Well, to keep the Premier Silver status each year, you have to spend a certain amount each year anyway ($2,500?)... so you'd already have to make a purchase there (in most cases). It's a moot point.

Guess I need to start looking at other stores to see if they offer any better rewards for returning customers.

What you should remember, though, is you won't necessarily lose all of your points. At the end of the year, your current balance will be cashed out to certificates automatically and only the excess is lost.

From the RZ Program Rules page:
Program Annualization
At the beginning of every calendar year, the points in your account (except Premier Silver members) will be changed into Reward Certificates down to the $5 level and any remaining points balance will be forfeited.

There is no mention of forfeiting excess points when a certificate is issued; the closest I found was when you terminate your membership, any points that can't be redeemed for a certificate are lost. Can anyone confirm or refute the original claim?

The annual rollover forfeiture does not apply to Premier Silver members, nor do they have to make a qualifying purchase every 12 months (the Silver exclusion is explicitly stated in these sections).

I'll try calling the RZ help line later today to get some more answers.

And I think they should keep charging restocking fees. If you buy a laptop or camera and don't want to choose a different one, you just want a full refund, you probably were just renting it for the weekend.

P.S.: While reward programs do indeed give you benefits back, the biggest one in my opinion is that all your receipts are linked to your account. If you come in the store and give us your phone number, we can have any purchases you've ever made pulled up in less than a minute, as long as you used your rewardzone membership. So if you purchased your laptop three years ago and got the black tie, and now it's broken, you don't have to jump through hoops to prove you bought it.

I have to print out coupons now? Well, I never!

@Gramin: I'd like to think competitive prices AND good customer service AND non-shady business practices would attract customers. But I'd be wrong.

Your Reward Zone® program is changing on October 31, 2009
• Get reward certificates faster online
• Receive benefits more safely and securely
• Be more environmentally friendly
Visit MyRZ.com for the full rules before the following changes take effect:
• Reward certificates will only be available at MyRZ.com
To help reduce the amount of paper we use, certificates will no longer be delivered via mail.
• Reward certificates will no longer be transferable
This safety measure helps prevent others from redeeming your reward certificates without your knowledge.
• Lastly, for the following two conditions, points will be cashed out, available certificates will be sent, and any remaining points under 250 will be forfeited:
- You will need to use your points in the year they are earned. Reward Zone is becoming an annual program, which means that points no longer roll over from year-to-year.
- You will need to make one purchase every 12 months to remain in the program.
We appreciate your membership, and we want to help you take full advantage of the Reward Zone program.
Please visit MyRZ.com.
Thank you from the Best Buy® Reward Zone program.

Reason # 1,298,739 why Best Buy SUCKS. When will people ever learn. I'd rather go to Circuit City STILL, and they no longer exist. ;)

And of course I've never heard a single word from them about this.

"and any remaining points under 250 will be forfeited"

So if I buy something that costs $300 (300 points) I lose 50 points when the certificate is sent? This makes it totally not worth my time to buy anything at best buy instead of anywhere else unless I absolutely need it that day and best buy is actually the best price of this.

well its not really true, they are testing having a no restocking fee return policy in some areas, its not nationwide yet

Also, I never got an email, but they called the house to inform us - which is my father's account, not mine, so *technically* I am uninformed as of yet to these changes. Kind of slipshot, but hey, that's Best Buy

What kills me, however, is the "You have to buy something once a month" requirement. This is a terrible way to try to drive business into your stores, and it eliminates any desire I had to maintain my card. Until now, it's been a free bonus.

The stores in Northern VA must be nicer than most Consumerist readers have, because I have few problems here. I periodically walk into a Best Buy to browse around during lunch. I would frequently pick up new video games, cd's (well, I used to), blank media, and little things like that. Most of it didn't cost any more than it would online. I'd flash a little card at the register, and every month or two, I'd get a little card in the mail for $5-15 off the next time I wanted to go buy a game.

It was an incentive to go to the store, to check and see if they had something prior to ordering it online, if I didn't want to wait for delivery. But I can't always buy "something" every month, and I certainly won't do it just to maintain a marketing flag. If they want to drive business, then they need to offer more than their competitors, who are increasingly internet vendors like Amazon.

This isn't it.

Nyaaaah.... couldn't be.

Personally, for me this is a dealbreaker, and I won't be using my Rewardzone card ever again if this is to be the case. So, I suppose it's had the desired effect of thinning the ranks of Rewardzone members, but I think Best Buy may be surprised by just how much this thins out the ranks of their customers.

Rewards are not something that the customer is entitled to, it is something that a company offers to generate customer loyalty. That is why when you sign up for a rewards program at just about any company, the terms and conditions state that the company has full right to change their rewards policies at any time. Best Buy has done nothing wrong by fully notify their rewardzone customers before making slight changes in the program. The email did NOT say, "we have deleted all of your points because we wanted to." So why are we complaining about receiving rewards on purchases?

