Imagine getting a great deal on gift cards, only to have the retailer take them away -- without explanation -- the next time you try to shop there. This real-life nightmare is currently playing out for CinemaNow customers, who watched helplessly as thousands of dollars disappeared from their accounts last weekend.
As first noted in our weekend recap on Monday, Best Buy-owned movie and TV streaming service CinemaNow is in hot water with customers this week, many who saw their store credit balances mysteriously vanish before their eyes last weekend.
Last Friday, a number of CinemaNow customers with active store credit noticed their accounts showed a zero balance. The next day, it was clear from forum posts on Blu-ray.com and other websites that the problem wasn't an isolated incident and one that likely affected all customers, taking even CinemaNow tech support staff by surprise.
Initially blamed on a software glitch or possibly even a software update gone awry, by Tuesday customers began seeking answers from anywhere they could -- including CinemaNow's official Facebook page, where the plot began to thicken. (Curiously, CinemaNow's website has no direct contact information aside from email, phone or online chat tech support.)
After inquiring about where several users purchased their CinemaNow credits, a Facebook page moderator who signed their reply as "The CinemaNow Team" explained the company was in the midst of an "active investigation into some fraud right now," suggesting the missing store credit could be somehow tied to the same issue.
As many customers have discovered, you don't have to head to Best Buy in search of CinemaNow store credit -- it frequently pops up for sale on eBay and message boards dedicated to bargain hunting, typically at a steep discount. However, the same can also be said for Apple, whose iTunes gift cards are frequently offered on Best Buy, Walmart and even Staples websites, offering as much as a $10 discount on a $50 card.
To test the fraud theory, Blu-ray.com forum member hqn102 purchased a $25 CinemaNow gift card from their local Best Buy and added it to a new account. While the store credit redeemed just fine, the actual balance remained at zero -- a sign the company may have shut down its entire store credit system as part of its rumored investigation.
Such problems are not unique to CinemaNow: In 2009, Macworld reported Apple had been faced with a similar situation stemming from stolen credit cards being used to purchase iTunes gift cards, which were then resold on eBay at a steep discount.
In that particular case, Apple took the draconian measure of actually shutting down iTunes accounts found to be using the bum gift cards, with one user losing their entire library of content valued at more than $5,000, all over a few stolen $50 iTunes gift cards purchased on eBay.
According to Macworld, Apple's iTunes terms of service explicitly state: “Apple reserves the right to close customer accounts and request alternative forms of payment if a Gift Certificate, iTunes Card, Content Code or Allowance is fraudulently obtained or used on the iTunes Store."
We could find no such verbiage in the CinemaNow terms of service posted on the company's website, and a formal request for comment from someone at the corporate level went unanswered at press time. (We'll update this post if and when they do.)
What's troubling to CinemaNow customers is they're being left completely in the dark -- the company has yet to offer any official explanation for the store credit disappearance, while its Facebook page and customer support muddy the water by responding to each customer inquiry differently.
Instead of blaming the problem on a technical glitch or suggesting workarounds that are clearly unrelated (such as clearing browser caches), CinemaNow support has now started to inquire where customers purchased their credit, in addition requesting their username or email address on Facebook. After supplying the requested information, customers are now almost universally told, "our technical department is aware of the credit loss issue and is currently working hard to fix this inconvenience."
More disturbing for customers is that CinemaNow appears to have no clue as to how much store credit each user had to begin with -- a thorny situation that could ultimately bring unwanted attention from consumer protection agencies or even hungry attorneys in search of their next class action lawsuit, should customers complain loudly enough.
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