On June 15th, I purchased a $300 Visa gift card at a Ralph’s (owned by Kroger) in Calabasas as Father’s Day gift for my elderly and disabled father. The card did not work when dad tried to use it, so we went to the website on the back of the card - the card number was not valid. We called the customer service number on the card and were told that this was a fraudulent card, the card number and bar code do not match, and to contact the store where we purchased it. I contacted Ralph’s, and after over a week and half, the store manager, Edwin, confirmed that I was sold a fraudulent card that had been tampered with. The manager told me that this is a big problem for the store, and as much as they try, they can’t prevent fraudulent cards from being placed on the card kiosks. According to him, the store loaded the money onto a card, so the transaction is good as far as they are concerned, even though they loaded it to a bar code stuck onto my card by a scammer. Because the card they sold me had been tampered with, the money never went to the card we purchased. He is refusing to give me a refund, issue me a new card, or even offer a store credit in the amount of my purchase. And the corporate customer service for Ralph’s and their parent company, Kroger is completely useless. I have called both customer service lines, emailed Kroger, and emailed Kroger executives directly, and no response. Ralphs and Kroger are taking no responsibility for the fact that they are selling fraudulent products - possibly the most expensive products in the store (as these cards can go up to $500). The company is aware that this is a problem, yet they are keeping these cards on their shelves and selling them to customers. They do not take even basic steps to protect the cards from tampering and pass all the risk to their customers. Anyone who purchases a gift card from Ralph’s/Kroger stores, is in danger of losing large amount of money with seemingly no recourse. The stores are fully complicit in this scam.
