Credit Card Freebies Article Discussion Area

Thomas_Crown

I recently wrote to the Sony Card office in Diss, Norfolk regarding the shambles involving the missing 5,000 points in their latest promotion in which new customers need a total of 7,000 points to claim a 2GB Sony MP3 Player or other item.

This morning I received a reply from Sony Card which states that once I have spent £250 using the card I will be awarded the 7,000 points which can be exchanged for a ''Sony 2GB MP3 Walkman with FM Tuner''.

Once the points have been credited to my account I have to phone Sony Card & quote the reference number they have given to me. I hope that it will be as simple as that.

gussie

Thomas_Crown wrote: »

... Once the points have been credited to my account ...

That is my current issue - MBNA are NOT crediting the points !!!

I have the same letter and have now phoned that number several times this week only to be told I have no points despite having the card for a month and having spent over £250 as verified by me on the MBNA web site - the the points are nowhere to be seen!

The final test will be when my first statement turns up - due any day now.

If no points then - I'll contact Local Trading Standard and advise them of this scam - for that is what it will be!

Tirian

Well, having not received my return phone call after a week, I phoned back in today and went round the whole merry-go-round again. Once again, I failed to find anyone who could explain to me why three months after making the transaction that should have given me the 11,000 points I was promised, they had still failed to materialise.

So .... I decided to take things to the next level. Both of the letters I received promising the 11,000 points were signed by one Andrew Scheer of SonyCard. So I called the Pulsebeats line and asked for his email address.

RESULT 1

After much wrangling, the person on the phone came back to me with tcare@diss.net - which I wrote to detailing my complaint. However this did not seem likely to me to be his personal email address, so I did a bit of web-searching to see if could come up with anything better.

RESULT 2

Andrew Scheer of Sony is on Facebook. How handy! I sent him the following message directly through Facebook today .. let's see what happens now!

Dear Andrew,

I apologise for contacting you in this way. I am writing regarding the extreme problems I have had in obtaining the 11,000 reward points promised to me in the two letters I have received bearing your name (27/6/07, ref: T818E/89800/0000113 and 19/7/07, no ref)

Naturally, I would not consider you my first point of contact in dealing with this issue - but my efforts over the last three months to find anybody at all at either MBNA or at SonyCard who can answer my questions on this matter have failed. Every person I speak to at either organisation simply tells me to call the other.

It is now over three months since I received and used my card, which in your letter dated 19th July was given as the criteria for receiving these points. Thus far, nobody I have spoken to seems to have any idea of why I have not received them, or be able to do anything about it.

It seems to me that, as you are the signatory to the letters I have received with these promises on - which nobody else I speak to seems to be able to act upon, I have no option but to refer the matter back to you.

Yours disappointedly

[Tirian]

gussie

Right finally got my first statement and can also view it online - it only shows the first 2000 points - no extra 5000 points for spending over £250.

Phoned MBNA and was told I had to go to the Sony card website https://www.sonycard.co.uk, register with them and the 5000 points would be awarded.

THERE IS NOWHERE TO REGISTER ON THE SONYCARD WEBSITE - THE ONLY LIVE CONTENT IS A LINK BACK TO THE MBNA SITE.

THIS IS A SHAMBLES - MBNA HAVE NOW PROMISED TO CALL ME BACK WITHIN 5 DAYS TO SORT THIS OUT.

THE ONLY REDEEMING FACTOR IN THIS SORRY SAGA IS THE LETTER I'VE JUST GOT FROM SONYCARD THAT PROMISES THE EXTRA 5000 POINTS AND THE 2GB MP3 PLAYER.

SO I'LL EXPECT TO GET IT EVENTUALLY - BUT IT PROBABLY NEEDS SEVERAL MORE PHONE CALLS.

moneysaver_77

Hi all,

Does anyone have the code printed on the letter for the 2G mp3 player. I have called up asking for this offer but they require a code that was sent out on the letters. PM if its easier!

Thanks in adavance

airtrack12000

hi all

Does anyone have the link for claimin the sony mp3 2gb for 7000 points as it is alot more than that on the pulse book?

is there a different tel number to call to claim it?

thanks

Tirian

Well, my latest update with SonyCard:

After the last call I made to MBNA, I was assured someone from 'the marketing team' would call me back "within 5 working days" about the points situation. I pointed out that I was not especially impressed by this promise, since I'd already been told that once and it hadn't happened - in fact, nothing had happened. The Customer Services rep told me that he would personally put it on his schedule and that he would call me back himself within 5 days.

Can you guess? Yep - no call. HOWEVER ... when I called in yesterday myself, I found that AT LONG LAST, over 4 1/2 months since I made my qualifying transaction, the 11,000 points I was due were finally added. I ordered my 2GB mp3 player/radio yesterday, so hopefully it will be on my doorstep by the time I get back from my holiday next week.

Although, based on past performance, I am not holding my breath ...

Nicki24

I just received a flyer whilst out at lunchtime which I thought might be of interest to someone. The deal is you apply for a card via the following link www.airmiles.co.uk/flyforfree by 31st December. If you spend over £10.00 on your first spend you recieve 750 airmiles which is enough for a completely free return flight (also there are no taxes, fees and charges to pay) to Paris, Dublin and Amsterdam or Edinburgh. Your flight can be booked from 1 January 2008.

The idea is to get the card spend £10 or just over and then close the card, there is no 0% offer on this card and the typical APR is 15.9% so its not for those that cannot pay off their balance in full each month.

Anyway click on the link if you are interested and you can check out all the T&C's.

Tirian

Second update!!

I just had an email from SonyCard to apologise for the delay in getting me my 11,000 points, which was due to a 'system error' ... and by way of an apology they are giving me another 5000 points! Hurrah!

Never let it be said that I won't give credit (hur hur) where it's due ... although they did certainly **** up in my case, I consider them to have now more than made it up ... and in fact, now with a few hundred more points I can get the other other item in the Pulsebeat catalogue that I wanted which would otherwise have required over £5000 of spending to get.

I guess I'll be putting some expenses and a bit of Christmas shopping on the card now, instead of cancelling it once the mp3 player arrived, as I was quite tempted to do after the initial fiasco

Thomas_Crown

I've just received a letter from Sony Card informing me that as I've now spent over £250 on my card, I have been awarded the additional 5,000 points & with the total now at 7,000 points I can now claim my Sony 2GB MP3 Player. I hope that things will go smoothly when I phone them. Fingers crossed!