What order are gift cards used?

[Rock_River]

I was under the impression that if I have more than one gift card on my account then when I buy something it will use the one with the lowest balance first; in fact I'm fairly sure that's how it was working.

So the other day I had three gift cards on the account, one of which had a balance of $0.34. I bought a $2.99 app for my *awesome* new Nook Tablet and expected that $0.34 card to disappear. It didn't. In fact it looks like it picked the card with the highest balance instead, but I can't be certain.

So now I still have three cards on the account, one with a 34-cent balance, and two new $50 cards in my wallet that I can't use yet. Why did it not burn up the odd $.34? Like a fool of course I didn't keep the physical cards so if I delete any of the cards, I'm guessing the money is lost (yes, I know it's only 34c - I'm talking about the principle here). So I guess the real questions are (1) what are the rules the B&N system uses to decide which cards to use first, and (2) was it supposed to do that, or was it a bug in teh system (and if so, when will it be fixed)?

While I'm on the subject... why a three-card limit? Why not five, or ten? Why is there a limit at all?

[MacMcK1957]

Many people have reported that it once worked properly, but the current system uses the largest balance first, inevitably leading to small balances on all three, and, as you describe, you can't even add ne cards to the account.

Some have suspected that BN does it deliberately, in hopes that you will just delete the cards with small balances without using up the credit, but I'm entitled to apply Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice behavior that can be explained by simple incompetence.

Some people go to the trouble of taking the cards to a store to get them consolidated, but it's ridiculous for a company to make you work that hard.

The issue has been repeatedly reported to B&N without a hint of the problem being corrected or even acknowledged.

[Rock_River]

I called the 1-800-THE-BOOK support line and spoke to a rep; she was sympathetic, told me that she'd report the problem and suggested deleting the smaller card, but to me that's not a long-term solution. Since I should be in the neighbourhood of my local B&N this evening, I'm planning on talking to a manager there too (although I'm well aware that the stores are limited in what they can do regarding the onlline services).

Right now I have a few more new books in my library to get through before I buy any more, but when it comes time to buy again I'll be watching carefully to see if the problem is fixed.

[keriflur]

It's a good idea to keep the physical cards going forward.  Last year a number of people reported that their gift cards fell out of the system.  As they no longer had the cards, they were not able to recover the balances (they needed the card numbers to do so).

[MacMcK1957]

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Rock_River wrote:

I called the 1-800-THE-BOOK support line and spoke to a rep; she was sympathetic, told me that she'd report the problem and suggested deleting the smaller card, but to me that's not a long-term solution.

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So the B&N customer service people are actually seriously recommending that you basically forfeit the unused balance?

[eaglewomanEP]

Its been that way ever since I got my Nook. I be sure and save the cards, when I get some samll ones I take them to the sotr have them add them all together.They always take from the largest first, I have gotten to where I only put on one at time.

[Rock_River]

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MacMcK1957 wrote:

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Rock_River wrote:

I called the 1-800-THE-BOOK support line and spoke to a rep; she was sympathetic, told me that she'd report the problem and suggested deleting the smaller card, but to me that's not a long-term solution.

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So the B&N customer service people are actually seriously recommending that you basically forfeit the unused balance?

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Well, it was more a suggestion than a recommendation, and only made I think because it was such a small balance. That's not to say I like the idea, and at this point I have no intention of doing it. I'll give B&N a chance to fix this first. 

[Rock_River]

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eaglewomanEP wrote:

Its been that way ever since I got my Nook. I be sure and save the cards, when I get some samll ones I take them to the sotr have them add them all together.They always take from the largest first, I have gotten to where I only put on one at time.

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I'm pretty sure it wasn't that way when I was still using my First Edition, and I've spoken to other people who agree that the system used to go smallest-first. Maybe I'm wrong... but going forward I will definitely (1) keep the physical cards and (2) consolidate them when I can. I will also (3) continue to screech and whine and stomp until B&N fixes this.

[MacMcK1957]

Either smallest first or a simple FIFO order would be acceptable.  Largest first is totally unacceptable.

[Rock_River]

Went to my local BN this morning, they couldn't do much but put me on the phone with digital support, who took the details and said they'd escalate the problem. Fingers crossed for a fix.