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Greenpoints Hose Job

Greenpoints Hose Job

Old May 24, 2000, 10:18 am
  #1  
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Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Hebron ME USA - MHT, BOS, PVD, PWM
Posts: 152
Greenpoints Hose Job

I just logged in to redeem my Greenpoints for AA certs. One of the "enhancements" to the site was to double the number of points needed for a 500 mile cert. It's now 5,000.

Isn't this a day just filled with good news...
Papollo is offline  
Old May 24, 2000, 11:57 am
  #2  
 
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: MI
Programs: Delta, AA
Posts: 603
If this is the case, GreenPoints can kiss my business bye-bye. Doubling the amount of points for an award is just plain slimy.

Click Rewards---I'm coming back!

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Old May 24, 2000, 12:33 pm
  #3  
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Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Hebron ME USA - MHT, BOS, PVD, PWM
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Here's some contact information from the Greenpoints site:

Public Relations

Shelia P. Leyne
Senior Vice President, Co-Director Mullen
Phone: (978) 468-1155
Email: [email protected]
-------------------------------------
S&H Headquarters
40 Beach Street
Suite 203
Manchester, MA 01944
-------------------------------------

Customer Service

[email protected]
Customer Care Center
PO Box 5775
Norcross, GA 30091-5775
Phone: (800) 435-5674


Apparently there are big plans for this site. They talk about using Greenpoints for investing purposes, to pay for college educations, etc. etc. They advertise Greenpoints as "the points that never lose their value" What a lie! My points just lost half their value. I'm 40 short of 74,000 points. This slimy move has cost me 7,000 miles.


[This message has been edited by Papollo (edited 05-24-2000).]
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Old May 24, 2000, 1:10 pm
  #4  
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Here is an e-mail I just sent to a Greenpoints merchant, copied to the greenpoints Public Relations department:
---------------------------------------------
To: [email protected]
CC: [email protected]

Hello,

I recently purchased an Acer top-of-the-line laptop from your site. I paid $3200+. I am very pleased with the unit, and will be purchasing 2-3 more for my staff. I was going to purchase these additional machines through your site, but will no longer do so due to the actions of one of your partner sites.

I navigated to your site by clicking through the greenpoints.com site. I shop at sites on the WWW that afford me the opportunity to accrue frequent flyer miles. I had intended to click through the greenpoints site to reach you again, and collect additional greenpoints I could exchange for American Airlines 500 mile certificates. With no warning greenpoints.com has doubled the number of greenpoints needed to obtain a certificate, from 2,500 to 5,000. I choose to no longer do business with a concern that advertises their product never loses its value, and then promptly halves the value of its product. Unfortunately, this means I will not be purchasing from BUY.COM. I have found alternate suppliers that will provide the laptops and frequent flyer points in a dependable manner.

A copy of this message has been posted to www.flyertalk.com, a bulletin board read by thousands of people like me who are willing to spend on the WWW, and who value frequent flyer points as I do.

Regards,
Paul Apollo
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Old May 24, 2000, 1:11 pm
  #5  
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Join Date: Nov 1999
Posts: 24,153
I too just found out the good news.I guess we did a bang up job with the certs that they had no choice being they were running out all the time. I needed 150 to cash in for another 500 miles, there that goes. All they had to do is cool it with all the surveys and free pts and should have left it @ 2500pts which can be earned by shopping where they make their $$$. Now instead they have accomplished the worst thing for themselves bad PR and getting alot of people who now will go else where to shop(for those who shopped). I can understand them having to stop the certs from flying out(no pun intended) but this is not the way to go about it.
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Old May 24, 2000, 1:31 pm
  #6  
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papollo- I would be interested in hearing any response that you may receive. Could you do us all the favor and keep us posted as to their reply?

thanks,
mike.
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Old May 24, 2000, 1:41 pm
  #7  
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Of course!
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Old May 24, 2000, 1:49 pm
  #8  
 
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: Oak Park, IL
Programs: AA 2 MM LIfetime Platinum, SPG Platinum, Hilton Silver, BA
Posts: 3,585
Wow, boy am I glad I have been placing my orders regularly. I just ordered 6, after ordering 8 a couple of weeks ago. Both are "being processed" I wonder why they would reduce the amount needed from 2700 to 2500 and then double it to 5000. It's outrageous.

