AARP Carnival cards issues?

[sprint180]

Within the last several weeks I ordered $11500. In gift cards. Usually $1000 to $3000. I always ordered more then two at a time. All shipments came within a week of being ordered. I only actually signed for one of the shipments. The others I just left a sign on the door to please leave them. I did not get email confirmation of shipment. Now to hop on that ship

Edited July 17, 2019 by sprint180

[Organized Chaos]

32 minutes ago, sprint180 said:

Within the last several weeks I ordered $11500. In gift cards. Usually $1000 to $3000. I always ordered more then two at a time. All shipments came within a week of being ordered. I only actually signed for one of the shipments. The others I just left a sign on the door to please leave them. I did not get email confirmation of shipment. Now to hop on that ship

 

OK, I have to ask, what do you do with $11,500 worth of Carnival gift cards? Are you just building up an inventory for future cruises?

[Sailor Taylor]

I bought $2,000 worth of Carnival and Royal Caribbean gift cards/certificates in one transaction.  No problem at all.   All have arrived without needing any signature.  

[sprint180]

1 hour ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

OK, I have to ask, what do you do with $11,500 worth of Carnival gift cards? Are you just building up an inventory for future cruises?

Family of ten going on a cruise. Everyone is paying their own way. I just took the quizzes and ordered the cards

[sredish]

10 hours ago, sprint180 said:

Family of ten going on a cruise. Everyone is paying their own way. I just took the quizzes and ordered the cards

Great thinking!  That's a ton of money saved!!  

[sprint180]

18 minutes ago, sredish said:

Great thinking!  That's a ton of money saved!!  

Yes it did.  Had to take the quizzes in English and Spanish to get it done though.  

Edited July 17, 2019 by sprint180

[Saint Greg]

15 hours ago, sprint180 said:

Within the last several weeks I ordered $11500. In gift cards. Usually $1000 to $3000. I always ordered more then two at a time. All shipments came within a week of being ordered. I only actually signed for one of the shipments. The others I just left a sign on the door to please leave them. I did not get email confirmation of shipment. Now to hop on that ship

 

Wow. That's a lot of money to just leave at your door.

[sprint180]

Yes I guess. I live in the middle of no where.  And we are friends with the people that do venture out. 

[katstoy]

On 7/16/2019 at 7:57 PM, Florida Paesano said:

 With a UPS MyChoice account, which is free, one can log in to their account and track what is being shipped to their address.  

 

THANK YOU for this info!  Signed up for the account and it shows my package on its way to be delivered next week with a signature required.  For $5.00 I can have it rerouted to my office or I can wait until after the delivery attempt and go pick it up.  All I need to do now is figure out how to have them hold it before they make the delivery attempt.

[Florida Paesano]

5 hours ago, katstoy said:

 

THANK YOU for this info!  Signed up for the account and it shows my package on its way to be delivered next week with a signature required.  For $5.00 I can have it rerouted to my office or I can wait until after the delivery attempt and go pick it up.  All I need to do now is figure out how to have them hold it before they make the delivery attempt.

You're welcome.  Also, I think you can have the shipment delivered to a UPS store at no charge so you can pick it up there.  If I remember correctly, you log in to your UPS MyChoice account, access the shipment that's on its way and there's an option to have it re-routed to a UPS store.  

Edited July 18, 2019 by Florida Paesano

[Organized Chaos]

We tried to order one $500 card today. The first time, I clicked the button to place the order and the screen refreshed back to where it wanted my payment info. again. It did not deduct the 5,000 points, the order did not show up in my AARP account, and I didn't get the confirmation email. Also, it left the gift card in my shopping cart. But the strange thing was, my credit card showed a pre-authorization hold for the amount of the card + shipping. I couldn't call AARP, they had closed 30 minutes prior. We ran some errands, and a couple hours later, I checked my account again and the transaction was denied.

 

So then we tried to use a different credit card and got the exact same result. Well, we called the credit card company that time and they told us it was charged, but would be removed within 24 hours.

 

AARP requires that the shipping & billing address match when ordering gift cards. Does anyone know what happens if there's a discrepancy? Here's what I mean. I was trying to have the card shipped to a family member's house where someone would be home to sign for it. So I used their address for shipping and changed the billing address to match theirs since AARP requires it (even though the actual billing address for our credit cards is our address). Is it possible their system sees a discrepancy with the credit card's true billing address not matching the one I put down for the order? Could that be what caused our order to fail twice in the way it did? To not show up at all on my AARP account, but show up as a charge, then that charge get dropped? Or is it more likely AARP was just giving me fits?

