$25 Disney gift cards (SM)

[OhMari]

I wouldn't mind throwing in some money, to help you buy stamps and postage. You help us save money and earn money, I would be willing to do the same.

[jnorth1007]

Honestly I think that waiting to cash out until you need/want the money instead of cashing out each time you guys hit the cash out amount would be the biggest help (Just my opinion though, not an official stance LOL) because it cuts back on the work, postage, supplies and everything needed to do cashouts. If everyone cashes out at $25 or $50 then by the time cashouts are completed and sent out and recieved they are almost at the cashout point again LOL. So if you guys want or need the cards at that point then by all means cashout. If not, hold off for the higher card amounts. Consider it helping the environment by saving the postman gas ROFL

[m 'n c]

Honestly I think that waiting to cash out until you need/want the money instead of cashing out each time you guys hit the cash out amount would be the biggest help (Just my opinion though, not an official stance LOL) because it cuts back on the work, postage, supplies and everything needed to do cashouts. If everyone cashes out at $25 or $50 then by the time cashouts are completed and sent out and recieved they are almost at the cashout point again LOL. So if you guys want or need the cards at that point then by all means cashout. If not, hold off for the higher card amounts. Consider it helping the environment by saving the postman gas ROFL

I agree with Janet's post. I made myself keep saving until I reached the point where I had enough to pay off my trip and cashed out for that amount. I will now keep saving up until I find a use for my account balance even though I'm almost at the minimum again.

I will also add that trying to input $25 cards was a PITA last month and I will gladly wait until I can cashout for $100s again as it will cut down my 1 hour spent entering cards to hopefully 20-30 minutes.

[Alice28]

I think it's a good idea. I have mostly $100 and $50 denominations this time, but a few $25- I am sure the BWV check in person is just going to roll their eyes at me. It's gonna take 15 minutes to swipe all my cards. (I'm applying it to our dining plan)

[mollyeilis]

This isn't about the SM discount, but about cashing out for lower cards.


In my head I agree with waiting until you have a good amount to cash out.

Last quarter, however, and going into this quarter, I found myself cashing out for smaller amounts, more often than I really liked to do. Why? Well, there was the aspect of getting back into surveys when I really hadn't been able to do them for basically a whole quarter. I was trying not to take the surveys for granted, since I'd had bad luck with them, and each time I hit a cashout amount I was shocked! And then I was just plain old shocked how fast other things brought up my balance.

I hope that the following can be taken as just a sweet-natured thought I've been working on for awhile, not as "oh Molly's complaining", because the core of the reasoning behind it is actually to save you guys time and effort!

The idea that has been roaming in my head is to (down the road, in the future, once things get on an even keel) either:

1. Have a schedule (that can be modified if needed, obviously) for when cashouts will be worked on.

or

2. Post in an obvious place when cashouts have been mailed, with info on who was included.


Now I know this might seem like extra work. But gosh, it seems to me like far more extra work to field all the questions and concerns or just wondering/pondering of people of when they should cash out for their trip, if they were part of a cashout, blah blah blah. To have a central spot on the site and on the forums to say either "this is when it will be done" or "this is what has been done as of today", and maybe even have the forum info be a locked thread so you don't have to come back and answer questions, *seems* (to me) that it would ultimately be less work.

It would also help the members out, b/c I'm sure I'm not the only one who has, say, $30 in the account, and the 2-4 week cashout estimate is in effect. Assuming might take that whole time, I cash out for the $25, then y'all show your incredible efficiency and it gets here in 1.5 weeks, and then by another week or so I surprisingly have earned enough for another, leading to a "cross your fingers it gets here but if not that's OK" cashout.


Obviously I don't know if the set schedule for paypal cashouts are working for you, but for those of us who have been around here we KNOW how to do it. I know, should I ever want a pp cashout, when to make the request and especially when I will get it. If that's working, I would think that having a scheduled (at your convenient times) cashout time would be good, too!

SR is run so honestly, openly, and to me this is the right word but it might not make sense to others, transparently, with lots of info being given on inner workings and thought processes, I would think the above would be a natural extension of that.

Respectfully submitted and yours truly,

Molly

[mollyeilis]

Just went and got myself some coffee (it's only 9am here!), and got to thinking, and now I feel like a total dork, b/c obviously you guys have already thought of such things, and have either rejected it or are working on it.

Well, just in case, I know that I would love a system where we know when cashouts are processed each month, where I could check the site and or the forums for that date and the date of mailing, and plan accordingly. I mean, I have a running calculation of how much I need per day to get SM, depending on if I count the full time or subtract the days we'll be in southern CA...of course I'd like to have a set date for cashing out purposes!

[ligrumpygirl]

I believe somewhere (a thread? chat?) Tricia was throwing around the idea of a specific day for cashouts. Maybe when she pops in today, she can give you a better idea of how far this idea is from comng to fruition. (wow I don't think I ever used that word in a written sentence before haha)

[jnorth1007]

Ok I'm not really sure I understood your post correctly but I will go with what I THINK I got from it LOL.

Tricia has been reluctant to set a specific date for making cashouts for gift cards because she is trying to give good customer service. While it is easier for her to have a certain day and some people might agree that they would like to know exactly when, the majority of the people would throw a FIT that they had to wait until "so and so" to get their cards. We have discussed it before and she has been reluctant because she wants happy members also.

The compromise was that we tell people you have to give the specified amount of time for a card to show up and no complaining when it doesn't come earlier than that. So for the sake of making things easier on you guys: it takes 2-4 weeks for a card to get there. If by chance yours gets there early and you want to chance ordering another then by all means do so. I don't think that anyone is trying to say that you can't cash out for the smaller amounts. We are just saying that people who cash out whenever they hit the $25 mark regardless of when their need for the cards are will drive up the cost and availability of the cards. I was pointing out that instead of offering to pay Tricia to carry the $25 cards that it would be more economical if everyone just cashed out for the cards they needed when they needed them. I totally get that some people like to have the cards in hand and those people and anyone else can continue to do things the way they always have. However, the cost of providing the smaller ones to people ever three weeks may make them too expensive to carry at some point. I am again ONLY EXPRESSING AN OPINION so no one go into a hissy thinking the $25 gift cards are going to be disappearing.

Also, I didn't understand what you were saying about the suveys at all or what they have to do with cashouts but if you would care to explain it I would be happy to read it again LOL

[m 'n c]

Janet - I also read Molly's suggestion just now and what I think she was saying was that she is trying to do surveys daily and make it a habit. What she has found is that she is having good luck with those and freebies crediting and therefore hitting $25 very quickly and in the excitement is cashing out for $25 all the time. Basically I think she was trying to explain how others might be consistently cashing out all the time for lower value cards.

[jnorth1007]

Ah see now it makes sense lol I was just not reading it right! Thanks for translating Catherine. I need a vacation from home lol because i just wasn't seeing it. Now I do. Molly I would say GREAT that you are doing so good on the daily surveys that is so awesome and if you can't control the excitement then awesome, if not, well then don't LOL