A relative bought all four members of my family Australia post gift cards as gifts. My teenagers immediately handed me theirs and asked for cash instead. So I had 4 gift cards to spend. I did a large Coles shop and tried to pay with my Australia post gift cards (which Coles assured me was possible). No one in the store could make them work. It was… Read more
very frustrating. I happened to be going straight to a post office afterwards. I asked if I could get a balance at least (as the cards were for different amounts and Coles suggested this was the reason they weren't working (!)). AP could not give me a balance, and could not exchange for cash. I'm dreading trying to get purchases from these cards. Nightmare. FAIL from Australia Post. Do not purchase!!!!
do not purchase - i have spent days and hours on the phone trying to get my money reimbursed. i have not been sent a tracking number, only a receipt number - staff on the phone keep telling me untruths. so now i'm 300 down and have no gift card purchased over 2 weeks ago and they won't reimburse me as they 'are still looking into it' so my only choice is to call them everyday!!
This is a SCAM DON'TBUY THIS CARD. Received a $100 gift card whoch was declined when I tried to use it in BigW. Tried to register the card in the website and it didn't let me. Contact the saint agnes post office and told us to contact MasterCard. From there everything has been a nightmare. It has been a month since a complaint and nothing has… Read more
been done, every time I called get the same answer. The card ID doesn't appear, it will be escalated and it is with our technical team. Have sent emails as well and only the firt one was replayed. When you call costumer service the people hardly speaks any English and never gives you a yes or no answer, telling me first they will resolve the issue in 5 days, then in 7 days and now they can't give me a timeframe to fix it. Obviously they just want to steal your money as they have never contacted me to give me an update. Worse gift card ever, can't believe nothing has been done to prevent this to keep happening.
Reviews with attachments
AVOID AT ALL COST – Absolutely useless!!! AVOID AT ALL COST!! The cards get block for using in a post office to pay bills and take 2 weeks of continuous following up to get unblocked!! I feel like a peasant while trying to use my own money.
Not a good giftcard as not reliable for online use but usable in store at supermarket – Unsuccessful in using it in the way that I was led to believe would work by AusPost customer service when I explained what I wanted. I loaded $200 onto the Auspost Mastercard Gift card purely so I could pay an online annual fee for a particular guitar app that automatically charges an expensive monthly subscription after the first year, which I… Read more
did not want. Unfortunately, the gift card was not accepted as payment by the app. I tried to purchase a one-off egift card from RACQ site, but this was also rejected. Then I read all the bad reviews, and realised, this card is not reliably accepted for online use. However, I was lucky to successfully use the card in store, to buy a $100 Bunnings giftcard and $100 groceries over 3 visits to Coles supermarket (2 visits at manned checkout and 1 at self service). You must swipe the magnetic strip and use the pin when prompted. I still lost the $5.95 purchase price, though.
ALERT - DO NOT BUY and WASTE YOUR TIME, MONEY, ENERGY and "HEALTH" – My wife received this worst gift card worth $2000 ($500 x 4) as a referral from her consultant last year. I decided to use this card at various online sites, but it did not work. As everyone might be aware, this worst gift card gets rejected by almost 99.99% of the websites. I did my research and found that this crap card is not fit for purpose.… Read more
There were few suggestions, 1. Use it at physical stores like woolworths, coles and aldi. 2. Use it at Coles to convert it into coles gift card. 3. Use it at https://auspost.com.au/shop/gifts/gift-cards/egift-cards and convert to a gift card of your choice.
So, I went with option #3. I was little sceptical at first and tried to buy $100 Amazon gift card. To my surprise, it worked straight away. I was excited and decided to convert rest of the amount in my 1st card i.e., $400 to Amazon gift card. I received an email that the transaction will be fraud checked, which makes sense. Couple of days later, the transaction was approved and I received my email with $400 Amazon gift card.
I tried to convert my 2nd card, full value of $500 to Amazon gift card. It went through the normal process of security check and approval. I received the Amazon gift card email after couple of days.
