This is in response to the CVS Visa gift card story. I had the same thing happen less than a month ago. I went to CVS and bought a $225 Vanilla Visa gift card. Went straight home which is 1 block away. When I opened the card and went to use it online I noticed there were no numbers on the front of the card and no CVV number either. When I called customer service you can't get past the automated system without entering a card # luckily I had an old card sitting around so I entered that # and waited on hold for 45 mins before getting someone. The whole time while on hold all I can think about is that whoever was behind this was draining the balance and by the time customer service got on the phone it would be gone. Luckily that didn't happen but when they finally got on the phone I was told to photograph the card and receipt and packaging and my ID and email the photos to them and they would investigate and within 48hrs I would hear from them. Well when 96hrs had past I called back and again had to enter a old card # and waited on hold for just 28mins this time only to be told that the investigation would actually take 10 days. That's 10 business days which is really 14 days. On day 14 I finally got an email from them saying that the investigation was complete and found in my favor and they would be sending me a replacement card. So another 5 days. So 21 days after I originally bought the card I finally got access to that money which a bit of a plot twist but I had originally bought the card to use online DMV and pay my car registration fees. I ended up having to get a payday loan so my tabs wouldn't expire and not be charged late fees. So my $225 payday loan cost me $290 and I couldn't use the replacement card to payback my payday loan. Vanilla Visa didn't care about any of this and basically said it was my fault for not inspecting the card before I bought but I did and there was no visible tampering on the package however the front of the card had scratches on it but you can't see the front because it's in the packaging. I still have the card and packaging and photos and emails from Vanilla Visa if you want to see any of it. Oh and the Manager at CVS treated me like I was the criminal and told me I wasn't allowed in the store anymore. When I asked if we could all sit down and watch the security footage from when I entered the store and bought the card I was told that they don't have access to it. Obviously that was a lie, if anyone is going to have access I would think it would be the manager. Anyways that's my story. Let me know if you're interested in the evidence I have. Something needs to be done to prevent this from happening. I was lucky enough to be able to straighten out my situation granted it only cost me $290 but I can think of countless scenarios where someone could really get screwed over by this and there is really no recourse.