my wmts are not so close to nor convenient to my home. But then, not everything is.
That said, I definitely ONLY really shop at wmt BECAUSE I happen to also get MOs there. Oh if we find an item online that can ship to store like the outside small set up pool or the kids trampoline, we will go there too, but then when I am at the store I get MOs.
Generally I only use the store because they have MOs and if Mos stopped existing I likely would not go. I had a couple years when I went so much I also spent a couple grand in the store on regular products (we also got some big ticket items there like TVs, etc)
But even as that is true, no matter how much you spend there, if they ever decide to boot you for buying what that particular manager or market manager considers to be 'too much' in terms of MS related Mos and BB loads, etc, then you are done and it doesn't matter what kind of store customer you have been.
It comes down to a particular store or market and what kind of attention or negative issues are being raised when any particular person is there. If MO activity is seen as a problem they will likely stop that person from getting them. Could start with a suspicious CSR or CSM, or it could have to do with some glitch or error that causes a cash office rift stemming from the errors being produced from a broken or jammed MO printer. The store could make up a ton of reasons to just not want you around any longer--anything from, we changed our policies to only allow this many per day, to "MoneyGram has banned you til January" to an entire market being told who you are and to not serve you any financial products (if this happens you may get away with going below the $3k per day rule and also sticking to BB loads and BPs, or the use of Kate if you have them in your area).
But if and when Wmts ban you, your only choice is to go out of market--probably further from home or work--to continue the craft. And then you have to wait for store managers and area market managers to move to other parts of the country before you can go back--and for the CSR staff to turn over too, because if any one of them knows you are BAD, they will tell the others. As 'schooly' as it may seem, the fact is that all it takes is some closed minded, over protecting, security zealot of a fear-based CSR to say he or she
THINKS you are involved with some sort of fraud, and the wheels start spinning in a negative direction.
This is why being a friendly, social and courteous customer can help. Then again, if and when there is a problem, it don't matter how nice that manager or csr is with you, you get outed.
***
Additionally, this OV thing is interesting to me... some feel it is a plan by Wmt and Incomm to get rid of MSers. Could be in part--it's maybe involving a business decision to cut out what either entity sees as fat so as to save a buck. I think they simply upgraded or downgraded their software to be like some other retailers that happen to see certain card sequences as credit rather than debit. Either way it has to do with volume and we don't want to overwhelm any one type of entity if we can help it.
Does a law make it so the Vanilla cards have to have debit on them? Yes. But do all stores need to accept them? I dunno. Maybe not. After all those stores could always use the "yeah but we suspected fraud with these things" and get out of most any inquiry on the matter.
So my advice is to only buy what you know you can burn and stop even trying to do anything Vanilla at the retail giant because it tends to be a frustrating PITA, but please do not publish specifics on where they
might work either. That type of non-thought-through move only points the evil eyes at those places too.
You are under no obligation to share such sensitive details in here, but yeah go ahead and tell those you get close to like friends, but do it not on public blogs and boards. Then this stuff will last. We all want it to last, right?
Use PMs and email for sensitive info please!! Don't be lazy and just post stuff here because it's easier than doing it with each individual.
Yes, the debate goes on about things like, "well how do we get to know things then," or, "I like to share so people share with me," etc... but the fact is that for those of you who do care about and know how to carefully manage the MSing you do with the stores you visit, the over sharing--the type that just blasts data our there with no regard to how it's managed--is doing damage to all of us.
I've been MOing at Wmt since 2004. Lots has changed. In those days nobody ever asked to see the cards I was using. Now they do. I can't say I have seen every possible situation there is, but I have sure witnessed a lot of them.
Stay MS thirsty my friends.
MM