NIGHTMARE TIME::: :-( Then the nightmare started. 3rd and 4th card did not work. Received an error "We couldn't process your payment. Please try another payment method or contact your bank.". I tried the contact number metioned on Australia Post website 1800 549 718 to check what was the issue. Speaking to the customer care person was really a struggle. He really did not understand the problem, even after explaining so many times. His only response was "Not sure why it is not getting processed, may be the merchant is not accepting the gift card". I gave them 1st and 2nd gift card number and asked him to read out the transaction. He read it as "AUST POST ONLINE SHOP MELBOURNE AU". I told him that I'm using the 3rd and 4th card with the same merchant. He patiently replied "may the merchant did not accept the card, did you try it in KFC or McD". I never mentioned about KFC or McD, may be he was hungry, as it was around lunch time at Manila, Philippines ??? Only thing I could do was laugh at my situation, as I'm not able to make that guy understand the problem. I finally said, let me call the merchant and check.
I called Australia Post at 137678. I explained the scenario, call was transferred to another person. Again I explained the scenario, I was told that "Australia Post Mastercard gift card is fully managed by MasterCard, so only option is to call MasterCard customer care and explain it again". He gave the number 1800 549 718. My heart sank after I noticed that number.
I thought let me try calling them again, obviously a new person but same outcome. I couldn't make him understand for such a long time. Out of frustration, I even asked them "were you not able to understand what I'm explaining or are you just pretending as if did not understand ?". After close to 30 minutes in call explaining again and again and again, he said that he understood. He said that he needs to discuss with supervisor, so I was put on hold for 5 minutes. This process repeated 3 times (explanation, hold and checking with supervisor). Finally he said that his supervisor will call me. I know that I will not get any positive outcome from this call. I reluctantly agreed and he noted my number.
The next day, I received a call from a private number. It was from Australia Post fraud analysis team. I was asked, so many questions like * How I received this card ? [Explained the history] * Why am I converting it to a gift card ? [Had to tell about this useless card, as if she is not aware of it.] * Why are you using different computers from same IP address to try and convert the card ? [MasterCard customer care guy asked me to try after clearing cache, different browser or different machine] * Why did you choose the payment gateway as credit card ? [That was only option available - Looks like the team was not trained well about their website.] * Your input does match with data I analysed. Why is that ? [I used my personal email ids, gave my postal address, gave a valid phone number, tried from a single IP address. I'm not sure what other legitimate information that I should use.] She even said that if there are any discrepancies, the case will referred to someone else in their team, police will be involved. [I'm not worried whom she involves, I want to use the cards that I'm legally eligible.] I patiently answered and clarified all the questions, hoping I can start converting my 3rd and 4th gift card, as I want to get rid of the pathetic Australia Post gift card. She said that she will do further analysis and call me back. It has been more than a week, but I haven't heard back from her. I even wrote this note waited for mediation, but no response from Australia Post. Let us see how it goes. Will keep everyone updated.
**** Bottom line **** 1. DO NOT BUY THIS CARD 2. Australia Post should give more training to their fraud analysis team about the functionalities in their own website. 3. BAN this pathetic product. 4. Australia Post should give compensation to all the people who got trapped in this scam for wasting time, money and effort. Also for the stress and mental trauma everyone has suffered because of this pathetic product and process. 5. I could have spent time with my family instead of writing this review, if I had not received such a crap product as gift.
Terrible – This card is trash i just did 2 transactions online yesterday and now its not working it says i have 157 dollars aus in my balance and the customer support via phone is trash.
Positive reviews
Swap your Auspost GC – Top Tip: Find an online giftcard website and swap your APost gift card for other businesses cards. I just swapped mine at Prezzie and it worked easy enough. APost giftcards DO NOT work anywhere!! Swap it for anyone else
Difficult to use or not properly used? – I am very surprisingly to see that so many people are praising this product as not being able to use. So me as a person who do not believe in fallacies decisively purchased this product for experimentation. I have attempted to use the product with Paypal and Stripe for online service purchases and both got declined. However I eventually found… Read more
something very tricky: You will have to use the name written on the giftcard "Gift Cardholder" as your billing name when using Paypal, otherwise you simply get declined.
Now I have successfully rented some servers from online merchants using the AusPost giftcard via Paypal, which is obviously easier for me than exchanging cryptos as we aren't doing anything illegal ;)
Austpost Mastercard Gift Card – This card is designed to be used in a physical shopping experience and as the other '201 (+ or -) x 1 star' enthusiast's have already shared, it will NOT work in the online environment. Note: The reason why this type of card will not work in the online experience, is because it is 'anonymous' in both it's purchase, and in it's provision to… Read more
other's as a gift. Anonymity is NOT conducive to a 'safe and happy' online purchase transaction, so says the Govt. If you wish to enjoy the benefits of a card that allows both physical and online purchases, then your options are to;
A) get yourself a credit card
B) get yourself a debit card
'or'
C) provide photo ID and purchase an Austpost Everyday Mastercard, as this card will allow purchases within ANY dynamic.
