Armed with max value BHNs from GC dot commerce, classic grays from Stap les, some SS, and a mixture of valuable Madagascar spice cards, the following are my DPs from activities yesterday in the NE. Visited 3 chains, all purveyors of exclusively foodstuffs (which had all worked flawlessly 2 weeks ago, as long as transactions <500 total) as well as a few WMs. If these points hold true and/or get worse, the implications are profound.
1. Chain X, Store 1: Swiped GC dot commerce card, went through via auto drain. Swiped 2nd GC dot commerce card, declined: not authorized. Knowing the score ahead of time, completed second half of the transaction with reg. chip debit card, no issue.
2. Chain X, Store 2: Swiped Stap les classic gray, went through via auto drain. Swiped 2nd classic gray, declined: contact issuer. Swiped SS card to complete transaction, no issue.
3. Chain Y, Store 1: (This chain allows the user to bypass auto drain, and specify specific amount deducted from card via POS terminal. I decided to test this avenue, to see if it made an impact. TLDR; it didn't.) Swiped GC dot commerce card, specifying full value of card (249.99) via POS; went through as expected. Swiped 2nd GC dot commerce card, again specifying amount via POS (249.xx); declined, contact issuer. Had a few 100s of the valuable Madagascar spice variety (left over from a promo weeks ago), so decided to close out transaction with those. Swiped 1st valuable Madagascar spice for 100, went through. Swiped 2nd valuable Madagascar spice, went through, and transaction completed.
4. Chain Y, Store 2: Swiped GC dot commerce card, specifying full value of card (249.99) via POS; went through as expected. Swiped 2nd GC dot commerce card, specifying full value of card (249.99) via POS, declined: not authorized. Completed second half of the transaction with reg. chip debit card, no issue.
5. Chain Y, Store 3: Swiped Stap les classic gray, specifying full value of card via POS; went through as expected. Swiped 2nd classic gray, specifying full value of card via POS, declined: incorrect PIN (PIN definitely was entered correctly). Swiped 2nd classic gray again, specifying full value of card via POS, declined: contact issuer. Swiped SS card to complete transaction, no issue.
6. Chain Z, Store 1: (This chain also allows the user to bypass auto drain, and specify specific amount deducted from card via POS terminal. Again, tested this here as well.) Swiped GC dot commerce card, specifying full value of card (249.99) via POS; went through as expected. Swiped Stap les classic gray, specifying full value of card via POS, declined: not authorized. Swiped SS, specifying full value of card via POS, no issue.
7. WM: Requested 1k order, asked to split in half, full amounts off each card. Swiped SS, went through no issue. Swiped valuable Madagascar spice, went through, no issue. Transaction completed.
8. Chain X, Store 2: I returned to the same store as in DP #2, nearly 5 hours later. Using one of the GC dot commerce cards which had declined as a 2nd swipe card earlier in the day, I requested an order for full amount (249.99). Swiped, went through via auto drain, transaction completed.
9. Chain Y, Store 4: Using one of the GC dot commerce cards which had declined as a 2nd swipe card earlier in the day, I requested an order for full amount (249.99), 3 hours after the initial denial. Swiped, went through via auto drain, transaction completed.
Limitations to these DPs:
1. I did not have time to stick around the stores after the 2nd swipe denials, to test the specific cool down period limits. However, per DPs #8 & #9, it is clear the cool down is not 24 hours, and is not specific to the card itself. However, there is most definitely a temporal velocity throttling, as seen in all DPs. It seems confirmed 100% that once a BHN is swiped, cool down starts for ALL BHNs thereafter.
2. I did not have any BHN cards with values >250, so could not test for single swipe amounts in excess of that, or probe the ~485 threshold. However, DPs in other threads indicate that singular swipes up to that threshold are still working, for now.
3. All cards utilized were of the V isa variety, so could not probe MC functionality.