Raise

Takes forever to receive your money after selling a gift card it takes almost a week to get your money

My account was suspended due to an error, they detected my IP address was from Canada, I live in Texas! They detected that when I was purchasing an order, they canceled my order only saying due to an issue the order was canceled (I figured someone might have just beat me by a second with that offer). Nowhere was I notified that my account was suspended, I was ABLE to login to the website and browse and change setting in my account. I was UNABLE to login through my mobile app, but it was due to an connectivity issue, not because my account was suspended, it so happen right when they upgraded the app, so I figure it was an issue with the app since I can login with my phone browser.
UNTIL I try to make a order with a good deal and that when I realized it was suspended! I was extremely upset that I wasn't notified, and because it was after hour, I have to let the deal slide. It was a double %off than what it usually is, who want to let such good deal slide!
ANYWAY, horrible on their side for not keeping the client inform as to what happened to their account, at least show somewhere that the account was suspended when they login! If I would've known it was suspended, I would have have it resolve on that day!

My husband bought me a MAC Cosmetics gift card for the value of $100 in June 2016. It could only be used online and I was ready to redeem it just a few days ago (July 2017).

When I was ready to check out on the MAC website, I found out the amount on the card had been wiped out. I contacted Raise and the answer was very DISAPPOINTING. They can't issue a refund or replace the card because it has been 13 months and they can only "protect" the gift card value for 1 year. They couldn't even tell me what happened to our money (who took it?). They mentioned MAC may have closed the gift card due to inactivity. I contacted the MAC customer service and they said their cards don't have inactive penalties or expiration dates.

My husband and I are very responsible with our money YET, somehow, we didn't know this could happen. I think Raise should do a better job at advertising that you're VERY LIKELY TO LOSE YOUR MONEY if you don't use your card within the 1 year period.

We will never know who stole our money because it has been just over a year and Raise won't look into it. Who knows if it happened before the 1 year window?

A better business would have sent an email to the customer reminding him of the expiration date! Such a reminder would make me think this company is trustworthy and cares about their customers. Alas, that's not the case.

I honestly think this is not a good way to conduct business. I read several other reviews and I'm convinced there's something wrong with this company. We lost $100 and I'm sure we're not the only people who had this BAD experience. I strongly advise against purchasing gift cards from them... it's better to stick to the regular gift cards - at least you know they won't steal the money from you! I most definitely won't be their customer again and I will definitely let my family, friends and co-workers know about my experience with them.

Buying from Raise (or any of these card resellers for that matter) is a huge gamble unless you use the card quickly.

I bought a couple of $50 Panera Bread egift cards and confirmed both were valid when they first arrived. First one worked fine but I didn't get to use the 2nd one until after the "100-day guarantee", only to find it had just 1cent left on it. The Panera Bread gift card site indicated that the card had been emptied (at the same location where it was originally created) 61 days after it was sold.

After several months of calls, Raise finally said "tough luck, not our problem" and blew me off. This despite the fact that the card was loaded (and subsequently unloaded) at an apparently non-retail Panera Bread location. This makes it likely that this card was sold by Panera Bread to Raise at a discount, and implies that Panera Bread cancelled the card for some reason (the only one that comes to mind is non-payment). Of course, Raise would not confirm/deny any of this other than to say that "things can go wrong and vendors do sometimes cancel cards" (like I said, no doubt for non-payment). At best this is a scam nicely packaged with a "100-day guarantee" that Raise marketers know most people will forget to use until it's too late.

So be aware that, when you buy a card from one of these resellers, you don't actually own it (ever).
-----
Update: Well, despite a categorical rejection of my request for a refund, one actually came through shortly after this review was posted. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not, but at least they did finally (after 4 months of calls) refund the original cost of the egift card.

So my advice remains the same (if you buy, verify the value then use it quickly), but it's only fair that my opinion of the business improves (from 1 to 3 stars)!

I recently encountered issues with two consecutive orders that I placed for gift cards purchased through Raise. The issue was that a card on each order (both orders were for more than a single card) ended up having a zero value. This was compounded by the fact that I merged the value of these two orders onto a primary card that I use for all purchases at Starbucks, causing my primary card to me canceled when Starbucks discovered the lack of value for these two cards. In short, Starbucks was going to penalize me for all 5 cards merged onto my primary card because of the issue with only two of them. I explained this to Starbucks, but to no avail. Being the second time I had ever used Raise for a purchase, this obviously was of concern and frustration to me.

When I first called Raise to address the issue, the team was very professional and immediately understood my concern. They offered to refund the value of the two cards in question on the spot. However, as noted above the problem was more complex is that I was now without the use of the other 3 legitimate cards as well. Raise offered to send my issue to another team to investigate and determine what they could do to assist. By the end of that first day of documenting my concern, Raise had refunded the full value of both orders to me. I find the speed at which Raise addressed this issue and the solution to be exemplary and a model by which all companies should model.

As someone who deals with customers on a daily basis and listens to grievances, I wanted to raise this excellent support to those who should be aware. All companies should aspire to the quality and speed of support that you offered me.

Thank you.

Need to say this right off the bat tho, I have contacted Raise.com and they are going to send a check refunding the purchasing price of the remaining balance to me. I still feel robbed by the experienc and would stay away from these sketchy gift cards from now on.

The gift card came from my first and only time ordering a gift card from riase.com. I bought $50 value gift card and received a card in the mail about a week later. Used it once at the store soon after to make sure the balance was there, and it was, all $50 minus a cup of smoothie I bought that day. I didn't have a chance to visit the store again after that day. I finally decided to go today and was told that the balance on the card was zero.

I returned home, called the number on the back of the gift card, and the smoothie company was able to look up the transactions for me. They told me that after my fist purchase, all the remaining forty something balance on the card was used in one transaction, a month after my purchasing date from raise.com, at a location in a city that I've never been to, far a way from where I live, but pretty close to the mailing address where the card came from, if the memory serves me right.

I next contacted raise.com and they are going to send me a check for the amount I spent to purchase the remaining balance. I suspect that this is a scam on the seller's end. The seller probably saved the card number and pin before mailing it out, so that they can later take out all the remaining balance after the buyer have received the card with the full amount on it.

Raise customer service was very nice and helpful, however, without a mechanism to prevent this type of scams in place, I'd say stay away from it. Gift card system probably has tons of holes for the scammers to abuse. It probably go against promoting their business, but I think they should put out a warning or disclaimer about the risks the buyers are getting themselves into. A little savings on the value of the card don't worth getting the whole balance wiped clean from the gift card while the card is in your purse at all time. Do I really wanna risk paying $50 for one cup of smoothie again? I think not.