As a physical shopping gift card, the Austpost Mastercard Gift Card is perfect for it's designed use.
It is ONLY people, who attempt to misuse the product, that are caught out by the Austpost Fraud Team and / or the Mastercard help line...
Negative reviews
i would give it 0 stars if i could i went into great detail with Auspost staff member about the need to purchase online as still i couldnt use it! Australia Post train your staff they are rediculously under educated and ive now wasted my money! Not happy
I received a $50 card and spent several hours trying to use it at more than 10 online stores, none of them accepted this gift card as valid card. Not even the Australia Post website accepts this card as valid payment. I was trying to purchase a different gift card that I could actually use. When I contacted Australia Post support asking them why I… Read more
could not purchase it, they stated that their gift card cannot be used to purchase other gift cards. This is not stated anywhere in the terms and conditions of their gift card.
The terms specifically state: "The card can be used for purchasing goods and services where Mastercard Prepaid cards are accepted for electronic transactions". This is an outright lie, every site I tried accepted Mastercard prepaid cards and none of them worked.
I eventually managed to use it to buy a Bunnings $50 gift card in-store.
Suffice to say, as all of the other reviewers state, this card is a scam. DO NOT BUY!
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So difficult to access online balance. I just spent 15 minutes of my life repeating the same log in steps to achieve nothing. This is the worst gift card service. Fix up your act Aus Post.
Recent reviews
Borderline scam, disgusting customer service – Do NOT buy these cards online !! If you cannot go to a post office and purchase one directly avoid like the plague! Bought several physical cards for Christmas and Birthday gifts through the Australia Post website. Other than a confirmation of purchase and the funds immediately debited from my account I received no tracking or updates ...after… Read more
more than 10 days I reached out to Australia post who brushed me off and told me to contact MasterCard. .... MasterCard told me to contact Australia Post....finally after messaging Mastercard on Facebook and telling them I was fed up being brushed off from one to another they condescended to look into it....about 4 or 5 days later I received a call from the USA....more nonsense. Then next day got an email from Mastercard to say they have NOT been sent so will refund within 5 working days....then same day receive an email from Australia post saying they were posted but because I complained they were disactivated...however refund did not arrive within the time frame ....sent more emails...finally received the funds but almost 1 month after I paid. Disgusting lack of customer service and communication. Christmas & Birthday gifts messed up with me trying to do a bank transfer last minute to compensate... but with really no assurance that I would be refunded in the first place... It ruined the lovely surprises I had tried to organise for my friends and family who are spread out across this vast nation. One of the disactivated cards arrived by post on Jan 4th....the others still have not arrived.
Waste of time and money – Unable to register the card - constantly states system error. Unable to check balance - tried the website and the phone number on the website and they said the details do not match records.
TOTAL Fraud. No way to resolve issues when cards cant be registered or used – Less than one star !!! Absolutely shameful product. Cannot register card or check balance online or via phone - both say there is an error and you cannot use the card without KNOWING the balance!! Even when it is full and beign used for the first time. With Aust Post and Mastercard names attached consumers might feel confident but DONT BE FOOLED these are total rubbish FAR worse than any gift card. Will also be reporting to regulators.
worst gift card – used once and didn't use the total amount. Now every store I've tried to use it in the card will not work at couple of stores as soon as I've said that i have Aus post gift card they have said that they have so many problems with this type of card. do not give this card to anyone Aus post you are a disgrace.
Australia Post Gift Card is a Scam – Don't buy this card. I tried to check balance but I couldn't. I tried register the card but it didn't work. I call the 1800 numbers provided by Australia Post, after I entered every detail that were asked and the response was "Sorry we couldn't locate your card". Scam scam.
