Xbox Gift Card

bluegeorge

Hi,

My son received an Xbox gift card for Xmas but he sold his Xbox last year.  We have the receipt and took it back to the retailer (WH Smiths) today but they said they can't refund or swap it and we need to contact Microsoft.  I'm going round in circles on the MS website trying to contact an actual person to tell me how I can return the card.

If I have a receipt, surely the retailer should exchange it?  The code on the card has not been scratched off, its as new.

Any ideas/advice welcome.

The_Fat_Controller

Sell it.

Gift cards are like cash, not able to be returned.

bluegeorge

The_Fat_Controller said:

Sell it.

Gift cards are like cash, not able to be returned.

Thanks for the response.  It's cash that I can only spend in one place, so it's rendered useless to me.  I'll try and sell it but it seems odd that when it's clearly not used and can simply be put back out for sale that they can't offer a refund or exchange.

mattyprice4004

bluegeorge said:

The_Fat_Controller said:

Sell it.

Gift cards are like cash, not able to be returned.

Thanks for the response.  It's cash that I can only spend in one place, so it's rendered useless to me.  I'll try and sell it but it seems odd that when it's clearly not used and can simply be put back out for sale that they can't offer a refund or exchange.

It doesn’t matter what they can or can’t do with the card - you have no right to an exchange or refund for this type of product unfortunately. 

powerful_Rogue

Even more so if you are not the original purchaser.

jon81uk

bluegeorge said:

The_Fat_Controller said:

Sell it.

Gift cards are like cash, not able to be returned.

Thanks for the response.  It's cash that I can only spend in one place, so it's rendered useless to me.  I'll try and sell it but it seems odd that when it's clearly not used and can simply be put back out for sale that they can't offer a refund or exchange.

They can't just "put it back out on sale" as the retailer doesn't know if its been used or not.

Aylesbury_Duck

bluegeorge said:

The_Fat_Controller said:

Sell it.

Gift cards are like cash, not able to be returned.

Thanks for the response.  It's cash that I can only spend in one place, so it's rendered useless to me.  I'll try and sell it but it seems odd that when it's clearly not used and can simply be put back out for sale that they can't offer a refund or exchange.

As above, any rights to an exchange or refund reside with the original purchaser, but even then, a retailer is under no obligation to accept a return for a valid gift card.

Spies

You may not be aware but this can be used against game purchases for a PC as well.

jon81uk

Spies said:

You may not be aware but this can be used against game purchases for a PC as well.

Thats a very good point, its not even limited to just games, can be used on apps, TV shows, movies, games and also physical devices or accessories from the online Microsoft store.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/xbox-gift-card-digital-code/cfq7ttc0k64d/0003?icid=Cat-GiftCards-r1-CP1-Xbox-GC

bluegeorge

jon81uk said:

bluegeorge said:

The_Fat_Controller said:

Sell it.

Gift cards are like cash, not able to be returned.

Thanks for the response.  It's cash that I can only spend in one place, so it's rendered useless to me.  I'll try and sell it but it seems odd that when it's clearly not used and can simply be put back out for sale that they can't offer a refund or exchange.

They can't just "put it back out on sale" as the retailer doesn't know if its been used or not.

Yes they do, the code has not been scratched off and exposed so why could they not sell it??

Aylesbury_Duck

bluegeorge said:

jon81uk said:

bluegeorge said:

The_Fat_Controller said:

Sell it.

Gift cards are like cash, not able to be returned.

Thanks for the response.  It's cash that I can only spend in one place, so it's rendered useless to me.  I'll try and sell it but it seems odd that when it's clearly not used and can simply be put back out for sale that they can't offer a refund or exchange.

They can't just "put it back out on sale" as the retailer doesn't know if its been used or not.

Yes they do, the code has not been scratched off and exposed so why could they not sell it??

They could sell it, but why should they?  It's a long shot of course, but they can't guarantee it hasn't been tampered with and that they won't face a disgruntled customer down the line when the code doesn't work.  The point is that since being purchased, they have no way of knowing the history of the gift card.  Would you buy a gift card if you knew or suspected it had been bought before and returned, apparently unused?  Of course not, you'd buy a "new" one.