Unfiltered Story #99521

I get a $40 gift card to a mall for my birthday, and go to a major department store to get a new pair of jeans. I find a pair I like and go to the register.
Me: Hi, do you take this gift card here? (shows the employee the mall gift card)
Cashier: We’re (major department store)
Me: Yes, I know, but you’re in this mall. Is this gift card good here?
Cashier: Oh! Oh, yes, you can use it here.
Me: Great. I’ll take these then *puts jeans on counter and the cashier rings them up*
Cashier: Do you know how much the gift card is for?
Me: $40
Cashier: This comes to $96.86.
Me: I know. I’ll pay the rest with my credit card *shows her credit card*
Cashier: You can’t do that.
Me (thinking I’m misunderstanding): I’m sorry, what? I can’t use the gift card to pay for $40 and then use my credit card for the rest?
Cashier: No. I’m sorry.
Me: I don’t understand. Why not? I think it’s a fairly common practice to buy something and just pay the difference, I do it all the time with other gift cards.
Cashier (shaking her head): No, it doesn’t work that way. You have to buy something that’s only $40.
Me (highly skeptical that the cashier has the faintest clue as to what she’s doing): Well, could you try? Or call your manager and ask how to do it? Because I’m pretty sure there’s a way.
Cashier (sighing heavily): I will try, but it won’t work.
She tries to use the gift card and sure enough, it doesn’t work. She refuses to call her manager, saying it would be a waste of time and she’s going to say the same thing. I decline to pay for the jeans on my credit card like she suggests and take the gift card to the mall’s main office to make sure there’s nothing wrong with it. I explain what happened, and the girl there shakes her head.
Office worker: Yeah, sorry, the cashier just didn’t know what she was doing. There’s $40 on the card, it’s been properly activated, and it should work just fine.
Me: I thought so. Thank you.
I went home and emailed the store to let them know, and they never even bothered to email me back! I wonder how much business they’ve lost from that one cashier alone…