December 2007 Archives

Christmas 2007 is over [insert sigh of relief], and as always, I used rewards programs heavily when doing my shopping online. This year was unusual for me, though, because I had multiple bad experiences with retailers not delivering on time.

Sears.com: I ordered a waffle iron for in-store pickup. The website said it was in stock and that they would email me when it was ready to pick up. That was 12/21. A week later, my order is still listed on the site as "processing."

MusicToday.com: Placed an order for several items listed as being in stock. I beat their stated deadline for Christmas delivery by 4.5 hours. Most of the order arrived yesterday (the 27th). I got an email today that the remaining item had been out of stock (despite what the website said) but was being shipped today.

Smack Shopping Purchase through Jellyfish.com: Purchased a Rock 'n' Fold Gaming Chair from an unknown vendor through Jellyfish.com on 11/23. Still haven't received it.

USPS: Shipped a package from Louisiana to Alabama, a distance that can be driven easily in a day. Took six mailing days.

On the other hand, I have high praise for Zappos.com. I placed an order on Friday morning and received it (shipped free) on Monday afternoon. The shoes were cheaper than I could've bought them anywhere locally and they didn't charge sales tax.

Rewards programs, you have more clout than we individual consumers do to put pressure on retailers. Survey your members and find out which retailers didn't live up to their promises, and go after those retailers to improve their processes and offer some sort of "apology discount" on a future purchase. It does a rewards program no good to associate itself with retailers that disappoint their customers.

Meanwhile, I nominate Zappos to take over the US Postal Service. They know how to get things done right, cheap, and FAST!

"Procrastinator" is such an ugly word. You're not a procrastinator; you're just busy, and you let a few people fall through the cracks and now you're scrambling to find last-minute gifts. It's okay! I've been there!

You don't want to fight the crowds at the mall and Walmart and who could blame you? Long lines at the register, picked-over selection, and gas prices are through the roof so all that driving and sitting in traffic will cost you money as well as time.

Why put yourself through all that when you can STILL get gifts online and get rewarded for it?

Here are some of my suggestions for gifts you can order online in time for Christmas:

1. Magazine Subscriptions. They're cheap, cheap, cheap when you buy them online and they're a gift the recipient will enjoy year-round. If you order one they already subscribe to, they can make a simple phone call to customer service and tack on the new subscription to the end of their existing one. Magazines.com gives you an option to print a card letting the recipient know they'll be receiving a gift subscription, or they'll let you send a free e-card announcement. BestDealMagazines has better prices overall but they don't do gift announcements -- you'll have to come up with your own. NetMagazines and ValueMags have an option to send the gift recipient a postcard announcement of their gift subscription but it may not arrive before Christmas so you may want to create your own.

Specific ideas:
Magazines.com has 22 issues of Parenting for $4.97, 12 issues of Money for $14.95, and 52 issues of Soap Opera Digest for $27.97. Use code holidaymags for $5 off certain titles (see site for details) and get 35% cash back from Jellyfish.com!

BestDealMagazines has over 120 annual subscriptions for $4.69 including Car and Driver, Guideposts, Nintendo Power, and Sporting News. Get an extra 15% off most titles with code PXCJ1223, plus get 10% cash back from Ebates, MrRebates, or QuickRewards!

NetMagazines has a coupon code for $5 off a $20 order: DC222 and you can earn 20% cash back from Extrabux or a 25.5% rebate (toward a US Savings Bond) from BondRewards. They have a Take 5 for $30 ($25 after the coupon) is a best-seller: choose 5 subscriptions from a list of over 50 magazines and you can send each one to a different recipient if you'd like. Titles include Family Fun, Official XBox Magazine, Field & Stream, Road and Track, and more!

ValueMags has Beadwork for $24.95, PopStar for $19.99, and Smart Money for $15. Get 25% cash back from Ebates or FatWallet.

These are just some gift ideas; each store sells lots of magazine subscriptions, just dig around for deals!

2. BlueNile.com. These guys sell jewelry with free overnight shipping and most orders ship the same day (even if engraving is required). Sterling silver engraveable charms start at $30 and pendants at $40. Other ideas include money clips, key chains, and watches. They sell beautiful gemstone jewelry like amethyst and topaz, plus pearls, and don't forget the diamonds -- diamond earrings start at $225!

Get 5% cash back on BlueNile purchases through FatWallet or a 4.25% rebate toward a US Savings Bond from BondRewards!

3. Zappos.com. Shoes, clothes, bags, and accessories, and free overnight shipping! Order as late as Sunday at 4pm Eastern to receive it on Christmas Eve! Need to return it? Shipping's free on returns, too, AND they have a 110% lowest price guarantee! They sell the popular Heelys skate shoes, Uggs, watches, sunglasses, and jewelry, too.

Earn 8% cash back at Zappos through QuickRewards, or get a 10.2% rebate toward US Savings Bonds from BondRewards!

