$25 Disney gift cards (SM)

I think the key here is patience..... SR is a fabulous site they we know everyone loves, BUT there are over 10000 + members that are cashing out (I'm sure half aren't even forum members) and only a handful of SR "employees" handling them all. With that in mind I think we'll ALL agree that they do a fantastic job of taking care of 10000 + members. Back to my main point is, it's great that we "earned" this money for Disney GC's, paypal etc, but 2-4 weeks means exactly that and SR hasn't let us down before so why should it start now.

Molly I do understand what you were trying to say and it made perfect sense! :)

Janet I agree with you, cashing out frequently for small amounts = bigger expense and hurts our trees! lol :p I do however understand people who are paying down balances want to get them ASAP.

I know Tricia wants to please everyone and for that I am thankful, but she may end up going crazy in the process! ha ha. I like Molly's idea of a locked thread where she can post updates on disney mailings that keeps it centralized and hopefully ?'s down.

Just my 2 cents!

Like I said April if people are more comfortable doing it that way then by all means do it. There is still an option to get a $25 Disney GC there just isn't a discounted price on it for SM's since that is where the costs were coming from.

I think what I didn't explain about the set cashout date thing that would make it less desirable is that in order to do it then it would have to be done like paypal. Cashout by the last day of the month for cashout on the 15th of the next month. So now what you are doing is expanding the waiting time to 14+ days since none of the cashouts would be done until the 15th. Anyone who cashes out on the last day wouldn't even have their cashouts processed until 14 days later. So this means that those people who get extra earnings at the last minute would have even less time to earn and take the chance of getting a card. It wouldn't be set up that everyone who cashes out by the 15th gets cashouts sent out on the 15th since it takes time to run the reports and do the cashouts.

Perhaps a good compromise would be for Tricia to list when she has done and mailed out a cashout. I don't know but it is totally Tricia's decision and I am sure that she will take it into consideration. The point of the thread was to let you guys know that SM's who were cashing out every week for small cards were costing alot of money so the option has been removed. That is a necessary evil for Tricia.

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Originally Posted by jnorth1007

Like I said April if people are more comfortable doing it that way then by all means do it. There is still an option to get a $25 Disney GC there just isn't a discounted price on it for SM's since that is where the costs were coming from.

I think what I didn't explain about the set cashout date thing that would make it less desirable is that in order to do it then it would have to be done like paypal. Cashout by the last day of the month for cashout on the 15th of the next month. So now what you are doing is expanding the waiting time to 14+ days since none of the cashouts would be done until the 15th. Anyone who cashes out on the last day wouldn't even have their cashouts processed until 14 days later. So this means that those people who get extra earnings at the last minute would have even less time to earn and take the chance of getting a card. It wouldn't be set up that everyone who cashes out by the 15th gets cashouts sent out on the 15th since it takes time to run the reports and do the cashouts.

Perhaps a good compromise would be for Tricia to list when she has done and mailed out a cashout. I don't know but it is totally Tricia's decision and I am sure that she will take it into consideration. The point of the thread was to let you guys know that SM's who were cashing out every week for small cards were costing alot of money so the option has been removed. That is a necessary evil for Tricia.

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Janet I hope I wasn't coming across as disagreeing. If anything when I saw your first post I was agreeing totally with you. Which is why i said Patience! :)

Honestly it doesn't matter to me one way or another, I just know how easily people get frustrated and Tricia is such a good person at trying to please everyone. I agree waiting to do it like Paypal may not be the best option, but that's her call.

No I didn't think you were being disagreeable and hopefully I didn't come of as sounding that way either because I wasn't being disagreeable. I just want everyone to know that they can still use the $25 GC's if they want to. I also wanted everyone to know why the decision is such a tough one to make for Tricia. Thanks for your imput though. It is important for Tricia to know what everyone wants. I just wish we could get the opinions from people who don't use the forums too.

I've been reading along and kind of going back and forth on all of this. One of my thoughts recently was to move to what some of the other sites do and just have ALL cashouts done by the end of one month sent out on the 15th of the next month. It would cut down on our postage costs and administrative time quite a bit, but it's a big step backward in customer service, I think. I don't know. It's a tough issue. Maybe I need to take a look at the cashout patterns overall and see how many people it would actually impact if we moved to something like that.

They paypal goes pretty smoothly. Although we do get quite a few trouble tickets filed starting around the 8th of the month from people wondering where their paypal money is. We keep referring them back to the terms and FAQ...and even the paypal page...but apparently they don't find the information easily or something??

Thanks for the feedback on this. I'm getting steamed at the post office for continuing to increase the rates. But I am sure that their costs are increasing a lot these days with the fuel rates. So I get it. I get but don't have to like it. LOL!

