Travel Specialist Weblog

Today I am writing about nothing to do with travel other than this incident was due to my having to purchase Visa gift cards for a trade show prize.

I needed to buy three $500 Visa gift cards.  I am thinking this is a piece of cake.  I go to Jewel because I am also buying some flowers.  They do not sell $500 denominations so I wipe them out of $200 and $100 cards to make up the $1500 I need.  Not pleased about this because they charge $5.95 per card and I have 9 of them. I take my items to check out and the guy rings them up and THEN tells me I need cash.  I am lucky if I have $20 cash with me at any one time.  I actually read the back of the packaging to see if it said cash only and “Nada” on that pint.  Wouldn’t you think they would mention you need cash before they ring you up?  So I pay for my flowers and go see the tellers at TCF in the Jewel store.  No luck there, cash only.

I figured out (all by myself) that I needed to go to my bank and get cash so off I go to Bank of  America.  I now know I am going to be late to my function.  I go inside the bank figuring that I am going to purchase the cards at B of A with my CASH I am getting.  Noooo.  They stopped selling the gift cards.  I walk out with my $1600 in cash and go to Chase Bank next door.

I specifically ask if they sell the cards and getting affirmation, I get in line.  I get to the teller and ask for the cards.  She asks if I have an account and I say no, just a couple of Chase credit cards.  She tells me I cannot buy them, WITH CASH, because I have no account.  Since when do banks not accept cash?  Why do they care if I have an account?  Is my cash going to bounce?  I think not.  I ask her this and she gives the same line about not taking my money because I have no account.    I feel like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman at this point, when they would not wait her on Rodeo Drive. Wish I looked like her, of course.    I then proceed to say that service like this is why I would not have an account at Chase and leave.

I cannot go back to Jewel because I wiped them out of the gift cards when they swiped them before I was not allowed to buy them with my American Express card.  On to my 5th stop, my little local bank.  She says, no problem, the cards are $2.00 each, a bargain.  I say great and she proceeds to process them.  It seems they just got a new system on Monday and she does not know how to do them.  Three tellers and half hour later I walk out with my 3 $500 gift cards, knowing I might make the start of the meeting for which I have not only the prizes but the table cloths.

5 stops to buy gift cards, one broken nail and a paper cut to boot did not make for a good afternoon.  Fortunately the meeting went well and I am now in  warm North Carolina for the weekend.  Just remember, cash is not necessarily king.