A Gift Card Will Not Redeem

Problem

A card is refused at the point of redemption, shows a balance the customer disputes, or reads as zero when it should hold value.

Background

A card carries three things that can each stop a redemption: its Status, its Balance, and whether the sale that funded it was ever actually paid. Selling a card adds it to a visit as a charge - if that visit was never settled, the card exists but was never paid for.

Resolution

1. Read the card first. Use Check Gift Card Balance, which reads it without touching a visit. That immediately separates "the card is empty" from "the redemption screen is not working".
2. Check the Status. In the Gift Cards section on the Admin page, find the card by its Card UID. A cancelled or closed card will not redeem however much balance it shows.
3. Check the history. View full transaction history lists every load and redemption with the balance after each. A customer who believes the card is untouched is usually looking at a card someone else has spent - the history shows when, and which user took it.
4. Check the sale was paid. If the card was sold but the encounter was never settled, the card was issued without payment. Find the originating visit and take the payment, or cancel the card.
5. If the UID will not enter, type it by hand rather than tapping. If typing works and tapping does not, the reader is the problem, not the card - check the NFC bridge is running on that machine.
6. If the balance is less than expected, look for a partial redemption. A card can be spent in parts, so a $100 card used once for $40 correctly shows $60.

Refunding or cancelling a card

Use Cancel / Refund Gift Card and then Cancel Card. Cancelling stops the card being spent; refunding returns the money to the purchaser. Record why in the Note - a cancelled card with no explanation is impossible to account for later.

Cancel a card that was sold in error, or one reported lost after you have confirmed who bought it. Because anyone holding the UID can spend the balance, a card reported lost should be cancelled promptly rather than watched.

The balance looks wrong in the accounts, not on the card

If the card itself is right but your figures look wrong, this is usually not a fault. Gift card revenue is recorded when the card is sold, not when it is spent - so a day of heavy redemption shows activity without matching takings, because that money came in when the cards were bought. See Selling and Redeeming Gift Cards.