GREENPOINTS complaints
 

Hi,

Well, GREENPOINTS must win the worlds worst service award! (preface this with the fact that I have spent over $10k through their site - which I now REALLY regret).

1) They don't reply to customer service emails (I would say less than 25% of my emails have been answered!)

2) They don't provide you with a point earning history like MyPoints, Clickrewards etc

3) They have cancelled 1.4 million points in my account (and all orders) due to an error on the suppliers part, then quoted the membership agreement section on fraud to justify the cancelled points.

4) of my orders for mileage, the first 2 (for 500 miles each - the test case) worked fine but others have been delayed. (the 10,500 AA miles I ordered 4 weeks before they discontinued them still haven't shipped) - these are with the points they haven't cancelled.

5) The order status is worthless - I received a PDA three weeks BEFORE it changed from pending the shipped. My cancelled orders say "pending" or "shipped" at random (it appears they don't have a cancelled status)

6) On August 4 I sent them an email regarding the cancelled orders/points - I got an email today saying they were cancelling more points! Not only do they not reply, but they are very prompt at delivering bad news - and the "if you have any further questions please contact us at customer support" message must be some great cosmic joke!

Well, that is my rant. I would contrast this with the service I have received from MyPoints (always on-time shipping) and ClickRewards (always answered emails and resolved problems) both of which I have spent little or no money with (although that is changing from now on).

Questions for everyone else;

a) Did your final AA miles arrive?

b) What recourse do I have. I feel they have screwed me over.

and as a final note, I would advise everyone against using greenpoints, certainly against spending money through them but also don't get your hopes up on getting your orders. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mad.gif

I too have just gotten screwed by Greenpoints. There are three of us living out of this house all with accounts. Recently I redeemed for 41 500 Delta certs. I got a email back yesterday saying there are multiple accounts and they have cancelled all accounts. I got the same message about contacting them (which I did but as yet no reply). I'm pretty pissed, especially now that I here of others having the same problem.

I have had a similar experience with receiving airline certificates from Greenpoints. "Backordered," with no other explanation. Also, I have not received points for numerous purchases through the site.

My experiance with Greenpoints is very good.
They answer e-mails in hours and resolve all problems very fast.

I think they a very good organized.

Please check your information before writing. Your first two points are false.

1. They do reply to emails and what's more, they always answer they're 800 promptly - which can't be said for places like ClickRewards because there is no 800 number.

2. There is a link on the left side of your home page to your order history. It shows specifically what you've bought and how many miles it cost.

ANDREWCX

Answer to your questions:

a) I ordered Delta SkyMiles the vouchers arrived within days.

b) I would call them (again). You seem to be a very good customer for them. If nothing helps, check "your case" again. If you think you are right, inform the Attorney General in your state and in their state. You might be able to do this via Internet.

I too have found them very responsive - both via customer service emails and in sending me DL 500 mile certificates promptly.

I don't even give these things the time of day. I just use ebates, which gives you plain cash and has a great order history.
www.ebates.com

Family Flyer - to respond.

I have "checked" my information.

1.In my circumstances greenpoints did not respond to the majority of emails (and whilst the phone service might be good I do not think that excuses the email issues - I don't like phoning websites).

2. A point EARNING record is very different from a point SPENDING one as you suggest.

but as a followup, greenpoints did finally respond and were quite nice, and accepted fault so maybe there are a few good things to be said.

ANDREWCX:

It seems you got good/better news from Greenpoints. Please keep the board posted.

ANDREWCX:

I too have not had major problems with Greenpoints. When I did have an issue of points not being posted or certs not received they have responded fairly quickly to my problems. I do understand how this being a web based program the prefered method of communications should be email, but this is not a perfect world we live in and actually speaking to a "live" person is still prefered in my book.

Hope your future experiences with them continue to get better

Greenpoints is AWFUL!!!!

RUN the other way.

My correspondence with them below.


