It can be very frustrating when a mistake leaves you with no easy way to prove what happened.

One customer is dealing with that after realizing a gift card he thought still had nearly $100 on it was actually empty.

Months earlier, a cashier had used two gift cards for one purchase and handed one back after the transaction.

Now, he suspects she accidentally returned the empty card and threw away the one that still had money left.

Unfortunately, the store says it no longer has records from that far back.

Keep reading for the full story.

Cashier gives us back the empty card, throws away the one with the balance…

Last summer, my wife and I received two $100 gift cards to a major national chain store.

We spent about $110 or so and gave the cashier both gift cards.

She drained one and charged the remaining $10 to the second gift card.

She gave us back the card with the balance and threw away the empty card.

His wife tried to use the card recently, and it wouldn’t work.

Fast forward to last week. We spent another ~$100, hoping to use up the gift card, but lo and behold, it rang up empty at the register.

That card hasn’t left my wife’s wallet since last year, so we’re pretty sure the cashier from last summer mistakenly threw out the card with our remaining balance on it.

I tried calling the store’s customer service and was told to go to the store location, and they should be able to look up the transaction, see if another card was used for the remainder, and be able to replace it.

I went to the store today and was told they don’t keep records past 3 months (which seems oddly short since the return policy allows anything up to 1 year without a receipt).

Now, the store is saying there’s nothing they can do about it.

They basically said they couldn’t do anything other than elevate the situation to their regional customer service manager.

Now, I obviously don’t have the number of the card with the balance, nor do I have a receipt from last year’s transaction. I was just really not expecting this to happen.

I’m supposed to hear back from regional within “7–10 days,” but I’m worried that I’m just going to be told to **** off since I obviously can’t prove that this happened.

I’m wondering if something like this has happened to anyone else here and if you were able to resolve it somehow? I would hate to have to throw away almost $100 due to the store’s mistake…

Oh no! He may have to accept this one as a loss.

Let’s see what advice the readers over at Reddit have to offer.

It sounds like this store has its bases covered.

That’s a good question.

This is so true.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a longtime bank customer who walked away after the teller gave them a hard time.

Here’s a system that went back more than a year.

This is such an unfortunate situation.

It really does sound like the cashier made an honest mistake, but unfortunately, he’s the one left paying for it.

Hopefully, the store can track down the card number and reissue the remaining balance.

But if not, he may have to chalk this one up as a lesson learned. Next time, he should ask for both cards back so he can figure out exactly which one still has money on it.