Originally Posted by
Marathon Man
I have walked up to the store clerk or manager and said... "Can I take these unloaded things to look them over?" And they have said yes. I have done it and then used them at the same store later (like maybe my CC was maxed so I needed time lol) or in other stores in the chain without issue. Store personnel have had no issue with this.
And that's okay, because you have permission. Looking at these threads, there are people who have clearly taken 30-40 cards. I doubt if they're walking out with the cards and saying, "Hey, I need to look at 30-40 cards." More likely than not, those cards, worth $120-160 to the store, are walking out in the pockets of many of the posters who have talked about the number of cards they have.
Because, we know, you can only load $1000 per day from Vanilla to Bluebird. And $5000 per month. And that's ten cards. So who needs to walk out with 30-40 cards?
I'm not beating on this deal, but don't assume that you can walk out of the store without paying something for the cards--unless, as you did, somebody connected with the store gives you the thumbs up.
And, by the way, if corporate knew, they'd tell those clerks and store managers (generally a senior-most clerk who's considered trustworthy enough not to steal the store blind to earn the promotion), "don't do that."
The cards have a value but not when seen through the eyes of the average person. I understand that a person might not think they're stealing as they would be if they took a candy bar or a box of paper clips. Nevertheless, corporate (as opposed to individual store managers) decided to offer these cards because they figured they'd make some portion of $3.95 per card. After all, these office supply stores generally offer candy bars you can buy for $1.50, and you know they're earning some profit off that, even if it's only 10 cents per bar. They didn't make their little vig on those cards, but it took them awhile to figure out what was going on.
Abuse of this system by people creating artificial shortages is still one of the most likely causes of OD pulling these cards (just behind people who paid for these cards although they probably were not primarily interested in miles/points but in the laundering aspects these cards can offer). And I stand by my earlier prediction that OD may return these cards to the stores with adequate security that insures that cards just don't walk out of the stores without money being loaded into them. The corollary is that stores like CVS may pull them if they encounter the same issues OD did.