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Shelbyville, Tennessee ~ Monday, October 13, 2008
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What do you get the person that has everything?
Posted Monday, March 3, 2008, at 8:18 PM<< Previous | Read comments | Respond | Email link | Next >>
How about a Sharper Image gift card…errr..not so fast. It seems as though those oh-so-convenient gift cards that people were snapping up for Christmas presents are but to be worthless. Yep, it seems that the brilliant minds that are running the definitive "gadget" store have decided that, since they are in jeopardy of filing bankruptcy, they would no longer honor the gift cards. You know, the ones that people have ALREADY PAID FOR. They already have the money for these. "How can they do this?" one might ask themselves. Well, according to bankruptcy laws, the gift cards amount to "unsecured debt". And unsecured debt is the last thing that gets paid when a bankruptcy court is hashing out who gets paid from the assets of the company that files bankruptcy.
Hmm…suddenly cash doesn't seem like such a crappy present anymore, does it? Well, just as long as you spend it before the dollar completes the trip down the toilet. Comments Showing comments in chronological order [Show most recent comments first] |
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And under the current administration, there would likely be no recourse for the innocent people involved... Enron, Arthur Andersen, and others... Nobody ever holds them fully accountable.
Congrats darrick. You are the first person to put together the conspiracy between GWB and Sharper Image. I knew that there was a link between the overpriced crappy goods SI sold and GWB.
Right... I think i emphasized that Bush and his cronies wouldn't protect the people involved... It seems to be a pattern. Let a few corporate execs receive a nice payoff of a couple hundred million, in the process of filing bankruptcy. If that's what you advocate so be it.
Some people have hundreds of dollars on gift cars, and you multiple that by hundreds or thousands who have them, the numbers isn't so small.
I never mentioned Bush being involved, in fact just the opposite. He wouldn't dare to protect people who had no clue about a companies horrible financial situation.
Yeah Darrick. I believe, even for you, that's one heck of a leap.
LOL... I don't get it. Isn't it funny how the "customer is always right" EXCEPT when they want their money back. Hilarious.
While I feel for anyone that is on the loosing end of these gift cards, and that would be both the giver and reciever, are we getting to the point in history where we are in need of a "nanny government"? Personnally, I don't want the federal government to protect every move I make. I do want the federal government to do what it should do and that's provide national security and give back individual states "states rights." I believe we as consumers need to take responsibility for ourselves and quit waiting for Washington D.C. to fix all our problems.
Hmm, I agree with that as well. But when a "problem" is created and hidden by a multi-million corporation, there is not much that consumers can do, as far as protection. I realize this is just a tiny portion of all the bad things that have happened.
I guess nobody here seems to care that much, because it hasn't happened to them. When someone stole my identity (recently) and began purchasing things in MY name, with MY S.S. #, and their physical address was Atlanta, Georgia... I was left with no choice but to contact the Federal Government. I contacted the Bank that they used, and they cancelled the card. But do you realize how tedious of a process this was? A 6 month wait process, and waiting period for something I never saw coming. No, I don't expect the government to make all my decisions for me, in fact I don't want them to. But it is their job to intervene when the corporations won't honor their something, that has already been paid for.
It is kind of like a "bait and switch" marketing ploy, where Wal-Mart and others advertise the cheapest electronics and only order 10. Meanwhile there are 100 others that cost three times as much.
I didn't blame this on Bush, nor did I say he was in on the scheme. What I intend to clarify is that at some point, the president and Congress need to hold these companies accountable for these undervalued companies, promising overvalued futures.
Our computerized era has made identity thief much easier pull off. I'm sorry you have had to go through that experience so early in life. I wonder if the old economic theory of supply and demand has made the gift card difficulties worse. We as consumer look for the "quick fix" and the good old corporations are there to supply the demand. If we as the consumer would stop using the cards, the companies would most likely find another way fill that type of need. Our corporations have been using the "little people" or us consumers since the start on our country. I'm not opposed to our state government going after these companies, but I do think we have become overly dependant on the federal government to fix all our problems and or needs.
