After Norma Kaufman’s husband unexpectedly died four years ago, her relatives in Chicago sent her a $500 gift certificate for Munchery. Kaufman, a 58-year-old mother of one living in Oakland, used it frequently when she first received it, and estimates there was about $300 left on the gift certificate, which she used to buy pescatarian dinners for herself and her daughter.

“When we first received it, it was quite a substantial fund,” Kaufman said. “Initally we used it quite regularly but then — I don’t know, we got out of the habit, but we always knew it was there. And then all of a sudden, we found out Munchery had closed.”

The San Francisco company emailed customers last week to tell them it was shutting down, a surprising move for a company that had raised more than $125 million and drawn considerable attention for its approach to food preparation and delivery.

Kaufman tried calling Munchery to see if she could get a refund, but the number did not work, she said.

Ivana Hansen, a teacher and mother of three from San Mateo, said her colleagues at school pooled together more than $600 for a Munchery gift certificate after she had foot surgery in May.

Her Munchery account has $325.71 left on it. She contacted the company to request a refund and has not heard back.

“It wasn’t my hard-earned money, but it was my colleagues’ hard-earned money,” Hansen said. “It was a gift, it was so generous. I was in tears when I received it.”

In fact, the balance on a gift certificate or gift card is the holder’s money under California law, according to Joe Simitian, a Santa Clara County supervisor and former state legislator. As an assemblyman in 2002, Simitian wrote the law ensuring that gift certificates are honored even if companies went bankrupt.

“When you buy a gift certificate and send your money to the company, that money is not their money,” Simitian said. “It’s your money that the company is holding in trust until it’s used for a purchase.”

Even so, for Munchery customers with gift certificates, getting their money may be tough.

“If the business just abruptly closes, the consumers are often left holding the bag, unless bankruptcy is filed,” said Trae Bodge, a shopping expert at Gift Card Granny, a website that sells and reviews gift cards.

Gift certificate holders could file in small claims court. It costs $30 to file claims of $1,500 or less in California. But small-claims cases aren’t resolved quickly, said Shelley Hunter of the GiftCards website, a subsidiary of Pleasanton’s Blackhawk Network, which markets gift cards in retail stores.

Munchery has not indicated whether it will file for bankruptcy, though some vendors have complained about going unpaid. The company did not respond to requests for comment, and customers told The Chronicle they have received no response, either.

When large retailers file for bankruptcy protection, customers generally have time to spend their gift cards, Bodge said. Toys R Us, for example, filed for bankruptcy in September 2017, and announced the following March that it would close all its stores. The stores stayed open until June, and the website was operational as well.

Hunter advises people with gift cards or gift certificates from companies that have gone out of business to keep track of them. If the customer paid with a credit card, they can try contacting their bank to see whether there’s any way to get a refund, she said.

Sometimes when a company goes out of business, a competitor will offer a deal. When Toys R Us filed for bankruptcy, Bed Bath & Beyond ran a promotion allowing customers to trade in a Toys R Us gift card for a partial credit at the home goods retailer, she said.

But there’s no guarantee a rival firm will step forward.

“The longer you hold onto a card, the higher the likelihood that something will go wrong,” Hunter said.

Sophia Kunthara is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sophia.kunthara@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SophiaKunthara