Sorry to everyone for stoking this flame, but payeco you might just be the most naive person I've ever had a conversation with...or you just don't care to think about what really goes on. I visit my stores frequently. They all know me. I am very friendly to them. Most of them check the bottom of my receipts to see if I earned the points for the GC purchase, and can see that I frequently have 1x,xxx points. I've NEVER brought attention to the points that I earn to them; they aren't idiots. I've had several CSRs ask me "Do you only buy these for the gas rewards?" My answer is always "No, I use them to pay bills...the gas rewards are just a bonus."

So, do you think they care?

No they don't. Why? because it's not their job to give a crap. Here's a news flash for you: the stores have no control over the promotions corporate runs. And they have better things to do than to raise a stink about something that has absolutely no impact to them whatsoever. And, even if they do, do you honestly believe that telling a mgr will kill this deal?

Currently, for whatever reason, the purple MCs earn 1x points. So, when I forgot to scan my card, I told the CSR and he credited me the 1,500 points. Big deal. The CSR knew this. Mentioning it to him was not sounding any alarm bells.

For goodness sake look at the forest through the trees and stop believing that no one knows what we do. The fact is, no one cares. We aren't important to them. Ok, I'm off my soapbox. Time to move on.

Yes, but that is you. I'm glad you have a good relationship with the staff. But this is a public forum. Some noob will read this, and then go in and throw a fit when we doesn't get his gas points. Based on your post count your not around here enough to read some of the horror stories of what some of these idiots do and get things killed.

Payeco is right about this, but hey, I'm not in Giant PA land, so it won't affect me when the deal dies. Publicity has been the death of many MS deals, and this likely will be another.

You're wrong. payeco is right. You should be quiet.

I have to agree with payeco that flying under the radar and bringing as little attention to what is working and what is not benefits more than some. Of course, we live in an "it's all about me" era, so maybe I'm being a bit naive.

To think that the store managers have little say in the operational side of the business may be shortchanging them. If they feel that a periodic reoccurring promotion, such as the gift card bonuses are not increasing their bottom line, or are creating more of a nuance than the desired marketing benefit, their voice will certainly trickle up the ladder through their district and regional managers.

while not the best deal, for those that are ice tea drinkers, the teavana iced tea is on sale for $1 buy 6 get 50cents off a gallon its good up to 100teas... $100 which will get you about 3 fill ups $225 back and one gas fill up 50cents off so essentially a $125 money maker in terms of gas if your like me and fill up 3 cars and a boat at once (35 gallons)

This is a valid point and I was a bit out of line with some of my comments yesterday. Making a fuss, causing a scene, or drawing unnecessary attention is what could end this.
What I was trying to convey, albeit without much eloquence, is that there are things one learns about this game through experience, and there's not always one answer for every situation. In our case I don't think that the answer should 100% be "walk away and never bring it up".. One just needs to know when it's appropriate to bring it to someone's attention when you don't receive the benefit of the purchase (ie: not getting gas rewards points) and when it's not. Totally agree that this is the part that newbies have the hardest trouble understanding and I sometimes forget that there are a lot of inexperienced people reading this forum for advice.

I've made it a habit of developing relationships with cashiers/CSRs. (I realize that not everyone can do this), therefore when I knew there was no risk in bringing it up I asked for a points credit. Granted, if this was a new cashier or one that gives me the stink eye with every GC purchase, I would have sucked it up and moved on.

Although, I agree with constructive criticism of michael160 for condoning the risk of drawing unnecessary attention, I also have to give him a credit for sharing this deal here in a first place.

Was at S&S in NY this evening. They were all out of Visa GCs, so picked up the purple MCGCs(they were a breeze to dump with the work around at WM). Just for kicks, had the cashier scan my card. No gas points.

Post 1008 from July 6: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/23153930-post1008.html

Most people ignored this post at the time because it came during the Visa 5X promo, but someone else reported the 1x for MCGC a long while back. It wasn't clear that it was for Giant PA, though I had indicated at the time in a followup post that it did not work for me at Giant landover.

Sorry if this may have been addressed or this isnt the right forum. But does anyone know if theres a default pin already set on the purple MC GC's?

I've been making a call to manually set the pin on each card and would like if that step isnt needed!

I believe that since the purple MCGC are issued by US Bank(If I am not mistaken) they don't get a pin assigned at first purchase like OV(Bancorp) or a the pin being the last four(Metabank). So if you check on the back and it says its issued by US Bank then you are forced to call.

Theones I have been getting have the pin printed on the underside of a piece of paper on the inside of the package. I just leave some of the adhesive on the card and stick it to the correct card, so I can discretely peek at it in my card holder while I load a bunch of them.
Speaking of discrete gift card use, I just want to call out a guy at the WIllow Grove WM from a couple weeks ago who was taking the card holders from the used SMGC's and setting them on top of Kate. If you post or lurk here, knock that sh*t off. I have been running into many more Kate velocity limits from previous users and MS'ers at grocery stores. Please be considerate, no need to be that lazy. Stepping of my soap box now....

I believe that Peridot is correct about the PIN being included in some packages but I've been setting it to my standard PIN just to keep it simple.

Yes, unless somebody told you, you would never see the PIN "hidden" inside the packaging on those MasterCard gift cards. It's extremely helpful if you're out and about and want to quickly unload the cards that you've just bought. I find setting the PIN from a cell phone to be particularly tedious, and there are basically no payphones left in America.

I believe a previous poster noted that only the "newer" MasterCards have PINs included in the packaging, but all the ones I've bought this month at the supermarket do have them. Like a previous poster mentioned, a neat trick is to tear out the cardboard and attach it the adhesive on the card. The Visa "system" (last 4 digits of the card) is still easier, but this makes the Mastercards "competitive" -- except for the fact that they're still much harder to load at Walmart with an actual cashier.