi / good guys , at 10% off someone will buy.
Surely if you’re buying gift cards and the cashier says “the total is $500” .. you should be able to do basic maths that the discount didn’t apply ??
I was juggling with my hayfever and kids, but yeah…no more excuses from me actually
Fair enough .. !
Hayfever claims another victim
no more excuses from me actually
It's a $75 lesson… yeah, that's the learning you need for future purchases.
Yep I bought the wrong ones too. My son was distracting me.
Bought Wrong Gift Cards
Bought Wong Gift Cards
they could not refund me either.
Two Wongs don't make a discount
Yup, swallowed it and move on…..
Buy more discounted gift cards and DCA
There are more than one type of Home Gift Cards? I bought the Home gift card from The Card Network from Coles and got the 15% off.
Whats the difference?
Yes, I bought those, instead from the Ultimate ranges
That's a different deal to what is being discussed here. OP was supposed to buy these ones, but bought the wrong ones.
I don't get it, so OP bought a wrong card without a discount? at RRP, where promotion for different type?
If you go to Coles, you’ll likely get a glimpse into the confusopoly that goes on in the gift card space, as you should see in a typical gift card section:
Two types of Home, Active, Kids and Teen(s) gift cards from competing gift card brands (TCN and Ultimate).
Three types of Her and Him gift cards from different gift card brands (TCN, Ultimate and BananaLab). In all fairness, BananaLab pitch their gift cards to a very different customer base in comparison to TCN and Ultimate, but it is still very confusing for people who are not neck-deep in the gift card game.
Two types of Celebration gift cards from different gift card brands (Heritage Bank (?) and Swap).
The gift card brand OP was supposed to get was Ultimate, as they are currently sold at a 15% discount. However, they accidentally bought the TCN gift card brand, which was sold at a 15% discount two weeks ago.
These gift cards are conveniently designed (only for the gift card companies) to have similar names so gift card companies can generate revenue from people who accidentally buy the wrong gift cards during a sale from the competing brand, so I’m not surprised OP fell into the trap too.
There's only a couple of words for him/her/home though. Are you proposing they start using French so they can better differentiate?
so I’m not surprised OP fell into the trap too.
A keen OzBargainer always keeps an eye on the price of the item being scanned. That is possibly the most fail-safe way to avoid this trap.
True. To be honest, I tend to focus less on the price of the gift cards and I focus a lot more on whether the cashier has correctly scanned the bundle of five gift cards I hand to them to scan. I don't want to end up like a couple of other OzBargainers where a cashier scans the same gift card twice and forgets to scan one gift card, then a tug-of-war ensues between the OzBargainer and Coles as to why one gift card is not activated, etc etc etc…
But sometimes the discount is in the form of points so you still pay full price.
This is why you need to carefully compare the card you're buying to the one in the promo photo.
Lodged a complaint through consumer affairs. They will look at it
Did you mistake it the same way I did??
I quickly I read your post. Yes, it looks the same mistake.
I slept on it last night and moved on. I called the The Card Network, nothing they can do. Lesson learned
Do lodge a complaint with consumer affairs. They will look into it.
No, I dont. I let it go. How did you go with the case? I wish you the best mat
Consumer affairs coz you bought the wrong thing?! 😂 Fkn hell
Consumer affairs for being misled to buy the wrong thing. Without sounding like a broken record you have two gift cards side by side. Both with the word HOME being the predominant word. Ones on sale. One isn’t.
Clearly I wasn’t the only one so it only adds credence to the argument.
2 out of all the people who have bought the products. Yeah well done
Given both are from competing companies, it's no different to many homebrand products with packaging that's similar to the name brand. If you grab the wrong product, it's not up to consumer affairs to then go to be the adult in this situation.
It's ppl like you who make our products so damned expensive in Aus.
2 out of all the people who have bought the products. Yeah well done
On OzB. Yes. But as the cashier mentioned to me “it happens a lot”.
Given both are from competing companies, it's no different to many homebrand products with packaging that's similar to the name brand. If you grab the wrong product, it's not up to consumer affairs to then go to be the adult in this situation.
You’re absolutely right. However in this situation it is quite easy to exchange the unopened goods and say “I made a mistake”.
It's ppl like you who make our products so damned expensive in Aus.
It’s people like us that keep these companies honest. I have made valid points as to why I felt like it was deceiving. I haven’t just made comment with no basis.
@bemybubble: I think you are really clutching at straws mate. The promotion is clearly stated above the gift card section(as these deals are whenever they are on at Coles). Its up to as the consumer to ensure that you have correctly chosen the right card, then ensure you are getting the correct discount at the cashier, then ensuring you are being charged the correct amount prior to paying. Assuming anyone else is responsible for any of these steps is just ridiculous.
Sometimes we just have to make mistake to learn from them. Consider this a learning exercise and hope you dont make it again. In the end what you bought isnt valueless. It still holds the same value as it did when you bought it, You are just missing out the percentage discount. Nothing stopping you going back and getting the right ones with discount and using these ones elsewhere.
@spackbace: Just to be clear too. If we were talking the difference between a village and Hoyts voucher. I would be 100% agreeable with you.
I got a flyer from Capital Theatre about Willy Wonka show, went to coles and purchased 2x$100 Ticketek gift cards, had the wife’s Xmas all sorted. She was so happy on the day until we realised tickets had to be purchased through TicketMaster …….. I was nearly sacked. Went back to coles and they said bad luck. Nothing I could do but use for another show somewhere else, which we did. Les Misérables at Chatswood and a nights accommodation and all forgiven.
So don’t be disheartened , turn the mistake into a positive
True, it is not a big deal really, I did not lose $300, really only $45, and three years validity is a long time. There will be something I need in the next 3 years.Thanks for positive comment
Place on eBay at a discount
Why would you bother losing money on the deal? Just go buy something you need at face value and be done with it. You have 3 years to use them.
Yup!
Could you use them to buy the gift cards you wanted.?
No.
How long did it take you to get over this because I’ve done the exact same thing and came googling and found your post 😂 I was also shopping with a foggy brain. I picked up 1 right card and 2 wrong cards 😭
What cards did you buy?
I bought 1 TCN one (the ones on 15% off now) and 2 Ultimate ones which are not discounted. I thought they were maybe old/new styling but the same company 😭
1 year after I have done the same thing. Z
Bought $500 worth of wrong cards.
Sell it in classifieds? Use it?