Why Raise.com is dead to me

Matt

Administrator
Staff member
Many of you are familiar with Raise.com I used them a lot during renovations of my home, and it's one of the few lingering apps that I might consider using to save a buck or two.

The concept of Raise is that you can buy a discount gift card on your phone and have it delivered instantly when shopping, it can save 5-10% on your purchase.

The problems with Raise:

The giftcards don't always arrive instantly, so you are at the mercy of the transaction if you want to actually check out and pay. In many big stores that can mean that you need to run to the front entrance to get a signal, hope it has arrived, and then checkout, or do that 20 times until it does. If it doesn't, you've got a cart full of items and you can't check out, because you've committed your transaction to Raise.

Secondly, Raise doesn't update the value of partial gift cards, so if you buy 3 cards to check out with, and leave a balance on one, you have to log in to the merchant site to remember which card is which and has a value... this is a pain in the arse.

Lastly, if there is a problem with the transaction, you are stuck with the card, as just happened to me.

We were recently in a shop that was far from home picking up a few items for an upcoming trip. I decided to buy a Raise.com card on the fly and checkout. The card 'arrived' after just one visit to the front of the store for a signal...

However, on checkout, the Raise.com App crashed, refusing to bring up the card. I tried to work around this by going to the Raise.com website and pulling up the giftcard there. (all this while standing in line) this required two factor authentication (a code sent to my phone to enter into the website).

The code arrived, didn't work. Tried it 3-4 times.. nothing. While in line.

Paid with my credit card, apologized for holding up everything, left feeling like an idiot.

I emailed Raise about this 8 days ago (minutes after the purchase) and asked them to refund me. They got back to me today saying they wouldn't.. I'm now the proud owner of a gift card to a store far from home, which may or may not be something I could pull up in the future.

Just another story of lame customer service and how we waste our time in order to save a few bucks.. in this case, it was a $25 card I bought for $23.

I almost decided to threaten them to deal with this in a DYKWIA moment, but that would mean if they did cave in and refund the card it was because of my ability to influence their target market, and they'd go on to screw you guys over in similar situations.

So Raise.com keep your $23, you're dead to me.
 

Josh F

Level 2 Member
Charity Forum Mod
I was annoyed with them when I went to resell some hotels.com gift cards, apparently those get held for 60 (or so) days before they get listed, but this doesn't get mentioned when you list them... they'll email you to say you need to call in and then they'll tell you
 

JCPoints16

JCMiling
That sucks...Do you have an iPhone? I had an android and just switched to iPhone. I have noticed the raise app doesn't work at all for my iPhone but still works perfectly on my android. Also, sucks you had bad experience with Raise. They are one of the main reseller websites I order from and haven't had any problems yet. Most of my e-cards post to the wallet right away. FYI, for immediate e-giftcards, don't use cardpool. They take days to receive. I have been ok with it b/c I assumed they need time to reverify giftcards and your account.

If you are ever nearby the store and within the return window period keep the price tag and receipt (they may want you to have the item you purchased with you so you should bring it along just in case)...Ask CSR to return and then put on your gift cards. About to do that with a nordstroms/marshall purchase today. Might not work at all stores, but I figure most CSR won't mind doing this. I know for sure it works at Nordstrom.
 
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fpguy

Level 2 Member
I work right near Raise headquarters and I know a few of the devs there. I always enjoy seeing posts like these haha.
 

Matt

Administrator
Staff member
So are you just giving up on Raise or also other 3rd party gc resellers
I only used raise... It's the point of sale thing... If you promise to deliver a card and you don't know how much to buy until you are midway through shopping the process needs to be seemless.

I don't buy other cards generally speaking, so it's less of an issue for me.
 

MickiSue

Level 2 Member
I hadn't gotten on the Raise bandwagon, because it was one more thing to remember, along with which card to use, had I looked in the clearance area for MS opportunities? did I remember everything I came into the store for in the first place, as I strolled around looking for clearance items?...

Looks like I dodged a very annoying bullet.
 

MaiJohnson

Level 2 Member
Ugh... I just had the same issue with another similar GC seller(CardPool) and the most frustrating part is there rarely seems to be rhyme or reason to the delays. One time you'll receive it instantly, the next time it's seemingly lost in space, and even more frustratingly on one of the recent purchases I received multiple "buy more" confirmation type e-mails, but no actual E-Gift cards.

With there being almost no real pattern to when it works "properly" it's almost never worth the hassle for anything remotely time sensitive.
 

Alice

Level 2 Member
I had a bunch of Whole Foods cards purchased through Raise go bad. Haven't purchased from them again since. One other time I needed to contact their customer service and it was a ridiculous level of PITA. Bye, bye Raise. Can't say I miss you.
 

RightAllocations

Level 2 Member
I was annoyed with them when I went to resell some hotels.com gift cards, apparently those get held for 60 (or so) days before they get listed, but this doesn't get mentioned when you list them... they'll email you to say you need to call in and then they'll tell you
I'll echo your frustration here - similar long issuing delay to sell a Southwest Gift Card purchased with the WF Propel airline fee credit.

Also long delays on payment, and wasted time on weird listing criteria (like taking screenshots which offer no more information than previously forwarded purchase emails)
 

dwpinkston

New Member
wow, i never knew raise.com existed. but glad to read here not to try. i like to save money but don't want to have the stress of what Matt experienced.
 
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