>>To: [email protected]
>>Subject: please cancel my Greenpoints account
>>
>>I have e-mailed your customer service staff repeatedly about a problem -
>specifically, my greenpoints account showing a negative balance.
> Any additional purchases I were to make on-line or
>at my supermarket would only serve to work away that balance, not credit me
>with spendable points. That is unacceptable.
>>
>>Your customer service folks have responded multiple times, always claiming
>that the problem will be resolved, then following-up by telling me that I
>used more points than I had.
>>
>>Just to be sure, today again I attempted to spend points on your site that
>I did not have in my balance. Again, it was impossible (as it should be).
>Their explanation is therefore, impossible. I do not understand why your
>staff insists that I am responsible for what clearly must be a technical
>problem of your site. My patience is at an end.
>>
>>Please cancel my Greenpoints account. Please send me an e-mail that this
>has been done. I have contacted my local Foodtown supermarket and
>explained that I am now shopping at the local Shop Rite instead
>specifically because of the hardships that I have experienced with
>Greenpoints. I will also send Foodtown's customer service people a copy of
>this message.
>>

Their Reply:

At 11:42 AM 9/3/00 -0400, you wrote:
>Dear David,
>
>We are confirming that we have received your request, and your account with
>greenpoints.com has been closed, effective immediately.
>
>However, after reviewing your account we do not understand your frustration
>with us. Your account has earned a total of 15,080 greenpoints and you have
>redeemed 17,900 greenpoints for 7-#S5023 500-mile Delta Sky Miles Frequent
>Flyer Certificates. That is the reason for your negative balance.
>
>Should you want to reconsider, please visit our website at
>http://www.greenpoints.com for more information.
>
>Thank you,
>
>Bob
>Customer Care


My Response:

Again, as you wrote:

>Your account has earned a total of 15,080 greenpoints and you have
>redeemed 17,900 greenpoints for 7-#S5023 500-mile Delta Sky Miles Frequent
>Flyer Certificates. That is the reason for your negative balance.

And in my original message, I wrote:

>>Your customer service folks have responded multiple times, always claiming
>that the problem will be resolved, then following-up by telling me that I
>used more points than I had.
>>
>>Just to be sure, today again I attempted to spend points on your site that
>I did not have in my balance. Again, it was impossible (as it should be).
>Their explanation is therefore, impossible. I do not understand why your
>staff insists that I am responsible for what clearly must be a technical
>problem of your site.

>Any additional purchases I were to make on-line or
>at my supermarket would only serve to work away that balance, not credit me
>with spendable points. That is unacceptable.
>>

Please don't waste my time further with impossible to duplicate explanations, in lieu of taking responsibility for your site's error. Even if the math in your accounting was correct, it would take a major technical error on you site just to permit it. It is more likely that one of your bonuses was credited, spent by me, then revoked.

********************************************

This is not a reputably managed group of people. It doesn't matter if it's malice or incompetence, they revoke points and policies at the drop of a hat, change the rules of the site without notice, and act suprized that the "lowly customers" dare to complain.

Again, take it from me, if you haven't been shafted yet (by changing bonuses, or partner removals, or point removals, or expiring awards, or shipping delays, or outright lies), you will...it's only a matter of time. Cash out and run away as soon as you can.

Every one of my e-mails to them was replied to promptly, points for my purchases credited well before the site said they would, and all DL certificates were received within 5 business days of ordering them.

I ordered AA certs during the great close out sell greenpoints had when they announced they were discontinuing AA as a partner. Has anyone received them? The order status on greenpoints login shows that the order is still in progress from Aug 15 !!!

Regarding the negative balance issue: There wasn't enough information provided to determine why there was a negative balance. But I suppose you could get a negative balance if you:
1. Got Greenpoints through purchases
2. Redeemed the Greenpoints, and
3. Returned the purchased items.

BTW, I checked my own records about the top S.P.A.M. complaint - posting of miles. On this issue, Grennpoints has delivered. I usually receive certificates within a week and the miles usually post within 15 days of mailing to airlines.

I ordered my AA certs during the closeout on 8/14. Received them today 9/11.

ANDREWCX
There is a list of all your earned and used points and where they came at
Greenpoints.
Just click, " My Accounts" on the left side of your home page.
When that page comes up, click on your e-mail address (Account ID) and a list of
every transaction that you have made will come up.

Also, I have never had an e-mail go unanswered from them.

Received my AA certs today also that I ordered on 8/14. Thank you GP http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I'm pretty happy with Greenpoints customer service also. I've received propmpt replies to my e-mails. One transaction was slow to post so I faxed the confirmation to their customer service center and points were posted the same day.

