 Why is everybody wanting to give me “POINTS”. Points which I can or cannot redeem for something I absolutely don’t need? Did YOU get points today? I’m talking about points which I can earn by participating in or purchasing something which doesn’t interest me. |
| What am I gonna do with the 100 or so points I am gonna earn if I am signing up for “The Deal of the Day” at Worst Buy? They even created a “REWARDZONE”. Sounds like: Watch out CONSTRUCTION ZONE! REDUCE~SPEED SPEND MONEY GO SHOPPING. What can I get for 100 points? Nothing! The clou is that I start buying overprized merchandise and earn more points. They call this Reward Points. Good gracious..why would they reward me if I have bought something from them? Why not put the price where it should be in the first place instead of creating a lot of administrational BS, which finally ends up costing the company a lot of money. What you say? They have made the money on what they sold? Yeah…I guess so. Take the Credit companies. They give out points in the east and the west. If I use their card I earn points. Trouble is I’m never ever gonna use those points. I must have thousands and thousands of points – at different companies and accumulated over 10 years. I’m just imagining how many points 33 million Canadians have which they never use? Must be in the Billions, that number. Have you ever checked what price that handy little drill has if you buy it with “points”? How many “points” do I need to fly to Europe? How many dollars do I have to spend before I have earned enough points to buy that airline ticket? I have an ugly hunch that very few people EVER earn enough to receive ANYTHING of value for them. When I grew up Mother had a little booklet from the local little grocery store. Every time she went shopping there they gave her a few stamps, which she would glue into that booklet. When the booklet was full, she took it along and “redeemed” it for a rebate of what she would have bought anyway. Now that makes a lot more sense to me than what’s going on these days. She wasn’t coaxed into buying something she didn’t have any use for, but got a fair loyalty rebate on what she bought there every day anyway. And it did not cause a hell of an administrative baluba at the grocery store either. Thanks for ranting along! |
Don't know if I earned points today or not. I quit trying to figure it out long ago. I miss those green stamps.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree about all the different points systems out there today. If you are fortunate to find there sight on line you realize you would need to spend your entire paycheque for a year on garbage in order to buy something worthwhile.
ReplyDeleteI also remember my mother collecting the stamps at the grocery store and buying furniture when she collected enough stamps faster than todays purchases would allow. Be Safe and Enjoy!
It's about time.
I get points on my American Express and I just turn those around to pay off gas bills. It sure takes a long time to accumulate them though.
ReplyDeleteI don't bother fussing over points, as long as they're not costing me anything that is. At one point when we were in Canada I used a Canadian Tire Master Card (which cost me nothing and I paid off every month) which would give enough points (I think they called them "points") for a discount on fuel. That seemed to work, especially when filling the motorhome.
ReplyDeleteHere in Europe, companies like you to sign up for a "Vorteils Karte", which loosely translates (well, Bea would know) as a "Participant's card". These plans are quite effective, as discounts on products are only given to card holders. Plus, at least one place will send me a coupon on my birthday for 10% off of everything in the store. Everything. Or, all I can manage to carry up the street I suppose.
The underlying success of these programs is that the customer doesn't have to DO ANYTHING, except have them swipe the card (some places I recall, like Top Friendly Markets in the US have little key fobs) and that's it. If it's where you normally shop, it really helps to have one of these cards. By this point, I have a handful.
They don't take up much room, and never expire.
Now, there are some that you have to keep an eye on, like the one offered by American Express. I think those points expire? Anyway, when we moved down here from the Netherlands, and my wife was going to change over her Amex (it's a "work" credit card) she had enough points to order and receive a very nice Samsonite suitcase. Didn't cost us a dime. Well, they don't have "dimes" here, but you know what I mean.
It was even a tad bigger than we had counted on, but it's the kind you can roll along on all four wheels, or tow behind you.
Of course, with any of these "schemes", it depends on how much you spend, but with the Amex, it wasn't our money we were spending, so that was kind of a bonus too.
Don't stress over your points!
The one point system we use is the Canadian Tire Master card, thats collects up Canadian tire money everywhere we use it and pay it off every month (no fees). Then we can redeem at Canadian Tire to purchase car tires and parts, cleaning supplies, plumbing, electrical etc.. is a good system that works for us. Like you said all the rest are a waste of time.
ReplyDelete