Variable load gift cards to be pulled by Office Depot 2.4.2013
Feb 4, 2013, 1:47 pm
#196
Suspended
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 2,998
Right. Here's the deal. When I was in college a bar had "Taco Tuesdays" with tacos for only 10cents. Clearly a money losing proposition from the taco angle but they made up for it with beer sales. Some people came and only ordered water and ate 10cent tacos. The bar owner didn't care. Overall the promotion made money and that's all he cared about. If EVERYONE just drank water and ate tacos the deal would have died.
The same is true of things like the OD deal. A handful of people shifting spend into cc's then liquidating was a rounding error on the balance sheets. But then the bloggers couldn't shut up about it. Over and over they posted about and took photos, and drew arrows, and "updated" us with trips to OD and seemed to find any excuse to write an article about this phenomena. So much in fact that googling bluebird brought up travel bloggers on the first page of results.
It isn't that the OD people "found out." They've always known. It's the internet. How hard could it be. The problem with the bloggers isn't that they let the OD or Chase folks in on the deal. It's that they drove volume into a program that couldn't sustain it. Too many tacos were being sold and not enough beer.
The same is true of things like the OD deal. A handful of people shifting spend into cc's then liquidating was a rounding error on the balance sheets. But then the bloggers couldn't shut up about it. Over and over they posted about and took photos, and drew arrows, and "updated" us with trips to OD and seemed to find any excuse to write an article about this phenomena. So much in fact that googling bluebird brought up travel bloggers on the first page of results.
It isn't that the OD people "found out." They've always known. It's the internet. How hard could it be. The problem with the bloggers isn't that they let the OD or Chase folks in on the deal. It's that they drove volume into a program that couldn't sustain it. Too many tacos were being sold and not enough beer.
oh my god...oh my god....the CVS in NYC has 2 VR's!!!!!!!! I used my 2x card there!!! I hope I don't get in trouble with the IRS or the credti card cops!! The stupid clerk didn't know what I was up to! I really pulled one over on them!!!!!! oh....oh....ohhhhhhhhhhh......
The only difference between this forum and the blogs is the lack of good photos and trip reports.
Feb 4, 2013, 1:50 pm
#197
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 1,708
It isn't that the OD people "found out." They've always known. It's the internet. How hard could it be. The problem with the bloggers isn't that they let the OD or Chase folks in on the deal. It's that they drove volume into a program that couldn't sustain it. Too many tacos were being sold and not enough beer.
Feb 4, 2013, 1:51 pm
#198
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Bay Area, CA
Programs: AA Plat, UA Gold, AS MVP Gold, HH Diamond, SPG Gold, Club Carlson Gold, US
Posts: 956
So i found some VRs in the Bay Area (that OD is all empty). The CSR had to call the chase on the phone and talk to me for pre-authorization.
The chase agent was like, you are buying vanilla card to pay mortgage or rent? Myself: I was like no sir, these are just gift cards for my niece's birthday. It's coming in the next two weeks.
Chase Agent: Oh ok, Thank You.
The chase agent was like, you are buying vanilla card to pay mortgage or rent? Myself: I was like no sir, these are just gift cards for my niece's birthday. It's coming in the next two weeks.
Chase Agent: Oh ok, Thank You.
Feb 4, 2013, 2:24 pm
#199
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 676
I have to disagree. Most FTers post because they want to simply share information for their own benefit and others (nothing altruistic but not a problem). The overwhelming majority of bloggers do it to make money off of everyone else....
Last edited by mia; Feb 4, 2013 at 3:00 pm Reason: Remove personal characterization.
Feb 4, 2013, 2:41 pm
#200
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 182
Chase as the evildoer here and telling OD to pull them? As noted my many already, very unlikely!! Even more unlikely if they are OD's merchant, because they'll make that money back from the transaction fees - how do you think they fund the UR program?
This is a good point. If the OD patrons don't keep up their OD spend for the next month or two (or three), and there's a marked downturn, then they'll have their list of suspects. That list may narrow more when the high value reloadable/gift cards are brought back and the OD spend springs right back up. Whether they bother to do something or not is another subject; see my first point.
This is a good point. If the OD patrons don't keep up their OD spend for the next month or two (or three), and there's a marked downturn, then they'll have their list of suspects. That list may narrow more when the high value reloadable/gift cards are brought back and the OD spend springs right back up. Whether they bother to do something or not is another subject; see my first point.
Feb 4, 2013, 2:55 pm
#201
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 89
Reasons this died:
If you blame the bloggers, you have to blame FT as well. its ignorant if you blame it on pictures and arrows and not the massive "walmart takes on banks" thread. Bloggers will write about it even if they do not get any money from it. Who cares if they have incentive to push whatever product. Word gets out, deal with it. I personally would lay the blame more on FT. I love FT, but dam. I got to read alot ignorant stuff to get to the intellegent or useful ones.
