AARP Raises Limit on Gift Card Purchases

[crooooze]

10 hours ago, CynCyn said:

Good luck! They never even responded to me.  I did get my $$ back.

They haven’t yet responded to me either. Just spent hours trying different things.

 

[bjkTX]

21 hours ago, Tedferg said:

I have never used these GC and it seems somewhat 'fiddly' to me, these errors only reinforce that feeling.

I have used them to totally pay for our last two cruises and I have purchased enough to pay off our next cruise.  Nothing "fiddly" about it unless you don't trust AARP - and who doesn't trust AARP...... 🙂

[naurutger]

Update for me. I never got a credit card to work and used PayPal (after several attempts it went through) but no gift card yet. For my purchase last week, I was able to get my case elevated after contacting them through chat and on their rewards forums. My wife made a purchase using PayPal yesterday and we contacted chat today about not receiving them after 24 hours. Was told to wait and a few hours later she got them and we applied them to our upcoming cruise. Just waiting on mine. But if it works out and saves me $500, I consider it well worth it. A little uneasy with the waiting lol.

[cjpj]

Forget about purchasing, I can't even register.  Have any Canadians successfully registered for these rewards? After a few days and seberal tries at fiddling, I finally got it to accept the Postal Code (which is soppose to be an option), but now I can't get my phone number in. Says it only accepts country codes of +1, ok, that's not a problem. But when I enter my phone number, it won't accept it. Says US numbers only and there is no option to bypass. 

Edited March 20, 2023 by cjpj

[beg3yrs]

27 minutes ago, cjpj said:

Forget about purchasing, I can't even register.  Have any Canadians successfully registered for these rewards? After a few days and seberal tries at fiddling, I finally got it to accept the Postal Code (which is soppose to be an option), but now I can't get my phone number in. Says it only accepts country codes of +1, ok, that's not a problem. But when I enter my phone number, it won't accept it. Says US numbers only and there is no option to bypass. 

This might be your problem:

Screenshot from AARP Rewards Terms and Conditions

[Rick&Jeannie]

delete

Edited March 21, 2023 by Rick&Jeannie

[cjpj]

11 hours ago, beg3yrs said:

This might be your problem:

Screenshot from AARP Rewards Terms and Conditions

Yes, discovered that this morning too!

[CynCyn]

On 3/20/2023 at 1:59 PM, bjkTX said:

I have used them to totally pay for our last two cruises and I have purchased enough to pay off our next cruise.  Nothing "fiddly" about it unless you don't trust AARP - and who doesn't trust AARP...... 🙂

I felt the same way until I had $2500 in limbo and couldn’t get a response.

[Rick&Jeannie]

13 hours ago, CynCyn said:

I felt the same way until I had $2500 in limbo and couldn’t get a response.

I'm sure there is a story there...  But like @bjkTX I have paid off 2 upcoming cruises and over half of a remaining third.  I don't "sit" on these cards at all!  As soon as I get them I post them to my account...keeping copies and a hardcopy as well with notes as to which cruise and when applied.  Curious as to what you mean by "in limbo".

[CynCyn]

8 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

I'm sure there is a story there...  But like @bjkTX I have paid off 2 upcoming cruises and over half of a remaining third.  I don't "sit" on these cards at all!  As soon as I get them I post them to my account...keeping copies and a hardcopy as well with notes as to which cruise and when applied.  Curious as to what you mean by "in limbo".

I got the same error message that others have reported in this thread, BUT, the funds were immediately debited from my account.  Of course, this was on a Sunday.  I called Monday and was told to wait 24 hours.  Called Tuesday, they said no record of my purchase yet bank was still showing.    Said someone would call me.  Also filed complaint online which said I would receive a response in 3-5 days. Site went down for maintenance on Wednesday or Thursday.  Money was Also filed complaint online which said I would receive a response in 3-5 days. Friday.  No one has called or emailed. Site has been down twice for maintenance since then.  Think they have an issue they don’t want to address.

[Rick&Jeannie]

33 minutes ago, CynCyn said:

 Site has been down twice for maintenance since then.  Think they have an issue they don’t want to address.

