Promotional eGift card, Invalid?

I purchased a system online a few weeks ago. At the time of the purchase I was sent a dell promotional eGift card that will expire in 90days. They explained this and I am okay with that. I have been looking around and found something in the dell shop to purchase. I go to check out and enter my promotional card information. and hit apply. Below is the result.

"* The Dell Gift Card number is invalid. Please enter a valid card number."

I used chat to contact Dell and figure out why this does not work. They offered to help me complete my purchase through chat / via phone. This is not really an acceptable solution for something that should work via the dell website. I honestly expect a technology company to figure out the issue and resolve it. In the meantime my card expiration date gets closer and closer. And I will probably have to cave in and use the chat or phone to use the card before it expires.

This may seem trivial but I had a similar issue trying to apply a discount to my original purchase. During checkout it would not accept the discount code. I used chat and spent hours in chat and ultimately on the phone with sales reps.  While they did eventually get the order squared away, it seems I could have completed this in 30 minutes or less using the web. 

Is the only way to use the promotional egift card via chat and telephone?