No Good – I have been given an Australia post gift card for Xmas 2 years in a row and am dreading the thing this year because as everyone else has noted, they cannot be used anywhere that is useful to me. with all the negative reviews it feels like Australia post is defrauding people selling these cards if it doesn't do what it says it can. perhaps some… Read more
one with a bit of push for a a CLASS ACTION on Australia post for being able to sell these dud cards. just a thought. Australia post can't blame the other merchants! The buck stops with Australia post as they should have on the site exactly where the cards can be used, i am quite sure it won't take them long to prepare that list. the site should have in BOLD writing that it's a lucky dip as to whether it will work or not at point of sale. it will embarrass you at the checkout and waste your time and force you to leave your purchases behind that you have just painstakingly researched and decided to buy OR whip out your cash or another card from elsewhere to use instead. why have an australia post card if you just have to use cash anyway. all that adds up to is a fraud driven by Australia post. review Written by Christopher Dean.
Still waiting for gift-cards - unhelpful contacts – Thank you to another reviewer - Swellsy who quoted the phone number 1800 549 718. Prior this this, I was unable to contact anyone from Mastercard services. I purchased two Mastercard pre-paid gift cards from Australia Post on 9th December and to date - 21st December they still have not arrived. Chasing up these cards has been challenging -… Read more
Australia Post gave me a number to supposedly contact Mastercard - which, when I rang it, directed me back to Australia Post! (A bit Fawlty Tower-ish!) Mastercard email addresses I was given got me nowhere. I finally got through to a real person (thanks to Swellsy) who advised that the cards should be delivered in 10 business days - that's cutting it mighty fine to reach me by Christmas. I won't purchase pre-paid gift cards from Australia Post again.
Very Poor Experience – I couldn't register the card online, either by the website or the 1800 phone number. Also found it hard to contact a human that could look into this issue.
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Chasing balances and card registration – Yes a terrible gift card. Here is a hint. Ring 1800549718, instead of outting your 16 didgit number in put 16digits of only 0's (16 zeros) This will take you to a human and who can not only activate your card, but give you card balance. Aletrnatively ring 1800 053410 and Mastercard E-cards will transfer you. Good Luck
A product with too many limitations to make it a good experience – This is an atrocious product with limited function and really poor product support from Australia Post. Do not give it to anyone as will will create a lot of inconvenience. I do wonder how many people walk away from this card and Aus Post gets to keep the money
Shitest product – I couldn’t give this product one star if there was the option. It is impossible to check balance at all, neither online from the web provided or the 1800 phone number. It just keep saying can’t be verified
Terrible giftcard with annoying mechanisms – Absolutely terrible. Site requires you to register with your email just to check the balance. After you fill out all the info it gives you an error and says it can't be verified. Avoid at all costs
Very hard – Bad service. It Took a long time to find my balance for a gift card. Either phone or online inquiry. Says ring back or card number invalid. I rang Auspost directly. They gave me different phone nos to ring. Eventually I got help.
Rubbish - do not buy! – I have spent nearly a week going around in circles trying to make this card work. The registration site says the details are invalid. The help number only goes to an ai-bot which demands all the details be typed in, decides said details are wrong, and offers no option to be put through to a human operator. Next I tried the online chat-bot, which… Read more
did eventually connect me with a person, who said they couldn't help but would raise a ticket with Mastercard. I received an email from a Mastercard person in the UK, who requested the card details. On supplying these, I got a another reply from a different person, telling me they can't possibly help and the only thing I can do is call the helpline - yep, the original one with the rude bot. By this point it wasn't worth pursuing any further as I'd already wasted far more than $20 worth of my time.
NO HELP HERE – what a pain in the B%#@!. I tried online and I tried by phone. won't give out details saying incorrect - I keyed in 3 times both ways. how hard is this to get a balance.
Warning - Scam – Warning - these cards are a complete scam. The cards cannot be used ANYWHERE. I was given two gift cards as an honorarium for some one-off work. You cannot spend them ANYWHERE. Not in person, not online, not in store. I went down to Australia Post; they gave me a phone number. The agent on that line gave me another phone number. Two agents later,… Read more
it was explained to me that, although the cards are advertised as able to be used anywhere Mastercard is accepted, Australia Post cannot provide a list of accepted merchants. I tried Coles; Chemist Warehouse; Virgin; Webjet; Flight Centre; and three other online merchants. I tried making payments in person, online, and over the phone. The cards don’t work LITERALLY ANYWHERE.
When I googled the problem I found news articles and reviews from other people who had exactly the same problem! How is Australia Post allowed to sell these?
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I did manage to get them to work at Woolworths after registering them online and getting the balance. So I am upgrading from one start to 2 stars.