Valero + OneVanilla
 

Just wanted to see if anyone else had a similar experience. I found a Valero that was happy to sell me gift cards (OneVanilla, in this case) with a CC. The register wouldn't let me do 3x500 and the cashier suggested doing each one separately. The first went through fine on the CC, and I have a receipt saying so, but the cashier said "Activation denied" flashed up on his register. While I pulled out my phone to check if the charge had appeared on my CC, the cashier rung up the next card. In that time the charge had appeared, and so he decided to call the number on the OneVanilla card for me. It's a long phone call, and during the call, out of the register pops a receipt saying Void for $504.95.

The cashier hands it to me and insists that the charge has been reversed on my card. I suggested that it was actually the result of the register timing out the second card, because the "please swipe card" message went away on the customer terminal at exactly the moment the receipt came out. He didn't agree and continued to say the first transaction had been voided. Since there was no manager on duty there was no way to check.

I'll be going back tomorrow when there is a manager on duty, but I wonder if there's anything else I need to do? I took the card and packaging home with me, and looked online and confirmed the OV card was never activated (and thus the cashier wasn't using the non-activation/phone call as a cover to steal the card information). If I can't get the charge voided then I guess I can dispute the charge, although I'd rather avoid that for the obvious reasons.

So my questions are 1) Anything else I need to do? and 2) Is this a common Valero issue (I still need to buy my gift cards)?

I hope the situation gets resolved. My local Valero only sells a handful of useless closed-loop cards.

Valero + OneVanilla
 

This happened to me and the pending charge did drop.

You can buy up to 2 $500 cards at one time at Valero but there is something in their systems that seems to limit them to 2 cards per 30 minutes for ALL customers. So if you and a buddy each try to buy 2 it won't work. I've never seem anything like that before but a guy in Houston at a Valero told me about is and allowed me to come back later to get more and it worked.

Which Houston Valero? Please PM me. Thanks.:-:

experience a similar situation at wally world. the charges went from "pending status" to "posted status" but fell off a few days afterward. wally's pos shows transaction as reversed but charge posted to my acct anyways. Give it a few days and if it doesn't fall off, dispute.

Update: talked to the manager today, who will check the records and get back to me. He mentioned that when he sells giftcards with CCs he always has to ring up a second transaction in cash and then refund it. Promised to sell me as many GCs as I want as soon as he figures things out.

I had problems with buying Vanilla at Valero. Bought 500 each on two credit cards. Both transactions went through but neither card was activated. Had to file claims with credit card companies to get refunds, which took months. I now avoid Valero like a plague.

Best of luck at Valero. Hit one up in South Houston last week and had major issues...GC wouldn't activate at the register, but it did process transaction. Refunded as cash and rang up several cards before finding one that would activate. The visa vanilla GC was an older card. It had a different number to activate than I am used to getting at Kroger.

Huh, so it went through on your credit and you got CB as a refund? Then, you basically MS'd for free?

I know where my next stop is.

I still have one -4 left that sells me OneVanilla and PP cards with CC, after several that used to sell them have apparently gotten a memo telling them cash only, and I've occasionally had a similar issue with cards activating there. I usually buy two $500 cards per visit (there seems to be some kind of limit on the amount purchased although I haven't figured out exactly how it works because if I try to buy too many the register says my payment was declined before it even asks the clerk to enter the last 4 digits of the card number, and the bank says they never received the charge - I know it's not a daily limit, though, because I've had this type of decline trying to buy one card at a time, first transaction that day), and sometimes I've had only one of the cards activate properly after my card is charged. The register says that activation was denied or failed or whatever (not sure exactly what since only the cashier sees the exact text) and it shows a -$503.95 refund on the receipt underneath the two $503.95 items. The first time this happened, I was worried it wouldn't refund properly, and made sure to keep the receipt in a safe place, but when the transaction went from pending to posted the amount was corrected every time. At least for me, the issue seems to be with the card I'm trying to buy, because in every case this has happened I've gone and gotten a new card off the shelf and successfully purchased it to replace the one that failed to activate.

And it also seems their register is smart enough to know what to do in this situation and do it automatically. I did once have -4 bill my CC a second time for a gift card purchase they had already billed me for, a month later. I successfully disputed the charge although the process took about a month. Keep good records!

Good to know there are some Valeros out there that are working for MS. Every one I've checked has not had any interesting prepaid cards. I won't give up hope.

It sounds like what happened is they refunded the first purchase in cash, at least on paper, and then activated a replacement GC, telling the register it was paid for in cash. In this way they can try multiple cards to find one that works, and since the two cash payments exactly cancel each other out the register balances and no one is getting a cash refund. I have had WM do that with MO when one doesn't print properly for whatever reason. I did once get 10 Benjamins from a WM when their machine was out of paper and they didn't have any more, but the clerk knew me and knew I was just going to deposit it so cash was just as good. So I saved 70 cents, but probably spent that much on gas driving to another WM to liquidate the rest of my GC. I don't see a gas station giving someone $500 in cash for a CC purchase when they already tend to be very nervous about large CC transactions, but if that happened and the eventual GC purchased was a second CC charge, then I think we'd all love to visit that gas station.

They refunded as cash (register wouldn't refund back to card... Automatically refunded as cash) and the cashier rung up a new vGC using cash. She wouldn't just give me the cash. She said "it refunded as cash, but I can't give it to you." I asked why and she had some lame excuse. I verified funds and made it a MO within the hour.

Gotcha, thanks for the clarification!

I had a clerk tell me this also, so I was able to purchase two VR's and walked out very happy.. Today, I purchased my last $500 purchase for the Freedom 5% back.. I'm not too sure why some clerks wont ring up GC with a CC, since it is not hard wired in the registers.

Why, when the card is activated you get a reciept saying that the GC is activated. Now unless you ever got the reciept saying this, but all of the GC I have gotten from Valero never had a problem and we are talking about 15K worth...

Update: Manager called me in to refund my card. I have a receipt, although the credit isn't showing up several days later. At this point I'm just going to dispute it if the refund isn't there the day before my statement closes, rather than co tinue dealing with the store.

And, in an example of why things should never be talked about, all the One Vanillas had been taken off the shelf and won't be put back until the manager can figure out what the problem is. In this case I don't think talking to the store was unreasonable, but that was the result.