Originally Posted by sgideons

Hey BenH,
I think a lot of us would appreciate it if you wouldn't make a bigger deal of this than you have to, especially vis-a-vis talking to corporate. It turns out that different stores have slightly different policies and slightly different implementations of those policies. It sounds like you've figured out the limits and capabilities of the stores near you, and you should definitely do whatever you need to to max out the capabilities of those stores. For example, did you know that you can load your BB at any register, you don't need to go to the Money Center? That's a great way to quickly load as many cards as you like to to your Bluebird, up to $1k per day, not just $400. It's not like Walmart cashiers spend a lot of time monitoring their customers' behavior, as long as you don't make a scene.

Just remember, this isn't about your right to hundreds of thousands of free miles and points. This is about some loopholes that happen to exist in a system designed explicitly to take advantage of the needy. I find this perspective helps when my schemes don't go exactly according to plan.

Thanks for the data points, confirming that Walmart registers do not accept more than 4 forms of payment under any circumstances. That should help other members avoid the same mistake.

—SGS

Originally Posted by blr1222

@BenH

I had a similar experience with the kiosk at my Walmart today. Just kept getting the processing message no matter what I tried. I asked someone if they could reboot the machine, which they did, and it still didn't work after rebooting.

I would write to Walmart corporate about the broken machine, but I wouldn't tell them about the problems you had trying to load your gift cards. They are gift cards (pin based, but gift cards nonetheless) and technically you're not supposed to be able to load them. If you alert Walmart HQ or Bluebird that people are doing this, they may shut it down. Just a thought.

Originally Posted by stealph

It has already been mentioned in this forum that others (including myself) have had problems splitting to 4 cards... 3 cards usually works just fine. Also regarding the card itself...I would have just said you had a debit card that can only do 200 (or whatever you were trying) per transaction.

If it takes longer than 10 seconds to explain..it's not worth explaining @ WM :-) There are plenty of other Cashiers/WMs out there. Good luck.

Originally Posted by BenH

So I just had such a freaking disaster loading my BB card today.

(this is super long...but sorry no TL : DR will do justice to this nightmare)

Just this weekend I had loaded it no problem with 2x$100 and 1x$25 debit gcs with PINs at one WM. So, I was back out there today and tried to use the kiosk to load them as FrequentMiler and others reported success with.

At the kiosk screen I chose "Money Card" and then is asked me how much I wanted to load. I put in $100 and then swiped my BB when it asked me. It then went to a processing/authorizing screen and stayed there for about 2 minutes. It then asked, out of nowhere, "Do you want to continue the transaction" and I clicked Yes. After another couple of minutes the same thing came up and I clicked Yes again. Then 2 more minutes and nothing, it was just stuck at the "Do you want to continue transaction screen." Whether I clicked Yes or No didn't matter it just stayed stuck there for almost 10 minutes.

Finally I asked one of the ladies at the MoneyCenter counter if they could do anything like reboot the machine because I didn't want to leave it in the middle of a transaction. A manager/supervisor with a key came by and unlocked the machine and reset it. They said it would probably be better if I went to the counter because the machine takes like 10 minutes to reset.

So, I went to the counter and told them that I wanted to load the card - but I wasn't sure how many cards I could split up the load with. The girl said she didn't know and that we should just "try it." So I said "ok, let's load $500 split up 5 ways." So she rang it up as $500 and had me swipe and the transaction was denied. I told her that in the past they seemingly have to punch in something between each card swipe - presumably letting the system know how much to authorize on each one.

So, she tried it again - and this time each $100 card was being approved. Finally - after 4 cards - the system spit something out to her (either on the screen or on a printed slip) that said something about max 4 cards. She sighed and said that it looks like you can only use 4 - so she had to get another supervisor to come and void the transaction. Then, we tried to do it again with only 4 ($400). This time however, half my cards didn't work - because they must have had temporary authorizations put on them from the first attempt. So, I used some of the untried cards. On the last card swipe - it appeared everything went through - but then it went back to the screen saying $100 - as if the last card didn't process (even though it had already flashed approved). She didn't know what had happened or how to solve it - so I just asked her to cancel the entire transaction because at this point I was worried that money was being taken from the cards and not being properly applied.

