TFG E GIFT CARD ONLINE NIGHTMARE - BEWARE BEFORE PURCHASING

Spent two days leading up to Father’s Day and Father’s Day itself in an attempt to utilise an egift card purchased by my mother to buy a gift from Sterns. Was told by the store consultant that the egift card was not working on their system and to return the next day - returned to the store the next day to be told that the e gift card has been deactivated and after a call to their customer care services we were told that we will have to go home, get my mother (the account holder) together with her ID and Sterns store card, thereafter return to the store to activate the gift card. From then on it was downhill after spending an entire 1:00pm till 5:00pm (that including driving back and forth to Pavilion after collecting my mother who had just got home from the hospital) – the call to customer care was of no use after speaking to over four consultants and a manager, being put through to their forensic department who requested my mother’s cell phone number, called her on the cell phone to ask her where she was at the time, told she was at their Sterns store trying to make a purchase, thererafter told that they cannot assist us as they had no manager present to make a decision on whether she is actually who she said she is as she could be a ********* pretending to be an 81 year old lady attempting to buy a gift on her account (this assumption being made by forensic department employees on the other side of a telephone whereas their account store consultant could see my mother in person) with her South African identity document and latest correspondence addressed to her from them. Very disgusted with the manner in which Sterns had treated my mother after she has been a customer of theirs for over 40 years.

TFG had blocked my mother’s account because they believed that the egift card purchased was ********** and her call to tell them was it was not ********** was another ********** act on her behalf as she could not remember a prepaid cell phone number on a phone that had been ****** years ago.

That being said, in their attempt to safeguard their customer’s account they blocked her account – they deactivated the egift card so that she was unable to utilise it to make any purchase and they refused to credit her store account to the value of the egift card of R3000.00 also for her safety.

In order to ensure her safety now, she has to attend at SASSA or the post office to obtain a three months statement and go back to the store with her identity document to prove who she is and thereafter utilise the gift card which she has been charged for already as it cannot be refunded or credited or used until she does what they want her to do. Disgusting treatment of an elderly customer!!! and pathetic service by Sterns and TFG as a whole as they can simply click deactivate on a gift card and put a customer through the humiliation of being treated like a ******** and further prejudiced by having to still pay them for something she has not utilised. Their emails in responses says they apologise for the inconvenience caused but they cannot credit the egift card or refund my mother as her account has been blocked BY THEM without her prior knowledge and the egift card has been purchased on terms of it not being refundable! So she must suffer, get into a queue and get them what they ask for before they will do anything to assist their customer!!! for her safety.