Walter Neff

After not receiving a single Reward Zone certificate since enrolling in the program in July -- and spending quite a bit of money at Best Buy using my card -- I just spent almost 50 minutes on the phone with Best Buy to find out what the problem is. Here's the one nice thing I'll say: The woman who helped me was incredibly friendly and apologetic (especially about keeping me on hold for 10 minutes at a time or more while trying to resolve the problem).

Turns out that two of the certificates they supposedly sent me were redeemed by another person. In fact, they were redeemed by a person who also redeemed a bunch of other certificates as well, meaning they were almost certainly sent to the wrong person. A third certificate was likely "lost in the mail," according to Best Buy.

The end result of all this is that they credited me the points for the certificates redeemed by another person, and they voided out the one that was "lost in the mail" and are going to reissue it. The really nice part? It will take as long as six weeks for me to receive any of these certificates. (You'll notice that six weeks is long after Christmas, by the way.) There's no way to do a rush order or anything else to speed it up despite the fact that they admittedly screwed up -- at least for the two given to another person, and likely for the third one as well. (In my experience, I always get mail that's sent to me -- as long as it's actually sent to me. The "lost in the mail" excuse typically triggers my bullshit meter.)

OK, I didn't pay for my Reward Zone card -- it was a free promotion -- but if I had I would be livid right now. Has there ever been a worse-run promotional program in the history of retailing? After my experience, there's not a snowball's chance in hell I'd ever pay for this program. Or wasn't that the point of giving me this card for free -- to try to get me to renew it at the end of the year?

squi23

Honestly, I got mine for free as well and would probably renew for $10 when the time came.

I've already received $75 worth of certificates.

I've only spent 1 certificate though. I'm not sitting and waiting for these to make a purchase. I just pull out my RewardZone card w/ my credit card every time and forget about it. Every now and then I check to see what's doin'.

Hmmm..... maybe I'll get into buying stocks & investing... seems like it may be the same routine more or less.

potnoodlez

I wanted to join Reward Zone before I bought my new PC but I heard bad reviews so I figured it wasn't worth the hassle. How much do you have to spend to receive the $5 reward?

Walter Neff

I believe you have to spend $100 to receive a $5 certificate. Financially, the program actually makes sense in my case (and likely yours too if you bought a PC there), but it's a waste of money if they don't actually send the certificates.

DJLinus

It's actually $125 spent for every $5 gift certificate. I've been a (free) member since July or August and have since received about 6 certificates (2 last week).

You don't always have to spend $125, though. Sometimes certain items will get you bonus points. And then they have special days like this past Saturday where you'd get 5000 points for spending $25 (and additional 5000 if the purchase was before 10 am). So that day, it was like I spent $100 more than I did. Plus I got a 5 song Christmas CD (Sting, Jewel, Coldplay, Seal, some other dude) only for members.

So far it's paid out for me and then some. I don't foresee my buying habits being much different next year, so I think it'll be worth it for me to actually pay for the program when it's time for renewal.

Walter Neff

You sure none of those certificates were mine?

matome

I just received one yesterday that was due to me from September. LOL, I guess better late than never.

movielib

I finally got $50 worth of cerificates last week ($45 of them dated to a purchase I made on August 18).

Numanoid

I actually paid the $10 for my Reward Zone membership. So far I've received $35 worth of certificates, obviously making it worth the money. I consider it to be gravy. I would have spent that money at Best Buy anyway, so at least I'm getting something back with this program. Considering how much I spend at BB annually, this program is a no-brainer. I can't understand why any regular shopper would not enroll.

potnoodlez

I would have earned about $45 on my computer but if you factor in the $10 I would have to spend to join it would have only been $35. It would have been a nice little bonus but I rarely buy anything at Best Buy so it's not a big deal to me. If the program was a little cheaper I'd join but since I heard a lot of bad stuff I decided to stay away.

Jadzia

Why don't they just credit the $5 on your account, so when they swipe your rewards card it reads as an automatic coupon?!?

It seems that would be much easier and cheaper than mailing out paper certificates.

matome

They want to keep a grace period in case you decide to just return the stuff you bought and then spend the rewards points right away. An automatic credit to the RZ card after 30 days would definitely be a great idea though.

Corky Roxbury

I just got two coupons today actually one for $5, and one for $10 made out to Walter Ne... umm I mean Joe Reed, yeah thats it

Walter Neff

I suspected you all along. Darn you. Darn you and Best Buy.

