Archived First data breach now no giftcard

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I've read several articles about this today and none said anything about it pertaining to cards sent via mail. The article you referenced said, "A source confirmed to FOX 9 News that cashiers scanned the wrong code on the cards, and that the mistake could impact up to 40,000 gift cards sold across the cross the country." A co-worker and I talked about this earlier today and neither of us understand how that can happen. If you scan the wrong barcode, the register prompts you to scan the other one, at least at our store. So, how did it happen that cashiers were the cause of this? Oh, Target you're getting to be a thorn in my side!
 
Some of the holiday-themed gift cards have a QR code on the back of the slip that is attached to the gift card. If you simply turn it over and start scanning it and accidentally hit the QR code and not the actual barcode, it will still prompt you to put in an amount. The only difference is that if you scan the QR code, no value will actually be added. It will still ring up and charge the guest, but the value won't be added to it like it would if you scanned the barcode. My store has actually known about this for like a month now. I think one of the gstls said it was at least $250,000 in gift cards that were scanned incorrectly. That was about a month ago so that number is definitely higher now.
 
I accidentally scanned one QR code. I knew something was wrong because it asked me for the price instead of "how much do you want on th gift card?" So I voided that and rescanned the proper barcode. If one is paying attention, it isn't hard to tell the difference, but I'm honestly not surprised this turned into a huge issue.
 
I've seen this happen before on some phone cards (usually the rechargeable ones guests have). Any competent TM should notice that the gift card didn't ring up right...

I had a guest impacted by this tonight back in electronics in fact.
 
Yeah we mentioned this at huddle weeks ago, guess other stores didn't catch it as quickly.
 
This is going to be a nightmare for GSTLs/GSAs in the coming months.

The proper action to fix this is:

1) If the guest has a valid receipt for the Gift Card: Return and resell (or try receipt lookup w/ credit/debit card).

2) If the guest has no receipt: Have the GSTL/GSA call Gift Card authorization to see what value should be on the card.

Most people using gift cards aren't the ones that bought them, so I doubt Option 1 is going to come up too often.
As far as Option 2... my opening GSTL spent a good 45 min on the phone this morning until she got the situation remedied for one guest...

I hope Spot is now taking the extra folks from the REDCard hotline and transferring them to the Gift Card Authorization line.
 
Yeah, announcing it at huddle does a whole lot of good. Why not let the cashiers in on it? Good grief.

Can they tell what the value is supposed to be on the card off of the cashier having scanned the QR code?

What a hot mess.
 
Qr code is unrecognized so it's just a 999 item. Hard to track if it was a gift.
 
So then what good will it do to call the gift card people to find out the value on the card?
 
So then what good will it do to call the gift card people to find out the value on the card?

Absolutely no good. The PR people are blowing smoke trying to save their ass. It's almost impossible to determine which store it came from if it was given to you as a gift. Only way is to look up the 999 transaction on the purchaser. If you look up the Gc# it's just another inactivated gc.

Otherwise people can just grab blank gift cards and go around saying they're supposed to have $50, etc.
 
I had to call to get a new giftcard for a guest and they actually were very helpful and it only took me about 5 minutes to get it sorted for the guest. I've also returned about 10 giftcards using a receipt which is way easier but at least they're helpful when you call.

Also, Retail Girl, You guys don't have cashier huddles??
 
No. When it isn't the month before Christmas, we don't ever have more than 3 or 4 cashiers working at the same time, so if there is anything important they need to know, we tell them individually. Also, until tonight I hadn't been to huddle for a month. If I get there once a week, I'm "lucky".
 
Some of the holiday-themed gift cards have a QR code on the back of the slip that is attached to the gift card.

I was not aware of these cards... I thought maybe this was more to do with cards bought at other retailers. I know this happened last year, guests came in with Target gift cards bought for them from other retailers and NOT Target directly and they ended up not working because THOSE cashiers did not scan properly. Those cards usually have multiple barcodes while OUR cards usually have only one barcode, making it hard to mess it up.
 
Some of the holiday-themed gift cards have a QR code on the back of the slip that is attached to the gift card.

I was not aware of these cards... I thought maybe this was more to do with cards bought at other retailers. I know this happened last year, guests came in with Target gift cards bought for them from other retailers and NOT Target directly and they ended up not working because THOSE cashiers did not scan properly. Those cards usually have multiple barcodes while OUR cards usually have only one barcode, making it hard to mess it up.

They shouldn't be able to mess up those $25 cards that easily though. The backer covers the Target barcode, leaving only the activation barcode for the non-Target cashier to scan. Then, when the guest is using the card, the Target cashier should notice the "Target Bar Code" at the top.
 
I had to call to get a new giftcard for a guest and they actually were very helpful and it only took me about 5 minutes to get it sorted for the guest. I've also returned about 10 giftcards using a receipt which is way easier but at least they're helpful when you call.

Also, Retail Girl, You guys don't have cashier huddles??

What are they doing for people who have no receipt for their gift card (it was a gift) ?


We only had cashier huddles once a month maybe. They were always rare.
 
I wonder how big Greggs bonus will be this year?

Hopefully it will be delivered on a pink slip.

That pink slip would have to be delivered by the Target Board of Directors. Guess who is Chairman of the Board? That's right - Gregg. A clear conflict of interest. The stockholders OWN the company, the Board REPRESENTS THE STOCKHOLDERS interests and hires and fires managers, who are EMPLOYEES of the stockholders. No employee should be on the board of the company they work for.

The default investment for the 5% Target match to your 401(k) is Target stock. If you have a Target 401(k) and have not changed the 5% match to a different investment you are a Target stockholder, and as such get to vote for or against board members , and on any proposed resolutions on the annual meeting proxy ballot.

One such resolution is always on the proxy - prohibit managers from also being on the board. It never gets enough votes to pass, but I believe it gets closer every year. VOTE YOUR PROXY this year! It's easy to do online.
 
I wonder how big Greggs bonus will be this year?

Hopefully it will be delivered on a pink slip.

That pink slip would have to be delivered by the Target Board of Directors. Guess who is Chairman of the Board? That's right - Gregg. A clear conflict of interest. The stockholders OWN the company, the Board REPRESENTS THE STOCKHOLDERS interests and hires and fires managers, who are EMPLOYEES of the stockholders. No employee should be on the board of the company they work for.

The default investment for the 5% Target match to your 401(k) is Target stock. If you have a Target 401(k) and have not changed the 5% match to a different investment you are a Target stockholder, and as such get to vote for or against board members , and on any proposed resolutions on the annual meeting proxy ballot.

One such resolution is always on the proxy - prohibit managers from also being on the board. It never gets enough votes to pass, but I believe it gets closer every year. VOTE YOUR PROXY this year! It's easy to do online.
 
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Some of the holiday-themed gift cards have a QR code on the back of the slip that is attached to the gift card. If you simply turn it over and start scanning it and accidentally hit the QR code and not the actual barcode, it will still prompt you to put in an amount. The only difference is that if you scan the QR code, no value will actually be added. It will still ring up and charge the guest, but the value won't be added to it like it would if you scanned the barcode. My store has actually known about this for like a month now. I think one of the gstls said it was at least $250,000 in gift cards that were scanned incorrectly. That was about a month ago so that number is definitely higher now.

Thank you for the info, our stores ETL's are useless.
 
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