Sorry, bit of a rant following … Have been a Flybuys member - and Coles shopper - for years, but if it weren’t for the VA SC earn through the program, I'd cut up both cards and dump the scheme altogether.
I’ve been trying to find out for over 18 months why I don’t receive any Coles-related FB offers. I (very) occasionally get bonus points offers for Target, Kmart and Coles Express and have been receiving my FB statement via email for several years. I also constantly receive offers for just about every other FB "partner", including Medibank, Adidas, Coles Insurance etc, not to mention FB Travel and FB E-store, so there’s obviously no problem with their system recognising my account and email address and sending those offers.
However for the past 3-4 years, I’ve received practically NOTHING in the way of Coles offers. No paper vouchers/coupons for at least 4 years, the last bonus points “docket deal” was probably about 2 years ago, and have NEVER received a “spend this much each week to receive this many bonus points” offer, or double/triple bonus points offers either. I think there’s been one “swipe your card and get this product free" offer (banana bread I think) which would have been 2-3 years ago. As far as I can recall, there's been two “buy this product for 100/200 bonus points” offers in the same period.
I’ve tried the so-called “tricks” of swiping/not swiping the card on small/big occasional/all shops (for quite some period each time), including the card not being used for weeks at a time when we’ve been away OS, as well as on several occasions de-selecting my communication preferences, then re-selecting them a few days later, and anything else that has been suggested on various threads I've read. Contacting FB via email and phone on numerous occasions has been a waste of time, I just get brushed off with the standard “because of the number of Flybuys members, not all members receive all offers”. Yes, I KNOW that, I’ve been told that over and over and OVER again, but why can’t (or won’t) anyone tell me why I don’t receive ANY Coles offers at all?
Another AFFer (Rainbowgirl, I think it might have been) suggested closing the account and opening another one, although I don’t know whether that comes with any issues of it’s own ( i.e. trying to open an account with identical details to one that has just been closed). Anyway, before trying that, as a last ditch effort I spent quite some time writing a detailed and polite letter to Flybuys - yes, that's right, by snail mail! - asking if someone could look into these issues with my account. After all, it could be something similar to the problem that occurred with my Velocity account - suddenly stopped receiving any emails at all for about 9 months, contacted Velocity who escalated to IT and I suddenly started receiving emails again. Not sure what they did, whether they “re-set” something on the account but it worked.
I looked back at the copy of the letter today, and realised it was posted on 12th July … a month ago now and and not even the courtesy of a reply from FB, which is extremely poor customer service on their part - or a total LACK of customer service, I guess I should say!
It’s enormously frustrating to see threads on this and other forums listing the countless offers that other FB members receive on a regular basis, and the amount of points that result from those offers. Very little of our shopping $ is going through Coles these days anyway, as neither of us need SCs for at least several more months, and I’m pretty peeved with the whole experience, so may have to look at whether it's even worth “starting over” with a new account.
Ok, rant over (for the moment at least LOL).
I’ve been trying to find out for over 18 months why I don’t receive any Coles-related FB offers. I (very) occasionally get bonus points offers for Target, Kmart and Coles Express and have been receiving my FB statement via email for several years. I also constantly receive offers for just about every other FB "partner", including Medibank, Adidas, Coles Insurance etc, not to mention FB Travel and FB E-store, so there’s obviously no problem with their system recognising my account and email address and sending those offers.
However for the past 3-4 years, I’ve received practically NOTHING in the way of Coles offers. No paper vouchers/coupons for at least 4 years, the last bonus points “docket deal” was probably about 2 years ago, and have NEVER received a “spend this much each week to receive this many bonus points” offer, or double/triple bonus points offers either. I think there’s been one “swipe your card and get this product free" offer (banana bread I think) which would have been 2-3 years ago. As far as I can recall, there's been two “buy this product for 100/200 bonus points” offers in the same period.
I’ve tried the so-called “tricks” of swiping/not swiping the card on small/big occasional/all shops (for quite some period each time), including the card not being used for weeks at a time when we’ve been away OS, as well as on several occasions de-selecting my communication preferences, then re-selecting them a few days later, and anything else that has been suggested on various threads I've read. Contacting FB via email and phone on numerous occasions has been a waste of time, I just get brushed off with the standard “because of the number of Flybuys members, not all members receive all offers”. Yes, I KNOW that, I’ve been told that over and over and OVER again, but why can’t (or won’t) anyone tell me why I don’t receive ANY Coles offers at all?
Another AFFer (Rainbowgirl, I think it might have been) suggested closing the account and opening another one, although I don’t know whether that comes with any issues of it’s own ( i.e. trying to open an account with identical details to one that has just been closed). Anyway, before trying that, as a last ditch effort I spent quite some time writing a detailed and polite letter to Flybuys - yes, that's right, by snail mail! - asking if someone could look into these issues with my account. After all, it could be something similar to the problem that occurred with my Velocity account - suddenly stopped receiving any emails at all for about 9 months, contacted Velocity who escalated to IT and I suddenly started receiving emails again. Not sure what they did, whether they “re-set” something on the account but it worked.
I looked back at the copy of the letter today, and realised it was posted on 12th July … a month ago now and and not even the courtesy of a reply from FB, which is extremely poor customer service on their part - or a total LACK of customer service, I guess I should say!
It’s enormously frustrating to see threads on this and other forums listing the countless offers that other FB members receive on a regular basis, and the amount of points that result from those offers. Very little of our shopping $ is going through Coles these days anyway, as neither of us need SCs for at least several more months, and I’m pretty peeved with the whole experience, so may have to look at whether it's even worth “starting over” with a new account.
Ok, rant over (for the moment at least LOL).
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