FlyerTalk Forums - CVS master thread(2013-2016)

It would never have occurred to me to try to buy these over the phone. I guess it's too late now, but it would have been really convenient to pick up several days' worth at once.

FlyingBoat

Mar 31, 2014 9:37 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmandel (Post 22621130)

Actually, no. As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, it's $5k per day resetting at 12am GMT.

This simply is not true, at least not in my area of the country. It is a rolling 24hr or something like that, not exact. There must be a particular time the systems reset. I can sometimes purchase at 8:30AM and the next day I still can't purchase at 11:00AM because they say I have already purchased $5K that day. Other times I can purchase at 9PM and the next day purchase at 7PM.

This happens frequently. The night before last I purchased at 8PM and next day at 10:00AM it said I had already purchased $5K that day.

bailey911

Mar 31, 2014 9:38 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dad to GO (Post 22621453)

My local CVS has a prompt on the screen verifying that this is not a transaction done over the phone. My friendly cashier said that it just started popping up about a month ago.

B4 the "is the person in front of you " prompt people were calling in and getting some clueless clerks to give them info they should not have over the phone.

jar2542

Mar 31, 2014 9:39 am

Just bought one in the DFW area with CC - no problem.

kiltedflyer

Mar 31, 2014 9:40 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brugge (Post 22621330)

After verifying my identity he took off the denial so I was able to buy the VR, and gave me 3K miles for my trouble.

Same thing happened to the missus...only difference: she got 3500 for her trouble. ^

particlemn

Mar 31, 2014 9:42 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by itchyfeet123 (Post 22621472)

It would never have occurred to me to try to buy these over the phone. I guess it's too late now, but it would have been really convenient to pick up several days' worth at once.

some scammers would call a cvs say they were from the corporate office and having trouble with the vr cards and ask the csr to get one and swipe it for purchase and add 500 then tell the register it was cash purchase. They would then ask the csr to scratch off the numbers and read them over the phone so they could check the system was okay.

Stryder88

Mar 31, 2014 9:44 am

Anyone think that this is directly related to the executive AA card? I can speak for myself that my MS increased 400% in the past few months. A large spike in VR sales could have brought the issue up the chain of potential "management items of discussion."

nuclfusion

Mar 31, 2014 9:44 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonnyd13 (Post 22621427)

I've hardly an issue the few off times I decide to purchase a VGC at wags. Every now and then I get the cash only talk but often times insist that they try and it works. Doing large amounts there is a different story.

Agreed! Go home yankees! :p

Ps: Go Rays!

Don't you dare cross my bridge. I have an army of Kindergartners waiting to steal your ice cream. They'll be disappointed though when they realize it's not real ice cream though.

kiltedflyer

Mar 31, 2014 9:45 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dad to GO (Post 22621453)

My local CVS has a prompt on the screen verifying that this is not a transaction done over the phone. My friendly cashier said that it just started popping up about a month ago.

This has also been happening in Upstate NY for about a month or so.

It's actually been funny a couple of times when the cashier has though the prompt was asking if I was on my mobile phone while standing in front of them at the register.

traveler9020

Mar 31, 2014 9:47 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by huntdealz123 (Post 22621413)

It's a foolish move to stop VR purchases thru CC's if they are really making money off them. 20 cents per VR translates to $2 per person just loading their bluebirds in a month. On top of that, there are other vehicles that VR's are used for. If you consider $5 as the average profit that CVS is making per MSer per month, and multiply that with the number of MSers nationwide, I'm almost certain the number would run into tens of thousands of dollars every month. Hard to believe they are losing more money than that because of fraud month-on-month.

If they are losing money on low value transactions where the ID is not scanned, they should enforce the ID scan for any gift card purchase above $50 to limit their exposure.

CVS may be making .20/card on a cash transaction, but they're certainly not making that for a credit card transaction. The interchange portion of the swipe fee alone is going to run them between 1 and 2% in addition to the other processing fees they have to pay. The banks get $13.00 for every $500 card purchased with a World Elite Mastercard, so there is no way CVS is making ANY profit from VR when rewards cards are used (they're just more expensive to accept). Now cash transactions are a different story.

satz	Mar 31, 2014 9:49 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by traveler9020 (Post 22621551)

Large chain stores can negotiate a much lower interchange fee. Hence why Sam's club for example only accepts MC.

envoy245

Mar 31, 2014 9:50 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by satz (Post 22621564)

Large chain stores can negotiate a much lower interchange fee. Hence why Sam's club for example only accepts MC.

Or why Costco only accepts AmEx

mrsmsr

Mar 31, 2014 9:51 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by fanch26 (Post 22621004)

Deal is dead on VR here Northwest of Boston.

Cashier reported unable to use credit this morning for another customer; manager added that credit cards could no longer be used on a long list of these products.

Shame really, this CVS was *never* out of VR.

I have a feeling that this might also be my favorite secret spot... They always have a literally full inventory. I just bought 4 beans and 1 MVD yesterday... Is it near a T terminal?

dukerau

Mar 31, 2014 9:51 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaulMSN (Post 22621230)

Only if you can prove that they don't make any money on them.

Fair point. I guess it would've more accurate for me to say that we don't know that CVS makes a profit, so we can't make that assumption when we question why they would want to go cash-only. Personally, I think they're losing money on the $500-ish VR sales. The 20cents per VR sounds too simple. Maybe that's the average profit across all VR, but I would still posit that they're losing on the big purchases. Or worse, the 20cents comes from an Incomm sales pitch with an assumed average purchase price.

mittenfingerz

Mar 31, 2014 9:52 am

So 2 stores within 3 miles of each other. One took CC, and the other did not.

Either it's going to be a very sporadic rollout, or people are about to get a lot more protective of their favorite locations.

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