Using An Old JC Penny Gift Card

I decided yesterday it would be a good day to go in to Burlington and cash in several Gift Cards that I had. I first went in to Sears where my Gift card could be used at either Lands End, K-Mart or Sears. I was looking for some Pajamas and finally found what I was looking for. They had some real good sales on them as well as bathrobes.

I then went over to Customer Service and the guy in front of me apparently was doing his yearly shopping, as it took forever, as he kept going back after more stuff. As it got closer to me to be checked out, I discovered that I had left my Sears Gift Card in the car, but there was no way that I was going to give up my place in line and go through this again.

I then decided I would go to JC Penny and see what they had, as long as I was already in Burlington. As I stepped in the door, a very pleasant young lady said "Hi" to me. I assumed she was a Customer Service Rep to help direct me to where I wanted to go, so I told her I was looking for Pajamas. She directed me where to go and then said, "You don't recognize me, do you? I see you at St. Luke's in Fairfax. As I looked again, I did recognize her. Sure is a small world, especially when you don't expect to see a familiar face.

I went in the direction the young lady had sent me and asked the next clerk I saw where the pajamas were. She actually took me to the spot where I picked out what I wanted, and as I was headed towards a checkout, a very nice clerk told me he could help me out. I gave him my two gift cards and when he went to use them, discovered they were six years old and had been deactivated. I thought, "Oh Crap" I'll bet they are charging me a yearly fee and I will be lucky if I have anything left. He had to call someplace, then took me over to the Catalog Order place and two people worked for about 20 minutes faxing and issuing new cards and putting my sale through. The Gift Cards were from 2005 and I was not charged a service charge and the full amount was still there. The clerks and office manager were super and I was very impressed by them.

I ended up coming home with 5 pairs of pajamas (Probably at my age considered a lifetime supply). Although Sears was kind of short of help, I was really impressed with the sales clerks in both stores as they tried to make sure I got everything I was looking for and was satisfied.