ASHLAND, Ohio -- A gift just isn't much of a gift if you can't use it.

When Rick Sokolowski, of Ashland, couldn't redeem a gift certificate at a local furniture store, he called On Your Side Troubleshooter Chris Caswell to help straighten things out.

Sokolowski purchased a table from Value City Furniture, so he asked for a gift certificate to the company as a Christmas gift.

But he said it wasn't worth the paper it was printed on when he tried to redeem it for a couch at the store closest to his home in Mansfield.

"They told me I couldn't use the gift certificate at that store because the gift certificate came out of Akron," he said.

Akron is more than 75 miles away from Sokolowski's home, so he called the main store in Columbus to tell company officials how he felt.

"I said 'If you live in Columbus and you get a gift certificate from Cleveland, you mean you're going to drive all the way to Cleveland to cash the gift certificate in?'" he said. "Well, that's a pretty bad policy."

But the store's main office in Columbus said that is not the store's policy at all.

Apparently, Sokolowski was dealing with a new manager at the Mansfield Value City store. All the manager had to do was call the Akron store, but he didn't.

After NewsChannel5's calls, the store sent Sokolowski a check for the unused gift certificate.

"Everything wound up right and thank you very much," he said. "I appreciate you and Channel5 for all the nice things that happened to us. We got our money back and everybody's happy now."

The company said that, to cut down on the confusion with its gift certificates, it will soon introduce gift cards that can be used at any location.

If you're a Value City Furniture customer with a complaint, the company said one complaint is too many. Call its customer service hot line at (800) 743-4577.