Prizes. You like to get them, and we like giving them to you. That's why we have an entire Swag Store filled with thousands of prizes for you choose. From video games, posters, musical instruments, and electronics to gift cards, apparel, magazine subscriptions and digital wallpapers (and more, plenty plenty more), we try our best to have a selection that appeals to all of Swag Nation.
It is with that community in mind that we are introducing a new policy to ensure that every Swaggernaut will be able to get any prize they want. Each prize now has a 5 order per calendar month limit per person. That doesn't mean that you can only get 5 prizes per month, it just means you can only get the same prize 5 times per month. The reason for this change can best be shown through this picture:
This may look like a horde of fans cramming into a concert but it's not - they're fighting to go shopping! Yes, shopping. So all the people in the front of the pack will be able to go snatch up all the items they want, any by the time the back of the group even gets in the doors the item they want will be gone(all the meanwhile a guy with 30 of those items will be cramming them into his car).Needless to say, we don't want that to happen.
So if you're a person that gets 10 Magic Johnson Cards every month, now you can get 5 Magics and 5 Larry Birds. Or maybe you snag 10 movie tickets. Now you can get 5 tix and 5 Restaurant.com Gift Cards for dinner and a movie.
Whatever the case may be, the point is there is a plethora of items for which you can spend your Swag Bucks. And with the 5 of the same item per month limit, it will help to ensure that EVERYONE gets exactly what they want.
As the saying goes, "You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but never all of the people all of the time."...unless of course you're TSG ;) And on that note, I'm sure you know I have some great stuff planned for you guys this holiday season. Just wait, you'll see...
Happy Prize Snagging!
TSG
46 comments:
BOOO...not liking the new restriction shrouded as a "good thing." Only 5 Amazon Cards a month now. BOOOO.
To me the only thing worth using SB for is Amazon Gift cards (I would also use Sephora but 975 is a heck of a lot of SB). And now I can only get 5/mo? Sigh. Is it even possible to run out of electronic gift cards???
When you say per month do you mean every 30/31 days or during a partucular month ie: the month of November or the month of December?
I think this is a good policy change. As a person who can only redeem once every 1-2 months, I like knowing that the prize I'm claiming for is in stock and will be available in short order.
Right now i'm saving up for the swagbucks t-shirt and keychain combo!!! I can't wait to get it!
When you say per month do you mean every 30/31 days or during a particular month? ie: the month of November or the month of December.
Does this include gift certificates such as the Amazon $5?
i have yet to redeem a prize. it's been kinda slow going.....
I can understand why limiting to a specific amount of certain gifts per month, but I know I joined swagbucks specifically for the Amazon Gift cards as well as many other people. Is there a possibility of creating amazon gift cards in higher increments so that only claiming 5 per month is fine but instead of them being worth $5 they would be worth more so no one is losing out?
What about us bloggers who have referred HUNDREDS of people to your site. I have several thousands of swagbucks and use them to get Amazon gift cards at the slow rate of two per day and now you are limiting me to 5 per month--what is the point! I think it is time for me to put up a new post and tell all my readers not to waste their time!
Why not modify the gift card choices...if I could use 900 swag bucks for a $100 gift card then I would be A-OK with the limit!
It's not a secret that the majority of swagbuck fans are members for amazon.com giftcards. Why? Because it's the best deal. If you are going to impose a rule like this you need to offer more amazon.com-like offers (giftcards that can be STACKED).
Then you need to make more gift cards with a higher value- like a $25 amazon card
Is this also for the Amazon gift cards? If so please add one for a higher amount that takes more Swagbucks to claim-I know there are a lot of us who accumulate a lot more that 5 cards worth per month by referring Swagbucks and with the new limit, it makes me not want to keep spreading the word :(
Cool. I've only redeemed two items since I started using Swagbucks in September 2008 because I've been trying to save up for a big item and the first time I was close, it was gone. Hopefully this time I can get enough SB in time to snag it! :D
@valknight and anonymous - we understand the amazon.com e-Gift Cards are very popular to some users so we added a $25 and $50 option. This means you now will be able to get up to $400 per mo. of Amazon.com cards which is actually better than before we introduced the 5 item per month cap. The reason they are not at the same rate as the $5 is because we work with Amazon to get special rates for the $5 cards but are not able to do so with the higher denominations.
Amazon.com giftcards are not the popular choice because everyone loves amazon--it's because of the price and that it can be stacked with other giftcards. Adding higher denominations is fine--but at that price, why bother? You need more stackable inexpensive options.
Thanks for adding the higher amazon options! I did the math and although they break down to more than $5 Gift cards, the $50 option is a better saving than (2)$25 and have no problem saving up until the last day of the month to redeem and just getting one or two of those!
Two questions.