Wow...finally a way to see my points and purchases.

I've sent them five...five....five...five....five emails asking how I could see my points and they never told me how...just sent me an email with the transaction listing.

They do reply back promptly, with canned emails.

Greenpoints blows.

I also received my AA certificates (on 9/12). I called last week to find out when they were coming and was told they were all being shipped last Wednesdy (9/6).

For those that are having problems with email customer service, I urge you to try calling them. You're not on hold forever and you will stay with the same customer service person until your problem is resolved.

I ordered 5 AA certificates on 8/15 and received them on 9/8. I did have an occasion to email them (Zooba points didn't post properly) and didn't receive a reply. After a week, I sent a follow-up and in a day I received an apology along with my points credited. All in all my Greenpoints experience has been positive, unlike some other sites (such as AltaVista rewarding me 500,000 pts, then snatching them away because they were awarded "in error." http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif )

The Latest installment:

Just received 1xAA Cert (ordered Aug 7) but my order for 17xAA Cert (ordered Aug 3) still hasn't shown. Oh, and the status for both orders is listed as "In Progress" and "Backordered" - even though the Aug 7 order was shipped 5 days ago and has arrived.

I have sent an email to customer service so we'll see if I get an answer.

Andrew: Worse yet, I ordered 29 certificates in early July, and my later orders for 1- or 2- certificates started showing up. I called to their unbelievably information-poor customer service number, and was told once that the certs were backordered, told again a day later that I had to talk to someone on vacation, told on a third occasion that the certs had been sent in July (where they took a report from me, claiming they would look into it, since these are supposed to come via certified mail return receipt), and just today I received a call saying they are on "backorder", which is such obvious BS that I tried to call the rep back: now, no one at Greenpoints can say how to contact such a person.

They:
1) Have no handle on how to process these orders.
2) Have a CS operation which is cursory
3) Have no reliable order information system
4) Don't have anyone who has the authority to resolve situations.

I believe I can't trust them, after all this, even though I've had probably 8 orders for certs (1 and 2 at a time) which went fine. I can't recommend it as a means of building serious mileage.

Andrew, have you heard anything yet or called the 800 #. I am really curious to hear what happens.

INCREDIBLE!! That is almost exactly what happened to me. I ordered 49 AA Certs in mid-July and by the end of July my account showed that the order was "completed". I never got them! I called once (the hell with e-mail regarding 24,500 miles) and I was told that they must have been lost. They would have "someone" from their mail dept. contact me within 3 - 4 days. Waited 10 days, called again, and was told that the order in July was backordered BUT the certs had come in that very day and they would be out by the end of the week. One week later, I called again and was told that the certs were backordered AGAIN! And someone would call me soon.

Now the story gets interesting - I received a call from someone higher up to tell me that my order was not backordered but CANCELLED because I "allegedly" had numerous duplicate accounts. I had one duplicate account that I called them about in mid-June and had consolidated with another account.

The error is that I have four businesses with four domains and I had my employees enroll in GP, make purchases that they wanted, and then give me their points in addition to spending several thousands of dollars through GP myself.

I informed the person about this and that it specifically states on the website to get your friends and family to sign up and it states that friends can give points to each other. I had done nothing wrong! Further, if my account was closed in late July, how was I able to log-in and continue to make purchases and earn points?? I asked why I was not informed of the closing of my account and he did not have an answer.

He informed me that we would pass the situtation up the ladder and that I would get a call "next week". I got an e-mail from cust serv stating that my order was reinstated and all sign-up bonuses were to be deducted from my account before processing.

I felt that was fair. I felt that my 49 AA certs would go down in quantity but I was done with GP anyways so I didn't care.

3 days ago, FedEx drops off a package from GP - enclosed are 49 AA certs. Go figure!

Erik

[This message has been edited by lasertag (edited 09-16-2000).]

Just to keep everyone updated - I just received the following "reply" from greenpoints - does anyone else get the impression that the rep doesn't know and can't be bothered finding out?

And as usual the "answer" does not answer the whole question....

I haven't called yet as I am in Australia for the next 2 weeks. Hopefully the Certs will be waiting for me when I get back to the States.