TerryMcGinnis

I remember reading in another thread that Reward Zone cards were free all throughout October, did anyone get one that way? Did you have to buy something in order to get it for free, or did you just have to walk in and sign up. I was at BB a couple of times in October, and I didn't see any signs or anything saying it was free.

I actually paid for mine just last month and after hearing about all the hassles with the certificates, I'm considering taking it back. For those of you who have actually received certificates, how much time do they actually give you to use them? I mean, they say they expire in 90 days, but with the delays in sending them out, I'm afraid I'll only get something like a week to use them.

tsl141

I used to work at Best Buy. To be honest, all of these Replacement Plans, Service Plans, and Reward Zones are just a waste of time. Basically why the employee pushes them so much is because they get a scorecard which ranks them amoungst all of the Best Buy stores in the nation(all 500+ of them). What did it mean to the employee? not a damn thing....but to the managers it was there job to keep all of the numbers up, and if they wern't up, it was your job. I really don't have anything against Best Buy (I quit on my own) and I shop there all the time still, but take it from a former employee who knows all about these things. There is much more bad behind the reward zone than good, not getting your coupons back is actually normal... I'd say probably 3 out of 10 I talked to told me they've never received their certificates yet. It's better just to stay away from this. I would reccomend the Replacement Plans on game systems though, the extra $10 for a GC and $25 for a Xbox and PS2 to protect your system for two years is worth it.

DirkBelig

There was a bit of a delay in getting some of my coupons, but they've been coming pretty steadily. I like it much more than Media Play/Suncoast's Replay Rewards because I'm always buying stuff - computer parts, sale DVDs and CDs, etc. - at Beast Buy whereas the MSRP gouge of Media Play means I only buy on Triple-Points weekends (one coming up) and then, only stuff on sale.

movielib

I got a free membership in August. After that, I didn't pay any attention.

As far as how long you have to use them: you will not have so little time. The expiration date is tied to when they are sent out, not when you earn them with your purchase. I received mine just last week for purchases made in August. They expire on 3-1-04. Presumably, they will be issued in a more timely fashion as the kinks are worked out.

Corky Roxbury

dirkbelig, yeah I hate media play's as well. for the $100 you need to spend to earn $5, you could buy the same item at best buy for $80, so basically I just printed a $30 replay cert. myself, by shopping at BB

I probably had $60 in Media Play certifactes shipped to me, and I moved, and never got them, and I do not know how to change my address, any advice?



I get reward zone gift certifcates at least 1 a week, I posted on the 3rd that I got two coupons totalling $15, well I got two more for the same amount, so I am hitting up BB tonight

JoCo

I have a question. If I have 3 five dollar reward zone gift certificates can I use them at the same time? How much does the purchase have to be, $15 or $30? I'm basing this on one $5 GC on a minimum $10 purchase.

blazincaucazn

I spent the $10 on the reward zone card 2 weeks ago when I bought my new HDTV. I spent $2,000 on the television, and in the following week spent $700 on a new surround sound and $500 on other things (games, movies, entertainment stand).

If I calculated that right, I should be getting about $130 back in certificates, I just hope they don't screw me and not send them. *crosses fingers&

tsl141

It's worth it if you purchase a large order, the card basically pays for itself.

DVDKrayzie

I think DDD runs BB's RZ program. After not receiving anything since the JULY certs, I finally gave up waiting and called again. "We have sent you 35 certificates and you have used 22 of them" BULLS**T I think i've used and received 5 tops. so after arguing forever, he voids SOME out and reissues 24 of them and says i should get them in 6 to 8 weeks (yay another 2 months). So either they were stolen in the mail or misdelivered or something, but it looks like I'm @ssed out around $30 worth. I actually paid for this damn thing too. I am a loyal monkey/slave who made every attempt possible to use BB just so I could get these certs, and I get screwed in the end. If it didn't take so long, I would have disputed the $9.99 with my CC company.

bga

Anyone else notice that right around Thanksgiving, BB changed the policy so that rewardzone points are posted 30 days after purchase instead of 10? According to a customer service person in a store, it's because they can't keep up with the transactions. I figure it's because they don't want people calling Customer Service between now and Christmas.

gutwrencher

I never remember I've even signed up...until I start recieving them in the mail. I think I've gotten about $60 worth in the last 2 or 3 months.