caveat emptor

[verbicide]

LA Times report: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-giftcards10-2008nov10,0,2342051.story

Beware when buying gift cards to stores this year or things that may need to be returned/exchanged to a particular store this year.

Fwded from a friend:

"If you tend to give gift cards around the holidays, you'll want to be aware of the following store closures as the cards may not be honored after the holidays. Stores that are planning to close after Christmas are still selling the cards through the holidays even though the cards may be worthless January 1. There is no law preventing them from doing this. On the contrary, it is referred to as 'Bankruptcy Planning."

I checked the following information out on Snopes.com (http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/storeclosings.asp). Some of the information may be out of date, but the general concept is true. Check out the link at Snopes for information on specific stores.

Some consumer advocacy groups are fighting for better protection for the buyers of GCs, but until then, I think it's going to be the rare gift card that I'll be tempted to buy.

Comments

[archaica.livejournal.com]

Didn't a lot of states recently pass laws protecting GC holders?

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen that, but if you have a link, let me know and I'll update this post!

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

So, here's something from Consumer Union on state-by-state GC laws, but nothing about bankruptcy:

http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/core_financial_services/003889.html

[mixed-up-media.livejournal.com]

That's awful! Thanks for the heads-up.

("Bankruptcy planning"???)

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

You bet! (And I know--so shady!)