Vanilla Reload activation issues including "new" website.
#151
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 633
Supervisor got back to me today and told me the card is now active. It loaded fine. They really didn't have an excuse. They say it is due to sometimes the systems not communicating correctly.
Leaves me concerned that they could deny a card and leave me hanging for a long time before finding out. What if the employee slips me the wrong card and pockets it for their friend. Sounds like it doesn't matter, even if I try to load it right there in the store and it doesn't work, the store cannot do anything about it. Takes Incomm two weeks to investigate. What if they come back and say nothing they can do because the card on my receipt was activated etc.
In this case the card # on the receipt didn't match the card and the store manager just shrugged their shoulders and said its a third party product and nothing they can do. I don't think it would matter one bit if I pointed that out to them at the time of purchase or half an hour later returning to the store.
Leaves me concerned that they could deny a card and leave me hanging for a long time before finding out. What if the employee slips me the wrong card and pockets it for their friend. Sounds like it doesn't matter, even if I try to load it right there in the store and it doesn't work, the store cannot do anything about it. Takes Incomm two weeks to investigate. What if they come back and say nothing they can do because the card on my receipt was activated etc.
In this case the card # on the receipt didn't match the card and the store manager just shrugged their shoulders and said its a third party product and nothing they can do. I don't think it would matter one bit if I pointed that out to them at the time of purchase or half an hour later returning to the store.
#152
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 639
Supervisor got back to me today and told me the card is now active. It loaded fine. They really didn't have an excuse. They say it is due to sometimes the systems not communicating correctly.
Leaves me concerned that they could deny a card and leave me hanging for a long time before finding out. What if the employee slips me the wrong card and pockets it for their friend. Sounds like it doesn't matter, even if I try to load it right there in the store and it doesn't work, the store cannot do anything about it. Takes Incomm two weeks to investigate. What if they come back and say nothing they can do because the card on my receipt was activated etc.
In this case the card # on the receipt didn't match the card and the store manager just shrugged their shoulders and said its a third party product and nothing they can do. I don't think it would matter one bit if I pointed that out to them at the time of purchase or half an hour later returning to the store.
Leaves me concerned that they could deny a card and leave me hanging for a long time before finding out. What if the employee slips me the wrong card and pockets it for their friend. Sounds like it doesn't matter, even if I try to load it right there in the store and it doesn't work, the store cannot do anything about it. Takes Incomm two weeks to investigate. What if they come back and say nothing they can do because the card on my receipt was activated etc.
In this case the card # on the receipt didn't match the card and the store manager just shrugged their shoulders and said its a third party product and nothing they can do. I don't think it would matter one bit if I pointed that out to them at the time of purchase or half an hour later returning to the store.
#154
Join Date: Sep 2005
Programs: Northwest, United
Posts: 3,256
Supervisor got back to me today and told me the card is now active. It loaded fine. They really didn't have an excuse. They say it is due to sometimes the systems not communicating correctly.
Leaves me concerned that they could deny a card and leave me hanging for a long time before finding out. What if the employee slips me the wrong card and pockets it for their friend. Sounds like it doesn't matter, even if I try to load it right there in the store and it doesn't work, the store cannot do anything about it. Takes Incomm two weeks to investigate. What if they come back and say nothing they can do because the card on my receipt was activated etc.
In this case the card # on the receipt didn't match the card and the store manager just shrugged their shoulders and said its a third party product and nothing they can do. I don't think it would matter one bit if I pointed that out to them at the time of purchase or half an hour later returning to the store.
Leaves me concerned that they could deny a card and leave me hanging for a long time before finding out. What if the employee slips me the wrong card and pockets it for their friend. Sounds like it doesn't matter, even if I try to load it right there in the store and it doesn't work, the store cannot do anything about it. Takes Incomm two weeks to investigate. What if they come back and say nothing they can do because the card on my receipt was activated etc.
In this case the card # on the receipt didn't match the card and the store manager just shrugged their shoulders and said its a third party product and nothing they can do. I don't think it would matter one bit if I pointed that out to them at the time of purchase or half an hour later returning to the store.
Don't expect much from the store you buy them at - they're always going to shrug and wash their hands of it, you'll always have to deal with the company that issues the cards.
You can help reduce your risk by using some common sense. Watch the cashier carefully - make sure they add the correct value to your card (check the receipt), make sure they hand you the card that's activated and not a different one (be extra careful if getting more than a single card), try and get a sense if they appear to know what they're doing or are just clueless (my "bad" VR was simply the result of a new cashier who didn't know how to load it properly). Above all, save your receipt in case you need it (my advice is to clip each receipt to each card so you know which goes with which -especially helpful if you have them stacked up like cordwood). And try not to let a long time elapse between the card loading in the store and you unloading it online.
