Coles gift card offers

[bernardblack]

FYI some chatter on Ozbargain about the Coles GCMCs no longer being accepted at ATO, WA water corp and Bupa: Complaint - Heritage Bank Blocked Merchants after a Nationwide Sale

Glad I spent mine purchased in the previous promo, same-day with the CBR merchant.

 

[andye]

The OzB OP must have bought a huge amount to justify making a formal complaint (which of course is more likely to kill all similar geese than resuscitate a seemingly-barren one)

 

[lovestotravel]

FYI some chatter on Ozbargain about the Coles GCMCs no longer being accepted at ATO, WA water corp and Bupa: Complaint - Heritage Bank Blocked Merchants after a Nationwide Sale

Correct

 

[Dr Ralph]

From Wednesday November 16:

 

[Kandy]

What bank/cards are you guys using? My cards keep getting blocked by the fraud departments… I guess it’s unusual to spend $500-$2500 at Coles every week or so

 

[lovestotravel]

FYI some chatter on Ozbargain about the Coles GCMCs no longer being accepted at ATO, WA water corp and Bupa: Complaint - Heritage Bank Blocked Merchants after a Nationwide Sale

ATO has been unblocked by the card issuer

 

[andye]

ATO has been unblocked by the card issuer

Definite win for the original hoarders. Remains to be seen what T&Cs say next time. The current (WW) offer variable Activ Shopping ones don't seem to work (please let me know if I'm wrong. Fine on agl and hcf though)

 

[lovestotravel]

Definite win for the original hoarders. Remains to be seen what T&Cs say next time. The current offer variable Activ Shopping ones don't seem to work (please let me know if I'm wrong. Fine on agl and hcf though)

I expect the next sale around Feb 23 will have new cards with new T/Cs...

Haven't had a chance to get the Activ card yet heading out shortly to get one

 

[SydneySwan]

Definite win for the original hoarders. Remains to be seen what T&Cs say next time.

If they change the T&Cs next time to exclude the ATO or whatever then I am fine with that. It definitely was not OK to sell a card with a T&C that stated ''The Card may be used to purchase goods or services everywhere Mastercard debit cards are accepted as long you do not exceed the available balance on the Card." and then start declining transactions.

 

[lovestotravel]

If they change the T&Cs next time to exclude the ATO or whatever then I am fine with that. It definitely was not OK to sell a card with a T&C that stated ''The Card may be used to purchase goods or services everywhere Mastercard debit cards are accepted as long you do not exceed the available balance on the Card." and then start declining transactions.

Post automatically merged: Nov 18, 2022

Lotte Duty Free - 500 / 100

Correct - I did raise an AFCA complaint and a few other did as well, I'm pretty sure that would have helped in the unblocking of the ATO. A few heard back and I haven't yet

 

[Dr Ralph]

Starts Wednesday November 23:

 

[Bolt]

Wow.. That sucks. Just purchased some of these using my NAB card. It's too bad it doesn't come with price protection guarantee like some Citibank and Bankwest cards do.

 

[jokes128]

I had an encounter with the manager on duty the other day when we tried to purchase the current 15% off special TCL gift cards at Coles Aspley, Brisbane. We were planning to purchase 10 cards across 2 people.

So I first went, at the self-serve checkout, scanned my own Flybuys card, approved by the staff there and paid for 5 cards in one transaction, no issue. Then it's my companion's turn, using the same self-serve checkout, scanned her own Flybuys card, and upon scanning her 5th card, it asked the staff to approve. The staff at the self-serve wouldn't approve it(and said we could come back the next day to buy another 5 cards) and I asked to speak to the manager. The manager on duty(Michelle) eventually came and informed us that we could only purchase a maximum of 5 cards PER HOUSEHOLD, despite me telling Michelle that my companion is a friend and not related, but most importantly, the Coles catalogue and the instore promotion sign both stated "Limit 5 Gift Cards PER CUSTOMER", and that we both have separate Flybuys accounts and different credit cards. Michelle wouldn't approve it and even tried to take the 5 gift cards that I have purchased and paid for, from my hands, and only stopped until I told Michelle that I have already paid for these 5 gift cards.

After some arguments Michelle still wouldn't approve the purchase of the second lot of 5 cards for my companion. So I asked Michelle to provide a contact for me to make a complaint to Coles, to which Michelle informed me that I can look up myself on how to complain on the Coles website. I insisted her to provide me with the contact details for complaint, and she went back to her customer service desk and made a phone call, and came back with the Coles Corporate Gift Cards phone number of 1300 737 002, and she informed us that she has just spoken to the Gift Card section and confirmed that she was right in limiting us to purchase of 5 cards PER HOUSEHOLD despite we are two separate customers who just happen to shop together. I referred Michelle to the T&C of "Limit 5 cards PER CUSTOMER" clause again and told Michelle that if what she said was true then I believe Coles would have been misleading customers with their advertising stating PER CUSTOMER and I would consider reporting Coles Aspley to ACCC for misleading customers and Coles can potentially be fined for this. Michelle still stood her ground and we left with the 5 gift cards only instead of 10. By the way, Michelle didn't wear a name tag on her Coles uniform and I asked her to write down her name Michelle on the same piece of paper with the 1300 phone number she provided to me, and she refused to write down her own name for me and just told me her name is Michelle.