"Best Buy no longer has restocking fees on anything."

Um, that's a complete lie!! From your company's website (and from the mouths of the employees of the Danvers, MA store):

Restocking fee
A restocking fee of 15% will be charged on opened notebook computers, projectors, camcorders, digital cameras, radar detectors, GPS navigation and in-car video systems unless defective or prohibited by law. A restocking fee of 25% will be charged on Special Order Products, including appliances unless defective or prohibited by law.

Apple® iPhones
We accept iPhone returns or exchanges within 30 days from the original purchase. A 10% restocking fee will be applied.

The problem with that is sometimes they might pull a fast one and say you've never set it up...or they work for a few months and then yank it. I know Worst Buy and their tactics.

@HurtsSoGood: My favorite five words at supermarkets and pharmacies: Please Use The House Card.

In early June I got another call about a certificate that was going to expire in July. When I logged in, I also noticed that the phone number had been changed back to my landline.

It's in the hands of the FCC now.

Pardon, but if reward points don't carry over from year to year are they planning on screwing over everybody who buys Xmas and other generic holiday gifts with their Reward Cards?
'Cause I know that December and late November are probably the only times I shop at Best Buy and if my rewards expire 1 week after I earned thyem that is kind of a cheap shot on Best Buy's part...

Was attempting to illustrate and suggest my recollection of how I felt that BB had nothing to offer that would entice me to return to one of their stores for 13 years, and that any form of "rewards" card, changes or no changes, is essentially meaningless when the fundamental customer service principles of the company are broken to the extent of alienating their customers on an initial experience without, of course, delving into an in-depth diatribe to the level of vigorously belaboring the point and belittling the forum's end-user implied understanding of cutting to the chase.

Clearly my self-importance established dominance over substance and my attempt at concise innuendo was a complete and utter failed tactic across the board. I think I will sit in the corner and cut myself now.

To the retail haters:
Yes, all corporations are evil, even if they locally employ your son or daughter, give them great benefits, donate to local charities and reimburse into your local economy. Wanna know why I shop at best buy? Because my shoppng there pays a college students tiution, it brings competition to the market, and because I don't walk in there expecting to be treated like royalty. Policies are there for a reason, and the fact that your 1 bad shopping experience caused you never to shop there again is not only making you look naive, but certainly makes you look conceited. I would like to thank the amazon shoppers that say screw best buy for evading paying taxes (we all know you don't record those purchases on your tax statement) and for not paying your local community back. Oh yah... A company is so evil for not bending over backwards for your wants. If you still believe in not shopping there, then good riddance, you won't find many people feeling sorry for you when you can no longer walk into a brick and mortar store to test products, be around people, and actually may find an associate you like.

My overall point though is don't set yourself up when shopping anywhere, you will be a lot happier.

"Best Buy no longer has restocking fees on anything."

The fact that I don't know that should be an indication of how long it has been since I shopped there. Best Buy stuck me for a restocking fee once and I started buying electronics elsewhere. It was a poor policy change that put me in mind of places like CompUSA.

I've got no problem with changing the delivery of RZ certificates. My issue with RZ is that the program went from something worthwhile and easy to understand (that I used to *pay* for), to a program that has become a nuisance. For example, I bought a defective headset and used a $5 RZ certificate while making the purchase. I returned it and couldn't re-use the $5 certificate on another headset... I had to wait for another one to be issued to me a month later.

I used to rack up some nice rewards and as a result, Best Buy got more of my business. These days, I get better rewards using a cashback credit card to purchase from other vendors. The Silver Premier tier may be great and I'm sure I would have qualified, but I'll never know now.

BTW, I'm not a kid/teen or a "demon customer"... I'm a gadget/electronics junkie with disposable income. I held BBY stock for a while, but I eventually sold it based on my store experiences.

@Skaperen: Best Buy has a long running habbit of punishing 'bad' customers. Google "Best Buy Angels and Devils" for more reference.

If you haven't shopped at BB since 1996, why are you bothering to comment on this?

/can you tell I'm a little miffed

one question: if RZ is annual, what happens to all the points earned right around Dec 25th? Sometimes it takes a week until points even post to my RZ. Will we forfeit all of our xmas shopping points before we can use them, or will points earned be good for a year from the purchase that earned them?

That explains why my "birthday present" from Reward Zone was triple points when I spend money at their store. "Hey! Happy birthday! Listen, I didn't get you a gift, but if you come by and buy some stuff you don't need, I'll give you some extra points that'll net you a $5 coupon, as long as you spend it this year."