I couldn't agree more. Glad you somewhat understood. LOL... ;)
This just makes me want to go use all my giftcards up now.
Some people are making it sound as if it is the customers fault for buying a gift card and assuming that it should be worth something. Yes, the government should protect customer's rights or everyone would be screwed over in so many ways (more so than they are now). If we are held accountable for paying the debt on our credit cards and bills then companies should be made responsible for the same thing. A customer has basically issue credit to s store by buying a gift card . . . the customer has lent the company money without anything in return at the moment with the knowledge that the company will pay back the "loan" in the form of merchandise when the customer so chooses.
What Sharon says in regard to this particular situation just amazes me . . . I hope her bank decides to refuse payment on any checks she has written and closes her account without refunding her money and then we will see how much she screams for a lawyer so that the court system will do something about it. The customer of Sharper Image completed a legit transaction and now Sharper Image isn't holding their end of the bargain . . . if government didn't help people overlook businesses then how many of those businesses would engage in unfair practices just because they knew they could get away with it.
BTW . . . I love the Sharper Image store. They have so many neat gadgets and stuff and I am sad to see it will probably close.
Jaxspike,
I am not blaming the consumer for buying gift cards. I do think that the coporations should be held responsible for debts. My overall concern is we keep expecting the Federal government to fix all our problems and we are going to end up with a government running all aspects of our lives. If you are trying to compare consumer debt to the what the corporations have done with the gift cards, those same bankrupty laws have allowed the consumers to get out of quite a bit of credit card debt without paying the bill.
Tom,
You might be able to explain this better than me. As I understand it Chapter 7 allows the consumer to wipe out most of the debt they owe and Chapter 13 basically sets up a repayment plan. Is this not the government protecting the consumer from paying their debt? The customers of Sharper Image did complete a legit transactions and should expect payment. My whole point is how far should we expect the federal government to intervene our lives? I am not opposed to the states going after companies, I am opposed to the federal government intervening in our lives.
Sorry Thom, I spelled your name incorrectly. Sharon
Sharon22,
Sure bankruptcy does work like that, but you have alot more things that need to happen to qualify for it now. For businesses, they don't have the same qualifications. Much easier for them to do that.
I do have to disagree with darrick, we have a ton of rights that deal with consumer protection, the problem is, we do not teach these basics in High school. These are basic laws that are afforded to us by the federal government and used correctly can yield alot of positive results.
On a side note, some of the restaurant gift cards that are sold aren't that good a deal. If you look at the fine print, a few restaurant chains (not all) charge service fees if the card isn't used within a certain amount of time -- so that if you don't get around to using your $25 restaurant gift card this year, for example, you might try to use it next year and discover that it's worth only $17.50. Not all chains do this, but a few do -- read the fine print on the back of the card. You would think that the interest the restaurant earns between the time a card is purchased and the time it is redeemed would more than cover the cost of the card program without having to penalize people.
A lot of retail stores charge these "fees" as well. Kind of like the old phone cards that we used to use in the Navy. Every month you got a certain charge for their "administrative" fees. I haven't checked the retail gift cards since I don't buy them, generally.
As far as bankruptcy goes, the business does not consider it to be a "completed" transaction until the card is spent. Until then the money goes into a separate account and you're basically loaning the business this money until the recipient completes a purchase. At this point, the money is shifted into the company's operating account. So, if you're "loaning" the business this money, then that is a liquid asset that will be snatched up in bankruptcy court to pay off secured creditors first.
The good news about this is that if you happen to have a SI gift card with barely anything on it, Brookstone (a direct competitor) will give you 25% off of any purchase.
EM, John and Thom,
Thank you for your responses. I guess that old adage "Buyer beware" still is in effect today. I'm with Thom, I very seldom buy gift cards, I believe in being a little old fashioned, I still like buying gifts or cash when the occasion arises.
In response to the impending question, what do you get the person who has everything? A 1/1 map of the world!