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For some odd reason, Vanilla reload cards have become quite popular (see “One card to rule them all” for a potential reason). However, recently I’ve received two very similar reports about trouble with these cards.
Two readers have independently reported an issue when trying to use these cards after buying them at Office Depot. When trying to use the cards, they received a message saying that the card was deactivated. In both cases the cards had been deactivated for suspected fraud. Each reader called the Vanilla Reload Network number, but were told to contact Office Depot for help. One reader called 1-800-GODEPOT, and the other went back to the Office Depot store. In the first case, the reader spent a couple of days with calls back and forth between the Office Depot retail store, the Office Depot corporate loss prevention department, and Vanilla Reload Network before the cards were finally reactivated. In the second case, the manager of the local Office Depot spent about an hour on the phone on the customer’s behalf and finally got the problem sorted out. The reader who spent days on the phone, reported the following:
When the issue was finally resolved and I spoke with Office Depot’s Loss Prevention Department, I was informed that OD is aware of the problem for its legitimate customers and is trying to work with Incomm to resolve this problem in some reasonable way (that is, it’s important to prevent fraud, but not at the expense of causing legitimate customers to be so dissatisfied that they vow never to shop at OD again).
Personally, I’ve bought and used many reload cards without any problems, but maybe I’ve been lucky. The good news from these reports seems to be that even though it is a big hassle, you will get your money eventually. It’s also good news to hear that Office Depot is trying to fix this issue.
Has this or anything similar happened to you? Comment below.
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Missy: What an awful experience! I’m sorry that you’ve had to go through that. I hope you’ve received your money by now?
I did a few transfers before-no problem, however, today I am out of $500, courtesy of Vanilla card.
They had some tech problems online today, so I called their line and spoke with “Kim”. She advised me to try again since their IT department was working on the issue. I did a couple hours later and got a message that the card was redeemed already. I thought it was another glitch, and called the Customer Service. They said it was indeed redeemed and provided me with some numbers. My Bluebird doesn`t have that transfer. Moreover, there was no confirmation on successful reload from and I got a message that the transfer didn`t go through. A rep said to call Bluebird. I did. No help there either. She just used automated system to load, and of course, it gave a message that the card has been used already.
I`ve spent about four hours of my Christmas Eve (it`s a lot of money, for God`s sake!), and still no money. Bluebird supervisor was trying to resolve the issue, but gave me an answer that I was over the limit..I replied that money went to their way apparently.
In any event, I believe it is Vanilla who has my $500. The issue hasn`t been resolved as of right now. I`ve called Vanilla several times already, and no luck to be transferred to a supervisor from Vanilla (still on hold-35 minutes and counting!). I am tired of being brushed off with pointing fingers and saying once the card is redeemed, there is nothing they can do!!
My faithful OD in South Seattle has dried up. No bean cards available. I know the downtown OD does not have them so that left me the University District. Went there and they had a good stack. Needless to say I did a stash on 3/4s of them and purchased 2. My wife thinks I am crazy, do you blame me?
Went to another OD in so cal, this time there weren’t event any vanilla reload place holders on the shelf. They had the AMEX cards in stock but not the vanilla reload cards. Going to visit another OD tomorrow. If it’s not in stock i am just going to get a Visa prepaid card.
@jim I have not spoken with them directly yet
2x 500 with ink bold
I can report back later when I know more
As a side note, someone mentioned earlier that they may target big cities. I buy 2 x 500 most times. I just recently (3 weeks) upped it to 2500 or 5 x 500 , I have done this twice. I have never had a problem but I also don’t use chase cards. My plan is to buy 1 500 every so offen to make spend only. I have always thought this is only valuable to make spends. I have been more aggressive as of late but I believe a little restraint is in order. As a general rule do not spend more than you are comfortable loosing.
Tim2,
Details would help.
How many cards? $500×2?
Who did they call?
How did they finally resolve it?
So I got my inlaws in on this deal, they buy 1000 per month. My wife just told me theres got deactivated and they spen two weeks trying to get their money back. They live in Dallas Tx
Jim, they were sold out and only had the white place holders on the shelves. I found it unusual as they normally have a stack of them always available for purchase. When I asked if they were going to get the reloads in stock any time soon their response made it seem that they weren’t going to sell the reloads any more. However, they still had a few AMEX prepaid cards available for purchase. Going to make a run to a different office depot shortly.
Sam, The good news is they were not pulled from the shelves. Some of the newbies will wipe out a store. They learn the hard way that anything over 4 or so will trigger a deactivation of their reloads. Unfortunately, the restocking takes a long time.
If everyone would just settle down and purchase only a few per week this deal will last a long time.
[…] much easier than messing with gift cards, that it isn’t always hassle free, Frequent Miler reports on a couple of folks who bought reload cards that had been deactivated and had to go through hoops to get the funds loaded onto their prepaid American Express gift […]
Sam, sold out or pulled from the shelves?
Just went to an OD in southern california, this store normally is fully stocked with the reloadable vanilla cards for the AMEX prepaid card. Today they didn’t have any of the vanilla reloadable’s. In fact, they claimed to have stopped selling those cards. However, they do still sell the regular Visa prepaid cards.
Anyone know of any fee-free ATMs in Tulsa?
@Adam where in nor cal , I covered a lot of ground , san jose , sunnyvale , hayward , all of them were sold out
I’m in Cupertino. This was on Stevens Creek I believe, and they were the Vanilla Visa, not AMEX. Those were sold out
It’s InComm doing the deactivation. It doesn’t make sense that OD would do this as they’ve already made the sale and verified (in their eyes) the buyer.
What does make sense is that InComm is looking for large purchases of the cards, and likely in areas of reported fraud. Even in areas where there’s not fraud, very few people beyond those like us are going to buy more than 1 or maybe 2 of these at a time.
Adam: OD needing to call your card issuer shouldn’t be a problem – they do that almost every time I buy the reload packs. All they do is call the bank for an added security layer. What FM is talking about here is where OD/InComm deactivates the card after the purchase.
@Brad, thanks for the info.