Hi, Salve! I hope you had a nice Christmas. Too bad I don’t have a car so I can avail of the limited time discount on gas, he, he.. It’s a nice gesture, from gas companies, though. I’d like to share with you an incident that really made me upset yesterday. My friend was gifted by her brother with SM gift certificates. She decided to use it to buy an item from SM Megamall. The cost of the item was P386.70. As she was handing her two P200 gift certificates to the cashier, she confirmed if the “change” can still be used for another purchase if combined with another gift cheque or cash. She was flatly told that SM used to allow that before, but not anymore. The option was to give just P200 worth of gift cheque and cash to cover the total amount, or to find an item that will cost around P14 to use up the change. I couldn’t believe that SM no longer allows any unused up amount in a gift cheque be used in another purchase. I was really upset and made sure that the girl at the counter, and anyone who would hear knew what I was upset about. I know it’s not the poor cashier’s policy but I don’t have any way to tell Mr. SM myself that that his policy was an obvious business racket. Why on earth would SM have a policy that will not allow you to use the full amount of the gift cheque! I mean, common sense tells me how much SM will earn from unused “change” from their gift cheques! I believe that somebody, maybe the DTI or any consumer group ought to tell SM that this is a lot of crap that should be put to a stop. Am I right in looking at it this way? Coz my common sense is telling me that I am right.

boss enlightenedone……. i think that’s the policy of sm….. the way to maximize your gift cheque would be to buy something that will cost more than 400 pesos….. say for example, you have a 500 peso gift certificate/gift cheque….. use it to buy a rice cooker or a desk fan worth around 550 pesos…. then you just add 50 pesos , and you maximize the gift certificate

Consider the supermarkets that says they dont have any 5 centavos or 10 centavos available.

Imagine 15cents per person multiplied to 10000 persons who shops in that supermarket.

hi enlightenedone, their previous practice is much more fair for consumers. if you only had the gift check and no cash with you — say you only had a credit card — then it really sounds like highway robbery. you will have to say goodbye to the change. thanks for pointing this out. i dont really expect SM to do anything about it, but you know, come to think of it, consumer groups here are not very strong at group actions. we should have a stronger consumer advocacy; personal finance after all includes becoming good consumers and knowing our rights!

penny, those little centavos dont often mean much to us, but you’re right! malls are really very smart…hmm..

SM has a new electronic gift certificate called SM GIFT CARD. This new product can now be used partially (which means you can purchase ‘butal’). You don’t have to finish up the whole value in a single transaction, or better yet, you won’t be forced to purchase more than the value of the certificate just so you can ‘maximize’ it.

The SM GIFT CARD is available in all SM customer service counters located inside the department store. Minimum denomination start at P500.

Thanks for providing information and prices of different variety of shopping product. I need this info because i am using online shopping services.
Thanks