Scam Vanilla prepaid cards

sammybeaumo

I purchased 3 of these cards to the tune of £150 from ASDA.  Since I purchased them 4 weeks ago, the website has been down and non responsive. The telephone number provided simply tells you the site is down and there is no-one to speak to at vanilla.  

I have not been able to use these cards anywhere, not  in-store, not online, nowhere.  I called trading standards who pass all complaints onto CAB, who are overwhelmed and understaffed. Literally the whole world refers everyone to CAB / whether it's homelessness / debt issues / gas & energy complaints / trading standards - the list is endless. No wonder everyone is struggling.  At one point I contacted them and it too them 3 months to get back to me and then they had to google their advice and actually gave me incorrect advice,  making my situation as a tenant facing homelessness worse. There is literally no organisation that does not refer you to CAB who cannot adequately help those in need. 

Regarding, my former point - surely the responsibility lies with ASDA who sell prepaid cards from an American company who are clearly operating a scam or who are no longer operating, because these prepaid cards have no validity nor can they be used anywhere?  I spoke to a manger in Asda who claimed they are third party therefore ASDA has no responsibility, despite the first words out of his mouth was " oh, one of them, a vanilla card " admitting he had one that he had not been able to use. Another Asda supervisor had also said she could not use the one she had purchased for her daughter. 

I said to Oliver at Asda,  you are selling something that is clearly a scam surely there is a law regarding that? I do not appreciate being deliberately sold a product that "does not do what it says on the tin", who can afford to lose £150?! 

Zinger549

Is this the site https://www.myvanillagiftcard.com/

Gadolinium

The myvanillagiftcard card registration was down when I received a gift card from someone late last year. (possibly October/November). Have a look at the trustpilot reviews.

I managed to use mine to purchase an Amazon gift card in December using 'FOR YOU PREPAID' as the name on the card. One of the Trustpilot reviews says this worked in April. If not, there are other suggestions like using it in Google wallet.

I tried to locate someone to complain to without success. I was thinking about going after Mastercard's social media or contacting my MP but sort of lost the basis of my complaint when I managed to spend.

DB_SamX

I am starting to think that these Vanilla Mastercard gift cards on indeed scams.  I have tried to use one gifted to me in Tesco supermarkets and TK Maxx, and nowhere would accept them, despite trying to get their tills to accept it.

I thought I would use it online instead, but to do that it needs registering, but their registration portal has been down for over two weeks, apparently for planned maintenance.  There is no customer service email address, just postal address or phone, which I will try next week.

Anyone successfully registered and/or used them in recent weeks or months even?

sheramber

DB_SamX said:

I am starting to think that these Vanilla Mastercard gift cards on indeed scams.  I have tried to use one gifted to me in Tesco supermarkets and TK Maxx, and nowhere would accept them, despite trying to get their tills to accept it.

I thought I would use it online instead, but to do that it needs registering, but their registration portal has been down for over two weeks, apparently for planned maintenance.  There is no customer service email address, just postal address or phone, which I will try next week.

Anyone successfully registered and/or used them in recent weeks or months even?

Website working for me 

https://www.vanillaprepaid.com/

DB_SamX

sheramber said:

DB_SamX said:

I am starting to think that these Vanilla Mastercard gift cards on indeed scams.  I have tried to use one gifted to me in Tesco supermarkets and TK Maxx, and nowhere would accept them, despite trying to get their tills to accept it.

I thought I would use it online instead, but to do that it needs registering, but their registration portal has been down for over two weeks, apparently for planned maintenance.  There is no customer service email address, just postal address or phone, which I will try next week.

Anyone successfully registered and/or used them in recent weeks or months even?

Website working for me 

That's odd.  Your link looks legitimate at face value but it's not the same website that's on the card itself or its packaging. (I can't post it due to being a newbie)

I am a bit reluctant to enter the card details onto your link, in case it's gonna harvest the card details.  There are a lot of news articles for these cards being hacked, albeit in the US, as recent as January.

Edit: your link is the American website, and doesn't have the same registration requirement as the UK one, so the issue remains.

sheramber

There are reports on Trustpilot of people finding a way to redeem it.
 It seems it does not have a chip so needs the old style card readers. 

DB_SamX

600 reviews and 90% 1*, with loads wanting to give zero. 

I've tried topping up my Amazon account, doing purchases, under £40 but none have worked. I used "FOR YOU" as some suggested but that was declined. Same with "FOR YOU PREPAID", which is pronted on the card wher the name usually is.

Who would I complain to regarding this? Trading Standards? 

RefluentBeans

DB_SamX said:

600 reviews and 90% 1*, with loads wanting to give zero. 

I've tried topping up my Amazon account, doing purchases, under £40 but none have worked. I used "FOR YOU" as some suggested but that was declined. Same with "FOR YOU PREPAID", which is pronted on the card wher the name usually is.

Who would I complain to regarding this? Trading Standards? 

Trading standards won’t investigate for you, but they do investigate businesses if enough people complain. But they aren’t in the business of paying people back; they’ll investigate and potentially bring charges but won’t pay you back. 

I have found a set of Terms and Conditions from Vanilla and if looks like they are regulated by the FCA, so could start there. 

DB_SamX

RefluentBeans said:

DB_SamX said:

600 reviews and 90% 1*, with loads wanting to give zero. 

I've tried topping up my Amazon account, doing purchases, under £40 but none have worked. I used "FOR YOU" as some suggested but that was declined. Same with "FOR YOU PREPAID", which is pronted on the card wher the name usually is.

Who would I complain to regarding this? Trading Standards? 

Trading standards won’t investigate for you, but they do investigate businesses if enough people complain. But they aren’t in the business of paying people back; they’ll investigate and potentially bring charges but won’t pay you back. 

I have found a set of Terms and Conditions from Vanilla and if looks like they are regulated by the FCA, so could start there. 

I am not concerned about being paid back; it was a gift,so I never had the money in the first place.  I just don't think this should be allowed to be sold if that's how they operate.

I will look into a complaint with the FCA, bur first, I will try to use it at Asda, WHSmith or Sainsbury's as that's where they are apparently sold.  If the card doesn't work there, it will be ironic!

DB_SamX

Update:

I tried to use it in a large Sainsburys around 10 days ago, and the card was not accepted again.  The super helpful cashier at the customer service desk phoned Vanilla to speak to an agent.  It took a while but they told him that apparently there was a block on the card which was why I couldn't use it.  The agent didn't know why and would go find out with another team.  The agent asked to speak to me, and took my phone number and email address.

I received a phone call, and subsequent email on Friday to say that they could refund me £50 to my bank account, but no explanation as to the reason for the block.  To refund the £50, they need me to send them a copy of my bank statement and proof of identification by email or post.  I asked whether this applied to me as recipient of the gift card, and not the purchaser, and they said yes.  I asked about just getting another gift card posted, but they couldn't do this, for reasons unknown to me.

I may be cynical in my middle age, but this all seems too easy, and I am very suspicious of simply getting money back for sending these personal details.  I will have a think, and any opinions welcome.