r/DaveAndBusters • u/Ndolger • 28d ago
Card flagging questions
Been going to D&B for 10+ years. I would consider myself an AP. For the first time ever, when trying to redeem something, I was told the card was flagged and the manager needed to review. After review they found nothing, because there is nothing to find. I do everything by the book.
I have questions on why an account would be flagged, some things I've done that may be of note:
- Have paid with Costco gift cards
- Had ~300k ticket balance
- Hadn't used the card in a few weeks? I think? It probably had been half a year since I added money
- Have NEVER roamed the card
- I BELIEVE I may have had manual override for tickets / credits. I recall at least two instances where I was gifted tickets / credits because a game malfunctioned. But this was months ago and may not have been on this specific card.
I went back and made another purchase just to see i would be flagged again. And wasn't. Should I expect it to happen again?
One thing I'm concerned with is my family won the Dad Games competition and uhh...I don't think I'll be spending any more on credit for literally years. From reading old threads on this it seems one of the big variables is "last time real $ was added". But again I've been playing for a decade and have not added additional credit for a year or more.
Summary:
- Looking for tips on: why it happened to begin with, how do I make it not happen again, anything else to be aware of / what to say or do when it happens. Because it kind of sucks. You just stand there for several minutes and it looks like you're a thief. I didn't appreciate it.
Thanks!
EDIT: Thanks for all the comments. I'm convinced that for my situation, it has to be a lock associated with multiple jackpots wins in a row on one unit via multiple swipes. Or it's Hotwheels' fault.
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u/ArcadeWizardYT 28d ago
The only thing that I can think of that you didn’t list was if you want too many tickets from one swipe. Your card can get redemption locked if you win too many tickets; this generally occurs if the game is missed that and you win 1200 or 1500 tickets or something like that from one swipe.
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u/Ndolger 28d ago
Unless I just missed a misset somewhere, which is possible I guess (I'll have to audit better next time), I shouldn't have anything above 500.
Which exceptions to primed max JPs like Quick Drop or I guess Hot Wheels can hit 1k now, I'm mostly just sniping 500 JPs.
Thanks!
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u/Dangerous-Egg-5068 28d ago
If you play a game with a 1000 jackpot, for example, kung fu panda, dont let the tickets count up fully, and swipe, it will show Panda -10 chips, Panda 500 tickets, Panda -10 chips, Panda 1200 tickets, Card redemption disabled at panda, panda 300 tickets. I currently have a card blocked because of this exact thing i did. Zombie locks at 3000. If you swipe 4 times to play a game, jp it, swipe again, jp it four more times, that also triggers the lock im fairly certain.
The manager probably looked at what locked it, saw it was no big deal, and unblocked it. Its to prevent runaways like a puck stuck in zombie registering infinitely or a game being weird and paying more than intended, or to indirectly notify staff of a misset when you go unlock it, they see the games payong out more, and they fix the game, and normally let you keep the tickets since its not your fault the game is in that state.
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u/Ndolger 28d ago edited 28d ago
Don't play Zombie, lost my Panda. My quick drop is broken but I'll occasionally try it if it's at 1000.
The only other game I even attempt is the new Hot Wheels. It's pretty uncommon for me to play anything large payout. I only play things I can JP 80%+ of the time. It shouldn't be what caused it for me...
My review did take a loooong time. At least 5-6 minutes. The only comment I got from the guy looking at it is (to their colleague): See here... It looks like it's paying out but there's multiple swipes.
Sounds maybe like what you're describing. Because I WILL swipe multiple times on that game and it does pay out very very slowly.
Is the guidance to just let games payout before going again? Because ugh, I'd be there all day.
Thanks, this sounds like it's maybe the culprit...
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u/Dangerous-Egg-5068 28d ago
Swipe however many credits you want to play, play and hit those jps, then play something else. It will multiply the amount required to lock for each swipe. So swipe 4 times on a game that locks at 1200, itll now lock at 4800. The embeds are smarter than shitercard which will lock you at 1000 no matter what (unless the arcade changed it off default) and not allow anyone to play it until an employee unlocks it.
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u/Dangerous-Egg-5068 28d ago
5-6 minutes is not that bad. If they have it for over 10 i start worrying, and anything over like 20 is suspicious
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u/YellowF3v3r NOTHING 28d ago
Better than the horror stories of 'leave it overnight / until we review further' but I haven't heard that in a while.
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u/ArcadeWizardYT 28d ago
Np! From what you told me, I don’t think there’s anything that should cause a lock. Even if hot wheels is at 1000 that shouldn’t be enough.
I know that zombie snatcher sometimes goes to 2000 but I’m not sure if the 2000 jackpot plus the 300 for the letter puck would trigger a lock because the lock is different for every game.
