• expired

15% off Gift Cards ($20 Max Discount) @ Special.com.au

44817
APPLEPAY

Just received an email from Apple for Mothers Day Apple Pay perks advertising Special.com.au. Save 15% (up to $20) with promo code APPLEPAY.

Looks to be once per customer.

Special cards are digital gift cards locked to a category and you can send to someone via email or sms. Then they can add to their mobile wallet Apple or Google Pay.


Mod: The OP did not declare their association. The account and store is banned, but the deal has been republished (with association added by mods), as it appears to be of interest to the community.

This is part of Mother's Day deals for 2022.

Related Stores

Special Gift Cards
Special Gift Cards

closed Comments

      • I just found their FB is not reachable when in a logged-in status. I never posted a comment.

  • +1

    Hi all, can someone please confirm if we can use Special cards on Prezzee or Shopback now?

    Wanted to ensure before I attempt to buy a card.

    Thanks

  • -1

    I was suspicious before, but I have to say it worked all out at the end. Found a lot of old but still working Telstra prepaid SIM cards I used. I got 4 times $135. should have gotten 1x 150 to get the extra 10 from Prezzee, or is there an option I can use 2 payment methods? I just bought another $135 and seeing a lot of people having problems now to access I will just swap for a super shopback card and take the 2%.

  • Did anyone encounter "Promotion code is already used" and not able to use the discount?

    • +1

      That's the spirit. Special GC seems to be a little delusional about how easily it can keep people's money.
      On the other hand, why the hell would so many people prefer pooling a bunch of cards in a single account? It is virtually asking the company to ban your account.

      • +1

        They bought 24 cards across 3 accounts. I find this story somewhat hard to believe.

        Assuming 3 accounts with 3 different mobile numbers, max discount would be $60. Why bother buying the remaining 21 cards?!?

        • +1

          I think he redeemed and kept them in 3 accounts, not literally "bought" with 3 accounts.

  • Now (Facebook) customer service is trying to intimidate:

    Hi there, as we have mentioned before our card servicing team has put a block on your card as you were picked up by the fraud team in a chain of stacking promotional discounts.
    This type of fraud is considered a crime if our customer team continues to escalate this further
    I will get the customer service team to formalise a reply to you, and we will cease communication until we receive any formal responses from a regulatory body

    All this after never actually mentioning the reason for blocking the card (and their IT team leaving their own merchant open for transactions with their own product).

    • +3

      The reason sounds clear from the response?

      chain of stacking promotional discounts

      • -1

        It was never mentioned to me prior to this message.

    • Lol you should tell them to go to China if they want this to be considered a crime. Unfortunately they are here in Oz.

  • -1

    Hi guys,

    Here's the reply I got from their customer support team after my reply to the email saying that they have deemed my activity to be outside reasonable use so they close my account:

    We have explained our position to you. If you feel like you need to make a compliant to the ACCC then that is your decision.
    We won't engage in any further correspondence with you until we hear from the regulatory body.
    We will close your ticket now and reopen it when we receive your formal complaint.

    For those guys who have successfully claimed the money back, could you please share how would you talk to them in this case? Have you used any of the gift card you brought? Really need to get the money back…Making a complaint to ACCC or raise the case to tribunal might work but that might take fair bit of time… Thanks in advance.

    Regards
    Oliver

    • +2

      Just ask for a charge back from your credit company. If Stripe found many chargebacks, they may have their own investigation.

      • Someone above just got super negged for suggesting to do a chargeback. I think it is a clear case of goods/services not received.

    • Same boat here

    • how many cards did you buy to get you banned?

  • in my opinion, special should have expected such things before the promotion started. As a new starter, if they want increasing registration for future sell out, then ignore. Otherwise, special should have technical tricks to stop this, such as ip address, email verification code, disabled vpn, etc. Now special said it is a crime. How ridiculous! Do you have the authority of courts to categorise crime? where is the basic understanding of law?

    • their system is flawed too. I have one transaction that charged but no card issued and no transaction recorded, I sent a enquiry but never heard from them for that transaction.

      • -1

        seems like they are not prepared for this.

    • I don't like the concept of blocking based on IP address, what if you have a large family then IP address blocking is going to cause issues for everyone else. They did have a SMS verification code implemented.

      Maybe they could have made it harder for people to game off this promotion, but at the same time that could cause issues for people who are trying to use the promotion normally.

      Majority of what I'm hearing from people who have gotten their accounts blocked is that they tried to take advantage of the promotion by chaining the discount i.e. buying a Special gift card using a Special gift card and repeated multiple times, and/or 10+ gift cards were activated by one person's account.

      It's stated in their Terms: "We may restrict, halt or stop the use of the Card if suspicious or illegal activities are noticed."

      • then use device info like imei, which is quite normal for other companies

        • Yes that's a good method for preventing multiple purchases made via one mobile. But doesn't prevent people from buying multiple gift cards using their computers.

