Lost SDM points from my Optimum Card....Upset

[Sharpie]

Hello everyone!
As some of you know I've been away for over 2 years from SC. I'm just getting back onto Smartcanucks as well as Shoppers Drug Mart shopping and points...But tonight I found out that my balance on my SDM optimum card is 0! I had around 90,000 left on the card thinking to redeem while Im here in Febuary or March but it looks like it wont be happening. I called SDM tonight to ask what happened and they told me that because I wasn't using the card for 2 years I lost the points. They told me that that is stated in the rules when I signed up for the card. That is possible of course and I didn't read that part for sure. The lady on the phone said she will put in a request to SDM to give me my points back but she's not sure if that will happen. So in the end I just wanted to write this to all of you not too wait like I did and see your points get taken away for not using the card.....
I hope I wrote this in the right section...
Thanks!!

UPDATE!
Hi everyone!! I went to buy some milk at Shoppers took the receipt and I checked it in the car. And guess what?!?!?! All my points were there! They gave me all of my points back!! I'm very happy with the outcome!
Thank you all for reading my thread!!

[Decaf]

I hope SDM would give you back the points.

[luckbealady]

That sucks - although I'm not surprised.
I had around 80,000 HBC points and lost them all because I hadn't used my card in a year. They had no problem sending me emails with my balance every month, but never a warning that my points would disappear because of inactivity. Funny thing, I never bothered to shop at an HBC store again after that!

[innaor]

OMG, that's frustrating! I hope they will give you the pts back!

[Durham Couponer]

That sucks - although I'm not surprised.
I had around 80,000 HBC points and lost them all because I hadn't used my card in a year. They had no problem sending me emails with my balance every month, but never a warning that my points would disappear because of inactivity. Funny thing, I never bothered to shop at an HBC store again after that!

Sounds like Sears points.

[torontogal12]

ugh and when you get GCs with your Sears points, the GCs have expiry dates unlike every other GC in the country.

Sounds like Sears points.

Sorry that happened to you OP. Happened to me too, but I didn't have a lot of points on it at the time (mostly rinky dinky points from pop and snacks when I was away at university)

[katie333]

I seem to recall another SC'er who also lost her points for the same reason. I bet all loyalty programs have this caveat and they don't make it very well known (with that said, I seem to recall some marketing for a loyalty program which indicated 'and points never expire!'). Even then expiry and removal are technically two different things. Guess this is a good reminder for the rest of us, what a bummer.

[anisa]

Boo on expiring points!

I don't think they will give them back, unfortunately.

[Sharpie]

I will wait til Tuesday and I'll call again to see what they will tell me ...

[CrazyQT]

Unfortunately I don't think they will reissue the points since the inactive period is 12 months. I hope they do though. That's a lot of points.

[vaughngal]

aww sharpie that's a lot of points. before getting into sdm points, I had about 10,000 pts and I didn't bother using my card for 12months. when I finally decided to join the collecting pts club, I realise the 10,000 pts I had was gone. I emailed them n was told due to inactivity for 12mnths, all pts gone lol. they offer me 4,820 pts back below was their reply


Hello Pat


Thank you for writing to us. As per the Terms and Conditions of the Optimum program: "Should any Shoppers Optimum Member not acquire Shoppers Optimum Points for 12 consecutive calendar months, the membership will be deemed to be inactive and all accumulated Shoppers Optimum Points will be forfeited. At that time the Shoppers Optimum Card Points balance may be reduced to zero at Shoppers Drug Mart's sole discretion."

We have confirmed that your Optimum card was not used for over a year and the balance was removed on January 6, 2011. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

As a goodwill gesture, we have added the 4,820 points back to your card. Please keep the Terms and Conditions in mind when using the card in the future.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Customer Service Call Centre at 1-800-SHOPPERs should you have any further questions or comments or require immediate assistance.

Regards,
Amber
Shoppers Drug Mart/Pharmaprix Customer Service

[Decaf]

Not bad, they gave you almost half the points back.

[Lavender Lady]

Wow, loyalty programs are not what they are cracked up to be! You can't save them for a rainy day! Boo! Spend them while you have them.
Thanks for sharing.

[redhdlois]

^ ^ ^ I guess "loyalty" means we have to be loyal to them

[engo]

Hope they give you the points back.

I'll keep in mind to keep using the 3 cards we have.

Good luck.