[reply from customer service quoted below]

From: Customer Service <[email protected]>
To: 'Andrew'
Subject: RE: Order Query
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 18:51:34 -0400

Dear Andrew,

Please accept our apology for the delay of your order. The American Airlines certificates were on backorder and just recently arrived. The mail order
department is in the process of mailing out past requests therefore, your orders will be arriving soon.

Thank you, Sonya
Customer Care Center

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew
Sent: Friday, September 15, 2000 2:16 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Order Query

>Hi,
>
>I just received order: 1001XXXXX [EXACT >NUMBER QUOTED](1xS5021 Certificate >- ordered 8/7/00) but have not received >order:1001YYYYY [AGAIN EXACT >NUMBER QUOTAED - 6000 NUMBERS >LOWER THAN THE FIRST] (17xS5021 >certificate - ordered 8/3/00).
>
>Both orders have status "In progress" & >"Backordered" on them (even though
>one has been delivered and was >postmarked 9/9/00 - 5 days ago) so the
>status doesn't give me much to go on.
>
>Could you please advise as to the >delivery of the order (1001YYYYY).
>
>Yours,
>
>Andrew

[This message has been edited by ANDREWCX (edited 09-16-2000).]

As I mentioned previously above, I have had a similar problem with AS certs "on backorder." After several e-mails to GP, I received the identical e-mail in response. However, that was 2+ weeks ago and I still have not received the certs.

I picked up my AA certs. at the post office this morning. No complaints here.

I have to say;
So far I have redeemed greenpoints for a total of about 17,000 Delta miles. Absolute flawless posting of points as well as delivery of the mileage vouchers.....sorry to hear about other's problems...

I too have had good luck with greenpoints, I have had my AA certs delayed severly though, and I agree their order status system doesn't seem to be of much use. I see that 11 AA certs I ordered after their announcement to discontinue them is now showing completed, I hope I get them in the mail soon! I suspect the problems with timely delivery of the AA certs have more to do with AA's fulfilment of GP's needs, I have never had a problem getting DL certs. I am a little concerned about the AS certs thoough, just ordered 4 to trade with another FTer, hope they are not delayed too bad! My missing points (4x out of 25 transactions) have always been posted within a day of my e-mailing them and attaching the order confirmation. I believe though they do require you to wait 3 weeks before they will post missing miles, just to be sure they will not show up. I suspect this has something to do with the company they use to pass them the order info. I know purchases I made toward the end of July took 3-4 weeks to post. Overall GP is my preferred miles earning site.

I have received all my backordered AA certificates as well as my DL certificates. I know I have said this before, it is strange how different people have different experiences with the same company. I have been totally screwed by MyPoints, yet some people rave about their excellent customer service. Go figure. I can honestly say the only thing Greenpoints did that ticked me off was when they raised the points required for the certificates, but they quickly backed down on that. However, for that reason, I do NOT "bank" any points there. Once I hit 2500, I cash in. Maybe (and just a maybe) the sheer number of certificates you order raises a "flag" in their system and requires "manual" handling. For example, some e-commerce sites have a "hold department" for orders over $X.XX to prevent fraud. And the "hold department" manually processes those orders. Just a thought, maybe GP is doing the same to thwart any fraud. And I am NOT saying that anyone here is doing that, just that the number of certificates might be raising the flag at GP.

Keithnj973: I absolutely agree that their system has to have a "flag" recognition of sorts.

My order for 5 AA Certs went without a hitch; my order for 49 was a nightmare. No question in my mind, nor do I think that it is a bad thing.

GP has the right to set standards to ensure their overall viability and profitability. My issue is their lack of consistency with that standard.

Erik

My only experience with them has been ok --- 3 delta certs arrived within a week.

Unfortunately, Greenpoints isn't offering many high-point promotions or surveys lately, but we can hope for a busy pre-holiday season, I guess.

Just recieved my last 11 aforementioned AA certs today via certified mail return reciept requested, seems they are taking no chances with these orders. I wonder what the breaking point might be for a "large" order that gets stalled. My order for 5 certs came 10 days before my 11 cert order, despite being ordered 3 days after. The funny thing is that the order confirmation letters enclosed with the certs were both dated 9/6. Think this is just the USPS or do they get it all ready and then hang onto it for a bit?