4. Fossil. As mentioned below, Fossil is Ebates' double-rebate merchant of the day today, with 16% cash back on purchases. You can order through noon central time tomorrow for free shipping and receive your order by Christmas Eve. If you don't have time to shop today to get the 16% through Ebates, go through FatWallet tomorrow for 12% cash back.

5. Shoebuy.com. Like Zappos, Shoebuy offers free overnight shipping, free return shipping if required, and no sales tax. Almost 1500 items ship the same day you order them, meaning you can order as late as 4pm Eastern on Friday to receive it on Christmas Eve. In addition to shoes, they sell clothes, bags, and accessories. They have a total of 938 items for under 50 bucks that ship for free the same day you order!

Earn 20% cash back by shopping through Jellyfish, 15% through Extrabux, or get a 14.45% rebate toward a US Savings Bond through BondRewards.

6. Flowers and Gifts from Florists. Shipping won't be free, but it won't cost any more than their usual rates if you order today or tomorrow. Shipping depends on the item but budget for around $16. The good news is that there are some good coupons available for florists like FTD. Ebates offers 12% cash back on FTD purchases plus they have a link to click through for an extra 15% off your order.

7. RedEnvelope.com. Use your Mastercard to pay for your purchase and enter code LASTCHANCE for free 2-day shipping (today's the last day)! Lots of great gift ideas including jewelry and gadgets. Get 6% cash back from Ebates or a 6.8% rebate toward a US Savings Bond from BondRewards!

8. OfficeDepot.com. They offer free next-business day delivery on $50+ orders placed before 5pm local time. They have some good gifts including leather binders, lamps, pens, and more. They sell batteries, too! You can earn between 1 and 3% cash back by going through a rewards program but the exact amount depends on the type of item that you buy (less for technology items, more for office supplies).

These are just a few ideas for those of you still working on finishing off your Christmas shopping. Hope it helps!

Classmates Media, which consists of rewards program MyPoints and social networking site Classmates.com, was supposed to release their stock IPO today, but they pulled out this morning. In this press release, United Online (MyPoints' and Classmates' current owner) said that going public today wouldn't be in their stockholders' best interests, due to "current market conditions." The decision to withdraw the IPO is going to cost United Online around $5 million in transaction costs.

Why did they cancel the IPO? This article, from Silicon Alley Insider, gives some possible reasons for the decision: "Classmates (CLAS) IPO: The Real Reason It Failed." In a nutshell, Classmates includes in its membership roles people who haven't visited the site in years, they have less than half the unique monthly visitors that Facebook has, and they charge membership fees for features that are free elsewhere.

United's stock started dropping around 12/10, when this article came out: "IPO Spotlight: Classmates Media." It mentioned an FTC probe of Classmates' automatic subscription renewal process, as well as a report that showed the average site visitor to Classmates.com only spent 8 minutes online, versus 193 minutes on MySpace and 196 minutes on Facebook.

Some stockholder message base chatter has suggested that the IPO would only be good for United, since they would be retaining the vast majority of voting rights. Also, in the past few days, United's stock was battered as current stockholders cashed out in anticipation of buying in to Classmates Media. Several investors complained that United's stock would be worthless once Classmates and MyPoints were gone, because that just left their dial-up internet business, and with everyone going broadband, Netzero and Juno don't have much future.

It's been rumored that a couple of key staff left the company in a big shake-up that preceded the decision to pull the IPO. More on that as it becomes available.

How will this affect MyPoints? Who knows. Lately it seems like owning MyPoints is the kiss of death. It could pull a repeat of what happened with the prior owner, United Airlines -- sit idly in a state of disrepair while its owner scrambles to pull itself out of bankruptcy. Classmates' business model could be changed drastically, as one investor suggested, to make all features free and to just monetize it using ad revenue, which would still enable Classmates and MyPoints to work together (as suggested in the Roadshow, incentivizing members with MyPoints for their activity on Classmates' website, still innovative if it could be pulled off financially). Or MyPoints could be sold off independently, say, to Google. We can only wait and see.

I wish MyPoints would get stable ownership with sound finances and proactive management. It's a shame to see the program slowly waste away.

From Ebates' website: "Missed Cyber Monday? It's not too late!

Last chance cash back blowout! In the spirit of the season, we're giving you one last chance to rake in unbelievable savings while you check off your holiday gift list! This Wednesday starting at 10 AM (PST) join Ebates in the Last Chance Cash Back Blowout that will stuff your wallet while you're stuffing your stockings. Get your credit card ready; you've got a lot of saving to do!

Featuring Nike, ShopNBC, Circuit City, Barnes & Noble, The Sharper Image, Red Envelope, Office Depot, Drugstore.com...and HUNDREDS more!"

Not a member of Ebates yet? Join now and receive a $10 signup bonus when you make your first purchase!

Yesterday, QuickRewards introduced a new feature, a wheel that you can spin for tokens (redeemable for prizes) and the chance to win a prize outright, when you make a purchase from the site. Every purchase entitles you to three wheel spins. It's kinda neat, yet another incentive to shop through QuickRewards. Join QR here if you're not a member already. The site has great customer service, competitive rates, and no minimum to cash out your earnings to PayPal!

