Unlucky shopper bought $3600 in Dick Smith gift cards from Coles before cut-off date

HOW’S this for unlucky? A woman holding $3600 in now worthless Dick Smith gift cards has received even more bad news.

A WOMAN who returned a phone to Dick Smith in exchange for $765 worth of gift cards three days before the retailer collapsed may be the unluckiest shopper ever.

Tasmanian woman Ebony told the ABC’s The Checkout, which returns to TV on Thursday night, she was given the Samsung phone as a Christmas present by her sister.

“I returned the phone to Dick Smith, which then said that because it was a change-of-mind policy that I would have to accept gift vouchers,” Ebony said.

Unfortunately for Ebony, Dick Smith was within its rights to offer her store credit. And unluckily for her sister, she won’t be able to claim a chargeback on the original purchase — because she paid via debit, not credit.

“You can press savings or credit, and the people who pressed savings are out of luck,” The Checkout’s Julian Morrow told news.com.au.

In another case, Winnie bought $3600 worth of Dick Smith gift cards from Coles in March last year when they were on a 10 per cent special discount.

The Checkout’s Ben Jenkins, Zoë Norton Lodge, Kirsten Drysdale, Craig Reucassel, Julian Morrow and Alex Lee. The Checkout returns tonight at 8pm on ABC1.

After the collapse of the electronics retailer, the two major supermarket chains extended a “goodwill gesture” to the thousands of furious customers, offering to exchange the cards for equal value.

But Winnie was shocked after being informed she was not eligible for the Coles exchange offer as they were purchased before July 2015.

As Morrow discovered, the terms and conditions of the offer are less than consumer-friendly. “The process is a bit cumbersome,” he said.

“You can’t do it in store, you can’t do it online, you have to post the cards in. These processes are sort of designed to minimise the amount of people that actually get through them.”

Morrow said there was no good reason for the July 1, 2015 cut-off. “I can’t for the life of me see why that limitation should apply. It’s pretty rough,” he said.

“I find it interesting that business groups make submissions to gift card inquiries saying that all these liabilities are bad to have sitting on their balance sheet, which is why they need expiry dates — but they’re perfectly happy to give them out instead of cash.”

The final Dick Smith stores close this month. Picture: Marc Robertson

For customers who were lucky enough to purchase their gift cards on a credit card, chargebacks are the best course of action. “Visa customers have 120 days from the day you become aware the service is going to be worthless,” Morrow said.

That means you have until early May to make a chargeback claim. “MasterCard seems to be a bit longer, but it depends on whether there’s an expiry date listed on the gift card,” he said.

As gift cards are classed as financial products they are not covered by the return, repair and refund guarantee under Australian Consumer Law.

Morrow said the saga once again highlighted the dangers of buying gift cards.

“There was a heartwrenching story about a mum whose son has some significant health issues. He’d saved up his money and bought a computer part, but it wasn’t compatible with his computer so he returned it,” he said.

“They took it back but gave him a gift card, which a day later was worthless.

“Unfortunately because the item wasn’t compatible with his computer, it wasn’t fit for purpose, meaning he was entitled to a refund or replacement under the ACL.”

Morrow says the ACL is clear: a refund means a refund. “It doesn’t mean we take the cash value of what you paid us and provide to you in a plastic form that can be pulled away,” he said.

The Checkout returns tonight on ABC1 at 8pm