June 2005 Archives

Every now and then I get an email from someone with a comment like:

"I shop at Milesource because I earn more points there than at MyPoints." Or, "PCHPoints pays a lot more points than other programs!"

And while these comments may very well be true, they ignore one very important aspect of the calculation -- the value of those points. More points may be worth LESS money.

I've talked about this in the past but I think it's something that needs repeating.

You CAN'T compare points across the board, from one program to another, because they have DIFFERENT point costs to cash out for the same reward! Yes, you may earn more points at Program A, but it probably takes more points to cash out there than at Program B!

An example.

Say you're going to spend $100 at Sharper Image.
At PCHPoints, you'd earn 2500 points.
At Milesource, you'd earn 1500 points.
At CreationsRewards, you'd earn 1200 points.
At MyPoints, you'd earn 400 points.

So if you just look at total points across these programs, it seems that PCHPoints is the place to shop, right? And why even CONSIDER MyPoints?

Well, here's the thing: points are worth different values at each of these programs.

At PCHPoints, 2500 points is worth about $2.91.
At Milesource, 1500 points is worth about $3.41.
At Creations, 1200 points is worth about $5.88.
At MyPoints, 400 points is worth about $3.33.

Now you can see that although PCHPoints pays the most points for this order, they're actually worth the least! And Creations, although it pays less than half the points that PCHP does, is actually the best place to shop because their points are worth more!

SOOOoooooo... PLEASE don't compare points from one program to another. It's irrelevant how MANY points you earn, what matters is what those points are WORTH.

Lecture's over, class. You may go now. :)

Freeride just upped the cost of their redemptions by 500 points (i.e., what used to be 27,500 points is now 28,000). If you already requested a cashout and you're just waiting, you may notice that it APPEARS they deducted the higher cost, but according to my friend Sunshine, who watches her accounts very closely, they didn't (they only took out what it cost at the time you redeemed). Thanks to Sunshine for bringing this to my attention!

I am very happy to tell you that Bonnie, the owner of ClickToTheMagic, is back from a brief leave to deal with some family stuff (including the birth of her daughter). She left a lengthy news item yesterday affirming her commitment to CttM and saying that she and the site ARE here to stay! The full text of her news post is below (click Continue to read it in its entirity). Congrats on the new baby, Bonnie, and welcome back!

Not a member of ClickToTheMagic? Join here!

Uh-oh...seeing a trend here. SavingsRegisterRewards drops its SOTD to 0 points and eliminates site visits... Memolink announces it's revamping its site... and now LuckyPoints drops THEIR Site of the Day to 5 points. Is PCHPoints next? Stay tuned...

From an email to members:

"We asked, you answered, and we listened! Members like you voted on the new look and feel for memolink.com that will be unveiled soon. The site will include new features, dozens of shopping opportunities and special members-only discounts, coupons and more!"

The big questions, though, are do they plan to tinker with the costs to redeem and will they send rewards in a timely manner. We know that they plan to make changes to their referral program. What else do they have up their sleeve?

Today Ebates sent out a survey to its members requesting their feedback on their program. The survey asks about what features of their site that you use or find valuable, how you like the site and their emails, etc. What I found most interesting is that they ask some questions about their competitors -- which ones you use more often and why. They also ask about the MoeMoneyMaker -- whether you use it and if not, why.

This is an EXCELLENT opportunity for us to join together to make our opinions known about Ebates. My comments, and I hope that you agree and will voice similar concerns, were that there were other rewards programs (many others) that pay faster. I found in my Spring '04 shopping comparison that Ebates is only "average" when it comes to their rebate rates, too. And most of all, I hope that you'll join with me in condemning their MoeMoneyMaker program -- their pop-up shopping "reminder" -- often installed without the user's permission, with a non-working uninstall option, that redirects your purchase from the rewards program you WANTED to use and sends it to them instead.

If you haven't read about MMM, here are some good articles to read: (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6)...oh gosh, just Google MoeMoneyMaker and read to your heart's content.