[bury me at sea]

6 hours ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

 

AARP requires that the shipping & billing address match when ordering gift cards. Does anyone know what happens if there's a discrepancy? Here's what I mean. I was trying to have the card shipped to a family member's house where someone would be home to sign for it. So I used their address for shipping and changed the billing address to match theirs since AARP requires it (even though the actual billing address for our credit cards is our address). Is it possible their system sees a discrepancy with the credit card's true billing address not matching the one I put down for the order? Could that be what caused our order to fail twice in the way it did? To not show up at all on my AARP account, but show up as a charge, then that charge get dropped? Or is it more likely AARP was just giving me fits?

 

Your credit card company protected you.  They won't approve a charge with a fake billing address.

[Roz]

My 2 $100 cards arrived at my house via regular snail mail within a few days.  The $500 came via UPS, but I wasn't home so yesterday I had to go to the UPS Store and pick it up.  No problem.

 

Now for a question...the cards have a number on the back.  Is that all I need to email to my TA, or is there a PIN to go with it?  I noticed on the back of the card there's a small box in the top right hand corner with a wavy design that looks like maybe I need to rub it off?  Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Roz

[Organized Chaos]

1 hour ago, Roz said:

My 2 $100 cards arrived at my house via regular snail mail within a few days.  The $500 came via UPS, but I wasn't home so yesterday I had to go to the UPS Store and pick it up.  No problem.

 

Now for a question...the cards have a number on the back.  Is that all I need to email to my TA, or is there a PIN to go with it?  I noticed on the back of the card there's a small box in the top right hand corner with a wavy design that looks like maybe I need to rub it off?  Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Roz

 

$500 is the cut-off for how the cards ship. Orders under $500 ships via USPS and doesn't require a signature. Orders $500 & up ship UPS and do require a signature.

 

You'll need to give them the card number and the PIN under the scratch-off.

[Roz]

Thank you, Chaos.  That's what I thought.  I was glad I had to sign for the $500 card.  I would hate for it to get in the wrong hands after spending all that money.

 

Roz

[Organized Chaos]

5 hours ago, bury me at sea said:

Your credit card company protected you.  They won't approve a charge with a fake billing address.

 

We suspected that was the problem. It stinks that they make us match the shipping & billing addresses. I've never, ever had to match them, regardless of the online retailer. Plenty of people here who buy $500 or more worth of the cards want to ship them to an alternate address to make signing for them more convenient.

 

I just tried again with all of the info. entered as it should be and the order went through without a problem. Now I guess I'll sign up for UPS MyChoice and deal with it that way. For those of you who have used UPS MyChoice, I noticed one of its features is to authorize delivery without a signature. Has anyone tried that with these gift cards? Not sure if I want to do that, but if it comes to that, might have no choice. We live in a place where it's not likely to get messed with.

Edited July 21, 2019 by Organized Chaos

[tw67]

2 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

We suspected that was the problem. It stinks that they make us match the shipping & billing addresses. I've never, ever had to match them, regardless of the online retailer. Plenty of people here who buy $500 or more worth of the cards want to ship them to an alternate address to make signing for them more convenient.

 

I just tried again with all of the info. entered as it should be and the order went through without a problem. Now I guess I'll sign up for UPS MyChoice and deal with it that way. For those of you who have used UPS MyChoice, I noticed one of its features is to authorize delivery without a signature. Has anyone tried that with these gift cards? Not sure if I want to do that, but if it comes to that, might have no choice. We live in a place where it's not likely to get messed with.

I have signed online, but only if I knew my son would be home.  I usually have them directed to the UPS Store and pick them up on my way home.   

[bury me at sea]

40 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

We suspected that was the problem. It stinks that they make us match the shipping & billing addresses. I've never, ever had to match them, regardless of the online retailer. 

 

I'm glad your order went through, but even more glad the card is coming to you, not to some stranger who managed to obtain your credit card information.

 

The 10% savings has made a big difference to me and I hope the revamped AARP program will continue to offer it.

[n6uqqq]

13 hours ago, Organized Chaos said:

We tried to order one $500 card today. The first time, I clicked the button to place the order and the screen refreshed back to where it wanted my payment info. again. It did not deduct the 5,000 points, the order did not show up in my AARP account, and I didn't get the confirmation email. Also, it left the gift card in my shopping cart. But the strange thing was, my credit card showed a pre-authorization hold for the amount of the card + shipping. I couldn't call AARP, they had closed 30 minutes prior. We ran some errands, and a couple hours later, I checked my account again and the transaction was denied.

 

So then we tried to use a different credit card and got the exact same result. Well, we called the credit card company that time and they told us it was charged, but would be removed within 24 hours.

