Target Corp. (Minneapolis) said a “small percentage” of its gift cards are not working properly when customers try to redeem them. The worth of the cards cannot be determined when they’re scanned.
“We are aware that some Target gift cards were not fully activated and apologize for the inconvenience,” a Target spokeswoman said. She added that the reports in the media have exaggerated the numbers of problematic gift cards. “The actual number of cards impacted was less than 0.1 percent of the total sold during the holiday period,” she said. “Target will honor the impacted cards. If a guest discovers that [her] gift card has not been activated, [she] can bring it to the guest service desk at [her] local Target store or call [an 800 number].”
The gift card issue is reportedly unrelated to the security breach the retailer experienced in December that affected as many as 40 million credit and debit cards holders.