I just placed an order at J&R. When I tried to submit the order, they gave me a pop-up notice (see attached file).

WTF is up with that? Now mastercard is telling me that I can't use their card to purchase tobacco? Where in the hell do they get off?!

:-)

I ran the order through anyway, but now I wonder if it will be rejected.
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Whoa, Nellie! THAT is ridiculous. I think I'd cancel NOW and tell them why in no uncertain terms. I'd have all my tobacco buying friends do the same thing. There are plenty of CC offers out there that getting a new card would be easy. Having a company tell you what you can and cannot buy sure takes the cake!
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I've purchased a lot of tobacco in the past couple weeks with my MC. no problem
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They have had that policy for at least a couple years, and I have never heard of it being enforced.

As the addendum you linked says, "if enforced....".
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Wow, that is :-) ! If I still had a Mastercard and that was their policy I would call them and cancel the thing. That's total crap. How do they get off saying you can not buy tobacco products with the card. What's next? You can't use your card to buy beer at the grocery store or for a bar tab because drinking is bad for you. Just when you think things have hit rock bottom.:-)
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The year is getting off to a great start isn't it? :-)
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Everyone take a deep breath.....MC doesn't enforce the policy. :-)
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Thought I had seen a thread on this before. I believe it has to do with the collection of out of state taxes and MC is "cracking down" on certain vendors.
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Inhaaaaling, exhaaaling.......
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http://www.clubstogie.com/vb/showthr...ght=mastercard

http://www.cigarpass.com/forums/inde...&hl=mastercard

Can't seem to find a thread here with this although I swear we had one running.
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Huh. I bought two boxes just today with my Mastercard at two other sites. I have been using it exclusively for the cashback rewards it offers. I'd hate for them to do something stupid which would require me to close my account ......
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Thank you for the links. Not familiar at all with Cigar Pass, and I hardly ever visit the gorilla site anymore.
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I ordered from CI and a Cuban source on friday, both accepted my MC without a problem.
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Image
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Not to threadjack, but this reminds me of an idiot older woman working in a convenience store many years ago who actually wouldn't take my card to buy beer. She didn't think one was allowed to use a credit card for beer. I was absolutely flabbergasted at her stupidity. I'm feeling myself getting ticked off all over again. :-)
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I could be wrong but I thought that Mastercard had started this with illegal cigarette sales online and that if a vendor was in compliance with all federal, state, and local laws then they didn't have a problem. I could have missed them banning all tobacco purchases.
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I bought a few boxes from JR's last month with my MC without any problems. I wouldn't worry about it.
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Yep the rule was because of cigs and the taxing, here is the link to the story from 2005.

( LINK )

Chas
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Yep. We had to change our merchant banking company because of MC and Visa doing this. Although, you should still be able to use your MC and Visa to make purchases.
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My approach: I'm not going to worry about it, as I've got enough other things to worry about these days. The first time a purchase fails because MC decides to enforce this silly policy, I'll pay with a Visa, and send a note to MC explaining that they've alienated a long-standing customer who's generated a helluva lot of money for them.

And then life will go on.
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