Why are Square Gift Cards disassociating from customer profiles?

[thegreenbeanery]

Has anyone else noticed this problem or similar?

We have bunch of customers that use gift cards. We save their gift card to their customer profile for easy access. 

Now all of a sudden when they reload their gift card, it becomes disassocated with their customer profile and we have to resave. Why? 

Also, I do not see any easy way to view a gift card's full number through the dashboard or register - just the suffix/last four digits. If there was a way to view the full number that would be helpful for resaving all these customers' giftcards...

[Helen]

@thegreenbeanery Have you recently started using Square's plastic Gift Cards or have you been reloading them for a while? It's possible that when the Gift Card balance reached $0 it's reset - so that it can be used with a new customer!

Finally, if you contact the CS team they can help you with a report that has the full gift card numbers. As this report has sensitive information you'll need to contact the team and they'll make it available on your account.

[thegreenbeanery]

Thanks Helen!

We've been using them for a while and it just started happening, but yes that is how it goes once it reaches 0$.

Thanks again, I'll contact them.

[Helen]

No problem! Do get in touch when you get a chance, thanks for your patience with this! 

[vhovar]

I was curious if you were able to resolve the issue with the gift card being  unlinked from your customer once the balance goes to zero? We have the same issue. With our old POS we had a gift card associated with a customer (much like having a linked card in Square) and the customer would just keep adding value to it when necessary. Now, when the balance goes to zero they must have the card (or know the card number) to reload the card and then we have to link it to their account again. This has caused some frustration with our regulars. To try and help get over the issue we have started to keep their cards in a file box but this is a very heavy responsibility for us given that the cards could be stolen or misused and most are not associated with a customer any longer.

Thanks!

[thegreenbeanery]

No solution, good luck. I contacted customer service as Helen suggested and they would not provide me with full gift card numbers. 

We've been doing like you, saving regulars gift card numbers and trying to remember to suggest refills before they reach $0 but it is a constant annoyance.

[JustinC]

Hey @thegreenbeanery -

Hmm, this doesn't sound right. Maybe the advocate misunderstood what you were looking to do. No worries - I went ahead and reached out to the Support Team so you can make this available on your account. 

Be on the lookout for an email from them. 

@vhovar - I've reached out to confirm if what you're experiencing with gift cards on file is behaving as expected. I'll reach back out when I get an update

[vhovar]

@JustinC 

Thank you for sending a message to Support. They only addressed the last issue @thegreenbeanery  was having with getting a full card number. They provided the directions on exporting that information but that was only as a result of the actual issue, that being the gift cards are unlinked from the customer when the balance goes to zero and then you lose any connection from the specific card to the customer. If they don't have the card or know the card number you cannot reload money on their card for them. They have to purchase a new card. 

It is also interesting to see that the exported card numbers are not actually correct as they aren't complete without combining them with the pan suffix. Maybe that was by design.

Thanks!

Vhovar

[JustinC]

Back with an update. We've tested the gift card issue you've mentioned and sadly it's behaving as expected. Don't have a solid reason as to why gift cards unlink  when the balance hits $0 but I'll be sure to tell our Product Team that the current workaround you've adopted isn't ideal for your biz. 

Hopefully we can improve in this area. You'll be the first to know of any updates on this thread. 

As far as the gift card number export - the full number should be listed in the first column of your spreadsheet. Depending on the Software you're using to export (excel vs google sheets, etc. ) the numbers might generate in scientific notation. Simply format the column to Plain Numbers so the full number shows. 

Send me a DM if you need more help with your export. Thanks for flagging! 

[vhovar]

@JustinC 

Thank you for the follow up. It would be very helpful to have this corrected to the card stays linked to the customer account. That would allow us to "reload" the card for the customer.

vhovar