shadow1woman

We, hubby and I, are just a few short still. Most have posted, we just lack a few. I just didn't think there was any point in trying to contact them again. The ones we lack are all Oct 31 purchases. I had a hard time because we live over an hour away from the nearest Sam's and no dining places are within two hours of where I live. Because of those problems I was just happy we got what we got. Thanks to all who contributed to this thread!

jasonvr

So do you mean you made 449k in this promo, or that you now have 449k RDM that you are going to use on the tickets, only 180k of which came from this promo?

UrbaneGent

My Fellow FTers,

Would someone be so kind as to summarize what happened? It's so difficult to follow the pages and pages (and pages) of posts. Just help me out here....

1) UA sends targeted email saying for every 2/3/4 transactions made at this list of retailers you will get 500 miles. Retail minimum is $10 said the T&C
2) But restaurant is not retail so people began charging $1 x 4 transactions = 500?
3) OR people started charging gift cards in $10 increments and then getting cash (or consolidating them into bigger GC)?
3) United caught on, changed T&C but honoured the $1 or GC charges?

That easy, just curious what happened. For those that got mega miles congrats. 1K GS MMiler (downgraded as of today) - didn't get a thing in e-mail

UG

jasonvr

Basically, yes - with lots of gotchas along the way. Major ones that I can think of:
1) Major confusion about whether dining was a $10 minimum with conflicting answers from UA
2) Change of terms 2-3 times several weeks into the promo (not unlimited, unlimited again, unlimited - but only thru 9/9)
3) Not everyone who was eligible even got an email (I didn't, but my wife did). Some people also received post cards
4) Some people who were eligible and registered were later told by UA that they weren't eligible despite having the invitation email or post card in hand (I believe all those got rectified though)
5) Cartera royally messing up their one and only responsibility - post miles for purchases made thru the MP Shopping site (including a complete revamp of the website in the middle of the drama). It was bad enough that one of our members, Marathon Man, has filed a small claims lawsuit against Cartera in Massachusetts
6) Confirmation emails that went out were totally hosed. Not only did they take forever to arrive (as in days to weeks, which left no clear evidence of when you registered), but the text was wrong telling people they were going to earn "n,ull bonus award miles for every 0 transactions"

As far as your #3, I wouldn't so much say they caught on as "they realized their mistake". No one that I know of (and I obviously don't know everyone) did anything wrong or that violated the terms of the promotion. We just figured out how to maximize it and work the angles. UA was dumb to not realize that a promotion that advertised in big letters, right at the top "Unlimited miles" could actually mean that people would try to get unlimited miles (or at least as much as their credit cards would let them).

Marathon Man

checked my new United acct.

So far, no miles in account at all. Nothing CO nothing UA. It does say it could take 24hrs to update.

A flight saved in CO reservations is there, but award flights saved for summer travel in UA are not yet.

I guess I will wait like the rest of us to see how the merge goes.

I do hate that "Ask Alex for help" thing that they carried over from the CO site. It just gets me. Guess I'll have to live with that one for the while.

You deserve the credit! So glad you got UA to clarify that too.

MM

Marathon Man

Very good summation, mate!!

I would add that Cartera was also dumb...

This is a company that is supposedly servicing some of the world's biggest airlines and retailers, and yet it cannot handle its own accounting systems!

In one instance I figured out why... They cannot see how things work:
I was told in a phone conversation by the CS head there that he thought people like me who spent so much $$ through the airline mall they service (MileagePlus Shopping) by buying lots of items including multitudes of gift cards was not 'normal' shopping or spending.

What is normal spending? Is it normal to buy one $7,000 TV online or 700 $10 gift cards to obtain the same? That is, if the buying of the 700 gift cards does in fact end up making the TV cost LESS? I mean, wouldn't it be more 'normal' to try to SAVE money in life rather than not if the opportunity was presented to you and you were in a place to be able to cease upon it like we miles people happen to be?

Cartera's huge fault was their failure to have insight and the ability to think outside any box. I actually applied for a job there once--around the time they had that big flop with the AA/VZN thing. I was told there was no need for me... I was offering to help them figure out how to fix/avoid such issues and that I knew the market that might participate in such things. Had they hired me, maybe all UA miles would have posted with ease. (Am I the only or the best person for this/for them? No, not at all. But my obvious involvement in this stuff plus my proximity to the company and need for work at the time all fit well). The AA thing came before this UA MoM promotion. Many of us had not realized Cartera's involvement in BOTH malls at the time and certainly didn't think they could/would make the same types of mistakes twice! We were wrong.

As for that CS head guy at Cartera.... What he was telling me about my spending methods was upsetting:
I was led to think that what he was telling me was that I was somehow scamming, that their 'out' or excuse for having posting problems was because people like me somehow broke their processing systems or gamed them or something, and that I was unable or unwilling to follow protocol (which I did not know of nor see evidence of working properly once I was aware of it).

When I posted this man's name/work contact info on here (to show others how to get help) Cartera used THAT as an excuse to essentially slow down the posting process. Emails between me (and others) and Cartera CS personnel that supposedly were handling things would go flat, and often result in long waits that showed that this company simply cannot handle nor deliver what it promises.

In my mind, all we did was:

1) Jump on a promotion that came to us legitimately (I got the post card for 3 transactions=1k) (People go for deals and rush to stores at 4am on Black Friday. This is the same thing. That's our culture) And if a store offers X, that's the store's decision.

