

Ask HN: What's with the Google Play Gift Card policy? - methodin

Recently I was given $250 for my birthday in Google Play Gift Cards to put towards the purchase of a Nexus 7 device from the Play store. I of course redeemed the cards then went to purchase the device to find out you cannot use those credits towards the purchase of hardware/accessories. It is apparently the situation that as a recipient of such a card you have no choice but to redeem it to buy goods (books, music etc...) as the stores themselves will not refund the card and Google does not allow you to do what you please with them, nor refund the value of the cards.<p>It seems strange to me that this policy exists. While it does say deep down in the Terms and Conditions that it does not work for devices, there is no indication that it does not from the gift card itself. I am currently in a situation of having $250 of credits with nothing to buy with them - at least not on a device I want to consume those goods with.<p>Does anyone have insight as to the logic behind their policy and their unwillingness to budge on it?
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Trapick
Probably to make it hard to convert to cash or easily sold goods. That way
they can give them out for customer service reasons / free giveaways, etc.
without worrying about them being traded in for phones and sold at cash value
(or near to it).

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methodin
I figured something along these lines - or fraud. Though one wonders why they
wouldn't help out those with legitimate reasons for wanting to use them.

