Introduction
With all these AMEX Offers popping lately, you’ll most likely be in stores buying gift cards. Well, this is a reminder to be vigilant and watch your cashiers, especially since some stores may have seasonal temporary cashiers! Just the other day, I was buying 4 Best Buy gift cards, 2 per transaction. As I finished the first transaction, the cashier handed me the receipt and then picks up the SAME TWO GIFT CARDS and was about to scan them. I told him, “WAIT! You rang those up already.” He said, “Oh sorry, the computer would have stopped me anyway.” I’m not sure if he’s right not, but I didn’t want to take that chance. I’ve been burnt by cashiers scanning the same gift cards at Rite Aid before and it’s a total nightmare.
Another reader told me how she had issues at a grocery store clerk who scanned the same gift card and the manager had to get involved and they were clueless how to resolve the issue. Problems like these make your quick 2 minute MS stop turn into a headache and ain’t nobody got time for that.
What I do
You guys know that magician’s trick where you have to follow the ball beneath the cup while the magician as he moves the cups around? That’s how I feel this game is with cashiers. While I don’t have a current system set up yet, I feel like I need to just in case this issues happens again. Maybe you could ask the cashier to hand you the cards they’ve scanned already (assuming a small order.) If you have a system on how to avoid this problem, please let me know in comments. In the meantime, just be extra vigilant and watch which cards the cashier has scanned already and which ones they hand to you. When in doubt, check the receipt before they scan the next transaction!
I ask them to throw the purchases GCs into a bag. That way they learn that finished = bag. And I don’t hand them the next cards until the first batch is in the bag.
Sadly none of my collection of amex cards got the BB deal.
Nice idea.
I usually get the BBY offer in all my amex cards. I buy five per transaction for $1000 and pay with 4 amex @ $250 each, with the fees paid by a different CC with higher reward. I’ve done this every time the offer comes up and have not encountered issues. Immediately after check-out, I check the last 4 numbers on the package to match the ones activated in the receipt. Although it says I have to wait 30 minutes for the cards to be activated, IME, within 10 minutes when I call for balance, the $200 is already there so I just transfer them to my prepaids at WM. The last batch I bought was Nov 4, all drained successfully.
btw, most cashiers at my BBY know how to activate VGCs and they don’t mess up because they have to remove the strip that reveals the card number code at the back. They set these aside so there is no way to re-scan them.
don’t hand them all the cards at once. Only hands the cards for the current transaction.
That works sometimes but when you have say 10, they usually want to count them all.