From A RZ Email:

Starting on December 2, 2007, when you purchase a Best BuyTM Gift Card in any Best Buy U.S. retail location or from BestBuy.com, you will earn Reward ZoneŽ program points immediately upon purchase.

Any Gift Card(s) purchased before December 2, 2007 will not earn points if redeemed on or after December 2, 2007.

Reward ZoneŽ program, Reward Zone program MasterCardŽ and Best Buy For Business Reward Zone program members will earn 1 point for every $1 spent on Gift Card purchases in any Best Buy U.S. retail location or BestBuy.com.


So now You Get Points For Puchasing Giftcards.

The policy for gift cards and reward points never seemed set in stone to me before. I've had people give me points for purchasing gift cards, and I've had them not give them to me. But it's good they're actually making a change beneficial to the consumer for once (small as it may be).

But I'm sure you'll no longer get points when you redeem a gift card. This is just shifting the reward to the Gift Card giver (my mom) from the Gift Card user (me) in time for the Holiday season.

Makes sense, but sucks for people like me that just get gift cards as gifts.

you'll still earn points when redeeming the gift cards. The only difference is that the buyer now gets 1% rewards on them. What people will start doing is buying gc w rz card and then using it themselves to earn the regular 2% rewards. Either way, its all good.

pinata are you sure that you got points from using the gc? i thought that they only used the amount above the gc and more or less treated it like a coupon. i can't recall and can't find an old reciept (only 90 day window) to verify but i could swear that i never got points from the redeemed value of a gc. can someone who has used a gc in the last 90 days verify on http://www.myrewardzone.com?

I'm sure. You never got points when you bought them because you got points when you redeemed them. I also don't have any recent GC purchases in my history, just store credit and that's not exactly the same so I won't try to apply it here.

amd555, are you sure? I'd gladly be wrong about this but it seems stupid since all I'm going to do is buy giftcards before I buy anything - just like I used to do to get $5 GGCs. Why are they going to willingly double the reward value of purchases (effectively going back to $5 for each $125 spent - 4%) and simultaneously waste gift cards?

It doesn't make sense to me, but again, I'd love to be wrong.

Then why does it say "Any Gift Card(s) purchased before December 2, 2007 will not earn points if redeemed on or after December 2, 2007"? What's special about them?

Only gift cards bought after Dec. 2, 2007 will give points when redeeming?

I see your point, and from what I've been told by an employee, it's just the grace period given before they switch over to the new policy, and they won't be able to be redeemed for points after December 2.

So you only get points for purchasing gift cards? Or do you get points for purchasing them, and using them? I have gotten points for using them before.
If the latter, that's great, though it'll probably be abused and cancelled.
If the former, that sucks, and another "feature" that mostly benefits them--since generally the *recipient* of the gift card is more likely to have an RZ card than the purchaser, who's probably buying the card to give as a gift because they know the recipient shops at BB a lot.

Bingo. Silly reverie for thinking BBY would do so something customer-friendly if they can save a buck otherwise.

delete

Sounds good.
I seem to recall the fine print "points will not be given for gift card purchases" but can't find it now. I know no coupons work for GC's.
This irks me though:
"Points calculations are ... less ... the dollar amount of available mail-in rebates at the time of purchase of any product or service"
Even if the MIR is sent to a third party, which of course means I may never get it.
The other exclusions (no points on taxes, delivery fees, etc.) are pretty common and expected.

I recently bought some DVDs that were $9.99 each, and you got a free $5.00 gift card with the purchase of two.

I paid $19.98+tax for two DVDs and got a gift card.

$14.98 was applied to my RZ account. ($19.98 less the $5 GC).

I later used the $5 GC on another purcase (say $10).

The full $10 of that purchase was credited toward my RZ account.

So, in the future, when they run promotions like this, how will such cases be handled?

You'd get 19.98 applied on the first transaction and 5 on the second. Instead of 14.98 on the first and 10 on the second.