Who Do You Share MS Deals and Secrets With? Or Do You?
Ariana Arghandewal January 06, 2018
One of the most contentious issues in this community is “sharing secrets” and “killing deals.” As I’ve said before, everyone is responsible for killing deals to some extent. I’m not even going to pretend I don’t have a hand in it. But to my defense, my blog readership is tiny and probably only makes a small dent.
But the fact remains, I do show people how to manufacture spend with their rewards credit cards. Most of what I share is common knowledge. There are plenty of “secrets” I never wrote about. Either because the person who shared them asked me not to or I knew that too much exposure would kill it. In that sense, I am careful who I share my MS deals with.
The main reason why I’m able to generate so many miles via manufactured spending is that I have a great relationship with my Walmart employees. It took a few months, but I was able to build up trust and solid friendships with several of the cashiers. Now when I walk in, half the cashiers wave hello and the manager tells the new hire all about me.
They know why I do this and are totally on board as long as I fill out the required paperwork and follow the rules. Naturally, people will ask me to share that location with them. I’ve done it for a few folks who really needed it. But I’m hesitant about sharing that goldmine with too many people after I took the time to build those relationships.
A few weeks ago, my local Walmart cashier told me about how one of the “gamers” tricked her into selling her over $20,000 worth of money orders. She was new and had no idea about the paperwork or $10,000 limit. She explained how the guy just kept talking to her, buttering her up, until she got distracted and lost track of the number of money orders he’d purchased.
She got in trouble but wasn’t fired. It made her really bitter that she was being so accommodating and that guy still took advantage of her. Not cool. I remember thinking if enough of these people pull this kind of stuff, this store will become less MS-friendly over time. That’s why I make it a point to educate people about money order-buying etiquette. I’m hearing about far too many people who are trying to pull the wool over the cashier’s eyes and they definitely aren’t amused by it.
So I do find some value in educating people about the right way to MS. What I won’t be doing is sharing secrets publicly or with too large of a crowd. For the most part, my “MS secrets” (there aren’t many left, unfortunately) will remain just that. I’ll share them with a small circle of people who’ve shared information with me in the past and keep it at that. These are people I know are going to be responsible and refrain from ruining things for everyone. That’s how it should be.
But I want to hear your take on this: Who do you share MS secrets with and do you think they’re generally just best kept to yourselves?
For more FlyerTalk on manufactured spending, head to this forum.
[Image Source: arvind grover/flickr]
You reap what you sow! Do your own MS research and be rewarded with the fruits of your labour. Share your research and watch the MS opportunity disappear! Keep it to yourself is the best advice!
There seems to be a fine line here between legal and illegal.
I'm small beans compared to many people when it comes to our hobby. I've been in situations when I grabbed the wrong type of gift card that wouldn't work at the location I wanted to unload it so I've had to ask for help. Thankfully I've made a few good and helpful contacts on how to work through some glitches and I would gladly help others do this too. Now those who are trying to run up the exposure of what we're doing will only ruin it and I'm hoping they figure it out before us small time players won't be stuck with cards we can't unload.
Agree that publication of "MS Secrets" is not the way to go. Too many impatient folk out there that are looking for opportunities for a quick killing and just killing opportunities quickly. Too many scammers trying to scam MS folk or stores. Too many rats at the banks trying to steal our cheese and too many airlines and hotels spoiling our cheese.