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DtG
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Old May 24, 2000, 2:12 pm
  #9  
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quote:
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..I wonder why they would reduce the amount needed from 2700 to 2500 and then double it to 5000...
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I dunno, but usually when anyone does this type of non-nice thing to me, it is usually preceded by the words "...in order to serve you better....." or something of that ilk. Another recent favorite is "....we set a controlled backfire in order to reduce your chances of a dangerous forest fire...". Hope you guys get what you contracted for. I never did greenpoints, and am glad I didn't. I have enough disappointments.
MisterNice is offline  
Old May 24, 2000, 5:11 pm
  #10  
 
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: Oak Park, IL
Programs: AA 2 MM LIfetime Platinum, SPG Platinum, Hilton Silver, BA
Posts: 3,585
Well, I think I've accumulated close top 60,000 points going through greenpoints to sparks. 12,000 miles is nothing to sneeze at so it was worth doing, and it WAS pretty painless. No one wants things taken away, especially if you were collecting them on one basis of exchange and you have that change before you get to exchange them. The change should apply to NEW points collected. I requested 6 certs on 5/21 which leaves about 1200 points in my account. What a lucky break on my part. Actually their change puts the value to about equal to clickrewards. If it had been this way all along, we all still would have done it because it didn't cost anything to do it. I did write them anyway to tell them how shocked and disappointed I was.

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DtG
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Old May 24, 2000, 5:36 pm
  #11  
 
Join Date: Aug 1999
Posts: 749
This is absolutely unbelievable! Not that I care so much since I do not have any points banked, but I care in that I do not do business with companies that are unethical, underhanded and sleazy. Good bye Greenpoints! I'll write to a few merchants at a time to let them know. In the meantime, I hope the press that picked up this "great re-start of S&H" picks up this slimy move! I honestly cannot believe it.
I would also suggest we all call customer service (800) 435-5674 and Shelia 978-468-1155 ext. 2159 and express our disgust.
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Old May 24, 2000, 5:46 pm
  #12  
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Location: Annapolis, MD
Posts: 483
Called the 800 number and spoke to a representative; she was absolutely clueless. Didn't have an explanation, didn't really seem to care. Last time I log onto GreenPoints.
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Old May 24, 2000, 6:03 pm
  #13  
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The 800 number you called connects to a call center in Georgia. These centers contract with many web sites (and other businesses) to handle all their customer support. The skill level at these centers is roughly equivalent to a beginning hamburger flipper at McDonalds. Competent people at these centers move on, since the work is so boring and repetitive. The person you spoke to has absolutely no investment in Greenpoints at all, I'm sure.

Corporate HQ for Greenpoints is in Manchester MA, on Cape Ann. I suggest all FT contact with the company go through Manchester, since all other contact would get filtered many times over before reaching HQ (if it got there at all).

I'm sitting here at home, getting more steamed by the minute. I didn't want to purchase this particular laptop, but did so because of the greenpoints. Fortunately, it's worked out quite well. I want to buy more machines, but certainly won't ever use a Greenpoints merchant again. Can you say sucked in?
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Old May 24, 2000, 11:20 pm
  #14  
 
Join Date: Mar 2000
Posts: 141
Grrr! Just saw that Delta and Alaska certs have gone up to 5000 also. I bought over a $1000 bucks worth of stuff from buy.com -- the products and prices were great but they shined me on for the Greenpoints and have ignored three inquiries about it, as has Greenpoints. I'm outta here!
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Old May 24, 2000, 11:35 pm
  #15  
 
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Tucson, AZ, USA
Posts: 24
I am absolutely steamed! I just got the BIG SHOCK too when I went to cash in my 15,000 points for AA Certificates! I can't believe that no advance warning was given about the tremendous increase in charge! I buy supplies for our company and have been using Greenpoints to actually PURCHASE items, but I'll be shopping elsewhere! I'm with you all regarding writing corporate headquarters!


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[This message has been edited by Kathie (edited 05-24-2000).]
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