1) Does the 5 order per month count towards Swagbucks & the Partners site? i.e. if I order 3 movie tickets on the parnters site will I only be able to get 2 from the Swagbucks site.
2) Any chance of adding the Amazon gift cards back to the partners site? I know you went away from the Amazon cards there to encourage other prizes. How about adding the $25 or $50 cards as options to the partners site?
SwagBucks has always been a fave rewards program for me and my readers.
Having watched MANY rewards sites go down the tubes over the last 10 years, the one thing you should do is keep everything totally transparent, give people a heads up and not keep TOS changes/rewards changes close-hold.
We have all been burned so many times with the likes of BoomerTown and Netwinner to name just two in recent memory. We are skiddish and want SB to continue indefinitely.
Change is bound to come. It is inevitable. How you handle that change is what is going to keep the natives calm. Blast an email to us PLEASE. I wouldn't have wasted my 5 Amazon redemptions on $5 at a whack if I had been told that the larger increments were coming. Leaves a BAD taste in my mouth with Christmas coming.
Please remember that customer service is king and we are your customers.
My email has been in flames all day from my friends and readers. I hope we can all simmer down and let the flames die out.
Ginger
@Ginger - Thank you for the comment. We try to be as transparent as possible for all changes/updates and that is why we had this blog post. We also welcome and encourage feedback from our community and that is in part to why this change was made. As you mentioned, there have been other sites that have come and gone, and many of the changes we make is to assure that Swag Bucks will be around for a long time. There's a key point you mentioned I want to address:
You didn't "waste" your Swag Bucks on lower denominations because you can still get 5 $25 and 5 $50 GC's. It's a limit of 5 per prize, not 5 per site/category. I'm sure once your readers realize this then that will put their mind at ease
I agree with you 100% that customer service is king, and obviously Swag Bucks cannot exist without you and the rest of the community. Thanks for being a part of Swag Nation and we look forward to a loooooooong and rewarding relationship :)
Hey TSG, i gotta ask what everyone else is wondering. why the different price on the higher amazon gift cards? its cheaper to get the $50 amazon over the $25, but why actually increase it so the $5 is still the ebst deal? We would love to see the $50 mirror the $5 in price so its 45 x 10 for $50 points on the $50 card
@Ranger Wolf - please see my comment from 11:07 which addresses your question :)
My enthusiasm for SB just went way down. :( At least my LJ, FB, and Twitter friends will be glad they don't have to read about SB 24/7 anymore.
That is the stupidest thing that u could have done it makes me want to leave swagbucks I was saving up to get 300$ in amazon and then get them out now I can only get 5 aday that is bull!!!! What a STUPID IDEA Tsg ihopeyou can it back also why in the world would anyone buy the more expnecive gcs if there like x2 more expencive what bad idea.
OMG I cannot believe what big babies you all are being. TSG is only trying to be fair - oh wait, you all are too busy worrying about yourselves. Seriously, you're being awarded prizes for searching... try just being thankful.
it makes no difference to me, i get less than 5 items a month. ;)
I agree. You have just lost a TON of marketing from some loyal fans- Bloggers. I will not promote swagbucks anymore. I am so disappointed about this change and how it affects us. The reason I loved swagbucks was that it was a great way to save money by using Amazon gift cards. I redeemed 1-2 gift cards a day, so this restriction is ridiculous. You have hurt yourself more than anything. My readers (followers and fans) will not hear about swagbucks anymore. This is a waste of time.
@anonymous - Swag Bucks still is a great way to save money with Amazon Gift Cards, and if anything is even BETTER now for the bloggers with lots of referrals. With the new higher denominations, it's possible to get $400 a month of Amazon Cards, where the maximum before was only $300. We truly appreciate the blog community and it was with you guys in mind that we introduced the $25 and $50 Amazon Gift Cards.
Although this comes as a shock, I am willing to hold my judgement to see how this all shakes out.
I am hoping that you will be working with Amazon to try and get a better rate on the higher value cards. I would think this would be very beneficial to Amazon as well. I know that I rarely shopped at Amazon before I joined Swagbucks and now I check Amazon frequently to see what I would like to buy with the Amazon gift cards that I got from Swagbucks.
This really sucks for those of us who do redeem for the amazon DOT CA gift cards. I know you have added the new denominations for amazon gift card, but these are only for the dot com site and does not interest me.
I redeem for an amazon gift card every two days so this is going to put a huge cramp in my routine. And just in time for christmas too when I was hoping to stock up enough gift cards to get a camera.
Not happy SB!
Are you going to add new denominations for the amazon.ca gift cards too? if not, I think canadians are totally getting the short end of the stick in all of this.
This policy change was upsetting at first, but after reading that there will be higher-denomination Amazon gift cards available, I was relieved.
THEN I saw that this only applies to Amazon.COM. For those of us in Canada, Amazon.com is not the way to shop - if the thing you want even ships to Canada (which many do not), the shipping costs are ridiculous.
