Irregular Payments

Hope You Used Up Your Sharper Image Gift Cards!

4 Mar, 2008  Not Spending, Spending

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

photo credit: untitledprojects

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!

12 Comments so far »

1. Computer Repair said,

   Wrote on March 6, 2008 @ 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.

2. John Morgan said,

   Wrote on March 10, 2008 @ 1:52 pm

   I agree. Stop giving out the gift cards and hand over the cash. Good post!

3. Andrew Reynolds said,

   Wrote on March 12, 2008 @ 8:31 pm

   Yeah, I agree! Give cold cash instead of giving gift cards. Thanks for sharing this bit information to us!

4. California bowling alley said,

   Wrote on March 13, 2008 @ 1:30 am

   huh, thats alarming..yeah, bring out the cash

5. Guy Cohen said,

   Wrote on March 16, 2008 @ 11:53 pm

   I’d still prefer use cash rather than gift cards! Thanks for the information.

6. CIS software seller said,

   Wrote on March 26, 2008 @ 10:04 am

   That is a great reminder to me. I prefer use credit card together with bank card for those payments.

7. Klara said,

   Wrote on March 26, 2008 @ 10:52 am

   Well a gift is a good thing, but it must not bring problems.

8. Jenna said,

   Wrote on March 27, 2008 @ 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!

9. Joanna said,

   Wrote on March 28, 2008 @ 11:01 am

   i also think that cash is better than a gift cards. thanks for sharing this information.

10. Vera said,

    Wrote on March 28, 2008 @ 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

11. medical alert said,

    Wrote on March 31, 2008 @ 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.

12. Sevierville Real Estate said,

    Wrote on April 13, 2008 @ 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…

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