Kellogg’s announced a new rewards program today called Kellogg’s Family Rewards. Is it a scam or is it a good program? My review is below:
Who can participate: US residents age 18 or older
How to earn points: Find codes inside specially-marked packages. You can enter up to 20 codes per day.
Rewards include: Contest entries, $1.50 off coupons (the cheapest non-contest redemption, at 1,000 points each), movie cash, gift cards, and merchandise including grocery totes, kids’ books, branded swag, and more. Plus, each time you enter a rewards code, you’ll be entered to win a $200 gift card (one awarded daily).
Notes:
1. As of 12/06/12, the following codes are available for free points:
COSTOFCEREALPOLL (10 free points)
KFRFIBERPLUSPOLL (10 free points)
HOWITWORKS20PNTS (20 free points)
KELLOGGSMEDAL20P (20 free points)
TAKECAREOFYOU20P (20 free points)
KFRN-OWON-FACE-BOOK (20 free points)
LVNGSOCIAL25PNTS (25 free points)
HALLOWEENPARTY25 (25 free points)
JOINKELLOGG2SAVE (50 free points)
ERES-UNGA-NADO-RHOY (50 free points)
FOOD-NETM-AG50-PNTS (50 free points)
redbookKFR50pnts (50 free points)
goodhousemag50pt (50 free points)
KFRFREEGROCERIES (50 free points)
MYFAVCHARACTER50 (50 free points)
2. Note: not all Kellogg’s products have rewards codes. In general, larger cereal boxes have 100 point codes, and smaller boxes are worth 80 points. The Kellogg’s Family Rewards site doesn’t list all of the points values yet.
3. The program’s terms and conditions state that some products may offer bonus points, and that they may discount cashouts on redemptions on occasion. They say the rewards WILL change periodically and without notice; they’re up while supplies last.
4. Accounts will be monitored for inactivity starting on 1/1/13. From that date forward, accounts inactive for more than 90 days may be zeroed out.
My Take:
So far, I am very unimpressed with this program. Suppose you are able to stock up on large boxes of cereal for $2 a box (you’d have to find them on sale and use a Kellogg’s coupon). If each one had a 100 point code, you’d have to spend $20 (10 boxes @ $2 each) for a 1,000 point coupon for $1.50 off a future purchase. There are coupons out all the time for $.50 off, so this isn’t some kind of outstanding reward we’re talking about here.
Okay, what about free gift cards. We all love those, right? To get a free $5 Starbucks gift card (6,600 points) you’d have to buy 66 boxes of cereal! Yes, I know you can earn points from things other than just cereal, but as a cost benchmark, 66 boxes x $2 (if you got the cereal or whatever equivalent Kellogg’s item on sale) = $132 for a $5 gift card. That’s about a 4% reward. Not exciting.
Kellogg’s wants to get in on the rewards business, like MyCokeRewards is doing…but without a variety of more attainable real rewards, not just coupons and contest entries, consumers will join to see what the hype is about, then drop out.
Kellogg’s, you should have done your research first. This program will go nowhere. (I offer consulting services, btw. Drop me a line.)
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
I couldn’t agree more – the rewards are unobtainable, unless you consume all Kelloggs products. Just a few 24 packs of Coke earn me far better rewards with MCR. I’ve been with them since 2006, so loyalty comes with obtainable rewards. Kelloggs, you should review your program and reboot it – soon. Obviously, no consumer previews were done.
I’ll pass. We don’t consume enough cereal in 10 years to make it to the lowest level reward. I’d have to say I agree with you 1000% – this is no deal. It is a dud. Kellogg’s really should have consulted you. You ARE the big kahuna of rewards.
I agree with you all, though I am still going to enter the codes and see what I get up to (if anything lol.) I’ll take any codes you guys don’t want, too
I collect Coke codes for my dad and he has gotten SO much stuff, so Kelloggs is a little bit of a letdown.
I got a free $5 book from Scholastic for my son’s school with only two codes from Kellogg’s Family Rewards. Looks like they are going to have sweeteners above and beyond the saving you have to do for magazines. http://www.scholastic.com/kellogg/
On top of the lousy rewards, is the lousy coupons. Only two available online to print:
SAVE $1.00 On any TWO Kellogg’s FiberPlus® Cereals (11.5 oz. or Larger, Any Flavor, Mix or Match)
AND:
SAVE 50¢ On any TWO Keebler® Ready Crust® Pie Crusts (Any Flavor, Any Size, Mix or Match)
Very discouraging.
