Don't Buy Gift Cards from The Good Guys Concierge or Pegasus Group or At Work

Because they have such a bad reputation but members of OZB still post their deal regularly, I am sick of repeating my comments every time.
So I will just write a post here and let everyone share their experience with them.
I also suggest OZB admin to ban their deals

The Good Guys Concierge or Pegasus Group or At Work, whatever they call, they are the same business, it's nothing about TGG, just outsourcing.

I bought my cards from them regularly for last 5 years. They used to be alright, always deliver within 3 months, after numerous calls and emails of course.

However since 2020, they aim to keep your cash as long as they can, and don't send you the cards. Here is their trick.

  1. They run "10% off Physical Woolworths Wish Gift Card or Coles Myer Gift Card" deal every month. (Before 2020, they ran it every 3-4 months only, that shows they are having trouble in cash flow.)
  2. They say it takes them 28 business days to deliver, but no, they never. They
  3. After waiting for 6 weeks, if you don't chase them, they will never get back to you. They rely on people forget about their orders so that they can keep the cash forever.
  4. Since 2020, you can never reach them on the phone. Also, TGG doesn't care about this outsourced program, don't waste your time.
  5. You will be lucky if they reply your email once a week.
  6. When you start sending them emails, they will give you all kinds of excuses. e.g. "We will send them next week.", "We will let you know when they are shipped." "We have sent it, if you don't receive it by next Friday, let us know and we will send you replacement cards." They even sent me a fake tracking number.
  7. 3 weeks after the first email, maybe it's just a good idea to claim your money back. Open a Paypal case, you will need to screenshot the original receipt, so don't delete that email.
  8. Don't open a case within the 6 weeks/28 business days waiting period, otherwise your case will be dismissed by paypal and you will never get your money back
  9. Be aware of the deadline when you may escalate your case to Paypal, usually 4 weeks after you first opened the case. This is extremely important. If you miss it, you will never get your money back. Keep the date in your Google calendar, and let it send you a reminder email or notification.
  10. They will then try to offer you e-gift card instead. If your order is just a small one (ie. $250), you will probably get it. For large orders? ($1000, $2000) Forget it. They will then stop replying. They want you to miss the dispute deadline, so you can no longer escalate the case to PayPal and case closed.
  11. Note that they will only send you Coles e-gift card, unlike physical Coles Myer Gift Card, it can't be used in Shell/ Officeworks/ Myer etc. They just don't have stock at all.
  12. Send them a final warning message before deadline, " If I don't receive my cards by x date, I will escalate the case to PayPal."
  13. You will receive a full refund within a day lmao. They don't even bother to send you e-gift card. That was 4 months after I placed my order.

Yes, 10% off sounds very attractive, but when cashreward and shopback can only offer 3% off now and 0% later this month, why are they the only one to offer 10% off?
If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Keep the cash in your own bank account during the pandemic. If the Pegasus Group collapse, you won't be able to get your money back.
This applies to all kinds of gift cards. Pay extra attention on those 3rd party ones (ie. Him, Her, Kids, Vanilla Visa etc)
Do you recall what happened when DickSmiths collapsed? Gift card holders are unsecured creditors.

Anything other than WW and Coles group, don't stock up too many, only buy what you are going to spend.
Wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Cheers~

Related Stores

The Good Guys
The Good Guys
My Rewards International
My Rewards International
The Good Guys Concierge
The Good Guys Concierge

Comments

  • +5

    Great post. Completely agree - my experience as well.

    It's been getting progressively worse (longer waits) but this year was the time they just didn't deliver at all. There's no point buying just to wait for a possible refund in 5-6 months time. You're just paying to be aggravated (well, I guess you can buy if that's what you're looking for ;-) ).

  • +10

    Please share your experience to show OZB admins why we should ban them here :)

    • +2

      Suggestion: whenever you see a post, link this comment and report the thread to a moderator including your link and the reason why you're reporting it.

      Not sure if that's allowed, or the right way to approach it, but this definitely needs to be circulated more around the OZB community as they have been doing this for far too long now. They rely on people being lazy, forgetful or too busy to chase it up and those small amounts they acrue end up adding up big time. Fair Trading need to kick their a$$es.

      Great post!

  • Thanks for the heads up, as I've never dealt with them before and feel FOMO on the 10% off GC.

    Hope this will escalate to Oz Mod roundtable. Maybe the website attach a warning to companies which got a bad rap from real ozbargainers review… Kinda like Facebook or Twitter alerting people the information on their post is questionable.

    Then when people post deals about this, or even Shopback post, people get a warning on the deal automatically. Then it becomes buyers aware .

  • +1

    Yes this is my experience too. Prior to 2020 they were difficult but ok. If you hassled them they would eventually send you the gift cards.

    This year it has been terrible. They don't respond and don't send the cards.

  • I'm glad I never bothered with them. I always thought it looked too much effort to sign up and 10% was likely too good to be true.

  • Dang, only bought from them for the 1st time 2 weeks ago…..

  • Thank you for the comprehensive write up and warning.

  • +1

    Thanks for reminding me - I have $5/month deducted from my pay for this Pegasus Group thing and haven't used it before. Time to cancel tomorrow!

  • Very detailed post - thanks.