 

AARP requires that the shipping & billing address match when ordering gift cards. Does anyone know what happens if there's a discrepancy? Here's what I mean. I was trying to have the card shipped to a family member's house where someone would be home to sign for it. So I used their address for shipping and changed the billing address to match theirs since AARP requires it (even though the actual billing address for our credit cards is our address). Is it possible their system sees a discrepancy with the credit card's true billing address not matching the one I put down for the order? Could that be what caused our order to fail twice in the way it did? To not show up at all on my AARP account, but show up as a charge, then that charge get dropped? Or is it more likely AARP was just giving me fits?

 

 

If there is a discrepancy it simply won't ship, which is what happened in your situation. The charges will fall off. I had same problem and changed the billing address for my credit card to my work address and now the cards come to me at work. I also did the UPS account so that shipments can be routed to a UPS store. I am never home when UPS tries to deliver.

 

[Organized Chaos]

On 7/16/2019 at 9:57 PM, Florida Paesano said:

With a UPS MyChoice account, which is free, one can log in to their account and track what is being shipped to their address.  It is also possible to have a shipment redirected to a local UPS store and the customer can then go to the store to pick up the package.  I have never received a shipment confirmation from Rewards for Good and if I recall correctly, during the process of placing orders, the site does indicate that no shipment confirmation will be provided for gift cards or magazine subscriptions.  

 

We've been doing Rewards for Good for 2+ years now, but the last time we had to buy the physical gift cards was right after we first joined. Since then, they always had the e-cards when we needed them, so we haven't had to do it this way for quite some time. Sure wish they'd stock more of those again. I went ahead and signed up for UPS MyChoice. If I read another comment correctly, my account will show it scheduled to be delivered even without entering a tracking number, is that right?

 

If I remember right, from an older AARP thread, I think they'll give tracking numbers if you call them. They just don't email them automatically.

[2wheelin]

16 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

We've been doing Rewards for Good for 2+ years now, but the last time we had to buy the physical gift cards was right after we first joined. Since then, they always had the e-cards when we needed them, so we haven't had to do it this way for quite some time. Sure wish they'd stock more of those again. I went ahead and signed up for UPS MyChoice. If I read another comment correctly, my account will show it scheduled to be delivered even without entering a tracking number, is that right?

 

If I remember right, from an older AARP thread, I think they'll give tracking numbers if you call them. They just don't email them automatically.

All correct. With MyChoice I get a notice about a day before expected delivery (you sign up for when and how you want to be notified). However the first time I used it, the delivery time was for the next day between 1 and 5 (our usual time of deliveries) but they showed up at 9am and we weren’t home. Had to go to the store the next afternoon.

The next time I did the sign online since I was going to be gone for an hour that day. I happened to be here when UPS came and they just handed it to me, no signature needed.

I really like MYChoice as I never got any notices from AARP

[Organized Chaos]

31 minutes ago, 2wheelin said:

All correct. With MyChoice I get a notice about a day before expected delivery (you sign up for when and how you want to be notified). However the first time I used it, the delivery time was for the next day between 1 and 5 (our usual time of deliveries) but they showed up at 9am and we weren’t home. Had to go to the store the next afternoon.

The next time I did the sign online since I was going to be gone for an hour that day. I happened to be here when UPS came and they just handed it to me, no signature needed.

I really like MYChoice as I never got any notices from AARP

 

So will it even show up on my account right away, or not until a day or so before delivery? I was hoping it'd show up as soon as UPS processed the pickup so I could use it as sort of an improvised shipping notice...since AARP doesn't send one.

[bingomamma19]

9 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

So will it even show up on my account right away, or not until a day or so before delivery? I was hoping it'd show up as soon as UPS processed the pickup so I could use it as sort of an improvised shipping notice...since AARP doesn't send one.

My emails from UPS would come after it was actually shipped, so I knew the day before that they were coming.   Just got $2700 of cards last week and this was the process

[2wheelin]

18 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

So will it even show up on my account right away, or not until a day or so before delivery? I was hoping it'd show up as soon as UPS processed the pickup so I could use it as sort of an improvised shipping notice...since AARP doesn't send one.

I think it depends on how you set up your account. There is a place to select whether to get email and/or text messages for each point along the way

[Organized Chaos]

46 minutes ago, 2wheelin said:

I think it depends on how you set up your account. There is a place to select whether to get email and/or text messages for each point along the way

 

I went digging around in my settings and came across that. Thanks. I set it to alert me when it's "Ready for Shipment." My AARP account shows the status as "processed," so I'm hoping it gets shipped this afternoon.

 

What's everyone's experience with UPS shipping time? The last time we did physical cards, they came USPS in 5 days (to include a weekend). We've got our eye on a cruise this winter, but want to get this card first for the deposit. We've got the cabin on a 48 hour hold for now. Hoping the card only takes 3-4 days.