          • -2

            @Alinnia: then make it a promo for mobile users

            • @ytdarin: How does that stop people with access to 24 different mobile numbers from purchasing 24 discounted cards?

              • -2

                @DoctorCalculon: then congrat on having 24 phones. there is only one imei for one device

                • +7

                  @ytdarin: Oh the irony! The person who complains about being banned for using 24 mobile numbers is schooling us on fraud prevention.

                  iOS apps cannot access private information like IMEI, UDID, etc. using public APIs (for use by iOS Developers). Using private APIs to do so will see your app getting banned during the app approval process.

      • +2

        very true, i have many accounts and activate each card per account. I don't have problem at all. I can shop in Coles(online-where with GC you can't order online), Aldi, or buy other GC from SB but I wont abuse it. So far so good for me

  • Appears my account got banned. I have the cards in Apple wallet, but haven’t tried using them, does anyone know if they will still work?
    I haven’t tried contacting special support yet. Any advice? Has credit card charge back worked for anyone?

    • I got mine in Google Pay and they don't work at all anymore, basically robbed

      • 😭

        Are you going to try fight it?

        • +1

          I lodged credit card charge back for it hopefully it works
          I am going to complain to ACCC/Fair Trading as well. I am perfectly fine if they stopped the cards and refund me the discounted amount, but stopping the card while keeping my money is ridiculous.

          • +1

            @skylinebmwm5: I agree, I will try do the same. Keep me updated!

            • @unknown-entity: Have you tried using your cards on Apple Pay
              yet? Do they still work or have they been disabled?

              • @chocohoney: The cards from apple pay actually did work (at woolies) very thankfully. I’m still missing a card that I forgot to add, and because i’m locked out of my account I can’t get to it. Oh well

  • +2

    Found another old sim. Just bought another one. Number 5 for $150 then got for that another prezzee $150 plus $10 bonus. $160 for $130 (18.75%). No trouble here.

  • I can login but cannot go to my wallet (or my cards on the website) to check the balance. The page just keeps loading. Anyone else having the same issue?

    • +1

      No issue. Just opened the 3rd account and did like callthespellpolice above. $150 balance immediately wiped out.

      It seems you can still use the card even if your login is banned. Best to take a screenshot of card detail if not use the whole balance.

    • i'm having the same issue. Have emailed them last week, but have yet to hear back unfortunately.

      • If you keep track of balance, just spend the remaining balance. They may come up with sth to ban you. Cant trust these amatuers.

        • That is the problem. I did not..

  • did they block "add to apple wallet"? never received verification code. tested on another iPhone still not able to add.

    • Does the name in the gift card matches with your Apple ID?:

      https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/12046156/redir

      • I did make the name matching but no help. tested with someone's bank card (so different name as Apple ID), got that bank's SMS straight away.

        • +1

          Did you use the same bank card to pay for multiple GCs?

          Not sure, maybe also try deleting the Special app and website on your phone, restart the phone and try again?

          • @ilovefullprice: think they might have fixed this issue, tried today and received code to activate on apple pay.

  • +3

    I strongly recommend everyone use every cent in your purchased gift card asap. Otherwise you might end up being blocked , or unable to receive code, or lose remaining balance

    please see all the examples above . this company is a joke

  • I purchased a gift card early on and spent the balance in full on prezzee. I'm definitely not game to try again

    • -5

      Everyone whose account got disabled/deleted was due to them buying a special GC with special GC.

      • Hence, Special Team are a bunch of amatuers. As a giftcard selling business, it would have been considered to be technically disabled.

        • Even Coles/Woolies at one stage had the same issue.

          • @CodeXD: Giftcard is Special's speciality.

      • +1

        I didn't.

  • +1

    Finally the refund was received just now!!
    I will never buy again!!

    • Good for you, seems others out there are not as lucky.

      • Others who didn’t receive the refunds, better open disputed with bank, or format a group to fill a case to Tribunal to claim it, but it may take a long time.

        • How did you purchase yours? Same credit cards? Different phone numbers and names?

          • @cryptos: Different phone numbers, same CC

            • @Kathiepink: FYI, I used the same Zip VISA via GPay without issue.

              • +2

                @Neoika: As long as you remove and re-add, the same card will receive a different token and is essentially seen as a brand new card to the merchant.

                • @truetypezk: Yes, I know. I did not bother to do it. Special only sees virtual card number (last 4-digit), which will change each time it is added to GPay.

                  • @Neoika: I think the account closures are more likely due to holding too many cards in a single account rather than having too many accounts. I had a few big chains and all the accounts still work fine. They don't seem to be looking at where the money goes to decide on whether to ban an account.

                    • @truetypezk:

                      I had a few big chains and all the accounts still work fine.

                      I can confirm this. I had a massive chain, but always stuck to the rule of having one GC per account.

                      BTW, they fixed the inception loophole about 3 days before the promotion expiry. LOL!

