Restaurant diners left hangry after Costco gift card vendor goes bankrupt

The bankruptcy of a gift card vendor in six states has left consumers hungry for redemption.

San Diego-based Synergy World announced on its website that it was shutting down its restaurant gift card program due to bankruptcy. The company, which had been in business for 19 years, offered gift cards through Costco. Restaurants in its network were located in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas, according to its website.

“It is with a heavy heart that Synergy World has made the difficult decision to discontinue the Synergy Restaurant Gift Card Program,” the company said in an announcement on its website. “We fully recognize and sincerely regret the impact this decision has had on our cardholders and the many local restaurants.”

The Independent reached out to Synergy World and Costco for comment but did not receive a response.

Synergy World gave its restaurant gift card customers until January 31 to redeem their cards, but the rush of cardholders trying to use their balances before the deadline led the company to discontinue the program before the deadline arrived, according to a statement.

San Diego restaurant owner Joey Busalacci tried to redeem as many Synergy cards as he could before the deadline, but he told San Diego-based KUSI News that the company eventually stopped communicating with vendors and the cards no longer worked.

The decision to shut down operations led to confusion and urgency among customers, some of whom took to social media to find a solution.

Facebook group Albuquerque Foodies posted on January 30 that “Synergy gift cards are no more.” Several commenters noted that Costco was offering store credit or refunds for those with receipts, while others said at least one restaurant in the area was swapping the Synergy gift cards with the restaurant’s own gift cards.

Participants in a Costco subreddit on Reddit offered a flurry of responses to post alerting users to the Synergy shutdown. Several commenters confirmed that Costco was offering refunds on unused Synergy gift cards.

Synergy’s systems were slow in the final days of operation, alleged one commenter who said they returned 12 Synergy gift cards to a Costco on January 29. The Costco customer service associate handling the return had to verify over the phone that each of the 12 cards was unused and, allegedly, had to repeat some card numbers multiple times to get verification.