Best Buy IdeaX

[#1]

If the idea of "My Rewards" is to reward customers for buying at Best Buy, how about accumulating 250 points then applying the discount to their next purchase instead of letting the discount expire. I'm the type of consumer that buys on an "As Needed" basis, so no matter what savings I'm going to achieve, I'm not going to rush to the store to take advantage of saving a whopping $15, $50 or $60 maybe. Most of your cashiers don't even understand or explain the program anyway. I know I've never had one explain it to me. I think most of us are smart enough to know that you're making the least amount of effort to offer us a discount. We have a 2 month window to take advantage of the savings C'mon.   

[#2]

I guess I'm not exactly clear on what you are asking of us. Are you stating your reward certificates expire every two months and would like them to last indefinitely?

[#3]

Well, if you won't allow us the option of accumulating them, and you wish to make a decision for us, at least apply them to our next purchase, no matter when it occurs. At least then we won't feel like we're being duped. So to recap............

Current State: Reward Certificates expire after two months (I don't know why, we've supposedly earned them). 

Future State: Provides the following options .......

1. Customer choses to apply certificates towards next purchase. 
2. Customer choses to accumulate them. Even if you placed limitations on how much can be     used at a time, that's better than loosing them altogether.

Most importantly! The employee receiving calls regarding this program needs to understand and speak english very fluently. I'm still missing a $500 purchase made in July because the person I spoke to last night wasn't fluent in English, or maybe he was pretending not to comprehend. Either way, it seems like you're ensuring certificates are not paid out with a super small two month window to redeem them, combined with a guy who doesn't speak english when you call in with a problem, makes you wonder if this is a real rewards program. 

[#4]

@ tcb4al, Thanks for the clarification. Would any other My Best Buy members like to see this as a reality? Make sure you vote for an idea if you like it.

[#5]

Where / how do you vote?

To get a good representative sample where and how voting takes place, that should be common knowledge among menmbers don't you think? This is the first time I'm hearing of this, I didn't even know it was possible.Otherwise you're letting the few who know about this voting make decisions for the masses. Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure customers would like my future state, over your current state "Hands Down". 

[#6]

@ tcb4al, the voting button is directly to the left of your idea title, at the top of this page, with an arrow underneath it. When I initially post back to an idea I always end my response advising all subsequent viewers/users to vote for the idea if they like it. This isn't exclusive to the members that already are aware of this voting button.

[#7]

I'm not going to rush to the store to take advantage of saving a whopping $15, $50 or $60 maybe.

Thats the entire reason for the promotion.  To get people back in the store.  I used to wonder why companies like McDonalds would bother spending so much on their Monopoly promotion, I wondered, does this really get more people in.

Then I was in the break room during lunch and notice a co-worker had McDonalds every day that week and she was talking about going again tomorrow on the way in in the morning as well so she could get more play pieces.

[#8]

As an employee, I have to admit that I believe this could be a great benefit to customers. However, it may also cause some major confusion.

To clarify, rewards points do not expire, but MyBBY certificates do. Certificates are also not automatically applied to any transaction. Once a member earns Elite or Elite Plus status, however, they have the option to bank their points. This ensures that you, the member, knows when & how much certificates are being issued for.

A potential drawback to this automatic application is that the transaction subtotal (before tax) must be greater than the amount of the certificate. Currently, if the transaction subtotal is less than the amount of the certificate, the certificate will not be applied at all. This could cause confusion if a customer attempts to make a $15 purchase, assuming a $25 certificate would be automatically applied. 

Nonetheless, I do believe that automation somehow could help make the redemption of the certificates easier! Good idea! -Sam

[#9]

Well, I don't have a lot of time to spend on this, especially since not one Best Buy employee I've spoken to has bothered to locate my missin rewards. Hey guys, please don't knock me down trying to solve my missing rewards problem, some problems do fix themselves. SMDH!

With regard to the differences between; certificates, rewards, etc.. Please don't assume we understand the differences between the two, or even care. Because your cashiers do not explain the program to us, and good luck calling in to speak to the rewards department unless you speak spanish. There's really no confusion wih regard to not being able to apply a certificate greater than the purchase, that just translates into common sense on the part of the comsumer. It's easily remedied by correcting the software programming logic. Your competitors apply rewards the way I'm referring to them. Just keep in mind, the way you handle this makes the difference between who get's the sale. We do make mental notes regarding where our "so called" rewards points continue to come up missing and underapplied. 

[#10]

I could not agree with this thread more. tcb4al and bobberuchi are spot on in my opinion. Here is my two cents...

I also question why Best Buy is auto issuing certificates and then putting an expiration date on it. The only conclusion I came to was Best Buy is attempting to avoid paying out its points, similar to the concept of gift cards that don't get used and expire.

Its my opinion that points should be allowed to be accumulated and used when the customer is ready. Didn't Best Buy allow this in the past? I'm almost certain I choose an accumulation option in my account previously. Not only is that option gone, but my account was forced into redeming at 500 points. I would have NEVER choose that option. I see Sam-MCSA mentions this may be the difference in regular and Elite account status. This is ridiculous. I'm guessing typical customers don't buy products to become "Elite" status with Best Buy. Therefore, that Elite advantage is moot.

I suggestion Best Buy allow the points to build up regardless of account status with no expiration or at least expire in a year or two, not two months after issue. Frankly, this cert issue and expiration concept is insulting to me as a customer.

I use Best Buy instead of say Amazon for two major reasons. One, I can collect points and get rewards for what I spend. And, two, I can return an item to a store (which rarely happens).  With that said, I recently bought a head phone product on your website instead of Amazon, even though I could have saved $40 at Amazon.

I'm typing this note for one reason. I'm a business owner and I love it when customers give me a chance to correct a problem.

[#11]

I agree that reward points should be applied to next purchase. How do I vote?