ericdabbs

Hold on there pal. If you read my whole previous post (especially the last sentence), you would have seen that I did bring some advice. Paying by GC's and CC are coded differently on CVS machines. Hopefully the OP reads this and realize that you can only by a max of 7 VRs at CVS with Amex GC's and if he wants to buy 10 VRs he should break it up into 2 transactions of 5 VRs each.

silver6054

As to why people are waiting to load VRs: After going through a VR drought, I often by VRs when I see them. I only have 3 BBs, and so in good times, like now, I often end up with a few more than I can use that month. Ties up some funds and has a bit of risk, but I prefer that to having to scramble around trying to find them in lean times.

prasha11

Hold on Wise Guy, Don't make things up. ask around before U keep banging wrong info...Do U really have any 'smart' info for the OP to recover his $500 loss? if not let some one who knows answer instead of derailing the subject.

KennyBSAT

OP - Start here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manuf...lidated-6.html and read the remainder of the thread, which this one should likely be merged into and, IMO, should be a sticky. Especially given the number of newbie MSers in these threads.

oneworld82 was apparently eventually able to (or is about to) recover the funds from a lost VR.

prokopon

I don't mean this in a rude way, but ericdabbs is giving wrong information.

The seven card limit is the number of cards you can use to PAY for your transaction. It doesn't matter if they are AMEX gc's or regular CC's. The seven card limit does NOT apply to the number of VR's you can purchase in a single transaction when paying by GC. Last week I purchased 10 x VR @$500 using 3 AMEX GC's and one regular CC (so four total swipes).

Cheers!

skibum7732

I bring in alot too...but you now what they say about a fool and his money...most here would agree that a $500 loss on MS over a stupid mistake is unacceptable

zeppoloveskafka

I think the fool is the one that wastes time checking to make sure that the card they just saw being swiped is the one that was handed to you. Unless the cashier is a Houdini looking to get fired, you are fine. People are horrible at evaluating what the real threats are. I'd order them as
1. Losing a card.
2. Getting a card stolen.
3. Card not being activated correctly.

f0xx

Then clearly you're the fool that doesn't care about your money.
Not sure about you, but $500 to $1K in ice cream is not something I could afford to just lose and not care about. So the few seconds it takes to check the cards, is peace in mind. ^

maksimfa

Um... just look at this thread... THAT IS EXACTLY what happened. Cashier gave the wrong card.

Read through the MS forum here and at least weekly you have one or two posting how the card was not activate, and come to find out, cards were mixed up.

So, if you put risk of losing a card above cashier screwing up, or not having it activated properly.... you must lose a TON of stuff. =P In which case carelessness.

I don't get it though, why NOT check it? It does not cost you anything.... nothing but 2 to 4 seconds.

I brought 2 cards to my cashier, and he was told to do it in separate transactions by the manager. He was already confused by which card he scanned and which he did not.... and it was on only 2 cards.

ericdabbs

What the heck are you talking about? You purchased 10 x VR using 3 GCs and 1 CC. How is that proving my point? You bought 3 VRs using 3 GC and 7 VRs using CC. I never said you couldn't do that. What I said in my previous post is that the 7 VR limit is for if you are trying to purchase 7 VRs with 7 Amex GCs in one transaction. The most common denomination which most people have for Amex GC is $500 due to TCB's $500 limit on cashback for Amex GC purchase. Therefore explain to me how can you buy 7 VRs without using 7 GCs assuming each Amex GC is $500? Each $500 Amex GC counts as a separate method of payment due to each Amex GC having a unique card number. Unless you have a $3K Amex GC and a $2K Amex GC that is a different story.

I have personally bought 10 VRs each with $500 with CC in one transaction. A CC is not the same as a GC. I didn't have to use 4 transactions like you did using a mixture of GC and CC.

ericdabbs

Obviously you are not adding any more value than pretending to be a policeman (mod) to an issue that doesn't concern you. What advice or value have you added to the discussion to help the OP? Thus far I don't see any advice given. What I said in my post is not derailing the subject. If you don't like my advice then don't take it. Try buying 8 VRs with 8 GC's in one transaction and then let me know if I was speaking the truth.

The answer is simple in that the OP just needs to talk to the manager and find out what happened. This situation would have been a lot simpler if the OP would have tried to activate the VR card ASAP or verify the amounts via phone especially with all that confusion. He could have easily found out that he was handed the wrong VR card. He could have then went straight back to the store within the hour or 2 after his purchase and catch the cashier he was working with was still on shift and get the issue resolved.

I know you hate this but again with all the confusion of the cashier having to scan multiple transactions just with Amex cards and the OP handing the cashier more VRs than he intended to purchase, you have to be even more extremely careful. The OP who initially got 10 VR cards from the rack means he intended to buy 10 VRs in the first place but then decides to only buy 7 then he has to make sure that the his 7 VR cards he purchased were not mixed in with the 3 VRs he did not buy. You can also think of it as if he bought the remaining 3 VRs in a second transaction and he wouldn't have been in this predicament in the first place. Again water under the bridge.

maksimfa

Only hope op has is figuring out whichever are activated but he did not get. Go to store get full journal. Contact incom to figure out if that card was unloaded. If not, have it replaced or have cvs freeze unload or stop it. Either get refund or new card.

If it was unloaded by someone... He is sol.

rdover1

GC and CC are not actually coded as different (and limited) payment methods.

The limit is 7 swipes for payment (same as Target - WM is just 4). Thus the prior conclusion that you can only do 7 GC vs CC is partly correct but misleading.

A split payments by 7+ different CC you would have had the same result.

The argument was the claim that GC purchases limit you to 7 VR. What was meant (IMHO) is if paying with $500 GC you can only buy 7 VR (which is true - ignoring how the fees get paid).

For some reason this thread has turned very 'time of the month' - (when BB resets?).

ericdabbs

Your right. That is what I meant to say. But again assuming Amex $500 GCs were used which is what most people do anyways. Maybe people still come rolling in with a $3K and $2K Amex GCs but that seems highly suspicious. Actually since 7 different payments is the limit then it should really be max 6 $500 Amex GCs + 1 CC to pay the fees (I doubt people are paying cash for the fees) but that still is pushing it. However I did state since the very beginning that to avoid all of this, you should just ring up max 5 VRs via 5 Amex GC per transaction to not even test the limit at CVS.

hitman1420

Where are you getting the notion that most people pay with $500 Amex GC??? This is highly subjective. I'm sure you pay with that all the time, but that doesn't mean the rest of us do.

I have no problem walking in with 3k and 2k Amex GCs, I also have no problem picking up 10 VRs at a time with a CC. Why would it be suspicious to walk in with 1 $2k or $3k GC as opposed to 7 $500 GC?