What a joke this program has become!
During the summer, I was entitled to a free music download for pop tarts, purchased several packages, but only received ONE download code. Again in December I was screwed out of a half-price sale on music downloads when they posted their music downloads were OUT OF STOCK! I received an e-mail from an official rep saying, “I apologize for the frustration, our digital downloads are now out of stock due to popularity. These item can become out of stock when the amount we purchase is gone. “
Completely disappointed in the Kellogg’s program. A full half of our codes have been rejected when we attempt to enter them, and our account is not being credited for all of those that are accepted. We’re done wasting time.
I agree with everyone else! I finally accumulated enough points to make it worthwhile to cash them in for something and almost half of them just expired. Total waste of time and energy.
I’m so glad I checked for reviews before signing up for KFR. Time doesn’t come cheap and your post along with the above reviews saved me a great deal of frustration. Thanks!
Got caught up reading the box and possible rewards savings. I had just bought 4 boxes of the family size breakfast cereal frosted mini wheats. I went to the kellogs.com/save15 site they told me to on the box and got re-directed to this site http://landing.trafficz.com/?domain=kellogs.com where the more you try to find where to enter the codes, the more advertising comes up. Complete scam… I will go back to my eggs and grits diet
Was doing a little more reading on the box and noticed that my Kellogs product is actually a “Product of Canada” and just Distributed by Kellogg Sales Co. The other thing I noticed is that there are multiple codes on the outside of the box, but the one that counts is the one on the inside which i didn’t even notice until i angled the box the right way and even then it’s hard to read the letters in the code. I don’t think this is not by design to cause you to misread it and input it incorrecly. Last “POST” from me. Didn’t POST use to make cerials ???
There was a sign up in Walmart saying buy 5 kellog’s cereals and get $5 Walmart gift card. So I did. I entered the codes but couldn’t find the gift card. I wrote to kellog’s and they told me that the Walmart promotion ended a month ago. Apparently one of the cereals was for a nail polish promotion and wouldn’t count anyway even though it had kellog’s family rewards all over the box. Who is going to stand in the grocery isle and read five boxes of kellog’s cereal to get the right promotion and that it hasn’t expired even though its on the shelf. Logging on to kfrewards I found the majority of these prizes were unobtainable by there expiration dates. We are a family of 4 and we don’t eat THAT much kellog’s products. If you do the math at how much you have to spend to get something worthwhile it’s a joke. I went to get the 5pt activity books and found out they send you a link and YOU have to print them out yourself. In my opinion this is a joke. I returned all five opened boxes to the store the next time I went. Maybe this will get their attention if everyone decided to do the same!
This promotion stinks. To collect enough points to get a decent prize you’d have to have a family of 10. Then who would decide who would get the prize! What you spend getting a prize you could probably by it. Where are you going to store all this food until you eat it. Then you have to open every box to get the extra long code so that you can enter them in before the promotion ends. So now you have a bunch of open boxes of cereal, granola bars, etc. The time and effort to do all this is not worth it I returned almost all of the products to the store opened also. Maybe you can just buy them and get the codes then return them.
I have tried to enter new points and retrieve the existing points but it keeps telling me that the page can not be activated??????????????? So frustrating, my points show to expire tomorrow. What can I do. Marilyn
I’ve given it more than a fair chance and I’m now completely disgusted with the Kellogg’s Family Rewards promotion. The codes aren’t accepted, even when they’re most definitely correct. The communication with the customer is poor, at best. The “rewards” are pathetic. I’ve used many Kellogg’s products throughout my life, but this shabby endeavor by the company has completely changed by feelings toward it. I won’t be buying any more of their products.
Yeah have fun trying to figure out the code. Is it a letter o or the number zero? Is it a U or a V? Is it a Z or a 2? What a joke and a waste of time unless you like process of eliminating or crack the code games !!!
Reviewer is right. Hubby is a Market Researcher for a major grocery chain and when he learned I was using this program he said it is NOT not written to the consumer’s advantage, but to build brand “loyalty”. You CANNOT buy enough products to reap a cash incentive worth what you purchased.
Simply put, it’ not a scam, it’s done everyday by companies, but this one is SO poorly designed (bad code and oor incentives) which are worse than ever. The program doesn’t work. Don’t join or cash in your points immediately. Kelloggs change your program FAST.
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