I obviously do not have an inside track on this...but if the site has actually been down for maint. twice it would appear that they are working on *something*!

[JimmyVWine]

5 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

I obviously do not have an inside track on this...but if the site has actually been down for maint. twice it would appear that they are working on *something*!

The AARP tech capabilities make Princess look like NASA.  

[naurutger]

Yeah I'm currently out the $2,250. Bought 5 gift cards, called in, they said somehow me and the wife are merged together and they can't process them, they can't refund us, and to continue to wait. Cruise payment is soon. I already notified the bank so while I hope it comes this week, I fear I'm out a large amount of money.

[CynCyn]

14 minutes ago, naurutger said:

Yeah I'm currently out the $2,250. Bought 5 gift cards, called in, they said somehow me and the wife are merged together and they can't process them, they can't refund us, and to continue to wait. Cruise payment is soon. I already notified the bank so while I hope it comes this week, I fear I'm out a large amount of money.

I procrastinated and waited until a day before final payment so I was out almost $5000 for a few days because I had to pay without cards.  I wish Allstate would restock theirs! I am hesitant to deal with AARP again.

[crooooze]

Maybe AARP should have instant win scratch or spin games, too. Instead of points, you can win error-free transactions.

[Ken the cruiser]

Just curious but has anyone been successful purchasing the Princess gift cards in the last week or two? I'm sorry some folks are having issues, but just wondering if others have been successful. For us we purchased 5 GCs each in late February and 5 each again on March 1st. FWIW my DW has an AARP account and I have a free AARP Rewards account and we both use separate CCs.

[Rick&Jeannie]

31 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Just curious but has anyone been successful purchasing the Princess gift cards in the last week or two? I'm sorry some folks are having issues, but just wondering if others have been successful. For us we purchased 5 GCs each in late February and 5 each again on March 1st. FWIW my DW has an AARP account and I have a free AARP Rewards account and we both use separate CCs.

I bought one just 2 days ago. No problem.  Have never had any of the issues that are being reported. 

Edited March 23, 2023 by Rick&Jeannie

[GoDucksNation]

Just bought one yesterday and no problem. Got my email in a matter of minutes 

[Hockey_Momx2]

I purchased 5 last Friday and received error message; however, all cards were emailed within minutes.  My hubby purchased 5 a few minutes later and received the same error message.   Credit card was charged right away.  Two hours into waiting for the cards to arrive we did an online chat and confirmed that the order was in process and we should receive within 24 hours.  We received about an hour later.  Whew!  We were booking a Drop & Go cruise and needed the $$$ right away.  I've previously purchased with no issues.

[naurutger]

After a week and talking in the phone and chat, looks like they just refunded me the $2,250. At least that is what PayPal sent. Not email from them. Lots of work. I would suggest that for anyone new, you do it well in advance and do a test run of a smaller amount to see if it works.

[Rick&Jeannie]

Everybody keeps talking about "the error message".  Did I miss something in a previous post?  Has anybody actually posted the error message or a screenshot?

[naurutger]

Prior page I posted one of the variations. Did get an email about the refund so while it didn't work out for me, at least I didn't lose money.

[milolii]

On 3/15/2023 at 3:03 PM, naurutger said:

I was getting the address was wrong message yesterday and today its been this one.  2 credit cards and paypal all lead to this one (luckily its not charging my cards since its an error).

 

 

I’ve seen this error message as well, more than once.  Called  CC company, nothing went through.  Tried again and was not able to purchase.  I tried later that night. No go.  Then tried next day and went though.  
 
On another occasion, email with cards appeared in about an hour.  
 

I agree try one at first.  For $100.00. 

Edited March 25, 2023 by milolii

[Thrak]

I got that message on my laptop multiple times with both Firefox and Chrome. I tried with both a "real" credit card number and also with a "virtual" credit card number (Capital One perk). @Jadn13 suggested I try using my phone. I tried using Firefox on my phone and the order went right through. If you are getting the error message I strongly urge you to try this route.

Edited March 25, 2023 by Thrak

[milolii]

I forgot to mention I tried an iPhone, desk top and an iPad.  All three.  Didn’t try a lap top.  One order eventually went through, that was on the desk top.