Can you blame it on the greedy people who max out while you took the conservative approach? it's debatable, but they are sitting on tons of points from this, while the conservatives were barely able to meet their minimum spend. Everyone is still guitly in this scenario. dont fool yourself by think you did not add to the problem because you only brought one card a month. Justify it all you want, we all contributed to it ending, but maybe you'll sleep better knowing you only bought one card a month.
Fraud? Real fraud, as in stealling cc# and buying gift cards, I doubt it. Could happen. probably did happen, but not enough to shut this down.
Chase: Doubt that they care about the points. they cap it, so their liability is controlled.
Profit or lack there of. This seems most logical. Dont have their balance sheets but it's probably the driving factor. It probably does lose them money. When there was a spike in card sales, their loses increased, but they probably had a wait and see aproach. Lets see if people will buy other stuff when they buy these cards. it didn't, that's why they shut it down. or a combination of all the above.
just my thoughs. i have no credentials, no advanced degrees, no experience. just a sliver of common sense and my ghetto card and my almost useless ink cards.
If you blame the bloggers, you have to blame FT as well. its ignorant if you blame it on pictures and arrows and not the massive "walmart takes on banks" thread. Bloggers will write about it even if they do not get any money from it. Who cares if they have incentive to push whatever product. Word gets out, deal with it. I personally would lay the blame more on FT. I love FT, but dam. I got to read alot ignorant stuff to get to the intellegent or useful ones.
Can you blame it on the greedy people who max out while you took the conservative approach? it's debatable, but they are sitting on tons of points from this, while the conservatives were barely able to meet their minimum spend. Everyone is still guitly in this scenario. dont fool yourself by think you did not add to the problem because you only brought one card a month. Justify it all you want, we all contributed to it ending, but maybe you'll sleep better knowing you only bought one card a month.
Fraud? Real fraud, as in stealling cc# and buying gift cards, I doubt it. Could happen. probably did happen, but not enough to shut this down.
Chase: Doubt that they care about the points. they cap it, so their liability is controlled.
Profit or lack there of. This seems most logical. Dont have their balance sheets but it's probably the driving factor. It probably does lose them money. When there was a spike in card sales, their loses increased, but they probably had a wait and see aproach. Lets see if people will buy other stuff when they buy these cards. it didn't, that's why they shut it down. or a combination of all the above.
just my thoughs. i have no credentials, no advanced degrees, no experience. just a sliver of common sense and my ghetto card and my almost useless ink cards.
Feb 4, 2013, 2:56 pm
#202
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 1,184
I don't get why so many people buying VRs keep tripping fraud alerts and having to call Chase (who obviously are getting wise to what's going on, even the front-level reps). People -- buy one vanilla first before starting with the $1k+ charges, mix in real spend, don't run back-to-back VR charges, and you'll both save yourself some headache and stop drawing so much attention. I've gone from nothing to blowing through over $10k in Vanilla in the past two weeks and not once have I had to contact a bank about it. Just exercise a little discretion to fly under the radar.
Feb 4, 2013, 3:22 pm
#203
Used to be garyjr316
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: LAX or SBA
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Posts: 800
**Data Point** Just went to OD on my lunch break. There were no variable Visa gift cards with $200 being the highest but they still had 2 full racks of the AMEX Prepaid ones. I bought $3000 worth. The clerk had to get a manager override to do it and said that she had never had to do that before... not sure what that means but hey... I was just happy to get another 15K points!
Feb 4, 2013, 4:08 pm
#205
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Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: LAX/TPE
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**Data Point** Just went to OD on my lunch break. There were no variable Visa gift cards with $200 being the highest but they still had 2 full racks of the AMEX Prepaid ones. I bought $3000 worth. The clerk had to get a manager override to do it and said that she had never had to do that before... not sure what that means but hey... I was just happy to get another 15K points!
Feb 4, 2013, 4:25 pm
#206
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Land of the parrots and parrotheads
Programs: Several dozen
Posts: 4,820
Feb 4, 2013, 4:55 pm
#207
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: LAX
Posts: 298
Some of the locations are having momentary confusion over the Amex cards - but the memo seems to state all variable cards (not just Vanilla) are to be removed and this includes the Amex cards....having said that, I thought the Amex prepaid temp cards were not usable at CVS for converting into VR.
Feb 4, 2013, 4:58 pm
#208
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: ATL
Programs: DL PM, SPG Plat
Posts: 885
Feb 4, 2013, 5:11 pm
#209
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Feb 4, 2013, 5:39 pm
#210
Used to be garyjr316
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: LAX or SBA
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Posts: 800
I've used my temp prepaid amex for multiple VRs... I think it depends on the cashier working... just like sometimes I can buy VRs at a CVS if the "right" cashier is working who either doesn't know they shouldn't sell them OR just doesn't care.