Uh-oh.
I just received an email from Gulfport Premium Outlets – a Simon Mall in Mississippi – advising that they’re no longer selling gift cards on the property. We spent a few weeks in Mississippi at the start of the year, including a week in Biloxi which is when we visited Gulfport Premium Outlets a couple of times to buy some $1,000 Visa gift cards.
What’s not clear is if this policy change is isolated to this one Simon Mall (thereby making it harder to MS in MS 😉 ), or if all Simon Mall locations will stop selling gift cards. If so, that’ll be a blow to people who took advantage of the easy opportunity to buy $1,000 Visa gift cards with a $3.95 activation fee.
Update: The good news is that not all malls are stopping in-person gift card purchases. Nick at Frequent Miler has directed me to this comment where someone advised that their local store is restarting gift card sales next week. It might therefore be that all Simon Mall locations had a deadline to decide if they wanted to restart gift card selling or not. We have therefore have one (undisclosed) mall choosing to continue and one choosing not to. Hopefully more choose to continue than not.
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Simon Mall is still selling $1,000 Visa gift cards online, so that’s not changing – it’s only the in-mall option that’s going away in at least one location. We visited Prien Lake Mall in Louisiana to buy $1,000 Visa gift cards a few weeks after visiting Gulfport Premium Outlets; I’ve not received an email from them yet, so hopefully this isn’t widespread. There had been reports of Simon Mall locations not having $1,000 Visa gift cards in stock in recent weeks and months though, so it doesn’t bode well.
Here’s the full content of the email I received:
My name is Traci Snyder, I am a 3 year employee of Simon, and am excited to now be working with the world-class Simon Giftcard program. We want to thank you for your valued business and greatly appreciate the trust and confidence you have placed in us with your Giftcard needs.
Unfortunately, Gulfport Premium Outlets will no longer be selling gift cards on property. However, we would be happy to assist you to purchase giftcards on our online site www.simon.com/volume. If you have any questions about your account or would like help placing an order, please reach out to me. Simon Giftcards are a perfect fit for employees, associates, clients, suppliers-indeed, everyone on your list – they make giving easy during these difficult times.
Remember Simon Giftcards are easy to order on our online and come with free personalization.
Enter promo code AUG20PR to enjoy 15% off ALL fees on orders of 5 or more cards. Limited to 10 orders per customer. Expires August 23, 2020
Question
Have you received an email advising the same thing for any other Simon locations? If so, please let us know in the comments below.
This would be my Simon. 2020 —the hits keep coming. Checked. No email.
Yeah, it sucks. It’s not like Prien Lake Mall is even close to you either – looks like it’s about 4 hours away.
Womp womp womp
I didn’t realize any Simons were even selling GCs hence why they started allowing online sales.
Yep, they’d stopped when all the malls had to close back in March, then even when they reopened, there were data points that malls had run out of Visa gift cards. I’m not sure if any of their malls ever started reselling them, or if each location is only now deciding if they want to restart selling gift cards or not.
The way this was written made it seem like some had returned to selling and would stop again
It should be reworked to indicate that some Simon malls will continue halting of inperson sales indefinitely while others will return to selling in person soon.
I’d thought that some had returned to reselling the cards – I don’t know for sure either way if any had restarted selling cards.
I got the email for my Simon mall in Tucson. From the same Traci Snyder.
Just to check, I take it the email stated that they wouldn’t be selling gift cards anymore at the Tucson mall?
Correct. I replied asking why, but haven’t heard back yet.
Last time I checked my local Simon, they had seal on the giftcard rack. Where do they sell $1000 VGC, BTW? I only see $500 ones.
Usually at the guest services desk, or in the management office. They have stacks of loose cards they use. Not the packaged j-hook ones you see on the rack.