Pizza Hut fucks over elementary school kids selling $10 gift cards

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Action Line: Pizza franchise fails to follow gift card law
By Dennis Rockstroh

Posted on Sat, Apr. 01, 2006

Q I work for an elementary school that sells gift cards for fundraising purposes.

We purchased five $10 gift certificates for a pizza restaurant in November 2004.

We sold two of the cards in December 2005.

The purchaser has informed me that when she used the cards the value was only $6 each.

I checked the balance on the remaining three cards and found the balance on those cards was also only $6 each.

It would appear that the pizza franchise has been charging a service fee.

However, this is not lawful in California except when the balance of the card is less than $5 and the card has not been used for 24 consecutive months, which is not the case.

I had to refund our customer $8, plus I cannot sell the remaining three cards.

When I e-mailed the restaurant headquarters about this, all they did was send me a coupon for a free pizza. My second e-mail has been ignored. I would like five new $10 gift cards and an acknowledgment that what they did was wrong.

Barbara Schofield
Santa Clara

A You tried and I tried to get Pizza Hut to comment on this. You got the run-around and so did I.

You are right about the law and when fees can be deducted from the value of a gift card that was purchased for the face value. (But remember that a gift card with a logos such as Visa and MasterCard can expire and can lose value if you don't use it.)

In this case, you should go to the law. Contact the Consumer Protection Unit of the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office at [phone]. You can also contact the California attorney general (https://app.dca.ca.gov/ cru/gencomplaint.htm).

:grr: