Gift Card

dalziel1972

Hi there, I would like some advice on my consumer rights please. I was given an £25 Apple Gift card for my birthday back in July. The gift card was purchased by my sister from the local Asda store. A couple of weeks after my birthday I tried to redeem the gift card to purchase a movie from the Apple Store. I carefully opened the packaging and flipped the card over to scan the redeem code, but there was a problem, the printing of the code was incomplete and the code could not be read to be able to successfully redeem. I contacted Apple Support for assistance, they asked me to provide photos of the gift card front & back, the packaging, and the activation receipt (which my sister had given me with the card) I uploaded all this detail via the secure link they sent and was told it would take 14 working days to hear back from the gift card team. Approx 10 days later I received an email from Apple support stating that they needed a copy of the activation receipt and could not progress my enquiry further without it. I called and spoke with an advisor and explained that I had already provided the activation receipt and asked them to review the details. The activation receipt clearly shows the date and time of purchase, the gift card serial number and the value of £25 added to the card. I was getting very frustrated as I had spent over 3 hours on different calls with Apple trying to progress this issue. I did speak with a senior customer service representative who was helpful and agreed that I had provided the detail required. So the support ticket was passed back to the gift card team. Over a week later I received another email asking for more information. This time the gift card team are requesting the full shopping receipt from Asda. My sister no longer has this as it was a regular shopping purchase from July - the gift card was bought as part of a £90+ weekly shop. I was asked by Apple to visit the store and request a copy of the transaction receipt. So we went to Asda and spoke with a manager who advised that she was aware of a number of ‘faulty’ Apple gift cards where the printing was incomplete or damaged. And unfortunately, due to a system upgrade at the beginning of August, they were unable to provide a reprint of the transaction receipt from July. Asda also told me that the are unable to help and I must progress the issue with Apple support.  Apple now tell me tha without the receipt the cannot progress any further. I have spent over 6 hours on calls with Apple support, and several hours back and forth to Asda trying to get this resolved. I am extremely disappointed and frustrated with Apple. Can you offer advise on my rights please, and how best to proceed. Thank you

la531983

Sadly you have no rights at all.

Your sister may do though, as the purchaser

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Whilst Apple probably have internal processes to deal with this, ultimately ASDA need to resolve the matter if Apple can't. 

You don't need a receipt but do need some kind of proof of purchase. 

Aylesbury_Duck

Your sister needs to pursue her consumer rights with Asda.  Neither you nor Apple should be involved here.  You have no consumer rights because you didn't make the purchase, and the faulty card is Asda's problem as the seller.

Pragmatically, having already spent six hours on phone calls and several trips to the store, I think you need to question whether it's worth your sister spending any more time and money on trying to recover £25.