[merged threads] December 1st MEGA Redemption Event

[avoncallingu]

Ditto what Littlebean said - GC Promo??? Did they have GC available and give points for buying them as they usually do just with SDM GC? I'm usually away in Nov. and am hoping they have a 20X points weekend before we go. Come on, SDM moles - do you know about 20X promos??? Please and thank-you! We will get back just before this mega redemption and I need almost 30,000 points to get the highest redemption. I'm hoping to get a REALLY nice gift for my db.

[NICKER27]

Does anyone know if you can use a rain check during the mega redemption.

[PammieD]

ok so if i buy a $20 gc, I'd get 200 points, by presenting my optimum card when purchasing this gc. I can have them show me on the register if I am actually getting the points for this, right? And I SHOULD get points for it right? Then I go around get my things, and come back to pay with gc...they can't say anything negatively to me right?

Correct. Frig, I even purchase my gift card when I'm paying for my items. I'll just tell them that I need to do 2 transactions. Tell them the first one is just to buy/reload a gift card. If they start arguing about it etc, you could ask the manager, but I can't be bothered. I just take the cheapest thing from my purchase, or the cheapest thing around the cash (like gum or a kleenex pack or something) and then say 'k, I want the points for buying my kleenex' and then they're not going to argue with that. You'll get the points on the whole thing.

The only thing you CAN'T do, is try to reload/purchase a SDM gift card, and then pay for the purchase with the gift card you just bought. I had a cashier insist that this would work for me (points wise) and she wasn't happy when I asked her to re-scan the whole purchase because she was wrong. You need to load/use the purchase in 2 different transactions.

The GC Promo people keep referring to is a promotion SDM's run the past 2 years (last year was the first one I participated in). Last year, for every $150 in gift cards you purchased from the store, they would give you 8000 BP. Worked on any of the GC's I believe. It was capped at 1 bonus per transaction, but not per account. So, you could buy any combo of GC's to equal $150, and get 8000 BP. Do another transaction of $150 worth of cards, get another 8000 points. But, if you did $300 in GC in one transaction, you only get an 8000 bonus. Make sense? If you purchased SDM GC's during this promo, you'd get the standard 1500 points for spending $150 on SDM cards, plus the 8000 BP for the promo (so a total of 9500 pts). The whole thing makes you dole out a lot of cash up front, but a lot of people purchased gift cards for gas and coffee (Timmies or Starbucks) for the upcoming months/year, meals, SDM, gifts etc.

I did find though that it was handy to take in a flyer with me during the promo because a lot of the cashiers (most) didn't know about this promo so they didn't want to scan my Optimum card. It was WAY easier to just show them the flyer (at which point they'd usually get excited and say 'wow, that's awesome!' haha)

[littlebean]

^ wow!! and thank you, this all made sense to me!
So the gc promo, was it just on mega redemption day as well? or for a couple days? Could a person do 10 seperate transactions if they wanted at once to get all those points?

[thien_nga]

^ wow!! and thank you, this all made sense to me!
So the gc promo, was it just on mega redemption day as well? or for a couple days? Could a person do 10 seperate transactions if they wanted at once to get all those points?

Last year I did 33 transactions, got all the points!!! It was 2 weeks promo though!

[PammieD]

Last year I did 33 transactions, got all the points!!! It was 2 weeks promo though!

Littlebean, it also happened BEFORE the mega redemption...I think someone else checked the expired threads and said it was for 2 weeks in November?

[littlebean]

Last year I did 33 transactions, got all the points!!! It was 2 weeks promo though!

Littlebean, it also happened BEFORE the mega redemption...I think someone else checked the expired threads and said it was for 2 weeks in November?

SWEET!!!! I am super pumped right now! They better have gas cards LOL. I will just get gas for my family, they will pay me cash, and I will get the points and buy them something sweet for free later on (none of them have shoppers optimum cards, those crazy fools)! I'm sure some of us get points on our Visa too, (we can buy the gcs with credit card right??) so for me if I spend $3000, I get free $25 in more gas, or starbucks or whereever I choose (not that I will spend that much, but hey who knows, I have yet to do the math on how much I'd be getting back in points...anyone? lol)
This is all sounding great!!!
When doing 33 transactions, did you do it all in one shot??? Did they give you a hard time?

