Hope You Used Up Your Sharper Image Gift Cards!

by Sean

Yet another reason to avoid giving out those gift cards that everyone seems to love:

Tens of millions of dollars in gift cards and certificates became worthless overnight in the wake of the Sharper Image’s financial plight — and customers holding those cards have little recourse.

Federal law allows a company to stop honoring store gift cards when it files Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and that’s exactly what’s happening at San Francisco-based Sharper Image. Sales clerks are telling customers they can no longer accept the plastic cards as payment, and the cards are no longer accepted when customers try to use them online.

Hope you didn’t wait too long to go out and grab your personal foot massager/fancy nose hair trimmer/overpriced adult games early!

{ 19 comments }

Computer Repair March 6, 2008 at 9:30 am: I love reading your blog.
I think that is crazy to be able to take people’s money like that. I say cash is king. Forget the gift cards etc. Give cold hard cash.
John Morgan March 10, 2008 at 1:52 pm: I agree. Stop giving out the gift cards and hand over the cash. Good post!
Andrew Reynolds March 12, 2008 at 8:31 pm: Yeah, I agree! Give cold cash instead of giving gift cards. Thanks for sharing this bit information to us!
California bowling alley March 13, 2008 at 1:30 am: huh, thats alarming..yeah, bring out the cash
Guy Cohen March 16, 2008 at 11:53 pm: I’d still prefer use cash rather than gift cards! Thanks for the information.
CIS software seller March 26, 2008 at 10:04 am: That is a great reminder to me. I prefer use credit card together with bank card for those payments.
Klara March 26, 2008 at 10:52 am: Well a gift is a good thing, but it must not bring problems.
Jenna March 27, 2008 at 2:52 pm: I agree — I think cash is much easier than gift cards. Some gift cards expire or we often forget about them after a while.

Thanks for sharing!
Joanna March 28, 2008 at 11:01 am: i also think that cash is better than a gift cards. thanks for sharing this information.
Vera March 28, 2008 at 2:47 pm: i prefer to use my bank card. But the idea is very great. i like it to read you blog. Go on
medical alert March 31, 2008 at 3:55 pm: I think we should differentiate those gift cards used as a credit card from those gift cards for accumulating points which can be exchanged with real products. I would prefer using the latter ones.
Sevierville Real Estate April 13, 2008 at 6:13 pm: I no longer give gift cards in most cases anymore. The only time I will, and feel comfortable doing so, is for places like Home Depot, Wal-Mart, etc. Other than the giants, its cash…
latif@debt reduction November 10, 2008 at 2:58 am: great info. Using credit card to get points and cash em is a good alternative.
Roger Hamilton November 16, 2008 at 1:11 am: Gift cards are nice to look at and to collect. Just don’t keep it till its voided.

Roger Hamilton´s last post:Start Blogging Today with XL!
Andung@gps December 22, 2008 at 5:55 am: I prefer cash, those gift cards are useless.
Colin@Provillus Reviews December 30, 2008 at 12:35 pm: That is unfair. Many time we bought there just because they offered gift cards, which was given a cash value. We should be creditor when they bankbroke!
Anyway, the law is here. Seeing the ecnomic is so uncertain, as consumers we’d better choose other physical incentive or use up the cards as soon as we can.
Jeff Paul Internet Business March 15, 2009 at 11:54 pm: Good tips you put out there about internet marketing goods and brands online. Internet marketing has indeed reduced traveling efforts for marketing. And the good part of it is that anyone can do it on a small budget
Ross@NPBS Home Insurance April 15, 2009 at 8:12 am: I hate getting gift cards from people. All it says is “I was too lazy or don’t know you well enough to buy a present that means something” and if you’re going to do that you might as well give cash.
David@Chicago Homes For Sale January 15, 2010 at 12:12 pm: I like the stores that allow you to get cash back instead of using all the money on the card if there is nothing else that you want. Sadly not a ton of stores offer this.