Question about using AARP GIt cards

[peagreenid]

23 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Have you tried calling AARP yet and asking them what you should do in your situation? May be worth a try.
 

https://help.aarp.org/s/article/rewards-daily-deal-issue

I didn't. Reading  AARP terms say any issue with the gift cards need to be dealt with directly with Princess.

The last agent I had on the phone was very knowledgable but was trying to get me off the phone to call AARP.  After the information on the AARP website and the information I read regarding these issues here the consensus seemed to be that AARP can't do anything.  (I think the cards are sold directly by Princess from the AARP website.)   When she tried to get me off the phone for the last time,  I essentially said, NO,  I need to talk to a supervisor.  I think it put her off, but I wasn't letting her off the phone.  The other people I spoke with today except for the original chat agent were worthless.  One of them hung up on me as soon as I explained the issue.  So, the last agent, put me on hold while waiting for a supervisor.  She kept checking on me and got the card number and pin from me at one point and I thought I was getting someplace.  Then after about 20 more minutes she transferred my call directly to the supervisor.  The supervisor was very nice.  She told me that Princess doesn't handle gift cards at all and that the company that they had previously given me the phone number for handles all of their gift cards.  I had called the 3rd party vendor earlier this morning and the phone agent told me that they didn't handle AARP cards.  I explained this to the supervisor.  She gave me both the phone number and an email address.  I was still hesitating at this point, and she relented and gave me her direct email so that I can contact her immediately if I get no place with the 3rd party company.  There is a possibility that the agent I originally spoke with doesn't know that they handle aarp cards.  The verbage on the Princess website and the AARP Card terms are the same.   I put everything into an email.  Hopefully I will hear something back soon.  If not I will try to call the number back again. And If I don't get a favorable response I will reach back out to the supervisor.  And if they doesn't work,  I'll dispute the $500 charge. 

[peagreenid]

20 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

 

I just reread my initial post 49. Did you follow my process? It doesn’t sound like you did. It appears after verifying the funds were gone using the info provided at post 45, I contacted AARP, who in turn gave me a number to call at Princess.

 

We encountered our first “insufficient funds” issue today when our TA tried to upload 10 AARP Princess gift cards and one of them rejected with zero funds on the card. Up until today, we had had zero issues purchasing our max number of gift cards every month for over a year now. We then verified the bad GC had zero funds using the link provided at post 45. Thanks @Thrak!
 

We subsequently contacted AARP, who in turn said we needed to contact Princess to verify the funds from the gift card in question had not been applied anywhere, to include recording the person’s name in case AARP had to subsequently open up a trouble ticket to figure out what happened to the missing funds.
 

We contacted Princess and their rep confirmed the funds from the gift card had not been applied anywhere and reconfirmed the card had zero funds. We then recontacted AARP, who then proceeded to open a trouble ticket. And now we wait for the 3-5 days for AARP to determine what happened. I’ll let you know what happens. 

No, I haven't contacted AARP.  I read your information on post #94 and it sounded like you were dealing with Princess only.  If I don't hear back I will contact AARP tomorrow as they are closed now.

 

Thank you

[Ken the cruiser]

18 minutes ago, peagreenid said:

No, I haven't contacted AARP.  I read your information on post #94 and it sounded like you were dealing with Princess only.  If I don't hear back I will contact AARP tomorrow as they are closed now.

 

Thank you

After reading what I wrote back on post 49, it reminded me of the process I took. By calling AARP first, they not only gave me the PCL phone number to call, but also the guidance to record the person’s name, just in case I had to call AARP back if the PCL rep gave me any issues. 
 
We subsequently contacted AARP, who in turn said we needed to contact Princess to verify the funds from the gift card in question had not been applied anywhere, to include recording the person’s name in case AARP had to subsequently open up a trouble ticket to figure out what happened to the missing funds.

 

Anyway, good luck tomorrow finding a solution to your missing GC funds. 😁

[peagreenid]

33 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

After reading what I wrote back on post 49, it reminded me of the process I took. By calling AARP first, they not only gave me the PCL phone number to call, but also the guidance to record the person’s name, just in case I had to call AARP back if the PCL rep gave me any issues. 
 
We subsequently contacted AARP, who in turn said we needed to contact Princess to verify the funds from the gift card in question had not been applied anywhere, to include recording the person’s name in case AARP had to subsequently open up a trouble ticket to figure out what happened to the missing funds.

 

Anyway, good luck tomorrow finding a solution to your missing GC funds. 😁

Thank you!  At least I have the supervisors name.  This is all crazy for sure.  It seems no one wants to be responsible.  

[JimmyVWine]

3 hours ago, peagreenid said:

No, I haven't contacted AARP.  I read your information on post #94 and it sounded like you were dealing with Princess only.  If I don't hear back I will contact AARP tomorrow as they are closed now.

 

Thank you

For what it’s worth, I had this issue come up once. It took 2 months to finally get a replacement card issued. The solution came from AARP after they opened a ticket. Princess could not do anything other than confirm that I tried to enter the GC number and PIN 27 times and each time the card showed no available funds. And Princess also confirmed that they had no record of the card ever being used successfully. But they could not issue a new card since they did not sell the original one. The AARP representative that I was dealing with once this got elevated was wonderful. She asked me to send her an email directly to her own account with a narrative of what happened. She then contacted Princess and confirmed the story that the card had never been used successfully. Once that happened AARP issued a new card (electronically) and also sent me a $50 Mastercard for my trouble. Based on my experience, the solution has to come from AARP. 

[peagreenid]

15 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

For what it’s worth, I had this issue come up once. It took 2 months to finally get a replacement card issued. The solution came from AARP after they opened a ticket. Princess could not do anything other than confirm that I tried to enter the GC number and PIN 27 times and each time the card showed no available funds. And Princess also confirmed that they had no record of the card ever being used successfully. But they could not issue a new card since they did not sell the original one. The AARP representative that I was dealing with once this got elevated was wonderful. She asked me to send her an email directly to her own account with a narrative of what happened. She then contacted Princess and confirmed the story that the card had never been used successfully. Once that happened AARP issued a new card (electronically) and also sent me a $50 Mastercard for my trouble. Based on my experience, the solution has to come from AARP. 

Thank you for your experiences as well.  I plan on reaching out to AARP tomorrow.