May I ask if it is true that customers can only purchase 5 gift cards as a group instead of 5 gift cards per person/customer and I just misread the T&C? I used to purchase gift cards without problems as long as I stick to the 5 cards per person rule but this is the first time I encountered this scenario. So I am hoping the wise brains here can tell me whether we were in the wrong(I stand to be corrected) and whether ACCC(or any other organisation) is the right place for me to report this to(if I was right and Michelle was wrong in denying my companion's purchase).

Thank you in advance and hope to hear the opinion from some of you regarding my unhappy shopping experience.

 

[ChrisMars]

I had an encounter with the manager on duty the other day when we tried to purchase the current 15% off special TCL gift cards at Coles Aspley, Brisbane. We were planning to purchase 10 cards across 2 people.

So I first went, at the self-serve checkout, scanned my own Flybuys card, approved by the staff there and paid for 5 cards in one transaction, no issue. Then it's my companion's turn, using the same self-serve checkout, scanned her own Flybuys card, and upon scanning her 5th card, it asked the staff to approve. The staff at the self-serve wouldn't approve it(and said we could come back the next day to buy another 5 cards) and I asked to speak to the manager. The manager on duty(Michelle) eventually came and informed us that we could only purchase a maximum of 5 cards PER HOUSEHOLD, despite me telling Michelle that my companion is a friend and not related, but most importantly, the Coles catalogue and the instore promotion sign both stated "Limit 5 Gift Cards PER CUSTOMER", and that we both have separate Flybuys accounts and different credit cards. Michelle wouldn't approve it and even tried to take the 5 gift cards that I have purchased and paid for, from my hands, and only stopped until I told Michelle that I have already paid for these 5 gift cards.

After some arguments Michelle still wouldn't approve the purchase of the second lot of 5 cards for my companion. So I asked Michelle to provide a contact for me to make a complaint to Coles, to which Michelle informed me that I can look up myself on how to complain on the Coles website. I insisted her to provide me with the contact details for complaint, and she went back to her customer service desk and made a phone call, and came back with the Coles Corporate Gift Cards phone number of 1300 737 002, and she informed us that she has just spoken to the Gift Card section and confirmed that she was right in limiting us to purchase of 5 cards PER HOUSEHOLD despite we are two separate customers who just happen to shop together. I referred Michelle to the T&C of "Limit 5 cards PER CUSTOMER" clause again and told Michelle that if what she said was true then I believe Coles would have been misleading customers with their advertising stating PER CUSTOMER and I would consider reporting Coles Aspley to ACCC for misleading customers and Coles can potentially be fined for this. Michelle still stood her ground and we left with the 5 gift cards only instead of 10. By the way, Michelle didn't wear a name tag on her Coles uniform and I asked her to write down her name Michelle on the same piece of paper with the 1300 phone number she provided to me, and she refused to write down her own name for me and just told me her name is Michelle.

May I ask if it is true that customers can only purchase 5 gift cards as a group instead of 5 gift cards per person/customer and I just misread the T&C? I used to purchase gift cards without problems as long as I stick to the 5 cards per person rule but this is the first time I encountered this scenario. So I am hoping the wise brains here can tell me whether we were in the wrong(I stand to be corrected) and whether ACCC(or any other organisation) is the right place for me to report this to(if I was right and Michelle was wrong in denying my companion's purchase).

Thank you in advance and hope to hear the opinion from some of you regarding my unhappy shopping experience.

Assuming its true, I am Wondering how they can enforce such a rule to start with. Is it possible that your friend and yourself have the same home address on flybuys card? I.e. from a time where you were flatmate?

 

[kpc]

I bought 10 myself ....you need to be discreet. I bought 5 from manned checkout with some groceries, took to car, came back and bought another 5 from service desk. I find with these offers the staff / manager often make up their own rules...once the Woolworths manager threatened to ban me from the store as I was buying the allowed number of gift cards which he decided was too many. To the poster above, you are correct but I personally wouldn't waste my time arguing with the manager as they won't change their mind once they have made it up, sometimes contrary to the T's and Cs. When I and +1 buy 5 cards each, we go to separate checkouts, separated by a distance, and pretend we don't know each other.

 

[Captain Halliday]

I had an encounter with the manager on duty the other day when we tried to purchase the current 15% off special TCL gift cards at Coles Aspley, Brisbane. We were planning to purchase 10 cards across 2 people.

So I first went, at the self-serve checkout, scanned my own Flybuys card, approved by the staff there and paid for 5 cards in one transaction, no issue. Then it's my companion's turn, using the same self-serve checkout, scanned her own Flybuys card, and upon scanning her 5th card, it asked the staff to approve. The staff at the self-serve wouldn't approve it(and said we could come back the next day to buy another 5 cards) and I asked to speak to the manager. The manager on duty(Michelle) eventually came and informed us that we could only purchase a maximum of 5 cards PER HOUSEHOLD, despite me telling Michelle that my companion is a friend and not related, but most importantly, the Coles catalogue and the instore promotion sign both stated "Limit 5 Gift Cards PER CUSTOMER", and that we both have separate Flybuys accounts and different credit cards. Michelle wouldn't approve it and even tried to take the 5 gift cards that I have purchased and paid for, from my hands, and only stopped until I told Michelle that I have already paid for these 5 gift cards.

After some arguments Michelle still wouldn't approve the purchase of the second lot of 5 cards for my companion. So I asked Michelle to provide a contact for me to make a complaint to Coles, to which Michelle informed me that I can look up myself on how to complain on the Coles website. I insisted her to provide me with the contact details for complaint, and she went back to her customer service desk and made a phone call, and came back with the Coles Corporate Gift Cards phone number of 1300 737 002, and she informed us that she has just spoken to the Gift Card section and confirmed that she was right in limiting us to purchase of 5 cards PER HOUSEHOLD despite we are two separate customers who just happen to shop together. I referred Michelle to the T&C of "Limit 5 cards PER CUSTOMER" clause again and told Michelle that if what she said was true then I believe Coles would have been misleading customers with their advertising stating PER CUSTOMER and I would consider reporting Coles Aspley to ACCC for misleading customers and Coles can potentially be fined for this. Michelle still stood her ground and we left with the 5 gift cards only instead of 10. By the way, Michelle didn't wear a name tag on her Coles uniform and I asked her to write down her name Michelle on the same piece of paper with the 1300 phone number she provided to me, and she refused to write down her own name for me and just told me her name is Michelle.

May I ask if it is true that customers can only purchase 5 gift cards as a group instead of 5 gift cards per person/customer and I just misread the T&C? I used to purchase gift cards without problems as long as I stick to the 5 cards per person rule but this is the first time I encountered this scenario. So I am hoping the wise brains here can tell me whether we were in the wrong(I stand to be corrected) and whether ACCC(or any other organisation) is the right place for me to report this to(if I was right and Michelle was wrong in denying my companion's purchase).

Thank you in advance and hope to hear the opinion from some of you regarding my unhappy shopping experience.

Which Aspley store?

Hypermarket, or the one on Robinson Road West?

 

[jokes128]

Thank you for all your replies.

It was Coles Aspley Hypermarket.

I think neither the self-checkout machine nor the Coles store would recognize the address of Flybuys card, they can only recognize the Flybuys numbers of each transactions. I believe Flybuys and Coles are two separate entities and therefore they don't share that much information. I remembered once I rang Flybuys to chase some missing points and the lady on the phone at Flybuys could not look at the Coles store receipt(about what I have bought in the transaction) and was only aware of the receipt number and amount spent. So I don't think the same address(but different surnames) on two different Flybuys account would have been the reason for the non-authorisation and even then, the "per customer" rather than the "per household" rule would make us eligible to purchase 10 cards in two separate transactions anyway.

We didn't think of running into problem with purchasing 5 cards each, and as it was my companion's first time paying for the transaction, I wanted to be staying beside her to make sure everything was OK. We now learned to make the purchase at different time few minutes apart to avoid problem. But I just feel that the T&C is misleading customers judging by what manager on duty Michelle told us.

As another data point the next day we went to another Coles store in north Brisbane after that encounter in Coles Aspley Hypermarket and tried to purchase 10 more gift cards(we only needed 5 more but don't mind 10). This time the checkout lady told us that she had to ask the manager for approval for our 6th-10th gift cards transaction "because there are certain rules and she is not sure", despite me mentioning the T&C that it is "Limit of 5 per customer"(we were prepared to give up on the second 5 lot of 5 cards if that's not approved). The checkout lady spoke to the manager and came back with a smile and said the manager asked her to "do it in 2 separate transactions". So all good.

 

[exceladdict]

Has anyone had issues using multiple cards at the good guys? Have had arm-length receipts at JBHifi using 20x or more in the past but haven't tried TGG before, and need to buy a bbq.

 

[Dr Ralph]

From Wednesday November 30:

 

[SydneySwan]

Has anyone had issues using multiple cards at the good guys? Have had arm-length receipts at JBHifi using 20x or more in the past but haven't tried TGG before, and need to buy a bbq.

Yes I have used at least 5 cards at TGG at one time.