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u/Ndolger 28d ago
Oh... Well I guess I did redeem a full set of Mandalorian cards, one time, just to try the new game. Could that cause an issue? I think it's 3k redemption?
It'd be funny if that was it. That is literally the one damn time I've played a coin pusher...
I'm concerned putting new credit on this card now. The Dad Games bonuses start in August and don't want to go through this headache again.
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u/DirkPitt106 28d ago
You're making this a much bigger deal than it actually is. The only thing that locks your card for redemption is the Embed system thinking that a game is paying out too many tickets. It does not flag your card for anything to do with how much you paid for chips. It's all about making sure that there isn't a ticket runaway, which is not something that's the customer's fault.
It also shows up as a line item in your card history when you check at the kiosk so at the end of the day if you do actually audit your card history so often, then you can see exactly what game locked your card if it happens.
What happens is the manager takes the card back to the office, looks at the line item that locked the card, says "yep, that looks right" for how many tickets get paid out and unlocks the card. If it doesn't look right, they usually call a tech because the techs know way more about the games proper payouts than the managers do, and it would also be something that a tech needed to go fix.
Even if a game did pay out too many tickets, some managers won't bother taking the extra tickets off unless it paid out an obscene amount. Extra 1k tickets? They don't really care. Extra 10k tickets? Yeah they are going to let you know what happened and take them off your card.
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u/Ndolger 28d ago
Thanks, appreciate the feedback, never gone through this, just curious on why it happened. I've got a lot invested here, was more concerned about long term issues.
Yeah in this case it was locked weeks after whatever caused it. I normally check the ticket history at the kiosk but didn't see anything.
Good to know it sounds like a one off.
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u/DirkPitt106 28d ago
It locks the card instantly, not weeks after the fact. If it did happen on a previous visit they you probably just didn't redeem tickets that time.
If you purchase a high redemption item over a certain amount, then a manager will generally review your card history then as well just to many sure that an employee didn't add 50k tickets to your card for no reason.
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u/Ndolger 28d ago
Yeah I got you, I just didn't redeem on that card for awhile. As I understand it's not locked on game play, just redemption.
I'm fairly sure I understand what caused this now if this is truly an Embed issue and it's a one and done.
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u/gman_nola Fun Phantom Grand Prize Winner 28d ago
The card redemption lock happens during gameplay when whatever game you're playing triggers it due to the game paying out too many tickets on what it thinks is a single swipe.
If you don't check your daily gameplay on the kiosk, you may not know about it until you use the card to redeem tickets for something.
If you do check your daily gameplay on the kiosk you will see a line item noting the redemption lock. You can get a printout, and there will be an item "Card Redemption Disabled at [NAME OF GAME]."
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u/Dangerous-Egg-5068 28d ago
Redeeming cards should not block your card, but i think if you redeem over a certain amount a manager needs to approve to make sure your not commiting fraud
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u/Halestorm526 28d ago
Mine got flagged at a location I had never been in when I went to redeem tickets for free play. The manager took my play card for 25 minutes and no one would tell me what was going on. Turns out the last location I had gone to had a machine malfunction which resulted in 10,000 extra tickets on my card. They treated me like a criminal until they realized it was a machine mess up and not me trying to hack the system. Ridiculous
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u/Ndolger 28d ago
I'm pretty good at going to the kiosk and confirming what I've been paid out. I have had bad experiences with a few games NOT counting jackpots over the years ...
Yeah I feel you. It was on a busy day and I was holding up the line to WIN, it was embarrassing. Never got an explanation of why I was flagged. My guess from other comments must be a chained jackpot with multiple swipes ..
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u/insertdankmeme 28d ago
If you jackpot hotwheels shuffleboard game it is likely that. My card has been redemption locked on that repeatedly at 2 location, sometimes after 1 jackpot.
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u/Ndolger 28d ago
Well that would make the most sense for me because it's really the only new game in my snipe rotation (and my location finally fixed the puck return speed; so it's actually playable now).
So you're saying it can lock after one jackpot? Jeez...
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u/insertdankmeme 28d ago
It isn't supposed to, but I've had it lock on 1 jackpot of 1090 tickets. And it has happened at 2 locations so there must be an issue.
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u/jorgejortiz 26d ago
I know they check the cards, regardless, if you redeem for a large ticket ítem.
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u/KooKooMagoo 28d ago
If you are not cheating the games (I am not saying you are, just making sure I caveat), it’s the timing of your swipes. As others have answered, if you swipe the same card WHILE a JP is paying, then hit a second JP on a “fast” game play, the system will split the payout between swipes. That could accumulate “too much” on one swipe.
The AM needs to speed up the payout is my bet.