Just to add another data point to the mix here...
This past Saturday (12/5), I went to two Simon Malls. Fashion Centre in Arlington, VA (my normal location) and Potomac Mills in Woodbridge, VA.
Fashion Centre was applying the $3k limit for chip cards, which is really $2500 because it has to be under $3k AFTER fees and we all buy in multiples of $500. However, that location is actually shocked when I only use one card (most people there use multiples?). So, he said the limit was 1 transaction/day (as was previous), but he could do multiple chip cards for up to $3k each up to the normal $10k limit.
I only MS on one card, so the multiple card thing for me was a no go and I just bought $2500.
But, that was not enough for me, so I decided to drag myself 25 miles further down the road (which is not much for folks in other parts of the country, but is a journey for city folk) to Potomac Mills Mall. At that location, the normal $10k limit still applied. There was no conversation about the chip. I bought $9k.
NEITHER LOCATION WAS USING THE CHIP READERS