I still haven't been able to get clarification on what is actually changing. This is most frustrating and irritating since I use the program frequently.

@outlulz:

Especially for the privacy freaks:

Just say you forgot/lost your card and to speed up the line the cashier will usually give you a card and an application to turn in or mail in. The card is good instantly and you never have to mail in the form.

I have several of these cards, some more than 5 years old and working fine.

@Zclyh3: Of course, you'd better watch those statements like a hawk. The second you miss a payment you can kiss your interest free plan good bye.

Yup - If u have online bill pay you can set up a recurring monthly payment to make sure that you never miss a payment.

@Radi0logy:

[www.msnbc.msn.com]

BusinessWeek article: How Wal-Mart's TV prices crushed rivals

The regular reward zone program is changing to make sure that customers remain engaged with the store. We have tens of thousands of lapsed members, i.e. people who haven't shopped with us in a long time. It costs millions of dollars in paper and postage and transportation to mail the certificates and coupons to people who never redeem them. Making the certificates available online saves trees and time, the certificates arrive faster and don't get lost in mail.
Also, the Silver Premier tier is going to expand a lot, with tons more rewards and perks, to reward the most loyal shoppers.
As an employee of the company and an environment enthusiast, anything we can do to curb the wanton use of mailers is a good step forward.

Of course, you'd better watch those statements like a hawk. The second you miss a payment you can kiss your interest free plan good bye.

I used the following steps in jan 08 and it worked but not in feb 09

Go to Giant Eagle.
Purchase $1000 in Best buy gift cards with Amazon.com Credit card.
($1000 toward CC reward program)
($4.00/gal off gas with Giant Eagle reward program)
Purchase $1000 computer at BB
($1000 toward BB Rewards)

When I went to do this more recently they asked if the gift card came from giant eagle and if so it wouldn't count towards my BB RZ.

Their return policy isn't as good as it used to be with restocking fees.

The warranty policy isn't as good (they used to give you credit for the purchase price if something broke. Now they ship it to the manufacturer if there is any manufacturers warranty left).

The prices have increased relative to competitors.

I use to pay to be a reward member, now the program is worthless.

This retailer has driven me away. I used to spend thousands of dollars with them every year on applicances, PC upgrades, music, games, etc.

@Radi0logy:

Actually, Wal-Mart is the one to worry about. In fact, they're somewhat responsible for Circuit City's downfall. Two years ago, Wal-Mart drastically slashed prices on flat screen TVs. The price cuts were so deep, Wal-Mart was barely turning a profit on those items. In order to compete, Best Buy and Circuit City had to follow the lead of Wal-Mart. Best Buy is large enough that it survived the hit in sales. However, Circuit City wasn't large enough and now they're gone.

the email required makes a lot of sense.

best buy was sending out unbelievable amounts of paper with little to no effect.

If they can force Microcenter, Fry's and HHGregg out of business, then they can start charging you to enter Best Buy, kind of like Six Flags. (I was going to add Radio Shack to that list, but no one shops there already.)

I signed up about a year and a half ago and the purchases I made in the store never made it onto my account. I have never gotten it to work since then, and they always tell me at the counter that I can just put it on my acct online.

Good Riddance

With this on top of the change to annual, I don't know why they're expecting me to give them my email address when the plan is basically worthless to me now. I'd rather just let it expire.

Have to disagree with you here. I'm 99% sure it was $125 for $5, but I may be wrong. But charging $10 for a card when you were routinely giving out $150+ on TVs made sense, and it gives people that false sense of value in the program. What is it they say, you get what you pay for? Spending $10 when they offer you $150 in rewards with your purchase right off the bat sounds great, but dicking down the rewards and giving it away for free makes it sound like every other shitty "let us get your customer info for extremely shitty discounts" program out there.

As Best Buy reduces the value of your "rewards", will they voluntarily reduce number of times they sell your demo information to corporate partners?

@HurtsSoGood:

Your left butt cheek should NEVER sit on your wallet. It's horrible for your hips. You'll cause your left leg to rotate higher into the socket. I no longer carry a wallet. Everything goes in my front pocket and my hips and back are very happy.

Right, you can get good deals at Best Buy. The point of loyalty programs is to encourage you to also buy stuff there when you're not getting a good deal.

- $5 for every $125 spent including tax
- $5 for every $150 spent including tax
- $5 for every $150 spent not including tax
- $5 for every $250 spent not including tax

So I have to spend a grand to get back $20 in store credit and pay tax. Or I could just go to Amazon.com, spending probably $700 final cost, use my Amazon rewards, and earn almost $25 in rewards right there.

Oh well. This is better than the alternatives. While we don't know why they changed the rewards program, I'm willing to bet it has something to do with the current economic crisis. I'd rather they do this than raise prices or lay-off employees.