I had the same problem...

I purchased a 100 dollar verizon gift card on the Verizon website very easily.

I then gave it as a gift to a relative only for them to find out the gift card was invalid.

It took about three hours of misinformation and call transfers from about four or five different branches of customer service before I could get to any one who actually knew what to do.

Once they acknowledged that there was a problem it then took another three days for them to correct the problem.

Verizon customer service is the worst. They definitely need to train their customer service personnel regarding GIft card issues