I am getting ahead of myself...do we even know if this gc thing is for sure happening? lol

[PammieD]

SWEET!!!! I am super pumped right now! They better have gas cards LOL. I will just get gas for my family, they will pay me cash, and I will get the points and buy them something sweet for free later on (none of them have shoppers optimum cards, those crazy fools)! I'm sure some of us get points on our Visa too, (we can buy the gcs with credit card right??) so for me if I spend $3000, I get free $25 in more gas, or starbucks or whereever I choose (not that I will spend that much, but hey who knows, I have yet to do the math on how much I'd be getting back in points...anyone? lol)
This is all sounding great!!!
When doing 33 transactions, did you do it all in one shot??? Did they give you a hard time?

I am getting ahead of myself...do we even know if this gc thing is for sure happening? lol

$3000/$150 = 20 transactions
20 x 8000 = 160 000 points (if none of the cards are SDM cards)

Personally, I wouldn't do them all in one shot. I'd spread that many over the full promo period. I don't know if your SDM would be the most friendly to you or make up some BS rule about limits etc. Each card also has to be manually activated which usually takes them some time. I'd get impatient, and be worried abut something getting f'd up. Plus, it would end up causing a huge line where I live (wrath of cashier, plus wrath of customer = frustrated Pammie! Lol)

[thien_nga]

SWEET!!!! I am super pumped right now! They better have gas cards LOL. I will just get gas for my family, they will pay me cash, and I will get the points and buy them something sweet for free later on (none of them have shoppers optimum cards, those crazy fools)! I'm sure some of us get points on our Visa too, (we can buy the gcs with credit card right??) so for me if I spend $3000, I get free $25 in more gas, or starbucks or whereever I choose (not that I will spend that much, but hey who knows, I have yet to do the math on how much I'd be getting back in points...anyone? lol)
This is all sounding great!!!
When doing 33 transactions, did you do it all in one shot??? Did they give you a hard time?

I am getting ahead of myself...do we even know if this gc thing is for sure happening? lol

I did 33 transactions in 3 different days, didn't want to hold the line you know? :D The points was added later after 2 weeks I believe so!!! Points wasn't there right away!!!

All I bought was SDM Gift Cards, not anything else, cause if you buy SDM Gift Cards you get the base points as well!!!

The funny thing was TD stopped me after about 10 transactions, was worried for me get credit card stolen!! I had to call them, everything was well after!!! And I get Td points when using CC too, so it was another 100$ off in TD points for my flight last year!!

[AshleyRobertson]

This particular store is a "low volume" store so therefore they start every promo early to try and get more business. There are also stores in Toronto that start early as well because of being in office buildings that are closed on the weekends.

How do you find out when the store starts the promo and if some start early?

[Decaf]

SWEET!!!! I am super pumped right now! They better have gas cards LOL. I will just get gas for my family, they will pay me cash, and I will get the points and buy them something sweet for free later on (none of them have shoppers optimum cards, those crazy fools)! I'm sure some of us get points on our Visa too, (we can buy the gcs with credit card right??) so for me if I spend $3000, I get free $25 in more gas, or starbucks or whereever I choose (not that I will spend that much, but hey who knows, I have yet to do the math on how much I'd be getting back in points...anyone? lol)
This is all sounding great!!!
When doing 33 transactions, did you do it all in one shot??? Did they give you a hard time?

I am getting ahead of myself...do we even know if this gc thing is for sure happening? lol

If you don't already have a SDM m/c, you may want to consider apply for one. You'll get bonus 15000 points for getting the card. I did mine 2 years ago around December and got 24000 points (not sure if they will offer this again).

About last year's GC purchase offer, you earn 1500 base points and 8000 bonus for each $150. If you spend total of $1500 you will earn (9500x10) 95000 points, that is $250 worth on Mega redemption date. I don't know where else you actually get $250 worth in merchandise back for just buying GCs. Last year I bought mainly SDM and Esso cards.

[2shopmom]

can't wait for the details!

[coley3]

I did not participate last year as we didn't have any extra money. But this year I would like to try for 1 or 2 of the GC purchases. I'll put them on my CC as I didn't know we could do that last year. Thanks everyone for all the info. It has sure helped educate me I am short 30,000 myself for 2 full redemptions.

[littlebean]

I thought of the bank being like, wtf??!! seeing so many of the same transactions lol

so you only get an additional 1500 pts if you are buying SDM gcs right?

[PammieD]

I thought of the bank being like, wtf??!! seeing so many of the same transactions lol

so you only get an additional 1500 pts if you are buying SDM gcs right?

Yes. If you walk in on any given day (today for example), you would get 1500 base points on $150 SDM cards. Those are the points referred to. 10 points per $.

Im sure though that as soon as this promo is announced (seat/details etc) there will be a thread with all of the fine print discussions because we're currently all speculating based on what has been the deal for precious years - it could work very differently this year...depending on the details (limits, points, dates etc)