Shopper’s 2 cents: $2 fee is absurd

Lisa Senske went to Fashion Island recently to buy a gift card for her 12-year-old son, but she was surprised when the concierge told her it would be $2 more than she expected.

Company officials cite a variety of reasons why they’re charging the extra fee, but Senske and other shoppers don’t care.

“I want to support Fashion Island — I love it; I’ve grown up here; my kids go there every weekend. I just don’t think it’s right what they’re doing,” she said. “The bottom line is we’re buying the gift cards and bringing business to them, and most likely we end up spending more money than just the card, getting lunch and all that, and all that does is bring more business to them.”

Senske estimated she purchases about 100 gift certificates every year from Fashion Island for most of her special occasions, including Teacher Appreciation Day and gifts for her four children and their friends.

On Sept. 22 the Irvine Co. announced it would — as many other area malls have — replace its paper gift certificates with gift cards, which would be available at all three of its shopping centers in Orange County, including Fashion Island.

The company partnered with American Express to produce the cards. The credit card company charges a service fee for its products to provide customer support, American Express spokesman Rob Sherman said. The fee covers the cost of replacing the cards if they’re lost or stolen, something not typical of paper certificates. Consumers can also check their balances online and see where they’ve spent the money — just as you can for a credit card account — as well as get the card replaced if needed. All of those services cost the company money, Sherman said.

The Irvine Co. is also providing gift wrap — a chocolate-brown box with a ribbon, with a bag and tissue paper — which the fee also covers. Fashion Island merely seems to be following the lead of malls including the Shops at Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills Mall and Main Place Mall in Santa Ana, which also charge at least a $2 fee for a gift card.

“They don’t give their customers an option,” Senske said, adding that her 12-year-old son doesn’t care about elegant packaging. “I don’t want to necessarily pay for this packaging…. I just thought the whole thing was bad.”

For certain occasions — her mother’s birthday for example — Senske would want to have the nicer packaging, but she’d prefer to make the choice.

Senske said she also doesn’t feel it is her responsibility to pay a fee that covers the cost of replacing a lost or stolen card.

“How many people lose their cards, and why am I paying something for them losing their card?” she asked. “They should be paying the fee if they lose the card.”

The exception to the gift-card rule is South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, which also recently announced it was replacing its gift certificates with American Express gift cards. The shopping center is not charging a service fee for its cards though, mall spokeswoman Debra Gunn-Downing said. The shopping center offers free wrapping, or people can buy fancier packaging for an extra $2.

“As a customer courtesy, we don’t charge a service fee,” Gunn-Downing said. “We didn’t charge a fee for the paper certificates, so we didn’t want to change that.”

Senske did her homework too, checking other local malls to find out where she wouldn’t be charged and came up with only South Coast Plaza. She said unless Fashion Island lifts the service fee, she’ll either go straight to the stores or purchase mall gift cards at the Costa Mesa center.

Irvine Co. executives say they’re not doing anything out of the ordinary and think their guests like the wrapping.

“We just think it benefits our customers,” Irvine Co. spokesman Bill Rams said. “It’s elegant to have the cards wrapped up nicely and already packaged in a beautiful way. We just think it adds to the gift.”

Regardless of what mall you go to with American Express gift cards — not all the malls outside Newport-Mesa use the company — one fact remains the same: Use the card within a year to avoid further fees. If the card has not been used in 13 months, American Express starts charging $2 a month, which “covers continual customer service and maintenance,” Sherman said. Every month thereafter, $2 will be deducted from the total until the balance is used up. Senske said she thinks the real winner in this is American Express.

California law prohibits expiration dates and fee structures like this on gift certificates purchased from an individual retailer or store. But because the gift cards are good at more than one store, that law does not apply.

“We encourage people to use the card right away,” Sherman said. “These cards are not designed to be given and held onto.”