May 2005 Archives
As most of you know, United Air Lines, the parent company of MyPoints, is trying to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. They announced today that as part of their restructuring effort, they're assigning their Executive VP of Strategy, Douglas A. Hacker, to leading the assessments of UAL's ancillary businesses...initially focusing on MyPoints.
The full press release is here.
Sploofus just announced that as of June 1, there will be 6 leaderboards, and the top 3 monthly scorers in 5 of them will receive Amazon GCs!
1. Quiz Author Leaderboard -- points earned from people taking your quizzes
2. Quiz Taker Leaderboard -- points earned from taking other people's quizzes
3. WordPuzzles Leaderboard -- points earned from playing WordPuzzles (note that there will be more than one WP per day coming soon!)
4. WordRounds Leaderboard -- points earned from playing WordRounds
5. TQOTD Leaderboard -- points earned from the trivia question of the day, including the time bonus (but not wagers)
and the unpaid leaderboard,
6. All-Time Jackpot Leaderboard -- points earned from all of the above plus wagers and showdowns. Unlike the other leaderboards, this one is not reset monthly. Points in this leaderboard aren't rewarded with GCs, but points will be exchangeable for lottery tickets or used to purchase Sploofus merchandise (coming soon).
Now there'll be 15 monthly GCs given out instead of just 3! And I am totally stoked that there will be WordRounds prizes now -- it is the most addictive game of all of 'em!
Great time to join if you haven't already! Please click here and sign up now!
A subscriber to my newsletter, K., mailed to say she's having issues with EIGHT different point offers not being credited at PCHPoints. After forwarding all the requisite information to them to investigate, they've sent her form letters for three of the eight offers saying that they had contacted their affiliate manager for (fill-in-the-blank) program and they had no record of her successfully completing the offer through MEMOLINK, so they would be unable to credit her Memolink account with points. It was signed Robert Mayfield, Memolink Member Support. Uh, hello? They can't keep straight what program they're providing support for?
Update, 5/13/05:
Got an email from newsletter subscriber Z., who is having trouble with a 9500 point offer not being credited by SavingsRegisterRewards -- she got the same form letter that subscriber K. got (only it was from Henry Bullis), saying that their affiliate manager said she was not in the report of people successfully completing the offer through a SRR link. I'm beginning to see a pattern here that I do not like. We're going to have to watch to make sure the sites Memolink runs under license (PCHP, SRR, and LP) do not go down the drain the way Memolink did.
Subscriber S. writes that about a year ago, Memolink told her to shop through a different rewards program, since they were only able to credit her for about 5 of her 10 orders at Sierra Trading Post! Now if that's not an admission that they've got problems, I dunno what is!
Another of my subscribers also emailed to say she was really aggravated -- she thought Memolink was improving after they finally sent her some outstanding redemptions, so she made a purchase through them and guess what? Not only are they not crediting her for it, they haven't replied to her two polite inquiries!
Update, 5/15/05:
Newsletter subscriber J. writes that she completed an offer at PCHPoints and the points credited at Memolink instead! She also had a problem with SavingsRegisterRewards points not crediting, and got no response from SRR (they actually closed out her complaint without replying!), so she emailed MEMOLINK (interesting strategy!) and they got her SRR points credited the next day! On the other hand, H.M. is having trouble with Memolink not crediting for 5 different purchases (over 6000 points), dating back to 8/04-12/04. 15 emails later and still no resolution.
Yesterday MyPoints unveiled a new game for members: MyPoints Scratch N' Win. Members can log into MyPoints.com, go to Earn Points, Scratch N' Win, and scratch off a game piece once daily to take a chance at winning 1,000, 10,000, or 100,000 points.
By registering to play the scratch-off game, you automatically get one entry into the big grand prize giveaway: 1 million points. This prize will be awarded at the end of the scratch-off game promotion -- June 19. To get additional entries, you can refer a friend (a max of 1 entry this way; the friend must have a valid email address), make a purchase from select merchants, update your account information (a max of 1 entry this way), or spend 100 points on an extra sweepstakes entry. Also, selected emails will give you an option of receiving an entry in lieu of the standard 5 points.
The fine print is definitely worth reading. Blah blah blah, the game's only open to residents of the U.S. and Canada (excluding Quebec) aged 19 and up. Then it gets interesting: THERE WILL ONLY BE 433 PRIZES AWARDED IN THE INSTAND WIN GAME -- 3 prizes of 100,000 points (worth, they say, $610), 30 prizes of 10,000 points (worth an estimate of $61), and 400 prizes of 1,000 points (worth around $6.10). 433 exact times will be generated randomly and the user who plays closest at or after that time will be generated a winning game card. Instant win prizes will be awarded about a week after they're won. Also (go figure!!), "If a potential Instant Win Prize Winner is a Canadian resident, he/she will be required to correctly answer a time-limited skill testing question, without any assistance in order to be eligible to receive the prize." (If a Canadian is the potential winner of the 1 million point jackpot, they'll have to answer a question to receive that prize, too.) Whassup with that, eh?
Anyway...so after reading the fine print -- much ado about nothing, I say. MyPoints has thousands and thousands of members, everyone can play daily from May 9 through June 19, and only 433 people will win? Okay, can I say it? THAT SUCKS.
I've heard a lot of complaints from MyPoints users lately about how email offers aren't crediting. One user even got a snippy email from their member care department denying knowledge of a problem and suggesting she detail which emails she clicked on and when.
Tonight there's finally a glimmer of hope that MyPoints is actually on top of the situation -- a member received this response from MP's member care:
"Dear Member,
A recent system upgrade made it necessary to backlog all Point crediting for the last 14 days. The upgrade is now complete and we expect all Point transactions to post to your account by the end of the week."
Let's hold 'em to that.
Having trouble receiving or reading your daily paid email from QuickRewards? They've added a link to view those mails on the site! Click "PAID MAIL" -- it's next to the cashout button at the top.
Remember, QuickRewards not only pays out in PayPal, they offer a wide variety of gift certificates if you'd prefer! And if you haven't already joined, new members (new households) that join with my link and complete at least one offer (a free signup for a newsletter or contest entry, for example -- and you can use ANY email address for these) please email me and I'll have him credit you with an extra 25c signup bonus!
