Farmer H is back to playing bingo at the Senior Center on Wednesdays. He hasn't been bringing home all his loot lately. There's a stack on his chair at the kitchen table. I suppose he lets the loot accumulate in SilverRedO until he needs room for something else.
Anyhoo... he brought in a gift card on Wednesday.
"Three of us won it, in a tie. So we had to pick a number to see who got it. The first time we picked, we all chose 6!"
"That's not good! 6-6-6 is the devil's number, heh, heh! That can't be good for anybody!"
"We picked again, and two of us had the same number. But on the third try, I won it! She says it has to be activated."
"Huh. I thought gift cards were always activated when you bought them. Like the ones hanging at the checkout at the Devil's Playground. When you buy one, it gets activated, so you can give it to someone."
"I don't know. But the gal told me I had to activate it."
"I guess you call it in, like when you get a new insurance card or something."
"I thought maybe you could do it for me."
OF COURSE HE DID!
It's still lying here on the table. I'll get around to it...
It looks like something you might find when cleaning out your great aunt's handkerchief drawer after she's passed away. A forgotten gift, never used, waiting to be re-gifted, perhaps.
It's hermetically sealed in cardboard. The back has a long barcode. I'll have to tear it open, and go online to see how to make it work. At least the date says it's good until 12/34.
I don't plan to make Farmer H wait THAT long. But I'm really in no hurry to inconvenience myself. Maybe I would have more energy for this task, had I nourished my body with a tasty Reuben Sandwich on Friday night.
4 comments:
I know for sure ours get activated at purchase, so I keep the receipts and give them to the card recipients at Christmas in case the card doesn't work, so they can prove it was paid for and not stolen. That way they get a replacement card or the cash equivalent. What I don't like is the added cost of buying them, which used to be $5 and is now $7.99, so I just give the kids cash instead.
Try using it and then you'll know for sure if it is already activated.
River,
This card is sealed inside that cardboard, so I don't think it could be activated already. Seems like they did this kind of packaging on purpose for that. The cards in the Devil's Playground are not all sealed up, just attached to a slab of cardboard to hang on hooks.
It also says "+$3.84 Purchase Fee." And at the bottom, "No Fees After Purchase."
it must be really really old, sealed up like that went out of style many years ago.
River,
That's what I thought, until I finally went online last night to activate it. Supposedly it was purchased at the Devil's Playground on Sept 13th. I was shocked! It looks so old-timey and worn. But inside, the card looked perfectly modern. Farmer H said he's going to use it at Casey's. Probably for gas in SilverRedO. I don't think he will spend $25 on donuts...
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