It sounds reasonable to me. Then we would know when to expect to receive cashouts. Maybe you could go with a happy medium and mail on the 15th and 30th. Whatever you decide I'm sure will be for the best.
Thanks for everything you do. :sunshine:

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Originally Posted by SunshineGirl

I've been reading along and kind of going back and forth on all of this. One of my thoughts recently was to move to what some of the other sites do and just have ALL cashouts done by the end of one month sent out on the 15th of the next month. It would cut down on our postage costs and administrative time quite a bit, but it's a big step backward in customer service, I think. I don't know. It's a tough issue. Maybe I need to take a look at the cashout patterns overall and see how many people it would actually impact if we moved to something like that.

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I think it would really only affect people when they are close to a trip and trying to get a few more dollars for their trip. For example my next trip is scheduled August 8th. If the end of the month policy was in effect I'd have to cash out by June 30. But as it currently stands I could cash out by July 10and be within the 4 week window. Those 10 days may or may not make a difference. Personally I don't have strong feelings either way, I guess I figure if I don't earn that extra $ in time for this August, I could use it when I go in January or next August:rotfl:

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Originally Posted by SunshineGirl

I've been reading along and kind of going back and forth on all of this. One of my thoughts recently was to move to what some of the other sites do and just have ALL cashouts done by the end of one month sent out on the 15th of the next month. It would cut down on our postage costs and administrative time quite a bit, but it's a big step backward in customer service, I think. I don't know. It's a tough issue. Maybe I need to take a look at the cashout patterns overall and see how many people it would actually impact if we moved to something like that.

They paypal goes pretty smoothly. Although we do get quite a few trouble tickets filed starting around the 8th of the month from people wondering where their paypal money is. We keep referring them back to the terms and FAQ...and even the paypal page...but apparently they don't find the information easily or something??

Thanks for the feedback on this. I'm getting steamed at the post office for continuing to increase the rates. But I am sure that their costs are increasing a lot these days with the fuel rates. So I get it. I get but don't have to like it. LOL!

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I am in favor of skipping the discounted SM rate on the $25 cards and waiting till $50 or even $100 to cash out if it helps. I'd hate to lose the discounted cards SM perq altogether though. As long as if we do want a $25 (or $50) card we could still get them at the regular rate. I don't even think I'd mind cashing out by the 30th for a processing on the 15th too much. And I would really appreciate knowing when they would come (I've almost been attacking the mailman these last few days waiting for $250 I'm expecting so I can pay off my cruise, LOL!) I'm with WisconsinMom in thinking that it should really only affect people if the are trying to get those last few dollars in before a trip. Ordinarily it shouldn't be an issue, though.

Thanks for continuing to offer this, Tricia. I really do appreciate it, and that's just another thing that makes this site rock!

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Originally Posted by askomsky

I think the key here is patience..... SR is a fabulous site they we know everyone loves, BUT there are over 10000 + members that are cashing out (I'm sure half aren't even forum members) and only a handful of SR "employees" handling them all. With that in mind I think we'll ALL agree that they do a fantastic job of taking care of 10000 + members. Back to my main point is, it's great that we "earned" this money for Disney GC's, paypal etc, but 2-4 weeks means exactly that and SR hasn't let us down before so why should it start now.

Molly I do understand what you were trying to say and it made perfect sense! :)

Janet I agree with you, cashing out frequently for small amounts = bigger expense and hurts our trees! lol :p I do however understand people who are paying down balances want to get them ASAP.

I
Just my 2 cents!

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Oh thank you, thank you, thank you, April. The key is patience. I know everyone wants to get down to that last dollar, but, that money isn't going anywhere, and you'll be able to use it for something I am sure, so the hurry to cashout the last minute and expect your gift cards to be there in a week is unrealistic, not only because we have others things we do but cashouts, but because we cannot depend on the US mail to get it there in time. I do cashouts twice a week, mondays and thursdays, so for anything but Disney, that gives you a little idea of when you will receive them. But, like Tricia says, cashing out for the 25.00 is costing too much in postage and taking up more of our time. I even have people that cashout everytime they hit 10.00, and its getting ridiculous. While we want to be able to provide good customer service, we also need to be able to continue to look for coupons and offers, and run contests and all those other fun things that SR is known for. I won't be posting the names everytime I mail out a giftcard, thats for sure, but in Tricias case, maybe she should just have 2 cashouts a month, if you get your request in by the 10th, the card will be mailed on the 15th, if you get it in by the 25th, it will be mailed on the 30th. Or even once a month, if you have your request in by the 15th, it will be in the mail on the 20th. Also, opening TT to get your disney card numbers is a real time taker too, so, please refrain from that. We have close to 11,000 members now, 7,000 very active, thats a lot of cashouts.

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Originally Posted by sunshinecindy

Also, opening TT to get your disney card numbers is a real time taker too, so, please refrain from that.

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Cindy, Tricia actually told me that it made it easy on her last time I did this --

http://www.sunshinerewardsforum.com/...9&postcount=82

Has that changed, Tricia? If I misunderstood I apologize. Because that definately saves postage and supplies if we are just using the numbers to pay on a balance.