Yeah, so if you read about my recent rant about Citi and their dumb ThankYouNetwork policy on shipping to Hawaii or Alaska, you know that they:
- Sent me the wrong gift cards.
- Had problems with processing orders for Amazon.com gift certificates.
- Are pretty UNfriendly when it comes to customer service.
Well, the story gets better. They did call me back, but it doesn’t end there. I really want Amazon.com gift certificates if you didn’t know already.
I called yesterday to place my order for Amazon.com gift certificates since they told me to call back in 7-14 days, after they’ve got their “system” problems resolved. So I did. Well, I explain my situation to the lady and she says, “I can handle that for you, no problem sir. I’ll get those gift certificates mailed out to you right away.”
I knew something would come up…it’s happened 3 times already.
A few minutes later she says, “I’m sorry sir, we cannot ship gift certificates to Hawaii or Alaska.”
This time, tired and frustrated, I’m thinking to myself, ”Wait, what?? Didn’t you just ship 4 gift CARDS to me a couple weeks ago?” So I tell her, “Well, that doesn’t make sense. What’s the difference between gift cards and gift certificates?”
She replies, “I don’t know sir. I don’t think it makes any sense either, but according to our contracts with our vendors who ship these rewards out, they have to use UPS ground.”
UPS ground ships to Hawaii…a little more expensive, but the service exists…I’m fine with that though…a lot of companies exclude shipping UPS ground to Hawaii because of the additional costs. So I say, “Can’t you just use the Postal Service? It’s cheaper, and that’s how my gift cards were shipped to me.”
“Sorry sir, Amazon.com gift certificates are handled by a different vendor and they must ship via UPS.”
At this point I’m getting a little pissed. Not only did I get the wrong cards, pay for return shipping myself, waited a couple of weeks, called a few times, used the ThankYouNetwork Credit cards for a couple YEARS, which already ships NO merchandise to Hawaii or Alaska, only “gift cards,” and now I’m being told these gift certificates cannot ship to Hawaii. I could careless if they have to ship via UPS.
So I tell her everything I just wrote above…No response, except, “Sorry sir, there’s nothing I can do.”
So I say, “Well, I guess I’ll try and figure something else out then…”
She then has the audacity to ask, “Sir, do you want to leave any feedback for the ThankYou network?”
WHAT THE HECK!?!??!? Is she a robot?? Did you not just hear our entire conversation? At this point, I’m even MORE pissed. So I ask to speak to her supervisor.
“Sir, my supervisor can’t do anything…”
“I don’t care, I’d like to speak to him please.”
“Hold on a minute sir.”
….
“Hi, This is Ricardo, Missouri office supervisor. How can I help you?”
I explain everything AGAIN.
“Sorry Freedumb, our policy for Amazon.com gift certificates is that they must ship via UPS.”
I ask, “Why can gift cards be shipped via the Postal service, but not Amazon.com gift cards?!”
“Policy, sir.”
“Well, the policy is dumb! What can I do to get it changed?”
“Freedumb, you can write to:
ThankYou Service Center
ATTN: Center Manager
1900 Meyer Drury Dr.
Arnold, MO 63010
OR
Fax to: 636-282-6506″
I say, “Great Thanks.” Like I’m going to send a letter there to get placed in the “feedback box,” aka shredder.
{click}
Man, I can’t believe it. Why couldn’t they have just told me that a few weeks ago?? All this back and forth, only to find out I can’t get these certificates shipped out to me. Anyway, I ended up getting the certificates shipped to my friend. He’ll relay them to me or email me the codes.
Bottom line: Hawaii and Alaska are a part of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA damn it!!! Include us.
Financial Freedumb and Brownie - A PF Blog » And Finally I’ve Redeem My ThankYou Points!!!!!
September 24, 2006 at 5:04 am
[...] that along with my free iPod could make some pretty nice gifts! Leave a comment | Trackback | Comment RSS Slightly RelatedLinks: [...]
thankyounetwork com
July 24, 2008 at 5:58 am
[...] Citi and their dumb thankyounetwork policy on shipping to Hawaii or Alaska, you know that they:http://www.financialfreedumb.c.....etwork.com – AboutUs Wiki PageFrom AboutUs: See what information we have on [...]
???
November 29, 2008 at 7:41 pm
I cannot imagine why anyone would want to use thankyou point/network. For example, I can redeem 6200 point for $40 Butterfly Carlos Chiu Table Tennis Racket. You must be joking me. After spending $6200, I am getting 0.65% back…oh did I mention it is actually on sale. If it is not on sale, I will need to spend $9300 to get $40 racket which is 0.43% of $9300. Why do they bother offering this so call thank you points?
icshades
December 29, 2008 at 12:41 pm
I redeemed 4000 points for a set of glasses that arrived completely smashed. I requested a refund or a replacement. They said I had to return the package and pay for shipping. EXCUSE ME? I’m not taking time out of my schedule to package up broken glass, risk cutting my hands, find a return address, go to the post office, pay for it & then with as RUDE as they were to me, they’ll probably lose the package. From now on I’m requesting a cash reward. Customer service started yelling at me as if I was scamming them for a second set of glasses. I was so insulted. Great “thank you” network. I knew I could count on you Citibank for the great gift of customer appreciation.
Dean Johnson
July 15, 2009 at 6:17 am
I have been with Citibank for 5 years. The first two years were pretty good on their rewards program. I spend about 2 – 4k a month average and pay off my balance every month (A lot of business purchases) and would end up with about $1200 worth of gift cards which I would cash in every year for Christmas for gifts for family, kids, and then some extra for my wife and I.
First the Thank You network got rid of the 5,000 points for a 50 dollar card. It became 6,000 points for a 5,000 card. They then got rid of the extra points for shopping at certain places. This pattern continued on with everything.
The bottom line is they now want 14,000 points for a $100 prepaid credit card which is 1% back and then asking for $140 dollars for a $100 card.
I also noticed what a ripoff their products are. I looked at the on sale section and they have the Tiger Woods Golf for the 360 on sales for 9800 points, They are asking $100 for a game that costs 49.99 in all stores.
I cashed all my points out each year in September or October to make sure none would expire.
For some reason this year, even though I have spent more money, I have less points and my balance went down.
I have received less than 0.25% of my purchases in points and no one at Citibank or the Thank You Network can explain.
I just cashed out $220 worth of points and got $150 worth of gift cards.
I cancelled my citibank card today and applied for an Amzaon Credit Card. The Amazon card supposedly offers a minimum of 1% on all purchases and 2% on gas, food, office supplies. They give you a $25 Amazon Gift Card every time you get 2500 points.
I am switching to this because it is at least fair at this point and time, Amazon does have low prices and I am tired of getting ripped off by CItibank.
I told Citibank that I hope they go bankrupt and they are ther worse credit company I have ever dealt with.
MY advice is to avoid them like the plague and find another reward card.
Dean
PS: I am NOT recommending the Amazon Visa. It just happened to appear to be a much better deal to me and cannot be worse than Citibank. Nothing can be worse than Citibank.
David cash
March 4, 2011 at 4:51 pm
I was really interested in the cash gift game and thought they were all scams but now realize that some actually really work..like the ones that are automated and you have control of your back office. Now i give a big thumbs up to cash gifting, seeing as i make a crap load of money in it now.LOL
Miles & Points Balances « Financial Freedumb and Brownie
June 20, 2011 at 1:05 pm
[...] ThankYouNetwork: 1,400 (just redeemed 20,000) [...]