Update, 2/04: I think I called this one correctly in light of Memolink’s latest email reducing benefits to Memogold members. Didn’t get that email? Read it here: http://www.comparerewards.com/archives/000358.html#000358
Memolink unveiled its new program, Memogold, to a select group of its members this week. To be eligible for the program, you must be someone they’ve previously stiffed, uh, I mean been unable to fulfill their redemption request. Which is darned near everybody who’s ever tried to redeem with them, I think. I wouldn’t know (sniff), seeing how I’ve only been able to accumulate 1,200 points with them over the course of my 2.5 year membership.
The idea is, if you’ve been long overdue for a redemption, they give you membership in this elite club where you earn a little extra for your activities. (I COULD say something like, um, “110% of nothing is still nothing,” but that would be cynical, wouldn’t it?
And to keep getting these wonderful exclusive benefits, you must earn 10,000 points in a 6 month period. Hey, you WERE planning to spend $5,000 at Buy.com within the next 6 months, weren’tcha?
Let’s just come out and call this what it is…Memogold is “hush money” it’s paying to placate the members they’ve been screwing over the course of months and months. Instead of just sending you what you’re owed, they’re going to give you the opportunity to earn more points and give you the illusion of having some kind of status…keeping you quiet while they rope more clueless newbies into the program.
Just my opinion.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Becky,
I understand what you’re saying, but in fairness, Memolink has done much better than a lot of other programs. I’ve been in it for about the same amount of time as you and have accumulated over 12,000 points without ever having bought anything through them. All the points are from clicking on their site and clicking on emails. It did take just short of forever to actually get anything from them, but they did finally send me the gift certificates I had redeemed for. This sure beats some of the programs I’ve been in that never paid anything to anybody as far as I know.
I have redeemed points for 4 $25 gift certificates from Memolink. I received all but 1, which they say the shipment was probably put on the wrong mail truck and they are trying to track it down. That mailing was on July 8, 2003. They said they are hoping the truck will return them back to the post office. This was said over a month later. Don’t you think the truck would have returned them before NOW? I had to keep emailing them for a long time to get the other 3 gift certificates. I have almost enough points to redeem for another one. I wonder if I will ever get it,
Memolink took forever (close to a year) to send me the $50 Target GC I earned, but I eventually did get it. But I have earned about 14,000 points over a two-year period without buying anything through the site. I think Memolink is at least trying to keep up as opposed to Blink, who completely changed their format with absolutely no warning (yes, I’m still stinging about that one … lol). I am attempting to redeem again … I’m curious to see if my “membership” in the MemoGold program will speed that up.
I have been with memolink about 3 years. I have cashed out $130 without spending money. The longest I had to wait for a prize was 6 months.
I will hang in there with it.
But, I won’t be a premier memolink member for long. NO way can I make that many points in 6 months. That is about 55 points a day. There is NOT 55 FREE points a day at memolink.
Veronica
Memolink is current with me, so I didn’t get to be a member of Memogold. I did, however, wait 13 months for one GC and 19 months for another to be delivered. I stick with them, and my most recent redemptions have been coming a little faster.
I had ordered a $50 Target GC from them September of 2001 and never recieved it! I wrote to them via email and their internal system (which is conviently down now) and finally demanded that they credit the points back to my account so I could cash out for a $30 web certificate, since I figured this is all electronic, how long could that take? hehehe, silly me……that was back on May 5th. The wierd thing is I cashed out again between this problem and the gift card was here in about 2 weeks. Not sure what is going on with them.
Yea, I have to comment on Becky’s post too simply because I have been a member of Memolink for roughly 4 (maybe 5) years, and although it sometimes takes awhile for the redemptions to come, they do arrive.
So far, I have earned 2 $10 Olive Garden Gift Certificates, 1 $10 Dominos Gift Certificate, 2 $25 & 4 $50 Media Play Gift Certificates (Just Received 2, waiting for the 4th) and 1 $50 Circuit City Gift Certificates.
That’s about 54,000 points or so, and then with my current balance, I’ve probably earned around 55,000 or 57,000 points in roughly 4-5 years. Thus 10,000 points in 6 months is quite a bit. However, I do have a tip for ya’ll that does work. Memolink offers points for signing up for the free trials, and a lot of the trials are 30-days, but you get a free gift just for doing the trial. I have done tons of these and I end up getting the points, the service for 30-days (some are quite useful actually) and the prize (usually $25 gift certificate or cheap digital camera or cheap PDA or cheap tool kit).
Anyway, I love Memolink. It is my favorite program on the net, so I had to stick up for them.
P.S. I don’t spend more than $20 a year at Memolink and I’ve earned all those points. It is all about the free trials and other free signup offers!
All I know is I ordered a $50 Home Depot in Nov. And as of July 8th (8 months later) they are saying the Post Office lost it. If they did not wait 8 months to mail it I might have gotten it. Now they are not even keeping us updated. I ened up having to write a nasty letter just to get an update. And yes I did spend money to earn that $50 and if I would have known all the trouble I would have gone throught a different site to spend my money. So far MyPoints seems to be the best if you are planning to buy something