We bought a small gift card for my daughter on July 9th at a local novelty store. She had been saving her allowance to buy a personalized beach towel and we gave her the card in August for doing some extra work around the house. Sometime around late August or early September the retail store closed. The proprietor of the store also runs an online business selling much of the same merchandise as the retail store. The online store has the same name as the retail store. We assumed that we could then use the gift card at the online business and attempted to redeem it today. The proprietor claims that the two businesses (the retail location and the online business) are separate entities and that the gift card is "worthless" but she is willing to give us 25% off on purchases until we reclaim the value of the gift card. My opinion is that this is shady and unethical (we basically have to give her more money to get our gift card balance back.) That aside, if a store with outstanding gift card balances closes in a manner such as this (without any notice as far as I know), is there some recourse for the gift card holders? I assume that other liabilities must be paid, so gift cards should be paid out as well, correct? It isn't a lot of money - but my daughter had been saving up for this special towel and really wants to buy it - but I really don't want to hand this woman extra money - especially when she likely has screwed over a number of people (it is a common place to buy gift cards for kid's birthdays - so I'm sure we aren't the only ones in this situation).
Further, when my wife bought the gift card she noticed that the store inventory looked low and asked if they were going out of business and she was told "no, it is summer camp season so a lot of our inventory is low right now because we just sold a lot of merchandise to kids going away to camp." Again, I don't think this has any legal implication, but it is another level where I feel she has been dishonest to her customers.
Any thoughts on whether we are legally owed the gift card balance back or am I out the money? Thanks.
Further, when my wife bought the gift card she noticed that the store inventory looked low and asked if they were going out of business and she was told "no, it is summer camp season so a lot of our inventory is low right now because we just sold a lot of merchandise to kids going away to camp." Again, I don't think this has any legal implication, but it is another level where I feel she has been dishonest to her customers.
Any thoughts on whether we are legally owed the gift card balance back or am I out the money? Thanks.
