random00b

I found some variables Visas at OD in PDX area. Took 2 to the cashier and was told the system to load pre-paids were down, with no ETA to come back online. It couldn't even load with cash. This was ~10:30a. Manager said I could come by in the PM and see if the system was back-up. Still no comment on it being cash-only starting Monday, etc.

pdxp2b

@Jantzen or?

random00b

Washington County. I'll call before I bother to go.

guoguo914

Amazon gc is still good to go. plus free stamps

rdover1

I have a suspicion that Monday will bring a cash only policy recommendation to all stores but with a manager override option. So some will still be able to play.

townhurst

I was able to purchase 2k of Vanilla variable cards at my local OD.

Same manager and she said I better buy these up because we got a memo that all variable gift cards will be cash only starting on Monday.

Manager overide will not work.

If they are locking it as cash only, I don't see why OD will code those GC differently just for Chase.

happy9zz

After I made a purchase of 3 giftcards (500$ gift card), I see in my activity in my Chase account, there are 2 transactions but I only made 1 transaction. How come there are 2 transaction in my activity? is "OFFICE DEPOT DVRS" a temporary? will it be automatically taken off after that?

07/06/2013 Pending OFFICE DEPOT #... $1514.85
07/06/2013 Pending OFFICE DEPOT DVRS $1514.85

do you know what does "OFFICE DEPOT DVRS" mean ?

When I made a purchase, a manager came to verify in a computer.

Rick471

I went to a local OD just since I was going to be close by. No $500's there (Visa) but I did locate some old stock Amex and bought the last 4 for 2K total.

When buying them the manager came and approved the total amount since it was high she had to do approval. But she also told me that starting Monday all the Visa GC's will be cash only as well. I played dumb and asked about the Amex (even though they were out now). She replied she didn't know about the Amex.

random00b

I called at ~4:45p; the system is still down. It can't ring up any gift card or load any variables (supposedly had a customer buying both about 5 minutes I called & no dice). I was told to come in tomorrow.

TheChallenge

Did they call in first to get an authorization code from your purchase?

Unfortunately no one at OD seems to ever know how to use the authorization code in the correct way. When they call in to verify and receive an authorization code, it reserves the amount they call in for. That is the Office Depot DVRS notation. They are supposed to use the code given to process the transaction, however they never do. Instead they have you swipe the card on the POS terminal. This creates a second charge, since the approval code is still active, just unused. It drops off after about a week, but it's still a pain because it can eat into your credit line.

It's fine with me if they want to call in to get approval prior to selling the cards, I just wish OD would show it's employees how to properly use the approval code. The other day an employee was telling me they have to call in for approval for any purchase over $200. I'd be furious if they tied up double the purchase amount of my credit line for buying Quickbooks or a printer, simply because OD can't process a transaction in the correct way.

nwflyboy

Damn Vanilla Reload Scum?

uncommonsensical

i show the same thing except, in my case, the amount for DVRS is zero, while the top one has the amt of the transaction.

getting a little paranoid. that, and the mgr freaked out about 2,500 in gc's and called chase. in doing so, she told them i was buying a bunch of visa gift cards. hopefully that doesn't generate a flag. there is little question given what was said by many mangers back in february and now again that this is Chase driven.

it's kinda ironic that now the only people who will be buying them (if it is indeed cash only starting monday) will be criminals! that's how real $ laundering is done- with cash.

uncommonsensical

i think we have a winner.

PdxDfwFlyer

Deleted. Got the answer I needed.

bluerunningsocks

So having never really been in on the GC churn game, I decided to stop by our rural-ish OD today as I recently got in on the Chase Ink Plus deal. So this OD had the gc rack in a dark corner of the store, likely visited by about 1 person a month. Saw a bunch of My Vanilla Debit cards, silver-ish looking Visa gc's and some other kind. Didn't expect to find anything so wasn't really sure what I was looking for other than some kind of Visa gc. I went for the MVD as I thought these weren't sold anymore. Went for an initial $500 load but rang up in the system with tax (+$35). Manager came over and said the computer wouldn't let her take it off but mentioned nothing about checkout with CC. Any ideas as to why the system would ring it up that way? Oddly when it rang up the initial service charge (3.95) was not added at all, only the 500 + tax.