@yfan wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Here's the million dollar question: How do they actually know whether you bought it third party or not? The very definition of Gift cards is third party.
It's not that hard. If you buy a gift card off of Gift Card Granny or another website like that, the cards sold are often used. Meaning that someone has purchased and used a card, and they are selling the remaining value (presumably) at a loss. There are two things there that can get Starbuck's attention:
- First, the previous owner may have added it to their own gold account and then deleted it, and now it's getting added to a different gold account. That's one way to detect.
- Second, a card once used in Philadelphia is suddenly added to the gold account of someone who lives in Dallas. Another way to detect.
On a related note, Starbucks does not stop you from using a gift card bought this way. They just don't want you to add it to your gold account. Because the gold account has its own discounts - such as free substitutions and star collection, they want to keep it to your cards only and not cards used by others.
Again: How do they know you didn't receive it as a gift? Yes, It may have been added to another gold account, but maybe this person has stopped drinking Starbucks, and wishes to give away their gift card.
These are all hypotheticals, but they are setting themselves up for trouble with these policies.
