A few weeks ago, I had bought 5 VGC for $500 each, all on separate transactions at Safeway. My store knows me really well and are okay with this volume. Every once in a while, the cashiers will tell me, “Oh yeah, we got a call after you left asking about the purchases.” Usually the cashiers will tell them it’s not fraud and it’s fine.
However, when I finally went to use these batch of cards, I got a NOT AUTHORIZED error. I went to go back and check the receipts and they said APPROVED. I checked the balances online and it came up as TECHNICAL ERROR. This had happened to someone else recently who gave me a tip to call the Safeway GC department at 877-723-3929 (option 4.) I called that number and gave the nice lady one of the card numbers and the receipt with the transaction ID so she could look it up.
She then put me on hold so she could talk to 2nd level. After a few minutes, she came back on and said, “There were more cards right?” GREAT! This means they know what happened. So I told her, “Yeah 5 cards in total.” She then put me on hold to talk with 2nd level some more.
Eventually she came back on and grabbed my information. I then asked her, “So did you guys invalidate the cards or did GCM did?” She goes, “We did. They were invalidated for possible fraud.” This makes no sense since like I said, I go there every day and the cashiers usually tell the GC department it’s fine. But the more I think about it, I do remember one cashier telling me after the fact, “The GC people called me yesterday after you left and I didn’t know what to tell them.” So maybe it was that phone call that made them suspicious and invalidated the cards.
I’m still waiting to see what’s going to happen, but the guy who had this happen told me he got a check 2 weeks later after making the case. Lesson learned – well if this happens to you, now you know how to get it resolved.
So it works out for you since you will get the check and cash in just like buying money order without fees?
Technically yes if they send me a check.
Are these metabank VGCs? If so those are often looked at when large amts are bought. I had a similar issue at mine but only resulted in a phone call from corporate regarding my “unusual purchase”……2K is the magic number.
Sticking to under $2k/day/store/acct will generally avoid this issue too. But hey, you live the #shutdownlife
My local Albertsons / Safeway doesn’t even allow large volume, most likely to avoid this phone call.
Just curious, did something like this ever happened in any Kroger branded store (e.g. Fred Meyer)?