Is customer service at Points.com deliberately vague in their answers to questions sent via email? I sense that they are trying not to answer simple questions. Which is followed by an offer for me to upgrade my account to Gold. Which would give me unlimited access to deliberately vague answers over the phone.

Customer service isnearly impossible for a general member to get in to.
I have also discovered that this service has allowed me to set up, unbeknowst to me, to set up multiple accounts some of which I cannot remember passwords. As a result, due to the poor customer service I cannot use the service at all!

Good luck.

Agree its very sad especially as the CEO seems to be a great guy
They did a much better job years ago.
You would think with such a bad value proposistion they would be the most helpful company of all when it comes to responsive customer service.

Is there any value in becoming a Gold member?

I've emailed CS twice this month and received prompt and clear replies. Once I couldn't remember the answer to my security question. The other time my swap showed pending or something to that effect instead of complete for some unknown reason and they corrected it right away for me. I was surprised both times because I expected slow and unhelpful responses

there is if you are a character in an Austin Powers movie!

Anyway, I think the contents of this post should be noted for all suckers (I was one once too) who use Points.com.

DON'T USE THE SERVICE.

Why do I say this?

Well, in 2005 many of us recall an EBAY/AA promo involving them and what a headache it was to get the miles we all were missing. It is because of the FACT that companies like these do a lot to prevent people from recovering missing points and miles that I feel it is TOTALLY JUSTIFIED to make them accountable by giving out email and tel number information in this public forum! It is our duty, in fact, to help others here. That is, unless someone wants to tell me there's an easier way to really get the miles or points due to you! Trust me, I have fought this kind of very real battle enough to know that there really is not--and persistence coupled with giving the public knowledge on making things like this transparent is about the only way to do it. It is clearly evident by the existence of this thread that the company has not changed and continues to screw people.

In that old promo, I think it was something like 10,000-15,000 miles that went missing for about 100+ people. You tell me if something needed to be done. It was, and to accomplish it, we all did a lot of pushing and fishing and spent lots of time pressing the matter from all angles at the time to arrive at the following list of names, emails and numbers. Eventually--over many many months, we won and got our miles due.

So try these, but good luck--and remember, much of this came from 2005. Please do update the information if you find out more! Thank you.

(This first gal loves to take vacations when you are waiting for her to solve your points issues)

Lissa Romano
Client Relations Supervisor
& Manager, Customer Delight
Points International, LTD.
416-596-6370 x 3023

[email protected]
&
[email protected]

Fax: 416-596-3268 (her name is apparently pronounced, LISA)

I would assume, that like Lissa�s first email address, all these people might be reachable by their name.lastname.points.com�

I think CC-ing customer service on everything is not a bad idea too. Just keep good records and don�t give up even if it�s just for 100-2,00 points.

*****

Michael Barough
Partner Management
try to call 416-596-6370 and hit 1 for the spell by last name tel directory, then wait to hear a few of the entries and his will come up and you can hit I think #6 to get to his voicemail.

*****

Helena Kameka
Someone who is his assistant in partner management�
416-595-0000 x 3016

*****

I also have what may be the best place to MAIL things to Points.com:
134 Peter Street, Suite 300
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(don�t know the zip code)
fax (genera; maybe?) 416-595-6444

*****

Some members of board of directors--in 2005:

[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

*****

And lastly,

Mike Glass
VP, Product Development
Points.com
[email protected]

MM, it's very nice of you to share the Points.com contact info from 2005. I know you spent tons of hours to gather those info.

However, to the best of my knowledge, Points has gone through at least three different managements since 2005 and I highly doubt the 2005 info is current (I recall the Lissa girl was no longer with the company, I chitchatted with one very nice CSR while I still had the phone support privilege and she shared some of the inside scoops with me. What can I say? I am just too charming. ).

Least I can say, Points is running a different business model from 2005. It's sort of a different company with the same underperformed customer service. If our fellow FTers just took your info at the "face value" and contacted those on the list, I am sure more dissatisfaction/disappointment will be built up. I have zero desire to search or dig up their most up-to-date contact info since I no longer put any investment into Points.com (for the hysterical history that we all know ). Now I only use them to generate one necessary transaction for Skymiles promo.

If I were you, I would only post personal contact info that are current. If there's any doubt, just put the general ones, instead of person-specific ones. Or just point people to the right direction. I think that would cut down the confusion and foreseen trouble. @:-)

Wow. I had no idea. It is possible for companies to get better. Tho that is seldom the case. I must say, I do have a need for services of Points.com. I do have a problem in the way they value points. But, "What can a poor boy do?"

Not sure if it fits Points.com at all.

If our FTers' bad news is not "good enough" for you, I just found another place where folks has been chiming in on this very same issue from November 2005 through December 2007. Bad news travels fast!

good points Lin and thank you.

However I think if someone is having trouble at a place that had been a seriously bad known offender of all things related to missing points and miles, then they can decide to take or leave my info and they can decide to email the list or not. If someone on that list still works there, they can help the customer or not. I am aware things change but there have been other threads just like this one on the same company since then. I always post this info on those threads. I feel other than the occasional small offer they may have that can, say, keep a FF account alive or something so it does not expire because you did activitiy, the Points.com entity is a total scam that must end or it will continue to dupe more FTers and non FTers a like.

I Think it would be as if you were a hard working licensed electrician who witnessed a series of SERIOUS code violations by some general contractor who installed faulty wiring and they went unchecked or unnoticed but did cause some problems for clients along the way. Then you see them do it again and again and again and again and someone's home burns down because of it or someone has power outages or gets electricuted, etc. Some of the company goes thru a few possibly noted changes, but now new people are complaining and cannot figure out what to do about it. Again and again and again...

This is why I posted that--for whatever it's worth. If I were still dealing with them, you can be sure I would have up to date info and would even include the first and last names with shoe sizes and last four digits of their SSN's. After all, it's what customer service agents require of us, and often times we dont even get any help nor trackable and accountable info from them! the first two posts of this thread prove this. Time for the tables to turn, eh?
,

Points.com still owes me points and miles and has never fixed a few problems with my account. Customer service is basically useless. More in this thread, "Is Points.com dishonest?"
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=749152

Bear in mind also that the "retail" points.com website is a tiny fraction of their enterprise. Their core business is executing "wholesale" transfers from one loyalty program to another. They seem to do this very well, and if something goes wrong the consumer deals with the airline, hotel or credit card customer service department which means Points.com doesn't need to provide consumer customer service to support that aspect.

Please be kind enough to explain the difference between "retail" and "wholesale" as it relates to Points.com. Also, are there any other means by which one can swap miles. I am aware of the converter on Webflyer.

as a customer of points.com or anything they do, a person should not need to know all the nuances of how they run their company. You pay points.com to do X, and it should do X. Whether they have to pay or deal with any other entity should never come into play for the customer.

We are, however, in an era where this very thing has been ripped open and seriously challenged by companies. Now it IS on the onus of the savvy and persistent customer to learn and navigate thru these often multi-leveled and confusing systems in order to get what they merely thought would be an easy click.

You can see some places where it's more clearly described, like, if you were to say transfer miles between member accounts at Northwest airlines, for example. It says the transaction is powered by points.com. The thing works pretty well (I had to do it on 2 occasions long ago) but if there are problems you would have to deal with points.com and not the airline.

I do not think that's the way it should be, but at least NWA tells you this right there on the transaction page. And fortunately in my 2 cases, nothing did go wrong.

had it, I am sure --from other past points.com experiences, I would have been frustrated.

Thanks for the reminder to chase up some missing miles from points.com as referenced in the other thread.

I really don't have a high opinion of them at all.