My CVS experience

Mama Steph

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 26, 2009
Messages
746
Went out tonight to take advantage of the buy $150 PayPal MasterCard and get $50 ECB deal. First 2 stores had no cards and pretended they didn't know what I was talking about. Went to a 3rd store, feeling pretty irritated, as a last shot. Saw no cards and asked the cashier. She stated that they've been dealing with this all day. They didn't get the PP MCs in but were offering the Amex prepaid (only a $2.95 activation fee) and would manually do 2 $25 ECBs for it. She let me get the limit of 2 and printed 4 ECBS. Bonus: when she rang the Amex, it didn't charge the activation fee. Said that it's been doing that for a while, glitch with the cards.
Great customer service. They acknowledged that there was a problem and they handled it.

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Went out tonight to take advantage of the buy $150 PayPal MasterCard and get $50 ECB deal. First 2 stores had no cards and pretended they didn't know what I was talking about. Went to a 3rd store, feeling pretty irritated, as a last shot. Saw no cards and asked the cashier. She stated that they've been dealing with this all day. They didn't get the PP MCs in but were offering the Amex prepaid (only a $2.95 activation fee) and would manually do 2 $25 ECBs for it. She let me get the limit of 2 and printed 4 ECBS. Bonus: when she rang the Amex, it didn't charge the activation fee. Said that it's been doing that for a while, glitch with the cards.
Great customer service. They acknowledged that there was a problem and they handled it.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

Thanks for sharing. I just found out about the deal, so am about to send the hubby out. I took a screen shot of the online ad so he has some proof. Good to know some are giving the Amex cards. Do you know are they just a regular gift card? I can use it for grocery shopping?
 
That is a GREAT replacement that your CVS offered you!

FYI, AmEx is running a promo until Dec 24th (I think it is?) where they are waiving the activation fee on their GCs. I wish I'd known to ask the CVS I was at if I could get AmEx instead of PayPal GC!
 
That is a GREAT replacement that your CVS offered you!

FYI, AmEx is running a promo until Dec 24th (I think it is?) where they are waiving the activation fee on their GCs. I wish I'd known to ask the CVS I was at if I could get AmEx instead of PayPal GC!

Hubby just tried. No Paypal. They didn't offer an alternative. I'll try tomorrow. The manager is usually really nice, so I'll see what I can do....
 

I read about this deal yesterday and thought about trying it but the terms of use for the Paypal prepaid card have me concerned.

This isn't a gift card and it's not like other prepaid cards. They charge a monthly fee for the darn thing. You have to activate it with Paypal, giving them private info., including your SS# or attach it to your Paypal account.

I'm worried that they could siphon money from my bank account or credit card attached to my Paypal account to cover the monthly fee if the card has a zero balance. I'm worried that canceling the card won't be easy . Dealing with a real person at Paypal has never been easy to do.

This just had the smell of one of those awesome deals that ends up biting people in the butt months later. Still, that $50 in free CVS money is tempting....

I'm glad the OP's store substituted the AmEx card. Much less hassle.
 
So would you be able to use the MC giftcard anywhere? Not just places that accept Paypal, correct? I would do that and use it on upcoming trip to pay for hotel.
 
I read about this deal yesterday and thought about trying it but the terms of use for the Paypal prepaid card have me concerned. This isn't a gift card and it's not like other prepaid cards. They charge a monthly fee for the darn thing. You have to activate it with Paypal, giving them private info., including your SS# or attach it to your Paypal account. I'm worried that they could siphon money from my bank account or credit card attached to my Paypal account to cover the monthly fee if the card has a zero balance. I'm worried that canceling the card won't be easy . Dealing with a real person at Paypal has never been easy to do. This just had the smell of one of those awesome deals that ends up biting people in the butt months later. Still, that $50 in free CVS money is tempting.... I'm glad the OP's store substituted the AmEx card. Much less hassle.

The cards can be linked to Paypal to put money on them but not take out, it's managed by a whole other comaony called net spend.

You can cancel online if you create an account.

Be wary if you want but there is nothing to worry about.

Most cards like this charge monthly fees, these are for people who aren't able to get credit cards on their own or have no bank accounts,
 
I have pretty much given up on CVS. If there is ever a sale on something I want, it is sold out when I get there. I think people must be waiting at the door when they open to get the great savings and returns that the ads imply are possible.
 
The cards can be linked to Paypal to put money on them but not take out, it's managed by a whole other comaony called net spend.

You can cancel online if you create an account.

Be wary if you want but there is nothing to worry about.

Most cards like this charge monthly fees, these are for people who aren't able to get credit cards on their own or have no bank accounts,
I spent the morning reading through the discussion thread for this deal over on the slickdeals.net forums. After finding out how they were doing this deal (repeatedly, in some cases), I decided to buy one. I didn't attach it to my PayPal account, though.
I was able to use the $100 MasterCard GC that I purchased at Acme on Saturday. The GC had cost me $105.95 but I got a $20 OYNO catalina, so it was already a MM. I put the remaining $54.95 for the PayPal prepaid Mastercard on my credit card. And I got my $50 ECB coupon.