2) Consider what in our own worlds we can and would buy (I was going to fix my home basement up and also continue to do a lot of shopping at stores I already go to anyway) (Buying $thousands in Home Depot gift cards works FOR me. My CC's allowed it, my wife allowed it, my budget allowed it and I knew I would use them at stores that would be glad to now have my bitness)

3) Discover that buying many many gift cards in small denominations that could later be combined by the stores on their own and used like any large gift card (consider for example that redoing a basement can in fact cost anywhere from $3-$10,000 over time). I still carry my large but now diminishing Home Depot GC with me as I am always in that store anyway for home improvement on two properties, and my decision to buy GCs the way I did was wise:

• An Economics Professor would have applauded any effort to buy a GC that earns miles just for buying it, on a CC that earns other miles for the purchase, and then, when added to 2 other GCs, equals 3 transactions or 1,000 more miles on top of that!
  
• A Philosophy Professor would have enjoyed the logic of this sort of thing and once reading the terms of any version of the UA promotion, could not argue any ethical violations
  
• A Marketing Professor would have used this as an example of promotions and allowed a student who participated to receive credit for writing an essay on it, and then probably discussed how such a promo could fail but would probably say something like, "Ok I gotta go early today class, I need to jump on this now myself before it falls apart! Class dismissed!"
  
• A Business Professor would have shown WHY the airlines are always bankrupt... but whose fault is that?

And so on.

I cite my own examples above but I know many others here had very similar transactions, motives, mind sets, and horrid Cartera CS and UA CS experiences. For many, self included, this goes on and on and on. And I had to take the mall 'professionals' to court because they failed to follow protocol and I need to hammer nails in the basement, not try to push and pull all day every day for these long overdue miles.

Good service = good business. If you build it they will come.

MM

jasonvr

Discovered a benefit of the new site. You can see your entire 2011 history! No stupid 500 transaction limits. I can finally see what posted for 9/9 in its entirety!!!! In the end, 563 qualifying transactions posted for my shopping on 9/9. The right number of overall transaction is correct as well (for the entire promo period). It is slightly higher than what I was originally expecting (Cartera goofs), but not significantly higher, and matches what Cartera eventually sent me. Now feel better that when I have to call UA on Thursday (the 12 week mark), the right information will actually be there.

Marathon Man

yup you can in fact see em all. Now I gotsta recount and recount again.

I am still missing my swath of transactions that never moved over from Cartera/

starflyer

What are we supposed to do about old transactions that still haven't posted to our MileagePlus Shopping account?

Has Cartera reached out to anyone to request their new MileagePlus account # for follow up on missing transactions? I'm still waiting for resolution on several multi-month old transactions, but my emails seem to go into a black hole and never receive a response.

I sure hope Cartera is organized enough to follow up with United to get the missing miles posted into the correct new MileagePlus account #, and then to get the associated Months of Miles bonuses posted as well.

This is getting extremely frustrating.

Marathon Man

Your plight is exactly my lawsuit against Cartera.

• I suggest you keep trying and document every attempt.
• Then if you would like, send me copies and allow me to share your pains with the court when I present mine.
• Then if you'd like, come to BOS and join me in court. While I made my claim, your being there cannot hurt and may even help you. Example: "And, your honor, here in the court room is yet another MileagePlus member going through the exact same thing..."
• In my opinion Cartera thinks it has done everything right and figures that if someone is missing miles at this point, it's that person's fault/problem, not theirs. I intend to allow the courts to make them pay for that confounded stance. I hope my plan works and I think it should.

As for BOS and DOs, I will put together something soon to share with anyone who may happen to come hear Cartera's side of things on April 24.

MM

johndoe123

I still can't get Catera to post my miles . They just ignore my e-mails.

Marathon Man

Save em all and see above post.

Marathon Man

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/commu...l#post18148004

sannmann

FWIW, I purchased shoes through the MileagePlus Shopping website back in mid-September. After nearly six months of Cartera not crediting the miles nor responding to my e-mails, I decided to file a complaint with the BBB yesterday evening. This morning, Cartera responded that they had investigated the matter, that I was eligible for miles on the purchase, and that they will credit the miles to my account within the next two weeks.

sargenet

I still have 3 orders not posted. I have been personally dealing with Tom at Cartera who has assured me he would clear up these orders.

I have spoken to him on the phone and we have exchanged emails. And yet I still have the same 3 orders outstanding that we spoke about a month ago! So much for fixing things in a timely manner. Now he tells me that they are going to give me a courtesy credit for an $11 order (Sears) from August since it had been over 7 months. He also said they would give me one for a Groupon order too. And lastly there is one more Home Depot order I am waiting on. He promised me weeks ago they would check with United on this...because Cartera states they sent it...but I know it has not posted. It is now so much easier to see history on the new MP site and it is not there.

And what is this with a "courtesy credit"? Sounds like they have to verify the order with the merchant and are having issues with Sears getting back to them. Not that I am surprised. Over the last 2 years I have had to pull teeth to get credit from Sears orders at both the AA and United Malls. Not all orders...but every other order seems to get lost.

I honestly would tell anyone still waiting to have emails answered to call Cartera. Ask for someone to help you over the phone. Especially if your orders go back to August-October and you have sent repeated emails with no response.