Unhappy result at Albany-area brewpubs with prepaid Happy Cards

TROY — As a fan of locally made beer, Tia Felock was delighted by a birthday gift this spring of a prepaid card purporting to be associated with the Capital Craft Beverage Trail and seven area brewpubs.

And then she tried to use it at Brown’s Brewing, one of the businesses shown on the face of the $50 card. When it was refused, Felock recalled having the same trouble last year at Druthers Brewing, also listed on the card, with another prepaid card from the same issuer. As compensation, said Felock, who lives in the Collar City, Druthers gave her one of its own gift cards, valued at $25.

At both brewpubs, she was told, “Our system can’t process the cards.” Further, she said in a phone interview, the businesses told her they had not given permission for their logos to be used nor asked if they wished to be included.

Nor had the Capital Craft Beverage Trail. It demanded that the issuer — Happy Cards, a brand of Blackhawk Network, a California company that operates globally and sells branded physical and digital prepaid credit, debit, gift and incentive cards — cease producing them.

Blackhawk complied, according to Teresa Casey, executive director of Capital Craft Beverage Trail. The 11-year-old organization promotes more than 45 local member breweries, cideries, distilleries and wineries with a trail map, events and an annual “passport” with which users can earn prizes by visiting producers on the beverage trail.

“The Capital Craft Beverage Trail is in no way associated with gift cards that have been marketed and sold by Happy Cards/Blackhawk Network using the Trail’s name,” Casey said via email. “The third-party gift card company used our name without our permission and has agreed to stop producing the cards.”

The Price Chopper/Market 32 chain, which sells a variety of Happy Cards and others from Blackhawk, has removed from its racks of prepaid cards those branded with the beverage trail, company spokeswoman Mona Golub said via email.

While Blackhawk “represented that it has the contracts and program relationships supporting the cards it distributes,” customer feedback in recent months and online discussions prompted the removal while Price Chopper seeks clarification from Blackhawk, Golub said.

Abby Brown, vice president of Brown’s Brewing, said the company decided against continuing to accept the cards because it never agreed to let its logo be used and because, in Brown’s experience, most of the cards cannot be processed.

“Occasionally in the past they would be accepted, but we have trouble now constantly,” she said. Further, because Brown’s previously would often cover at least part the cost for customers whose Happy Cards were rejected, “It was a loss, so we certainly couldn’t keep doing it,” she said.

Brown and Felock both said they were told by Druthers representatives that it has experienced the same problems and now refuses Capital Craft Beverage Trail-branded cards. Druthers CEO Chris Martell told the Times Union last week that he was looking into the matter but otherwise had no comment.

Among the issues may be how businesses try to process the cards. Although the front of the card says “gift card,” it also bears the words “enter payment as credit.” If an employee enters it as a gift card, it will be rejected, but processing as a credit card usually works, according to Kurt Borchardt, co-owner of Artisanal Brew Works in Wilton. His company accepts the cards, which show the Artisanal logo on the front.

“There’s nothing nefarious about the cards,” Borchardt wrote in a discussion on the private Facebook group 518 Foodies. “The marketing term ‘gift card’ for a pre-paid credit card has confused retailers and consumers alike.” Some commenters on the 518 Foodies discussion, responding to a post by Felock describing her experience, reported using the Capital Craft Beverage Trail-branded cards successfully, while others said theirs was refused by staff or electronically rejected.

A spokeswoman for Blackhawk told the Times Union that it stopped producing Capital Craft Beverage Trail cards three years ago, at the trail’s request, but some remained on store shelves. The age of the cards likely explains why two of the brewpubs shown on the front, Troy’s Rare Form Brewing and the multilocation Real McCoy Beer Co., have closed since the cards were produced.

“We are currently working closely with local merchants to investigate redemption activity and resolve outstanding merchant acceptance issues,” Blackhawk’s Amanda Fiech said via email. “We remain committed to supporting our consumers and will provide refunds to anyone who has experienced issues redeeming these legacy cards.”

She did not reply to a follow-up question about the refund process. The cardholder agreement on Happy Cards’ website lists the customer service number as 833-568-8729.

Nationally, customer dissatisfaction with Happy Cards and Blackhawk appears widespread. Although the Better Business Bureau gives Blackhawk Holdings Inc. a grade of A+ and customer ratings average 3.92 stars out of five, 34 of the 38 reviews filed this year on BBB’s website are one star; two have two stars, and the remaining two are five stars. On other review sites, 108 ratings on Trustpilot award Happy Cards an average of 1.2 stars out of five; the average rating is 1.7 out of five for 31 reviews on Pissed Consumer.

Felock was able to use her Happy Card during a visit to Artisanal Brew Works, but she vowed never again to use a Blackhawk product.

She said via email, “The company basically said nothing back to me and just put me in a continuous loop of emails asking for the same information that I already gave them over the phone.”

This story originated in the Table Hopping newsletter, delivered for free via email on Monday and Thursday afternoons. Subscribe at timesunion.com/newsletters/table-hopping.