The big box retailer is still recovering from its data breach, but it’s hit another snag. Less than two weeks later Target says an unidentified number of gift cards sold over the holidays were not properly activated, leaving customers to find that the cards have no value.
“We are aware that some Target gift cards were not fully activated and apologize for the inconvenience,” said Molly Snyder, Target spokeswoman, in a statement to The Associated Press.
Although the issue affects less than 0.1% of the total sold, the National Retail Federation estimates gift card purchases this holiday season to be a total of $29.8 billion. Department stores, including Target, were the top gift card category, with 40% of shoppers saying they plan to buy at least one card from such a retailer, according to a report on CNBC.
The retailer will honor the affected cards, customer can bring faulty cards to any Target service desk or call for assistance.
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On Friday, Target backtracked and said that debit card PINs were among the financial information stolen from millions of customers who shopped at the retailer in late November and early December. However, the stolen PIN numbers, which customers enter at keypads for secure transactions, were encrypted and that this significantly reduces risk to customers.
In addition to the encrypted PINs, customer names, credit and debit card numbers, card expiration dates and the embedded code of the magnetic strip of the cards were stolen.
Date: Jan 3, 2014