But since I'd read a lot about the bank that administers this card charging another $4.95 for its monthly fee within 12 hours of activation, I went back to Acme with the PayPal debit card, purchased another $100 Mastercard GC and asked for $40 cash back. My total came to $145.95. I then ran over to Target and bought dog treats totaling $3.18 after tax and used almost all that was left on the PayPal card. One thing that I really wouldn't want to do is to leave money sitting on this card long enough to allow bank fees to dig into it!

So, I spent a total of $161 OOP, and I'm currently holding 1-$100 Mastercard GC, 2-$20 Acme catalinas, 1-$50 ECB, $40 cash, and a box of dog biscuits. I left 87 cents on the PayPal card that the bank can just keep. I'm well ahead of the game right now. Or maybe I'll head back to CVS and spend it on one of those 79-cent candy bars that are giving back 79 cents in ECBs. ;)
 
I spent the morning reading through the discussion thread for this deal over on the slickdeals.net forums. After finding out how they were doing this deal (repeatedly, in some cases), I decided to buy one. I didn't attach it to my PayPal account, though. I was able to use the $100 MasterCard GC that I purchased at Acme on Saturday. The GC had cost me $105.95 but I got a $20 OYNO catalina, so it was already a MM. I put the remaining $54.95 for the PayPal prepaid Mastercard on my credit card. And I got my $50 ECB coupon. But since I'd read a lot about the bank that administers this card charging another $4.95 for its monthly fee within 12 hours of activation, I went back to Acme with the PayPal debit card, purchased another $100 Mastercard GC and asked for $40 cash back. My total came to $145.95. I then ran over to Target and bought dog treats totaling $3.18 after tax and used almost all that was left on the PayPal card. One thing that I really wouldn't want to do is to leave money sitting on this card long enough to allow bank fees to dig into it! So, I spent a total of $161 OOP, and I'm currently holding 1-$100 Mastercard GC, 2-$20 Acme catalinas, 1-$50 ECB, $40 cash, and a box of dog biscuits. I left 87 cents on the PayPal card that the bank can just keep. I'm well ahead of the game right now. Or maybe I'll head back to CVS and spend it on one of those 79-cent candy bars that are giving back 79 cents in ECBs. ;)

Yes,I cleared off my card within an hour (withdrew $140 then bought an amazon GC with the rest). The angry people are the ones who didn't get the $ off fast enough to avoid the fees.
 
If you are in the state of Il. The deal is not available to you. It never was. I just spent 45 minutes on the phone with CVS customer relations including a supervisor.

Since this was not listed in the terms and conditions and much other state specific information was listed my husband has suggested I file a complaint with the attorney generals office il IL for fraudulent and deceptive marketing.
 
I just returned from the same store I wrote about in my OP. I ran in to get milk but while I was there I asked out the deal (different employees tonight) since I was going to pick up the cards for a friend. The store manager said they weren't offering a since it wasn't in their ad specifically. He was not happy that it was being done yesterday. I'm thankful that the employees yesterday were concerned about customer service and took care of it.

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I just returned from the same store I wrote about in my OP. I ran in to get milk but while I was there I asked out the deal (different employees tonight) since I was going to pick up the cards for a friend. The store manager said they weren't offering a since it wasn't in their ad specifically. He was not happy that it was being done yesterday. I'm thankful that the employees yesterday were concerned about customer service and took care of it.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards
If you go to CVS.com and sign into your account to view your "personalized" offers which are supposed to be available at your local CVS, you will probably see the deal.
 
My sister just called me and told me that the manager at her CVS is encouraging people to buy the PP card. I double checked our ad and it is definitely not advertised here (IN).

I'm was hoping to take advantage of the deal at her CVS tomorrow. However, I read a few posts on SlickDeals that a fax or email has gone out, or is supposed to go out, instructing the managers to pull the cards off the shelves. That'd be just my luck. :sad2:
 
I did this deal twice today.
I activated both w/ a pin #.
I went to Target & bought a bunch of $10 GC's. After I purchased each GC I requested $40 cash back. So I now have $200 cash, $100 in Target GC's, & $100 ECB's to roll in the CVS Black Friday deals...

Love this deal!
 
If there is no money on the card, it is as good as closed, correct? I activated the card and then promptly purchased a $150 Amazon gift card. Should I take any other action?
 
It looks like the deal has been pulled. It was supposed to run through 11/27/13 but it no longer shows up on my online offers. Others on slickdeals are reporting the same thing.

However, if I look at a sneak preview of "next week's" offers, it's there again. I was debating whether to get a second cardtoday but it looks like CVS made the decision for me. :rotfl:
 












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