Good to hear. I wasn't worry that it was dead. Just like before. I'll give it a try tonight in So Cal, and give an update.

I bet a lot of ppl are canceling their BB or Serve so they can get the new RedCard by AMEX to unload their OV.

what secret loophole was that? perhaps we can adapt it to new uses.

Never mind... Just because others are complete and total dick doesn't make it ok for me to do the same

Not sure why people think that the issue with vanillas has to do with Walmart programming. Why would Walmart want to pay credit fees rather than debit fees? (I have seen tons of people using vanilla cards for regular purchases not money transactions. And debit fees are so low that I don't think Walmart cares too much about us.). In contrast, Bancorp really only turns a profit on these cards if it can maximize swipe fees. I am pretty sure Bancorp is behind the problems at Walmart. People are beginning to report problems with vanillas at other stores. The common denominator is Bancorp.

Yes there is evidence that the declined transactions get through to the back end (Vanilla/Bancorp) side. A timestamp entry is recorded on the Vanilla site the moment the first swipe gets declined at Walmart, and I think I heard PIN gets set as well.

Just visit Kate during lunch in So Cal. This Kate has always been down, or "lane closed". I was surprised it was up and running.

Load 5 x OV. Each card took about 1-3 tries to get it to load. And also load 4 x Meta, no issues.

All and all. It was a good trip.

The only reason why it has to be WM programming is because EVERYWHERE else you slide the OV, it defaults to debit. Also WM is probably aware that Amex does not accept credit card loading transactions for cash reloads so that is why WM wanted to code Serve loads to default to credit. Why is that WM is so special to Bancorp that they only want WM transactions to be credit. That doesn't make any sense.

There has to be manual intervention in order to code a particular product as credit. Also if it wanted to default to credit, then the workaround via Change Payment should be working every single time. Therefore I don't buy the fact that WM does not have any part in doing this because obviously it still works sometimes.

Also what stores are you hearing that OVs are having an issue? I have not heard of that.

Thanks for the heads up. I tried with 2 OVs from WAG and it took one swipe for each to load $1K. Will try again tomorrow for the last day of free GC offer at WAG :)

Just went to WM in Milwaukee area. Loaded 3500 OVs and all loaded first swipe except one that took two swipes.

Yesterday I hit the suburban KATE, and it was an unmitigated disaster. I could have swiped until the cows came home, and not one single OV would load, no matter what I did.

Tonight I went to see my KATE, and BAM, BAM, BAM. Every single OV loaded on the first swipe. What a girl.

I'm leaning toward whoever Bancorp is now using as a processor.

It reminds me of when I gave one of my old TiVos to a relative that lives in the country. I had to configure it to dial-in via their landline, but they reported it would repeatedly say "service not answering", because there were a lot of TiVos accessing through one server, until I switched it to an access number in a less populated area of the county. No further issues.

If the processor has capacity issues, particularly in more densely-populated areas, the congestion would explain the load failures.

Thats really interesting. Never thought about it like that.

I am in my WM 6-7 days a week, my secondary WM ~2 days a week, and have never seen a single person ever use a OV for regular purchases...you must spend a great deal of time in WM to have seen tons of people using OV's in this manner. Maybe your WM is in the hood and that might explain it:confused:

Good Lord, dude. Please, tell me that MSing is your day job.

No, just part-time hobby. I didn't even mention that my wife is also in there 4-6 days per week depending on her work schedule. One of us hits day shift and one hits second shift. Yes, we know the MC staff very well and my wife is even friends now with a couple on facebook:D That isn't even taking into account the trips to the multiple grocery stores we go to as well.
We spend 3 months a year out of the country on holiday so we have to get it done in the 9 months we are home...she gets annoyed sometimes, but only gripes a little and then does her wifely MS duties;).