Never buy one of these gift cards. Ever. I bought it for a simple online purchase. When making the purchase, they kept getting declined by the bank, or Vanilla in this case. I called them and they said they would unblock. After 24 hours the security would be lifted from the card and I could make the purchase. I then tried to make the purchase 24 hours later. It didn't work. Called again and spoke to a supervisor who told me they can't unblock anything and the company deemed the merchant as a fraud risk. I toldhim they accept visa and I authorize the charge and he said they cant unblock the merchant due to their security and protection of us suckers who thought anywhere vis is accepted meant anywhere visa is accepted. I told them that this is false advertising which is illegal. I uused a Chase bank Visa at this website andit immediately was processed meaning this was Vanilla specifically that was blocking my ability to use their visa card where every other visa worked with no problem. He said they could refund me but it will take3 weeks and I would eat the 3 dollar fee for activation/processing because it was unable to be refunded. They said try again or try another store which if that worked only backs up the point they are scamming because Visa is Visa everywhere, not only where Vanilla decides is an acceptable Visa location, thus making the false advertising claim very true. They sell you on the
packaging that states accepted AT ANY LOCATION WHO ACCEPTS VISA AS A PAYMENTM METHOD and it is treated as if it were a Visa debit/credit card. He then cut me off and said the 3 week refund option. He then hung up on me. Called back and got the exact treatment from another hour call with a different supervisor. I couldn't believe their customer service was quite likely the LEAST HELPFUL EXPERIENCE I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE. And they just try to blame everyone else and act like they are just unable to do anything. I will be filing with the BBB because this is just a scam that after reading these reviews is just apparently getting everyone...They wouldn't escalate me to a higher supervisor and said they cant because they had high call volume...most likely because everyone was confused why their Visa card was unable to be used and were stuck waiting on an agent to understand how sorry they were and how much they understand the frustration but do nothing to resolve the issues...This company is just a joke. Every agent said different things, a supervisor hung up on me and they are just unorganized and do nothing to help but provide hoops to jump through. NEVER AGAIN. Unbelievable how great they are at listening to nothing you say and then just grouping together to provide all of their robotic excuses...BBB needs to investigate them and I hope th