Mancolt

Fair point, maybe I misjudged you. I got into this game very late, and I'm constantly reading about how many avenues used to be available and how lucrative/convenient they were. I'd hate to see even more things get shutdown prematurely and unnecessarily.

I agree, you need to recover any funds that are yours. And if it was particularly horrible treatment, then pursue appropriate recourse. I'm just hoping that recourse isn't so vocal or costly to the operator that they say "screw it, this headache isn't worth the $5.95 GC fee" or whatever it is they get out of the deal.

Best of luck in recovering your account/funds. I'm trying to get a hold of someone with GCM so I'm able to make purchases again. I'm not holding my breath. If I had a way to contact someone in a position of authority, I would certainly do it, but I'd try to do so in a way that doesn't ruin it for everyone.

Comicwoman

Seems there is still problems with the 5% back posting. I waited a week, BH site still down. So I called and they 'opened a ticket'. They said 1-2 days. More like 1-2 hours and my bonus posted.

Spiral1

Yeah I have a ton of cards that did not post the 5% automatically, kinda sucks having to read off so many long numbers on the phone.

weezl

So I had a delayed credit of 5% from purchase last week that was listed as pending (per phone call w GCM/5B CSA), and was supposed to be credited when the purchase finally went through. Well, there is still no 5% CB but the purchase suddenly dropped off. No charge to my 5B card. No record even of any transaction other than the initial load. Staples merchandise has been received. How could this happen?

12HRS

Give it a couple days. fairly common

krazykanuck

How long before 5 backs are no more? What's left at this point? lowes, and Landry's chain restaurants?

dealhunter32

I get the error message "We are unable to process your request at this time. If you continue to receive this error, please contact Cardholder services by calling the number on the back of your card." whenever I try to check the balance of my cards on www.fivebackgift.com and have been getting this error message for several days. Is anyone else having this issue? I'm still able to use the cards but just can't access balance or transaction history online.

Update: I found an alternate website at https://www.simon.com/giftcard/card_balance.aspx and was successful at checking balance and transaction history there. Previously, www.fivebackgift.com worked, but no longer so.

Arbitrageous

The FB is pretty much floundering now as far as a means to make worthwhile profits. And are any MSers still using Serve? I was a very late Serve shutdown past the mass shutdowns on historically noted dates. Serve was getting sloppy and uncaring about following legalities. And so too it would be with FB if not for a few "cops" on the block to keep them honest. Maybe legal eagles is a better turn of the phrase, I'm surely no LEO. It's hard to understand the defensive attitudes for FB and Serve.

Surely the FB program is worth it. There are multiple players. There are the distributors with their cut of the GC fees and with all risks insured. There is Blackhawk with guaranteed service fee contracts. There is Visa, going to make money no matter what. There is needed a whole lesson on banking, benefits of completely unproductive circular cashflows, fractional reserve lending, tax incentives, subsidized lending, historically low interest rates (actually negative after discounts and rebates), and more.

Another player is an unnamed reward sponsor with a new program and a budget to allow for expected losses, mostly absorbed by the merchants, with any and all losses suited for tailor made tax shelters and tax deductions no doubt.

Kmart could not afford ANY losses; they are on the ropes as it is. Unlike anywhere I have shopped for profit, Kmart was the emptiest, gloomiest and most depressing. Yet they are inviting and welcoming, looking forward to seeing a returning customer. You have to feel bad for those clueless cashiers who will work all week to make as much as they just handed out by entering all the right keystrokes.

Anyway, as soon as focus shifted from CVS, Kmart had to get out ASAP. That makes sense entirely. However the procedure for pulling out is not well established. Marketers don't want to make easy withdrawal a selling point, it foretells the hazards which may lay ahead. Get with the program! You'll never want to leave.

I'm only out some GC fees, bill pay fees, mileage, fuel expense, and time spent for a couple of days. Still if I do not receive what is due me, I have to pursue the matter further. To get any attention to the matter, I have to force the issue. A product must function as stated otherwise a full refund is due. The choices for resolution are either to give me 5%, let go of 100%, or defend.

I am still waiting for Staples to approve transactions. Now, I become suspicious that Staples might try to curtail losses by delaying approval for FB transactions of some sizes or amounts. It adds just one more inconvenience to make Staples less appealing and thereby shake some MSers from the use of FB at their stores. But Staples does want MSers; Staples just wants Chase to pay the MSers. You see, merchants benefit through losses to improve statistics. They inflate sales to report at the end of the quarter. Staples must have a bad quarter, showing two GC promos end of Q1. Now they delay on completing the transactions so they can delay on paying up until Q2. Take your portfolio positions now.

DrunkAmexChick

Did you go over them all in one phone call, and open up tickets on all of them? I am currently waiting on 11 to post - (3 from 3/22 and 8 from 3/25.)

DrunkAmexChick

I just came on here to post this exact same story. It hasn't happened yet with the 8 FB's I used on staples.com on 3/25; those are still listed as pending. But the 3 I used on 3/22, that had pending $500 charges to staples.com fell off and now list the full $500 funds on each card. ...?

[redacted]

Spiral1

You can list them all in one call.

DrunkAmexChick

When did you make the purchases? Was it staples.com or in store?

DrunkAmexChick

Thanks, that's good to know. I will keep that in mind. I have been debating whether I want to continue buying FB's and ramp it up (especially while I have so much ms I need to meet at the moment) but this delay in posting the 5% is turning me off. Then, the pending charges from Staples falling off, leaving the full balance has now just made this whole thing bizarre!

I think I am going to liquidate the staples.com VGC's today and continue waiting it out with the FB's to see what happens. I won't call for a few more days. It's probably just a glitch in the way purchases appear on BH's recent transactions ledger...

lumangoy

Wow!

I don't know how long you've been MS-ing, but think of your loss as the cost of doing business.

Users have commented here about the TOC, did you read it?

If you want to burn your Simon, go ahead and do it.

Good luck to you.

Happy

Typically GC sales do not count the face value for revenues. All Staples could count is a portion of the fee as it shares the fee with the issuers.

Entirely possible Staples has discovered what CVS has discovered - that they are showing large amount of pay out on 5B but no corresponding merchandises sales to account for such.