Now, to be fair, Ebates is a very reliable rewards program. They pay exactly when promised, and though I've heard some negative stories, I've had nothing but good experiences with my purchases crediting. Their referral bonus ($5 when the referral makes a purchase) is VERY competitive. And the site has a great look and is easy to navigate. If they could just address those few issues (slow quarterly payout, "just average" rebate rates, and the questionable practices related to the MMM), I think Ebates would get a lot more of my, and other folks', business.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Their response to Jackie's email regarding the site of the day dropping to zero points:

"Thank you for the email and I'm sorry but the site of the day has been removed from SRR. Now our members will see a random coupon rather then the site of the day. :) The daily trivia is still present and we hope to add more visit website offers soon."

According to a note in the Member Support page of Memolink posted on May 23, the site is making some changes to their refer-a-friend program and they're suspending the option until those changes are complete. Of course, I could insert a smarmy remark here about "why would anyone refer a FRIEND to that site" but y'all already know where I stand on Memolink.

Click Continue for the full text of the message on Memolink.

Since its inception, SavingsRegisterRewards' website has contained the same earnings opportunities as the other two sites that run Memolink's software under license -- LuckyPoints and PCHPoints. However, for the past two days, SRR has offered 0 points for the Site of the Day (instead of the usual 10), and it's had no new site visits up where its two sister sites have had them posted.

An error, or a trend? Time will tell. But please keep in mind that SRR is owned (or at least its URL is registered) by the parent company of Milesource, another site that appears to be struggling.

Also, I think it's worthy of note that I've received several emails from users who had two household accounts legitimately (they were "grandfathered in" before SRR limited accounts to one per household), but one spouse had their account disabled and SRR has not responded to email inquiries.

My advice: If SRR is going to be set up so that the only way you can earn points is by trivia (10 points per day...worth about 1 cent) or by completing offers/making purchases that are available elsewhere...GO ELSEWHERE. Other sites have more competitive shopping rates and better customer service (important for some of those sign-up offers that don't credit without a flurry of emails between you and the rewards program). Check out CreationsRewards.net and QuickRewards.net -- smaller programs that, as a result, have EXCELLENT customer service and very competitive shopping rates.

Ask your questions, leave your comments, or just chit-chat with other SixQuestions.com users on their new Google Forum: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/SixQuestions

Recently, I had the chance to "talk to" SixQuestions.com owner David Hanley in email about some concerns that I've been hearing about his site, and with his permission, here are the results of that exchange:

CompareRewards: I'm hearing a lot of folks complain about the wait time between cashing out for a redemption and actually receiving it. I know these stories can be a little exaggerated, or people sometimes just have a bad memory -- about how long do y'all generally take? And is it longer for some redemptions than others?

David: 4-6 weeks generally to fill prizes. Once we are totally settled I'd like to try and get these out the day they are ordered as long as the users point earning history is clean. Give me a few months on this though but I'm sure it would immensely add to the popularity of the site. Our prize orders got really screwed up when we switched to the new system and we lost the user info on the orders. We figured the easiest way to straighten this out was to just refund all prizes and give the points back. But then another problem came up and that was that some orders that were refunded didn't credit the points back to the users. Anyway, we've now, very recently, have got it all back together and things will start to go smoothly again.

CompareRewards: One of the biggest complaints I hear is that people don't feel they're being communicated with very well -- like, for instance, the orders cancelled because of the system glitch y'all were fixing. I'll 'fess up, I don't always read the weekly summary email (though sometimes it can be downright hilarious!), but did you ever send out anything explaining it? I've been a member of tons of rewards programs over the years, and have been running my site for 4 or so years, and FWIW, I've found that if a program just communicates well with their users -- honestly, thoroughly, quickly -- the users will respect them and stick with the program through its highs AND lows.

David: Trust me, I'm privy to ALL the complaints. Most are valid but then there is a large amount of people who seem to be looking for a reason to be mad. In any event I do appreciate the feedback and you gotta believe that we're killing ourselves trying to make this a very satisfying site to be a member of. Communicating well with you users is of paramount importance, you're absolutely right. I not sure if you can tell how busy we are with updates here but sometimes its hard to prioritize correctly and hugely important announcements are sometimes not properly made.

CompareRewards: Any last comments to your users who may be reading this?

David: We've just made some pretty serious updates to the site (that you can't see) that will ensure that no one ever completes an earn points opportunity and doesn't get their points. Also we'd like to let people know that video poker will be back soon also. There are tons of other stuff in the works and I'll get into those with you later.

CompareRewards: Thanks, David!

David: Thanks, Becky.