By now, the kiosk had rebooted - so I went over to try it again. I tried both the "MoneyPass" option and the "Greendot" option and both went down like this: Same thing happened as above with the kiosk except this time when it asked me to continue I said "No" the first time and it gracefully exited to the menu. I tried this a few times each and the same result. As a test I chose to just do a balance inquiry and not a reload and sure enough it spit out a receipt with the proper balance of my BB - so it obviously was able to read it and communicate with the bank!

One of the WM cashiers who had been hanging around at the Money Center through this whole thing was asking me if it was now working and I told her no and explained what was going on. She asked if I had tried to press "Yes" when it asked me if I wanted to proceed since the machine had been rebooted. When I said no she said "Well what have you got to lose - they can reset it again if it hangs." So, this time I said "Yes" when asked after waiting a couple of minutes. Immediately after hitting Yes it then asked me AGAIN how much I wanted to load. So, I punch in $100 again and immediately it comes back with "Operation Denied" (or maybe Operation Not Successful...something like that). So that was a total bust.

What is important to note here is that at no point was I prompted for the debit card to load. All I was asked was how much I wanted to load and then to swipe my BB - I couldn't even get past that part.

But wait...it gets worse. On my way home I stopped by another WM that I usually don't go to and went to the MoneyCenter in the back of the store. They had a kiosk but it was out of order and had a sign taped to it that looked like it had been that way for quite some time. So, I waited a few minutes in line and then went up and said I wanted to load my BB.

I told the cashier that I wanted to do $400 split across 4 cards. She asked what type of cards (as if it is her g-damn business - just ring it up) - so I showed them to her. She looked puzzled and asked to see my license, which I gave her. She then called the supervisor over because she was saying I couldn't use these cards despite me telling her I have used them before. The supervisor looked unsure but after I insisted again she said "try it."

So, the cashier rung them up..she put in $400 and then told me to swipe. I said something to her like "don't you have to punch in $100 or something to split these up?" So she typed something in the console and then I swiped and it appeared to successfully go through. We did this for all 4 cards with each one saying "Authorized" and it appeared to be a successful transaction. Instead of a receipt printing however it printed a slip that said something like "Transaction Max 4 Debit" and it didn't appear to go through. What I suspect happened is that the cashier made some mistake and keyed in something that made it think it was going to use another debit card (like what had happened at the original WM).

So, I said - "Why don't we just to one then. Let's ring it up for $100." So, she keyed in a $100 - I swiped one card and everything went fine. As there was no line I said "Would you mind just ringing the other 3 up as a separate transactions?" She said she had to ask the manager (who was standing right there) and the manager shook her sourpuss head no. I asked why and she spouted some bull$--t about not being able to ring up multiple transactions. I asked if this was policy and was told yes - but she said she was not allowed to show or share with me such policy. As I knew I wasn't about to get anywhere with this uneducated dolt I let her know I would be confirming the policy with corporate and started to leave.

I stopped by the customer service center to try and see if I could find the Manager's # usually posted on the wall. A woman who looked like she might have been a supervisor (had a walkie-talkie and keys) was rounding the corner and I asked her where the manager # was posted or if there was a manager on duty. She started to spout off a #, and when I asked her to hold so I could get my phone she asked me if she could help me with anything. I quickly recapped the situation summarizing with the fact that my debit card rang up when used individually but that the woman at the MoneyCenter refused to allow me to ring up in multiple transactions.

She started ogling my debit cards and began saying that I couldn't use them because they were "credit." I pointed out the big words "debit" above the visa logo and told her these were PIN based debit cards. She insisted that they were not debit cards, but that they were credit cards because they had account numbers written across the front. I told her all cards have account numbers across the front - that's how you use them. Then explained again that they rang up just fine when used one at a time, and all I was asking was to have them rung up that way.

She then called a manager over who once again I had to recount the story to - all the way back to the original WM visit and the fact that some of my cards had holds put against them and that is why I didn't finish my transaction at the other WM. Another supervisor came by who the manager had to ask some questions to which showed he had no clue at all about the BB cards. Then, the supervisor from the MoneyCenter showed up and started spouting her bs to the manager.