If you take care of all the above, I think the chances of you being stuck without your $$$ for an extended period are reduced to nearly zero. You may be in limbo for a few days, but all reports seem to indicate that Incomm is a far cry from the Paypals and other SOB companies when they hold your money.
Incomm is a big company (explore their website and you'll see, it's not some small, fly-by-night operation) and although they may screw up once in a while (examples include the missing-digits VRs in their own neighborhood), they should resolve any honest glitches that you encounter to your satisfaction, given a few days. That may be a few days more than you would like, but I don't recall hearing from anybody who really has gotten hosed by them (yet).
Glad to hear your issue was resolved.
#155
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 639
These are the risks we accept as part of playing the game. As has been said many times before, if you can't afford to have your $$$ tied up for a while, you should reconsider whether you should be playing the game.
Don't expect much from the store you buy them at - they're always going to shrug and wash their hands of it, you'll always have to deal with the company that issues the cards.
You can help reduce your risk by using some common sense. Watch the cashier carefully - make sure they add the correct value to your card (check the receipt), make sure they hand you the card that's activated and not a different one (be extra careful if getting more than a single card), try and get a sense if they appear to know what they're doing or are just clueless (my "bad" VR was simply the result of a new cashier who didn't know how to load it properly). Above all, save your receipt in case you need it (my advice is to clip each receipt to each card so you know which goes with which -especially helpful if you have them stacked up like cordwood). And try not to let a long time elapse between the card loading in the store and you unloading it online.
If you take care of all the above, I think the chances of you being stuck without your $$$ for an extended period are reduced to nearly zero. You may be in limbo for a few days, but all reports seem to indicate that Incomm is a far cry from the Paypals and other SOB companies when they hold your money.
Incomm is a big company (explore their website and you'll see, it's not some small, fly-by-night operation) and although they may screw up once in a while (examples include the missing-digits VRs in their own neighborhood), they should resolve any honest glitches that you encounter to your satisfaction, given a few days. That may be a few days more than you would like, but I don't recall hearing from anybody who really has gotten hosed by them (yet).
Glad to hear your issue was resolved.
Don't expect much from the store you buy them at - they're always going to shrug and wash their hands of it, you'll always have to deal with the company that issues the cards.
You can help reduce your risk by using some common sense. Watch the cashier carefully - make sure they add the correct value to your card (check the receipt), make sure they hand you the card that's activated and not a different one (be extra careful if getting more than a single card), try and get a sense if they appear to know what they're doing or are just clueless (my "bad" VR was simply the result of a new cashier who didn't know how to load it properly). Above all, save your receipt in case you need it (my advice is to clip each receipt to each card so you know which goes with which -especially helpful if you have them stacked up like cordwood). And try not to let a long time elapse between the card loading in the store and you unloading it online.
If you take care of all the above, I think the chances of you being stuck without your $$$ for an extended period are reduced to nearly zero. You may be in limbo for a few days, but all reports seem to indicate that Incomm is a far cry from the Paypals and other SOB companies when they hold your money.
Incomm is a big company (explore their website and you'll see, it's not some small, fly-by-night operation) and although they may screw up once in a while (examples include the missing-digits VRs in their own neighborhood), they should resolve any honest glitches that you encounter to your satisfaction, given a few days. That may be a few days more than you would like, but I don't recall hearing from anybody who really has gotten hosed by them (yet).
Glad to hear your issue was resolved.
I miss the money from the game, but frankly, I am sorta glad I got out at the right time, apparently.
#156
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: PHX & AGP
Programs: AA Lifetime PLT, Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium, Hilton Gold
Posts: 11,408
i had a -$1000 balance on an MVD that should have +$500, and incomm kicked me back to CVS. CVS did refund me (with no explanation how a prepaid card could EVER get a neg balance), but if they didn't, who do we go to next?
I miss the money from the game, but frankly, I am sorta glad I got out at the right time, apparently.
I miss the money from the game, but frankly, I am sorta glad I got out at the right time, apparently.
#157
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 639
I love your choice of words (kicked me back to CVS).... Now as others have stated, if you can't afford to play the game, get off the field. I'm sure the number of VR's being sold each day against the number of problems with the cards are very small. I have had a couple of them not load right away, I wait 24 hours and they load. I also only hand ONE VR at a time and pay for one at a time, never have I had one not be activated.
I'm glad you have had no problems. I didn't either until this one.
You remind me of the people whose computers break, and say "But it worked yesterday."
"That's why they call it broken."
#158
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: PHX & AGP
Programs: AA Lifetime PLT, Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium, Hilton Gold
Posts: 11,408
Why would you think I can't afford to play the game? I am just commenting on a situation that occurred. Isn't that what we do here, share our experience?
I'm glad you have had no problems. I didn't either until this one.
You remind me of the people whose computers break, and say "But it worked yesterday."
"That's why they call it broken."
I'm glad you have had no problems. I didn't either until this one.
You remind me of the people whose computers break, and say "But it worked yesterday."
"That's why they call it broken."
#159
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,731
i had a -$1000 balance on an MVD that should have +$500, and incomm kicked me back to CVS. CVS did refund me (with no explanation how a prepaid card could EVER get a neg balance), but if they didn't, who do we go to next?
I miss the money from the game, but frankly, I am sorta glad I got out at the right time, apparently.
I miss the money from the game, but frankly, I am sorta glad I got out at the right time, apparently.
Only the CVS management of that store or even district could tell from their daily transaction report to determine what exactly happened.
If these were just honest mistakes made by the employee, the store's daily proceeds would be an extra $1.5K. If it is a scam the store can also be able to discover it. That is why CVS refunded to you. They did not want to tell you anything makes me wonder if it is the latter.
In your case, InComm really has nothing to do with what happened to you as versus other cases when the cards were either defective or tampered with the missing PIN. (We will never know the truth but InComm took responsibility of such when the issues were at their end.)
Your ordeal happened at the Merchant Level, that is why InComm "kicked you back to CVS". Not unlike you just realized you were overcharged by a store - the CC would always ask you to resolve this with the store FIRST before filing a dispute.
I do agree with you about the risk we are taking and people should be fully aware and prepared for this. Matter of factly on each upload to me it is like an adventure - never know what the screen would come back. I did have 1 time the money was loaded to MVD but immediately was kicked back and the screen gave me an error of 93. Called MVD who was able to see what happened, and the rep was able to manually re-load the amount from the VR back to MVD. My guess was there was a two-way verification process between VR and MVD but somehow the communication was either timed-out or disconnected by the second which turned out to be a critical second - not unlike sometimes when you swipe a card at the POS and it did not go thru, but swipe again it goes thru - happens all the time at the store's POS terminals and we would not think twice about it - but when it is involving uploading some money we bought, then we naturally are nervous. The 2nd time I got an error was inexplicable - it just wouldn't load for 2 tries. I let some time passed and then load again, and it went thru.
#161
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 633
OK, I a may be an idiot but tried it again since it was eventually resolved. And I could really use this service.
Went to SA today to buy 4 cards. (SA said the max for one cust in one day is $1900.)
First three went fine. The 4th one the cashier said, "sorry for some reason this one did not print out the little gift for you sheet". I said wait a minute, checked the receipt and the card and the #'s didn't match.
She tried to deactivate and to cancel the charge but couldn't do it and said there was nothing she could do, just like last time. I did have her write down and sign on the receipt that the card #'s don't match and she wrote down the matching card #.
I called Incomm and they now say it is the merchant's problem, not theirs and to go back to the merchant. I told them they keep telling me they cannot do anything at the store, and that last time Incomm told me to fax in the card/receipt and they took care of it. The Incomm rep actually laughed at me and told me that has never been the case they always tell people to go back to the vendor.
Supervisor told me the same thing. That they do not do anything for these situations, that it is the merchant's problem. I asked how then they had me do it through them last time. I gave him the ticket # from last time. He looked it up and saw they did handle it. So he had me fax the info it to him like last time. He is saying they shouldn't be doing this, that they end up going through merchant services just like the store should be doing.
So, just like I figured. Even if you spot the problem immediately at the store there is nothing they can do. Maybe during weekday hours they could call someone and do something. I know from the last issue which also happened on a Saturday that the manager took down my information, called someone, and typed in a bunch of notes, but I never heard back from the store, only from Incomm who resolved it after two weeks.
Went to SA today to buy 4 cards. (SA said the max for one cust in one day is $1900.)
First three went fine. The 4th one the cashier said, "sorry for some reason this one did not print out the little gift for you sheet". I said wait a minute, checked the receipt and the card and the #'s didn't match.
She tried to deactivate and to cancel the charge but couldn't do it and said there was nothing she could do, just like last time. I did have her write down and sign on the receipt that the card #'s don't match and she wrote down the matching card #.
I called Incomm and they now say it is the merchant's problem, not theirs and to go back to the merchant. I told them they keep telling me they cannot do anything at the store, and that last time Incomm told me to fax in the card/receipt and they took care of it. The Incomm rep actually laughed at me and told me that has never been the case they always tell people to go back to the vendor.
Supervisor told me the same thing. That they do not do anything for these situations, that it is the merchant's problem. I asked how then they had me do it through them last time. I gave him the ticket # from last time. He looked it up and saw they did handle it. So he had me fax the info it to him like last time. He is saying they shouldn't be doing this, that they end up going through merchant services just like the store should be doing.
So, just like I figured. Even if you spot the problem immediately at the store there is nothing they can do. Maybe during weekday hours they could call someone and do something. I know from the last issue which also happened on a Saturday that the manager took down my information, called someone, and typed in a bunch of notes, but I never heard back from the store, only from Incomm who resolved it after two weeks.
#162
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,731
OK, I a may be an idiot but tried it again since it was eventually resolved. And I could really use this service.
Went to SA today to buy 4 cards. (SA said the max for one cust in one day is $1900.)
First three went fine. The 4th one the cashier said, "sorry for some reason this one did not print out the little gift for you sheet". I said wait a minute, checked the receipt and the card and the #'s didn't match.
She tried to deactivate and to cancel the charge but couldn't do it and said there was nothing she could do, just like last time. I did have her write down and sign on the receipt that the card #'s don't match and she wrote down the matching card #.
I called Incomm and they now say it is the merchant's problem, not theirs and to go back to the merchant. I told them they keep telling me they cannot do anything at the store, and that last time Incomm told me to fax in the card/receipt and they took care of it. The Incomm rep actually laughed at me and told me that has never been the case they always tell people to go back to the vendor.
Supervisor told me the same thing. That they do not do anything for these situations, that it is the merchant's problem. I asked how then they had me do it through them last time. I gave him the ticket # from last time. He looked it up and saw they did handle it. So he had me fax the info it to him like last time. He is saying they shouldn't be doing this, that they end up going through merchant services just like the store should be doing.
So, just like I figured. Even if you spot the problem immediately at the store there is nothing they can do. Maybe during weekday hours they could call someone and do something. I know from the last issue which also happened on a Saturday that the manager took down my information, called someone, and typed in a bunch of notes, but I never heard back from the store, only from Incomm who resolved it after two weeks.
Went to SA today to buy 4 cards. (SA said the max for one cust in one day is $1900.)
First three went fine. The 4th one the cashier said, "sorry for some reason this one did not print out the little gift for you sheet". I said wait a minute, checked the receipt and the card and the #'s didn't match.
She tried to deactivate and to cancel the charge but couldn't do it and said there was nothing she could do, just like last time. I did have her write down and sign on the receipt that the card #'s don't match and she wrote down the matching card #.
I called Incomm and they now say it is the merchant's problem, not theirs and to go back to the merchant. I told them they keep telling me they cannot do anything at the store, and that last time Incomm told me to fax in the card/receipt and they took care of it. The Incomm rep actually laughed at me and told me that has never been the case they always tell people to go back to the vendor.
Supervisor told me the same thing. That they do not do anything for these situations, that it is the merchant's problem. I asked how then they had me do it through them last time. I gave him the ticket # from last time. He looked it up and saw they did handle it. So he had me fax the info it to him like last time. He is saying they shouldn't be doing this, that they end up going through merchant services just like the store should be doing.
So, just like I figured. Even if you spot the problem immediately at the store there is nothing they can do. Maybe during weekday hours they could call someone and do something. I know from the last issue which also happened on a Saturday that the manager took down my information, called someone, and typed in a bunch of notes, but I never heard back from the store, only from Incomm who resolved it after two weeks.
It is very obvious the store's processing system has some issues and that really is not InComm's fault.
For InComm to get involved, it has to be a defective card or a tampered card, but not the mishap created by the store during the activation process and yours definitely fell into the latter category.
#163
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Around The World
Programs: ALL :)
Posts: 384
Seriously, why would you re-start slowly and see if the store's system has fixed?
It is very obvious the store's processing system has some issues and that really is not InComm's fault.
For InComm to get involved, it has to be a defective card or a tampered card, but not the mishap created by the store during the activation process and yours definitely fell into the latter category.
It is very obvious the store's processing system has some issues and that really is not InComm's fault.
For InComm to get involved, it has to be a defective card or a tampered card, but not the mishap created by the store during the activation process and yours definitely fell into the latter category.
#164
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 1,708
Yup. Players need to accept that we are always taking a bit of a chance that there will be a snafu of some kind either at the store system or incomm. It can cause you to get stressed out but it comes with the game.
#165
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: PHX & AGP
Programs: AA Lifetime PLT, Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium, Hilton Gold
Posts: 11,408
I would assume with all the posting in this thread people would see there are issues with VRC, and as you stated, there is a chance that an issue will come up. I'm not too sure why people have to post a data point in regards to this, since it is well documented. It's just beating a dead horse...