Minnesota Customers Angry After Joann Stops Accepting Gift Cards

20It was announced at the end of February that the craft and fabric store, Joann, would be closing all of their locations. They've already launched 'going out of business' sales but there's one thing that customers are very upset about.

Joann customers have discovered that the store is no longer accepting gift cards.

Other Businesses Closing and Making Big Changes

Before we get into that, there's a lot of other big news in the world of retailers. Forever 21 announced that they are closing all locations in the US. There's only one location remaining in Minnesota, at the Apache Mall in Rochester. No word on when the going out of business sales will start there.

READ MORE: Forever 21 is Closing all of Their Locations

We also recently learned that Dollar Tree is increasing their prices again this year in thousands of their stores.

READ MORE: Big Price Increase Coming to Dollar Tree Stores

Both of these came not too long after Joann announced that they are closing all of their locations.

Joann is No Longer Accepting Gift Cards

Back to the Joann stores, customers have been slowly realizing that their gift cards are no longer being accepted by the store.

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CBS reports that the store had announced "would stop accepting gift cards after Feb. 28, when it announced it was winding down operations at all stores nationwide."

That means that just a few days after they announced they were closing all of their locations, they stopped accepting the gift cards. This is making people very mad.

The first issue is that the company gave customers hardly any warning that they would stop accepting gift cards.

The second issue is that the company already has the money for these gift cards. One customer writes:

Regardless of the fact that you are closing, your business took money and now refuses to give the product in exchange for it. Wrong.

However, it appears there's a way to possibly get money back for that unused gift card.

How to Get Money Back for Your Joann Gift Card

I'm learning that gift card consumer protection laws are different in every state. But, CBS writes: "when a retailer declares bankruptcy payments are frozen and creditors, including gift card holders, must file claims in order to receive their funds back".

In my opinion, if you have a small amount on a gift card, just take the loss. But if you have a gift card with a decent amount of money that you can't use anymore, try your luck with filing a claim. Maybe you'll get money back for what's left on the card.