Goofy Gift Card

 My sister sent me a gift card the other day so I could use it to buy some cheese to send to her.  She cannot buy Tillamook cheese where she lives.  I ended up paying cash for the cheese and just kept the card for my own use since I paid more for the cheese anyway.

Last week I tried to use the card and it was rejected, so I logged into the web site to check the balance.  Sure enough, it showed $60 available.  The next day I bought some diesel fuel for my Jeep and tried the card at the pump.  It worked fine and did not as for the required PIN number....hmmm.  I though OK that's nice.

The next day I went to Ace hardware to buy some stuff and used the card again and it worked great, again not asking for the required PIN number.  A few days passed.

We went to Walmart and had a large grocery bill to pay, a little over $100 so I asked the attendant at the computer check stand to help me with my gift card because I knew the balance was small and I wanted to use it up.  She helped me and made two tries.  Both times the card was rejected.  So I paid up with my regular Visa and we went home.

Yesterday evening I decided to check up on the card to see what happened.  Here it is....   The website claimed that I spent $23.80 at Ace, $42.74 for Fuel, and TWO payments of $36.28 to Walmart for a total of $139.10.  It then deducted the $60 value for the card and left me with a balance of $29.74 still on the card.  Using a spreadsheet I tried many combinations of the numbers and there is NO WAY to come up with $29.74.

I checked my paper receipts.... I actually only spent $41.34 for fuel, and $23.80 at Ace.  So.... how can you start with $60, spend $65.14 and still have a balance of $29.74?  And why did the card pay the whole amount at ACE when the sale exceeded the limit?

How is it that their records show $139.10 of purchases when in reality, the card was rejected?  I tried the card again today at an auto parts store and it worked fine, and asked for the PIN and since I was buying more that $29.74, I had to pay the balance with another card.

Is this just "New Math?"  Hmmm.  I think I figured it out.  The company that owns this card is probably owned by Dominion, the company that makes voting machines.  It is very plain to see why you should not trust a computer to count your votes for the most important office in the world.  Also, you should also never go to Vegas and play "video poker" against a computer.