  • +1

    Vanilla VISA has been taken down off Coles shelf recently.

  • +2

    I have the same experience as well. I am also paying a few dollars per week from my salary.

    My ex-employer uses API Lifestyle (which is now merged to Rewards Gateway) and their services are excellent.
    Their memberships are open to public for $9.75/months. You can leave anytime. I am considering to re-join API Lifestyle.
    https://api.rewardgateway.com.au/

    • Do they offer discounted woolworths gift cards?

  • Yes, according to their saving calculator
    https://join.apilifestyle.com.au/savings-calculator

    • Hey uniwon, do you know if they sell wish gift cards or just woolworths specific cards?

      • Wish cards.
        I am still chasing my September order.
        Their classic response are 'order are lost and replacement will be sent in 2 to 10 days'.

        Do not buy from them unless you are willing to spend time and energy to chase with them.

        • I was asking about reward gateway. Do you know if they sell wish gift cards or woolworths cards only?

  • +1

    Anyone complained to ACCC?

    • +1

      Was thinking that myself. Maybe we should all complain!

    • +1

      We can collect all the required evidence.

      I think order number, order date, physical gift cards value and actual delivery date are sufficient

      Do not post your name, email and and personal information.

  • +2

    I totally agree with OP. I had same experience.

    My last physical gift card order from At Work was November last year when they had 10% off promotion. And I hoped I could get them before Christmas but eventually It took nearly 6 months to get my physical gift cards after numerous emails.

    Their e-gift card used to be not bad. Early this year I was able to get e-gift card within a couple of days. But my recent e-gift card purchase from them (4 weeks ago) took 2 weeks to come. That was after I emailed them a couple of times and never got response.

    I will not buy any gift card from them in future.

  • +2

    totally agree with op same bad experience. i ordered in july a couple thousand never arrived many excuses finally got email saying refunded from paypal but its not in my amex account yet.

  • +2

    Can confirm - I've dealt with Pegasus group and they are severely understaffed and have had so many delays this whole year. I know of people who are chasing up giftcards from 6 months ago. Their e-giftcard orders are just as bad. Do NOT purchase from Pegasus. You will definitely regret it. What you save in $$, you'll pay in time and headaches.

  • Same here. I have been using them for about 2 years but my last order in Oct was simply ignored.

    I'm still going to watch the space though as spend close to 10k on groceries / fuel a year. Wishful think but hope they can get back to being tolerable next year.

  • +3

    I am writing a letter to ACCC for their deceptive and misleading conducts. The advertised expected delivery date is a false claim because they knew they cannot deliver within the timeframe. All of my physical gift card orders in this year are always at least 2 months late.

    I think if we can get enough people to write, a case can be built

    • +1

      This is a great idea.
      Please enclose the url of this post to the ACCC.
      If they decide to open a case, I am happy to give evidence.

  • +1

    It looks like this post has successfully stopped them from running a 10% off promotion since. 💪👍

  • +3

    Dear all,
    The store is now permanently banned from OZB
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/10377274/redir
    Thanks every mate for sharing your painful experience and thanks mod for the right decision.

    The best and easiest way to get discounted supermarket gift cards regularly (3%) is through Suncorp Rewards. If you have an insurance policy with them (including AAMI), you got free access.
    Or just open an everyday account with Suncorp bank online. It's free of charge.
    Here is some more details.
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/wiki/discounted_egift_cards

    Sometimes Woolworths runs 5% off promotion directly from their gift card website, it was mid-March last time.

    For now, have a good weekend and stay safe. Cheers.

    • For those with Shannon’s insurance, you can also access Suncorp Rewards. It’s a great program and gift cards are delivered instantly. I buy them while in store for the exact amount.

      Caveat is that they have weekly and monthly limits of $1000 per store so you need to buy in advance for larger purchases. The week runs Mon to Sun

      Interestingly my partner and I have both successfully signed up and have different accounts using the same policy number, which is in both our names. So you can get 2 x $1000 GCs per week that way

      • You know it is closing/changing?

        • yes, but you can still use it until then and you just need to screenshot your egift card info or write it down if you haven't used it before it closes off. Not sure what it is changing to.

  • No Coles cards on Sunsuper. I just had an ebay card be delayed 10 days through RedeemYourGiftCard (Sunsuper). Seems any gift card system that works manually is subject to them forgetting or missing your order, or fraud by delay.

    Only automatic systems like The Entertainment Book one are reliable and quick (I have bought gift cards while in store shopping, they come through so quickly).

    • +1

      Suncorp has nothing related to Sunsuper.
      And it always deliver egift card instantly.

    • Ive noticed long delays by sunsuper lately too.

  • Have you ever check your gift card history and found out it was spent by other people too?
    Or it was just me?
    Eg they sending one gift card to multiple people

    • That is just crazy!

    • luckily that has never happened to me. I mainly get the Coles/Myer physical gift cards and Wish when they have the 10% off deals (takes ages to get them I know and a hassle, but worth it for the 10% off), but if they can't get the physical Wish cards within 8 weeks, I ask them to swap to egift card and they send the links to the cards in an email. Haven't had an issue so far. Maybe their system has crap security and others can hack into your gift cards in your account?

  • Blackwoods is the same

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