Revamp of Shop and Earn

[kyle]

Looks like all retailers are now $1 = 2 points... except those couple with bonus points.

 

[atreides]

Hmm, that was a quick sneaky change. Let's see how it plays out over the next month or so.

 

[Hvr]

So it has been enhanced? :evil:

 

[smit0847]

The points rarely posted when the offers were lucrative - I doubt people will bother with it if its all 1:2.

 

[grubbidok]

Not to get in the way of VFF-bashing but isn't the points earn determined by what the retailer is prepared to pay for, not VFF whim?

And, correct me if I'm wrong, but apart form the bonus offers isn't $1=2p twice (or more) what it was for a lot of the more common retailers (e.g. eBay, iTunes).

It's still a good bonus for everyday activities, but was never really something to do just for the points.

 

[lovestotravel]

FAIL 2 points per $1 is better than nothing, but I doubt I'll be using it much anymore!

At least I milked the absolute cough out of the great offers

 

[lovestotravel]

And, correct me if I'm wrong, but apart form the bonus offers isn't $1=2p twice (or more) what it was for a lot of the more common retailers (e.g. eBay, iTunes).

It's still a good bonus for everyday activities, but was never really something to do just for the points.

Yep you are wrong and wrong

Lots of retailers (clothes) has points of 4-7 per $1 and there were periods where double points were offered so you could get up to 15 points per $1 spent

It was for most people something to do just for the points as well actually!

 

[MartinMemo]

Yep you are wrong and Wrong

Lots of retailers (clothes) has points of 4-7 per $1 and there were periods where double points were offered so you could get up to 15 points per $1 spent

This is true - and typically around this time. I earned enough through bonus point offer's doing xmas shopping on places like The Iconic, Style tread ETC where they were doing double last xmas to upgrade MEL-OOL return to J.

 

[lovestotravel]

This is true - and typically around this time. I earned enough through bonus point offer's doing xmas shopping on places like The Iconic, Style tread ETC where they were doing double last xmas to upgrade MEL-OOL return to J.

Yep The Iconic I think was the 15 points per $1 offer!

 

[serfty]

The points rarely posted when the offers were lucrative - I doubt people will bother with it if its all 1:2.

They never posted for me - I gave up years ago.

So really this is not an enhancement, since half of nothing is still nothing.

 

[MartinMemo]

They never posted for me - I gave up years ago.

So really this is not an enhancement, since half of nothing is still nothing.

It did take a handful of angry emails, including having to send the original receipts many, many times... But it was well worth it to me. Now using credit cards or anything like that these are the few ways of me getting points outside of actually flying.

 

[DeKa]

I've now given up on all these cookie-based referral sites which earn something back - shopandearn, starthere and some others.
They give too much pain .. even if you delete all cookies, make sure cookies are switched on and shop, you still more often that not have to chase the transaction up.

Saying that, I earned 6 figures worth of Velocity points thanks to some very generous offers - but I had to follow virtually every point up!

 

[grubbidok]

Yep you are wrong and wrong

Lots of retailers (clothes) has points of 4-7 per $1 and there were periods where double points were offered so you could get up to 15 points per $1 spent

It was for most people something to do just for the points as well actually!

Makes me wish I'd known of these offers. I'd seen one or two for things I would never ordinarily use (flowers, online stores with prices well over what they should be or were at bricks and mortar with high shipping costs to boot etc) so the big points offers never seemed worth laying cash out for, but did make use of the Iconic a bit when it was 7p and 5p. I would never have changed my purchasing habits/unnecessarily purchased items though (perhaps just buying the same thing elsewhere) and never would have paid more simply to earn bonus points. Maybe I'm a bit fuzzy but I do remember being distinctly underwhelmed that eBay had gone down to $2=1p, so I thought this had been an improvement on that. And I thought the old 'normal' was 1:1, so this new 'normal' seems better.

I think my first point still stands. AFAIK (and we looked into this, for a different airline a while back in the US, but I get that VFF may be different, even if it does use the same supplier) it's the retailers that buy the points from VFF. The number of points you offer is dependent on the deal the retailer has struck with the airline, and what the retailer decides to offer. Perhaps the retailers just weren't seeing value from it and pulled back?

If you want to see a truly underwhelming online shop and earn airline you only need to go over to QF.

I think it really depends on your individual habits I guess. I only got about 1-2k per month, and only from 'normal' purchases, so don't have a lot of skin in the game as they say. But I see myself earning (slightly) more with these enhancements than I did previously. YMMV

 

[grubbidok]

Saying that, I earned 6 figures worth of Velocity points thanks to some very generous offers - but I had to follow virtually every point up!

I think this was a big problem with big points offers. They were often put up by new operators or pokey companies trying so desperately to attract new business that getting them to pay the piper at the end of the day was difficult. I've never had an issue with points posting from the 'normal' offers, and always had problems with the bonus offers (with the exception of Iconic).

BTW: If you search "Iconic" (http://www.shopandearn.com.au/search/?q=iconic) the Bonus Points logo comes up on Iconic. Wonder if all the bonus offers haven't been ported over to new site? Wouldn't be unlike VA to launch a new online portal prematurely and before functionality!

 

[ferni]

They never posted for me - I gave up years ago.

So really this is not an enhancement, since half of nothing is still nothing.

Did you get to the tracking stage or never even get that far?

I have a couple in tracking stage at the moment, both eBay purchases, one nearly 4,000 points so hoping it does post.

I tried a menulog one a couple of weeks ago, but that never tracked and I can't be bothered following that one up.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

They never posted for me - I gave up years ago.

So really this is not an enhancement, since half of nothing is still nothing.

I'm with serfty. shop and earn is not worth my time and effort and never has been. I'm not one to buy a product for the sake of points and when I do want a product, I usually find it cheaper by searching rather than using shop and earn and then waste hours and hours chasing up the imaginary points.

 

[MartinMemo]

I'm with serfty. shop and earn is not worth my time and effort and never has been. I'm not one to buy a product for the sake of points and when I do want a product, I usually find it cheaper by searching rather than using shop and earn and then waste hours and hours chasing up the imaginary points.

The whole system worked well for me because I shop at (and planning on xmas shopping at) Style Tread & The Iconic anyway. I find it good for florists too. I have found myself having to send flowers at least a couple time a month, and found the cheaper/nicer one I was going to buy from was part of the shop and earn thing too - earning 300-500 points per flower delivery. Even the "book now" restaurant thing has a restaurant in it that I go to every Monday for dinner - so I can get 300 points every Monday for doing what I was doing anyway... It all adds up for me.

 

[lovestotravel]

I'm with serfty. shop and earn is not worth my time and effort and never has been. I'm not one to buy a product for the sake of points and when I do want a product, I usually find it cheaper by searching rather than using shop and earn and then waste hours and hours chasing up the imaginary points.

Well earning about 150k points for probably a few hours effort was worth it for me

 

[MartinMemo]

Jesus! Did you buy a car?!

 

[Plutonus]

Well earning about 150k points for probably a few hours effort was worth it for me

lovestotavel, you confuse me to no end. You hate flying Virgin and speak of of how you wish to deplete your points with Velocity, yet engage in activities to earn a substantial amount of points. No doubt this was a while ago, and 150k points is 150k points, but still...

Shop and Earn is only useful, in my case, when I'm going to use a retailer that earns points anyway. The good old days was when it was awarding a random amount of points, much higher than stated. Alas, the good times are over.