Please add some higher denomination Amazon gift card options for Canadian users of Swag, or don't change the limit of gift cards at all for Amazon.ca. It isn't fair to only offer this for largely American Swagbucks clients!
Z
I don't see any $25 or $50 Amazon.ca gift certificates. What gives?
PS. They should also be worth less SB due to US - Canada conversion.
Well this totally screws over people redeeming for Amazon.CA cards since they aren't offered in any amounts other than $5. What a poor change swagbucks! You obviously don't care at all about your Canadian members.
Ohhh man I do not like this new rule AT all. :-(
To all the people asking about Amazon.ca cards, we will be adding the higher denomination cards to the Swag Store next week. Apologies for the inconvenience, but soon you too will be able to redeem the big value cards.
I hope you do add higher denominations for amazon.ca gift cards, or else you will lose a lot of canadians subscribers! Also, you should really make the higher denominations equal to that of the $5 gift cards.
Swagbucks is supposed to reward their subscribers, to be this new trend just seems like a huge inconvenience. I know amazon gift cards are popular, but that is because they are a good deal to redeem for, I have never shopped on amazon before, and I think that is the case with a lot people, so amazon is getting a lot of new customers this way.
Yeah, this pisses me off immensely. Only 5 $5 Amazon Gift Cards a month?
Yes, I realize that you can now get AGCs in $25 and $50 denominations now, but they are so much worse of a deal.
Given: 1 $5 AGC = 45 SBs
1 $25 AGC = 315 SBs
Proof of: 5 $5 AGCs ≠ 1 $25 AGC
(I think you can see what I'm getting at)
Statement Reason
5 $5 AGCs = 1 $25 AGC Assumption
1 $5 AGC = 45 SBs Given
1 $25 AGC = 315 SBs Given
5 $5 AGCs = 5 45 SBs Transitive
5 $5 AGCs = 225 SBs Mult.
225 SBs = 1 $25 AGC Substitution
225 SBs = 315 SBs Substitution
225 SBs ≠ 315 SBs False
5 $5 AGCs ≠ 1 $25 AGC Substitution
THERE! I USED MATH!
To whoever said that the new denominations are a good deal, they clearly are not, have you done the math?
Swagbucks are penalizing the power users, the ones who bring in other users, use their system the most, the ones that actually make it popular.
Current system
$5 amazon.ca GC is 45pts
New system
$25 amazon.com GC is 315 pts ($5*5 = 225 points, this new system is a 40% increase)
$50 amazon.com GC is 590 pts ($5*10 = 450 points, this new system is 31% increase)
The higher denominations should be less pts because it takes so much longer to get them. And since we are only allowed to redeem for 5 a month, this way.
The Swag Guy said...
@anonymous - Swag Bucks still is a great way to save money with Amazon Gift Cards, and if anything is even BETTER now for the bloggers with lots of referrals. With the new higher denominations, it's possible to get $400 a month of Amazon Cards, where the maximum before was only $300.
With the new system that you can only get 5 of the same thing per month, that is only $250 a month if you order the $50 x5, HOW are you getting $400?
@justine you can get 5 each of the $5, $25, $50 AGC. that equals out to $400. 25+15+250=400. TSG said early EACH prize not overall or each category.
@TSG hopefully you will be able to work out a better deal with amazon for the higher denominations but if not oh well.
and @everybody else most of us dont have that many bucks or are able to get that many bucks to cash out everyday. we are just glad to get what we can since everything is still FREE so quit complaining bout it before you ruin everything for everybody!
oops i thought i had all 0s in there 25+150+250=400
I totally understand about the new limit, but am not thrilled with the higher value cards costing a higher ratio of SBucks.
I am equally NOT thrilled that you guys refunded an Amazon GC on me that I ordered and you fulfilled BEFORE this new rule was put in place. Luckily I had not ordered anything with it yet, and I know that I'll be able to order it again this month, but that was a cheap shot to make the new rule retroactive and not even send out an email explaining what you'd done.
What about adding some higher dollar Target gift cards for those who like Target, at the same ratio as the lower Target gift cards? Your logic for the Amazon being higher is that you have a special discount for the $5 Amazon gift cards, but for other merchants you should be able to add higher dollar gift cards and keep them the same. So add a $25 Target and a $50 Target if you are really serious about letting people "get the prizes they want".
Does this apply to swagstakes
This doesn't make sense. Your blog post says "5 of the same prize each month," but I can't click on ANYTHING in the gift card section. Nothing redeems. Nothing is happening.
Why can't I get an XBox Live card? That's not an Amazon GC.
Wow. I really dont like this at all. I worked hard for my 332 Referrals, and now I have to pay 40% MORE for a higher value Amazon Gift card. That's not fair at all. I brought so many people to this site, to get screwed over.
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