Stoughton

Why? How is that -any- different than 16 people buying $1k each? The end result (fiscally speaking) is exactly the same.

Complaining about how much others buy simply comes across as thinly veiled jealousy.

bocastephen

16 people buying 1-2 cards over time is far less attention-grabbing and suspicious to a store than 1 person buying 16 cards at a time and pestering the store for more.

mshah

Why do you think the previous deals died? They did not die because few people bought in large quantities but they died because it was over publicized by ppl who wanted 15 minute fame or who wanted few kickback dollars! (you know out favorite group, don't you?).

ETA - If I was there, I would have also bought maximum I am comfortable with !

tkarrade

No, that's why it struck me so much. The management and the teller were suspicious after this happened and specifically asked me what I was using the reloads for. When I asked why they were curious they told me about the lady from out of state.

So yes, as a previous poster said, technically it would have been the same as 13 people buying 2 cards, or 26 people buying one reload each from the perspective of a computer algorithm. However from the perspective of management it was not the same since it aroused suspicion and drew attention to it.

If pressure comes down from corporate, the management may decide not to accept CC payments anymore (the way some Walgreens do already), and that would be very inconvenient. I'm not saying that people should stop doing this, but at least try to be a little less suspicious about it, that's all. I'm not criticizing this lady for wanting to, I just wanted to point out that things like this DO draw attention.

ddallas

I think whether or not you have the fever depends a bit on your local supply. Since you have a local OD with a rack full of cards it is easy to think "this is great, I'll just buy a couple every week." How the fever spreads to you is you go back to your store next week and the rack is stripped clean. You drive around to the other stores in your area and those racks are stripped clean. After three weeks of no cards in your local ODs you find a store that has 10 cards on the rack. Maybe you still need to spend 5k to meet the minimum spend for the bonus and you only have 30 days left. If you buy all 10 cards you will meet spend for bonus. If you only buy two now the rack may be empty again when you go back next week and you will have to find another method to meet the spend for bonus. Now how many of those 10 cards are you going to buy?

bocastephen

Ok, this is a valid point...but if everyone controls themselves, we shouldn't have stores stripped clean....I'm pretty sure OD corporate is aware of what's going on by now unless they are totally dimwitted...so the clock is ticking.

mshah

Hehe...THIS my friend is impossible and IMHO is not going to get you anything! As I stated before there is a difference between 1000 ppl nationwide buying 10k each and 100,000 ppl buing 1k/2k each!

ricohitman

Not jealous at all. I'm not a selfish person. I don't want this good deal to be killed for all of us. Bloggers, selfish people, and over publicity will get this deal ruined. I've spread my purchases out buying 462.76 in cards one month, then something different the next. OD is none the wiser. There is no way one person is buying 25 computers a month.

Stoughton

OD knows exactly what you're buying and no amount of tomfoolery is going to change that that.

Or did you mean Chase?

ricohitman

I meant chase.

Stoughton

Chase knows what you're buying as well. The line item data shown on your reciept is available to the CC companies.

particlemn

I went to cvs on wednesday bought one with amex went rang up and never questioned it, went thursday lady at registers said cash only for reloadable cards. i started to walk away and she said well we can try it these are new. i told her i think these new ones you can since they have a prominant amex symbol on the CVS vanilla reload cards. went thru no problem.
will try multiple purchases next time.

ricohitman

If that's the case I guess we are SOL. Didn't know that.

SFO777

Why?
Is buying Vanilla reloads with a Chase card contrary to some T&C?

sunshine-state

Well just because the line item data is available doesn't mean that they're looking at it. If a suspicious charge (i.e. way higher than normal spending patterns) triggers a fraud alert, this could cause them to look at it, but I doubt people are sitting in front of computer screens 24/7 watching line items scroll across their screen. So I would imagine that staying just under the radar should keep things alive for a while.