I was just in St. Louis over the weekend. I just mentioned this in case anyone else was travelling through and wanted to know the lay of the land. I'm trying to help here not $crew anyone over. :rolleyes:

Someone should do a case study on power tripping by managers at these stores. There seems to be a finite number of personality types that end up being managers and their reactions to certain situations can easily be bucketed in a very limited number of outcomes.

Managers seem to very quickly forget that they are indeed still customer service representatives when dealing with customers.

These have been around for a couple of weeks now

That's correct -- they do not count toward sales numbers

Not that I've heard of

But, to be fair - the flip side is they'd be the first to be fired if GC or reloads were purchased fraudulently.

I bet their sales targets only take the fee portion as a sale but they get hit for the whole whack if they get a charge back from a stolen card used to buy $5k.

Flak is annoying but we have to take it in our stride.

The fraudulent charges probably are eaten by the banks.

However the store would have a ton of paperwork to go thru in dealing with the fraudulent charges and most likely would leave some form of records in the manager's employee file.

I dont blame the stores who chose NOT to carry the card - they dont have any obligation to do so. CVS corporation gives the store manager a lot of discretionary power on how to run their stores. Somehow people take it as their rights to buy the VR while in all reality it is more a privilege. A business can choose not to do business with a customer - this fact seems to be forgotten by many.

Banks are smarter than that and these fall under "charge back" which the retailer has to eat. So not only do retailers have to stomach the credit fees (plus fees for even having credit card terminals) but they also carry all the risk from charge backs.

+1

Stores should make it easy for customers to do business with them. If CVS makes it hard and a similar product shows up at Walgreens, then I will visit Walgreens instead. If CVS got rid of beans and made a mess of the process, I would also switch to a competitor. Businesses exist because they have customers.

The inconvenient facts are:

1) CVS stores themselves dont make any money on these transactions. At least it does not show up on the store manager's P/L report - that has been reported multiple times in this thread. The decision to carry VR is from the Corporate but not a mandate. Store managers have full discretionary power to decide whether they want to carry it or not.

2) Walgreen codes this and many other reloads as Cash Only with very very very few exceptions across the whole country. So you are very welcome by CVS to go shop at Walgreen for your VR but you wouldn't be able to get any, not that with your CC.

3) There is really near non-existent alternatives for 90% of the VR buyers. For those who have alternatives, the alternatives are disappearing. Please check the latest thread about SuperAmerica is pulling VR from their stations.

4) Conclusion: CVS does not need you the VR buyer as its customer as you do not bring in the needed profit that a business exists for. Business does not need nonprofitable customers to exist Quite the contrary! they exist because they are in it to make a profit. Else, they would be in another name - that is called Non-Profit Organization, or Not-For-Profit Organization. Hey, IRS even has a category for such "business".

Now if you dont mind to pay $1 or $2 more to buy the reloads, you have some alternatives in a good portion of the country but still not everywhere. Take my area, there is only ONE grocery store chain, a very minor one, sells a no monthly fee reload. One choice of GC for $5.95. All other options are either not working options or very hefty fee - activation + a $5.95 to $9.95 monthly fee accessed one day after activation. Oh, you wont be able to get the PIN UNTIL a permanent card being sent to you after you registered online - that is 5 to 7 days later. So you would be out $4.95 + $9.95 on this "alternative" versus the offerings at CVS which is truly the only game in town in my area.

But a good number of folks can get their reloads at grocery stores if they dont mind to pay the extra $1 per card but then they also must go to WM to load their BBs because only VR can be used to load BB online (ignore the new $100 debit card load because GC can trigger BB suspension.)

So from your high road, please advise the community on where to take our business should we be not happy with CVS?

The concerns regarding these prepaids has some validity. There are policies for managers to enforce but if I manager feels someone may be doing something illegal he has the right to refuse the sale.

It stinks but that is the case.

My local cvs was stocked again today. Unfortunately I am lacking VR liquidation techniques until the 1st of the month. have to stick to MP

LOL. Who wouldn't? Any store that will be more beneficial will get my business. Just like I am currently visiting CVS instead of Walgreens because Walgreens has made it harder for me to buy a similar product. Another example is I never used to go to Walmart, but I'm there all the time now, heck I think all the employees there recognize me like "Norm!" walking into Cheers Bar if you remember that show. But if the situation changes there as it likely will some day I will go back to my Walmartless ways. :-)

get more than $5,000
 

would it be possible to circumvent the 5000 Limit by using two different IDs for example using a driver's license in the morning and then a passport at night?

yes go for it.

As I posted over a year ago, the reason CVS carries VR is simple - prescription drugs. The profit they take in from Rx dwarfs every other item they sell. Two years ago we purchased our Rx from Walgreens simply because it was the most convienent location. As soon as we started buying VR from CVS we transfered our Rx there. I am sure thousands of others have done the same.

Maybe we need a new saying.... instead of break, you hide it, you buy it! :)

Don't understand why anyone would think or accuse me of hiding VR's. :confused:

All I do is mention a store in the St Louis area that had lots of VR's and I get accused of hiding VR's. Me doest think thou protest too much. First time in St. Louis in my ENTIRE life and I get accused of hiding VR's.

Chill out. :rolleyes: