Frank Zhang thought he was winning at the PC Optimum game — stacking up points on groceries, gas and gift cards by chasing bonus offers and swiping his PC Mastercard for extra rewards.

But his seven years of smart shopping didn’t pay off. Instead of cashing in on his hard-earned 43 million points — worth about $43,000 — Zhang found himself locked out of his account with no warning, no clear explanation and no way to access his points.

“That’s unfair,” Zhang told Go Public. “They can control my money. They can control my points, but I can’t do anything.”

  • puppinstuff@lemmy.caEnglish
    15·
    8 days ago

    I’m wondering why people save up points like this. I use my $10 every chance I get.

    I’ve been locked out of my account three times over the years because I forgot to turn off my ad blocker when loading my grocery offers. The reactivation process is repetitive, nontransparent and takes weeks. No way I would recommend trusting thousands of dollars worth of points to this system.

    • MeatsOfRage@lemmy.world
      15·
      8 days ago

      Redemption events at shoppers turn 200k into $300 or 250k into $400 on Black Fridays. Last year they had an event to double your entire point spend which was the best redemption yet (500k became $1000). I’ve used these events to get my PS5, PSVR2, Xbox, switch, Sonos speakers, Apple Airpod Max, sim race wheel. Of course starting this year they’ve stopped carrying all the cool electronics.

      All this being said, you can only redeem a max of 500k in any translation so keeping anything more than that doesn’t serve much purpose.