Updated, 12/10
As I've mentioned here before, United Online, the current owner of MyPoints (aff), has bundled MyPoints into a new corporation along with Classmates.com, called Classmates Media Corporation. This stock will be publicly traded, with its IPO ("initial public offering," the first trading of the stock of this new company) due this week, on or before Wednesday, 12/12. To talk up the IPO, United Online has put together a "roadshow" presentation which discusses what MyPoints and Classmates do, what their synergies are, and how they compare to the competition. It's about 27 minutes long but it's a very interesting video, if you have the time: click here then click on Classmates Media Corporation.

According to CNN Money, the plan is to offer 12 million shares at $10-12 each. They're going to use the stock symbol CLAS.

When I began putting together my annual shopping rebates comparison this year, I made the decision to eliminate Milesource from the chart. It had been ranked last or second-to-last in my comparisons for 2004, 2005, and 2006. Its Alexa traffic ranking had dropped by 240,000 in August compared to a year prior, and if hadn't been for its free daily trivia points, it wouldn't have been that high. The site was not even listed by its parent company, SilverCarrot, as one of their owned properties (making Milesource, I guess you could say, "disowned." How sad is it when your owner no longer wants to claim association with you?). Once a real player in the rewards program scene, Milesource was clearly a hollow shell of its former glory.

On 11/30, Milesource posted a news item dated 11/29, in which they announced that they were indeed shutting down. Members will be allowed to earn rewards through December 31st, and they'll have until 11/30/08 to redeem them. They will be enforcing a clause in their Terms of Service that stipulates that unredeemed miles earned prior to 1/1/06 will be removed from your account as of 12/31/07.

Basically, earn what you can by the end of the year and cash out by 12/31 if you're not sure how long the points have been in your account. The cheapest redemptions start at 2500 points (for merchandise or for a $5 SuperCertificate).

Milesource had a long run, launched in February of 2000 (here's what the site looked like back then, courtesy of WaybackMachine, and here is an interesting blog entry written by a new intern in June 2000). I joined the site in October 2000. Milesource was founded by Chris Heintz and Paul Fino, who called their company Mass Medium. In May of 2001, Milesource was ranked in the top 300 most visited websites, with members spending more time on the site than at competitors like MyPoints, and it reported its first profitable quarter while MyPoints reported a continued loss. In August 2002, Adweek reported that Milesource was sold by MassMedium to SilverCarrot, and at the time it had 1.2 million members and a staff of four. (Co-founder Heintz claims that it had 25 employees and $5 million in revenue.) Milesource wasn't properly supported by SilverCarrot, who handed off operations last year to its Ampere Media subsidiary, as I reported here. Despite promises by Ampere to revitalize the program, Milesource has become the digital equivalent of a ghost town.

Why did SilverCarrot discontinue Milesource? Just this year, Inc. Magazine named SilverCarrot to its annual list of the 5000 fastest growing private companies in America, citing 2006 revenue of $27.5 million, versus $3.5 million in 2003. Obviously that growth had little or nothing to do with Milesource. The Inc. article says that Recipe4Living, one of SilverCarrot's other sites, is one of the ten most-visited recipe sites. I read somewhere that they have a million subscribers.

Regardless of the probably-sound business reasons behind the decision to discontinue Milesource, it's always sad to see a long-time rewards program go under. Milesource is directing its members to InboxDollars, but it doesn't appear that InboxDollars bought Milesource -- maybe SilverCarrot is just trying to earn their last couple of bucks by referring members to InboxDollars for the standard referral bonus. If you want to join InboxDollars, please do so with MY link instead! ;) (They'll give you a $5 signup bonus when you join.)

Sorry to see you go, Milesource. So much potential...squandered.

If you're a Milesource member and you're looking for similar alternatives, you may also want to try out QuickRewards.net where, similar to Milesource's MileBuilder, you can earn for visiting websites and for playing games (like trivia and Guess My Number), and for shopping or completing offers...plus you don't have to wait a ridiculous length of time to receive your reward (get PayPal or Amazon within 24-48 hours of requesting it).

This is the first time Upromise has done anything this huge -- if you join their program and make your first online shopping purchase through their site, they will deposit an additional $25 into your account. You can withdraw it by check, or you can apply it to a student loan, or you can transfer it into a Section 529 college savings account. It's a free $25! I'm just bummed that existing members can't get in on this deal.

While you're there, you may want to go ahead and register your credit/debit card that you use for off-line shopping -- you can earn rebates to your Upromise account by using the registered card in-store at Bed, Bath, and Beyond (1%), Eddie Bauer (5% through the end of the year), GNC (1%), Ross-Simons (3%), and Sharper Image (3%). There are also a few merchants, including FTD, that'll reward you for using this registered card to pay for phone and/or catalog orders. AND it's combinable with any debit or credit rewards program you already have in place (like airline miles).