ERIN M.

Despite making the implication that they are easy to get rid of your old unwanted gift cards, it is anything but in my opinion. I have accumulated a few 'appreciation gift certificates' from my employer, which you can redeem for various items or gift cards. Since that catalog is full of junk, I thought being able to get one of those gift cards which I could then convert into an Amazon.com gift certificate at a slight loss (84% net value) was a decent option. So I converted all my appreciation certificates into tangible gift cards (~$300 worth) and sent off the first $50 one to CardPool to have converted.

The prepaid postage is nice, the website was fairly easy to submit my sales request, and these are the only two portions of the experience that are good.

After almost a week after sending it, I get a phone call on a Sunday afternoon from a 415 area code number I don't recognize. I let it go to voice mail of course and dont check it until later in the day. It is a message stating they are from CardPool and need to verify some things relating to my card submission. I get an email stating the same. I return the call Monday afternoon and the rep says she needs some questions answered before releasing my payment.

I am asked how I came into having this card, who gave it to me, why it was given to me, how long I had it for, and my reason for exchanging it. After successfully relaying these answers, I was then told my the rep that I would have my Amazon card sent to me within 24hrs. I asked her if I sent them more cards if I would have to answer the same questions again for each one and she would not give me a straight answer.

The next day, from a different email address, which I didn't see for a few days since it got burried in my spam folder. I get an email from 'Mark' that they are "unfortunately unable to accept it at this time. For your convenience, we are returning your gift card to you free of charge."... I damn sure would hope so.

Why exactly? Don't know. After all the hoops I had to jump through in providing details and more sensitive info, it would be nice to have the same courtesy in return. It would be nice also to have had this screening or whatever done ahead of me having to send the card in.

I am also somewhat concerned because most of the cards listed on the site were for odd amounts $74.56, $83.16, etc, there were none for an even $50 before, and now there is one available. Can't help but wonder if that's my card... Guess I will just have to wait to see if I get it back and hope nobody cloned it while they had it in their hands.

Summary: easy to use website, difficult to use system overall, information is expected to be given to them but not received from them, very definitely YMMV, hit or miss.