                      • @DoctorCalculon: You are very bold, I stopped doing the inception as soon as I heard they began to ban accounts. Getting money back on credit cards would be so much easier than on another special GC.

  • +8

    Terrible. A company should not steal money from the customer just because of an oversight by the company itself.

  • What's the best gift cards deals around to convert ??

    • Straight to Bezos.
      No expiry date.

      • Until Bezos decides to close your account:)

        • Can't think of any good reason why Bezos would do such a thing.
          It would be bad for his rocket business. ;)

          • +2

            @DoctorCalculon: Quite a number of people had their Amazon accounts closed for various reasons, you can google about it if curious. Anyway, it is never a good idea to keep gift card balance in any account, be it eBay or Amazon.

          • @DoctorCalculon: Btw I heard if A/e decide to suspend your accounts all gift card balances would be forfeited too, similar to the situation here. Probably they have some carefully worded T&Cs hidden somewhere to allow them to get away with it.

            • @truetypezk:

              A/e

              Are we talking about Amazon or AliExpress?

              gift card balances

              Rule of thumb (at least for me): Add gift cards as needed for an Amazon purchase. Likewise for eBay or any other merchant. Otherwise, it remains in my GC wallet.

              Quite a number of people had their Amazon accounts closed for various reasons

              Just like folks here who have decided to add 20 or so Special GCs to one account. ;)

              • @DoctorCalculon:

                Are we talking about Amazon or AliExpress?

                I'd assume he meant Amazon/eBay.

                Rule of thumb (at least for me): Add gift cards as needed for an Amazon purchase. Likewise for eBay or any other merchant. Otherwise, it remains in my GC wallet.

                Only problem is if needing a refund, which would go back to the gift card(s) and ready to use again at checkout on eBay, and back to your gift card balance on Amazon.

              • +1

                @DoctorCalculon: Yeah Amazon/eBay. Refunded purchases paid with GCs goes into account balance for both, which is kind of annoying as return requests can be a leading reason of account closure. For most major purchases I'd rather use a credit card for additional price/purchase protection, especially on Amazon where price change is so frequent.

    • +1

      You can use these on shopback and get another discount.

      • +1

        If not purchased this yet.

        • Can you do split payment?

          • @jobargain: No, bad luck if you already purchased a $150- one.

            Someone mentioned via PayPal with extra fund in account, but doesnt it seem to be under merchant PayPal? I did not follow this way.

      • Did you try this recently? Which giftcard from shopback? I'm getting payment errors trying.

        • +1

          It depends on which gift card you're trying to buy from Shopback and which Special gift card you're trying to use. Shopback sells different gift cards with different MCCs which fall under different categories.

          For example, Shopback Super Swap gift card is "Shopping" category but Uber Eats gift card is "Eating Out" category. Even though they're both sold on Shopback their MCCs are different.

          You can't use Special Super Shopper on "Eating Out" category gift cards but you can use it on "Shopping" category gift cards.

        • Yesterday I used Special Super Shopped to purchase Priceline GC from SB and got another 6% cashback.

  • hi guys anyone has try able to buy any gift card at woolworth and paying with wish gift card?

    or may be purchase any type of gift cards (ultimate etc) at coles?

  • Does anyone know if this can be used for afterpay payments?

    • -1

      Sure can do but You better use all at once on same day of purchase. You don’t want experiences like some people here.

      • Tried today but does not work when i try to add the card.

        • strange. I just bought another 150 and bought another prezzee card with it…

          • @Thrifty Dan: He tried to pay off AF. It does not work.

            • +2

              @Neoika: Ok no worries. Just swap for prezzee card. $10 bonus is still available too.

              • +1

                @Thrifty Dan: You enticed me to open the 5th account. I know you got more!

                • +1

                  @Neoika: I got about 6. I found a nice website where you can receive messages on certain Australian phone numbers to verify and it worked… I have used up all my old prepaid phone numbers.

                  • @Thrifty Dan: I keep all the number for Special (and Prezzee, etc) as it may have ongoing deals like this in the future.

                  • @Thrifty Dan: can you pm me the website? thanks

          • @Thrifty Dan: You mean you loaded the card in afterpay?

            • @armyofme: I did this before and it worked. Haven’t tried it recently. They might have changed it…

  • Does anyone use this special card - Super Shopper to purchase Woolworths Giftcard online (giftcards.woolworths.com.au) today? I have tried, but it didn't work. I have got the error message below, is it meaning no working??? Thanks!
    "Something went wrong. Our system is temporarily unavailable.
    Your card hasn’t been charged. Please try again later."

    • I just bought a super shop card for $150 For $130, swapped instantly for prezzee voucher to get an extra $10. I think the party is over soon. I usually buy at coles and Amazon and use the prezzee vouchers for coles and Amazon.

    • buy shopback gift cards, then you get additional discounts on top

      • There are SB haters here.

        • +1

          why? gift cards are pretty much instant cash back

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