In summary what they were claiming was that she apparently had just done some "training" and said that what I was trying to do (breaking up a transaction against multiple cards) was called "structuring" and that it had nothing to do with me specifically - but that they weren't supposed to allow this. Of course none of this makes any sense since the other WM do it and, especially, since she had already okayed the first attempt at breaking it up into 4X$100 swipes. She was of course just making stuff up because she didn't think the gc should be usable and she though I was doing something sketchy. I reiterated to them that if I were doing something sketchy would I be giving them my license and asking to speak with a manager? I told them that obviously there is nothing wrong with using these cards as the $100 transaction rang up fine - that there is either something with their system or with the girl who rang it up that made some sort of error for the multi-swipe.

In the end I got no where with them. I asked them when I call corporate and tell corporate that the store manager along with 3 supervisors tells me there is a policy about doing more than one transaction load that corporate will say that is correct - in their ignorance they all acknowledged that to be the case.

I think that the idiots at the DMV and P.O are now geniuses compared to these WM folks.

I'm pretty sure that I will have no problem if I continue to load 4 at a time at the cashier at the original WM - but unless I find another nearby WM with a kiosk that allows me to do this it is going to be painful to liquidate more than $400 every couple of weeks.

I do plan to escalate this to either WM corporate or BB...not exactly sure my strategy yet though.

Originally Posted by BenH

It is (theoretically) easier to do one split-tender transaction.

It was a nightmare (obviously that is hyperbole) because of what should have been a simple transaction ended (that worked for others - nothing I did here was trying new waters) ended up being a huge waste of time and effort and culminated in a conversation with a bunch of idiots who would rather lie about policy than simply try to ring me up.

Originally Posted by BenH

This is why I said I'm not sure my strategy yet...I obviously don't want to do something to endanger the method. I think it is possible to extract some policy info from corporate in terms of split-tender loads without resorting to letting them know we are talking GCs.

Originally Posted by farwest101

Escalate this? You must be joking.

It's been reported - several times - on this thread that you can only do 4 cards at a time, so your ignorance caused the problems at the first location. You then attempted to use the same cards again at the second location, which was never going to work because you needed to wait for the hold to come off. So you compounded the your first error. And yet you blame WM employees for your problems because they aren't aware of the new policy that gift cards now have pins after decades of not having them?? Oh my.

Originally Posted by BenH

Like Serve - I can see nothing in the BB TOS that states that loading with a GC is not a valid thing to do. It allows for PIN based debit transactions. Nothing is stated that it has to be a card linked to a permanent bank account or anything. I'm curious as to why anyone things this is against any stated policy - please point me to it...

Originally Posted by PainCorp

Theoretically easier, but you're forgetting, this is WalMart...I try to bring it down to the lowest common denominator. Granted to me, using $100 gift cards and $25 is a little ridiculous when $100 are easy to find, but I guess that's the price you pay to go to OD and OM for them.

Originally Posted by BenH

I know my post was long - but not reading (or comprehending) the whole thing is no reason to attack me. Why would you respond like this anyway? Did I insult you or call you name or roll my eyes at you?

I already mentioned that I did not recall seeing a reported max card split. Overlooking that information if it was stated was my error. However, I did ensure before the second load attempt that the hold authorizations were already off the cards. I did fail to mention this explicitly - but the fact that I stated that the single card ran up fine stands to reason that there was no longer a hold on it.

Your condescension is really unwarranted.

Originally Posted by BenH

I don't disagree. I do think that it looks less suspicious to say "I'd like to do a $300 load split against 3 cards" then say "I'd like to load $100" and then after that tell them the same thing 2 more times.

Originally Posted by stealph

Like you said, it probably is not in there...however if this and other things get attention, the T/Cs are amended or worse, things that worked just stop working without a word from the company/bank/etc. This is just how things go in this game. No need to escalate / bring attention to a good thing.

Originally Posted by BenH

The only people who are losing are the banks issuing the rewards points - and that isn't Metabank - and it isn't WM.

Originally Posted by BenH

Another supervisor came by who the manager had to ask some questions to which showed he had no clue at all about the BB cards. Then, the supervisor from the MoneyCenter showed up and started spouting her bs to the manager

Originally Posted by PainCorp

Just because it's not reported doesn't mean it doesn't exist. This whole game is built upon finding unwritten rules, and exploiting them. Challenges like this are what make it fun.

I still have to agree with him though, you brought a lot of this on yourself. I don't know how you can ensure a hold was removed, as no one will remove it, it has to drop off. Holds last days, not minutes.

Originally Posted by BenH

This is how I know the money was back on the card: