Shopping Discussion

Locked: PC Optimum Discussion Thread (formerly PC Plus)

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  • Jan 19th, 2019 9:14 am
Deal Fanatic
Dec 11, 2008
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Montreal
john.canad wrote: Is anyone else not seeing "Spend $X for X points" offers anymore? I have over 300k points and think this may be the reason why
Had a 12,500pts for $125 at Maxi last week
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Nov 11, 2016
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Halifax
john.canad wrote: Is anyone else not seeing "Spend $X for X points" offers anymore? I have over 300k points and think this may be the reason why
I used to get one at least once a week from Shoppers prior the change.
I have not had one since then...I'm about half your points.

I did have a buy 75 $ get 7500 points this week for Super store this week - but quite honestly I rarely had these offers in the past. Once every 3 months or more... so I don't expect to see it again until the first of June.

I don't think having alot of points iwould limit your offers though.
Last edited by rdiamond1 on Feb 27th, 2018 1:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Jul 20, 2010
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Are people saving their points still?
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Feb 7, 2017
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Eastern Ontario
john.canad wrote: Is anyone else not seeing "Spend $X for X points" offers anymore? I have over 300k points and think this may be the reason why
I have seen / got them for BOTH chains since the merge ... SDM & PC / Loblaws Group

IMO it has NOTHING to do with how many points one has earned or is sitting on
(Both before & after the merger we’ve had more than you in our primary account)

They do appear though to be on some sort of rotation... and the SPEND $ X amount is hinged on what your normal spending amount is (same, less than ... or slightly higher to encourage you to spend more)

In my experience, if you go on vacation... and therefore don’t buy from the chains for awhile... then those threshold amounts go down
Deal Expert
Feb 7, 2017
27765 posts
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Eastern Ontario
john.canad wrote: Are people saving their points still?
No real gain to saving post merger (like there was prior to... when at SDM there was a true benefit to getting into the last tier or above the 95,000)

These days 10,000 Points is worth $ 10 no matter where you cash it in

The one exception that I have seen in the past is... Redemption Bonus Days at either SDM or PC / Loblaws Group Stores

To date we have not seen one at SDM since the merger. And historically the ones at PC / Loblaws Group max benefit was seen at 150,000 Points = $ 150

Seeing as the old max at SDM was $ 170 (under the OLD SDM Optimum Program)

I have decided to maintain a balance of 200,000 Points in my NEW PC Optimum Account at all times in case such an opportunity comes along again
Member
Feb 24, 2012
284 posts
83 upvotes
TORONTO
john.canad wrote: Is anyone else not seeing "Spend $X for X points" offers anymore? I have over 300k points and think this may be the reason why
Actually I just came to this thread to ask if others feel the quality of SDM points program is dradtically dropped. I waited for four weeks before judging, but in my case, it really has gone down. I’ve had rare “gain X points for Y dollar purchase” from SDM, but absolutely not comparable with what I had over the last several years. I have taken a couple of “20x point for over $50 purchase”, but they were not personal offers; Just usual Sat events in the store. Having a personal offer of “6000 points for > $50 purchase” is quite offensive! It doesn’t even compare with 10x points pre-merge. It truly has gone stingy for me. I might keep checking for a couple of more weeks, but if it keeps being like that I guess Walmart online grocery will win (although for years I tried avoiding places like Walmart and Costco for several reasons like employees’ feedback and trying to help competition rise). Pity! SMD had one of the best point programs, had someone would care and plan...
Member
Feb 24, 2012
284 posts
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TORONTO
TheHans wrote: It's interesting that you mentioned this. My husband and I have different accounts. He's getting all kinds of offers (although for the most part they still aren't personalized), but I'm getting hardly any and they aren't personalized. Even though our accounts are separate, I have the feeling that they know we're connected somehow and that's why only one of us is getting decent offers. I used to get good offers all the time previously, sometimes entirely different than my husband's. With what you've described, I wonder if this isn't accidental and there's a change whereby they're giving good offers to one household member, but inferior offers to the other members. It would go along with a few negative changes involving points amounts, etc. that others including me have mentioned.
My account is an individual one, not linked to anyone, yet my SMD offers have gone down the drain! I am really upset. I will spend my points and switch to other stores with at least more readonable prices. There is no justification to buy stuff for 30-50% more expensive when there is not a real return into it!
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Sep 1, 2013
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Mississauga
I contacted PC Optimum via Twitter regarding the progressively poorer quality of my SDM offers, and they claimed they're aware that offers aren't being sent out properly at the moment, and that we'll eventually begin seeing SDM offers with greater regularity.
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Oct 14, 2017
1062 posts
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GTA
sanam79er wrote: Actually I just came to this thread to ask if others feel the quality of SDM points program is dradtically dropped. I waited for four weeks before judging, but in my case, it really has gone down. I’ve had rare “gain X points for Y dollar purchase” from SDM, but absolutely not comparable with what I had over the last several years. I have taken a couple of “20x point for over $50 purchase”, but they were not personal offers; Just usual Sat events in the store. Having a personal offer of “6000 points for > $50 purchase” is quite offensive! It doesn’t even compare with 10x points pre-merge. It truly has gone stingy for me. I might keep checking for a couple of more weeks, but if it keeps being like that I guess Walmart online grocery will win (although for years I tried avoiding places like Walmart and Costco for several reasons like employees’ feedback and trying to help competition rise). Pity! SMD had one of the best point programs, had someone would care and plan...
I'm trying to compartmentalize the problems since launch until now, and not to judge PCO until I've seen it functioning the way it's supposed to. They're not completely separate of course, but neither are they one and the same.
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Aug 2, 2003
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B.C.
john.canad wrote: Is anyone else not seeing "Spend $X for X points" offers anymore? I have over 300k points and think this may be the reason why
In my opinion and from other comments posted here, I tend to agree with you that since you have so many points, they are dialing back on your offers. There have been so many issues since the launch of this program and what the majority have in common is that they ultimately favour Loblaws the company. I tend to give companies the benefit of the doubt only to a point. When issues like this just continue to accumulate, the optics for me suggest it's on purpose. Some issues reported here are:

-Points not appearing at all
-Offers for buy X get X points have the points value reduced
-Offers for spend $1 on X get X points have a greater threshold that needs to be spent to get the discount
-Offers that should stay until the end of Wednesday disappear early. I know some people still report being able to use those offers until the end of Wednesday even though they're no longer listed, but this isn't the case for everyone. The by-product of this is that many people *think* they're getting their points when they shop on Wednesday when for some, they're not getting the points and possibly don't notice. Regardless, for many people there's an entire day now with zero offers.
-Offers cannot be moved to the following week
-Offers are not personalized like they were previously

I know many on here think that these issues are all accidental and are innocent problems associated with the launch. I respect that opinion. It just isn't mine anymore.
If I had more time, I would have written a shorter post
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Nov 11, 2016
2356 posts
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Halifax
One thing I did notice this week is this :

I had an offer for 1600 points on Meals to go for 8 $.
On Sunday I spend 20 $ - got zip points- did a points inquiry and they 3200 points shows up about 6 hours later.

The offer remained on my phone and the internet.
I did the same offer today -only spent $ 10 - thinking if the offer was still there - it might work.

It did not - I am not going to do a points inquiry as I received points on Sunday from this offer....

But I am thinking the offer was obviously there- but in reality it was removed.

Has anyone else had this experience ? or were you able to use the same personalized offer in one week ?
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Jul 31, 2008
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PointsHubby wrote: Thanks guys...

Of course the round down :facepalm:

Sorry, I somehow forgot about all that
(Aka been spending too much time thinking PCO / Loblaws since the merger)

So, My Dearest got a 20x the milk Offer this week.
Milk here is $ 4.27 for 4 Litres, we can therefore expect
4 x 15 = 60 Regular Points
And 4 x 19 = 1140 Bonus Points
Total = 1200 (= 60 x 20)

Correct ?
Hello ... good discussion so far:

For those were able to take advantage of the SDM Thursday senior day 20% off:

It does apply it to 4L milk (YMMV) - Ontario regular price at 4.27 but we also received a SDM
Exclusive weekly 20X milk offer and able to apply it last Thursday under PC Optimum

(weekly offers now go Thurs to Wed)

Bought 1 Bag at 20% off (at 3.42) but also received

3 X 15 = 45 Reg points + 45 X 19 = 855 bonus points
for a total of 900 points

No questions were asked as Senior discount automatically taken off last Thursday
just like under Old SDM Optimum card

(this is first time SDM senior discount used with new PC optimum card)

When we got the new PC Optimum card activated from cashier ... the account transfer was actually
done (at home) on-line regarding moving the old SDM Optimum account over.
(assuming SDM senior flag also transferred over to new PC Optimum card)
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Dec 28, 2007
791 posts
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Alberta
john.canad wrote: Is anyone else not seeing "Spend $X for X points" offers anymore? I have over 300k points and think this may be the reason why
No, we have over 750K points on our account and we see them. We have these 2 right now: One for 20x points for spending $20 in store and one for Wednesday for 4000/$10 spent on candy.
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Nov 11, 2016
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Halifax
jackrabbit000 wrote: No, we have over 750K points on our account and we see them. We have these 2 right now: One for 20x points for spending $20 in store and one for Wednesday for 4000/$10 spent on candy.
Seriously - what is with the SDM candy offers ? This is our third this month....

I am NOT doing this one ( did the other two )

BTW: I know the cashiers are having issues but one SDM cashier told me on Feb 4th ( when I mentioned about not having SDM offers ) that the offers would start coming once she scanned my card.

I have no idea if THIS is why they started coming- OR that they were going to come anyway... OR how she knew/thought this.
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May 11, 2012
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panda1 wrote: Can we still earn PC optimum points if we buy SDM gift cards?
No, just bought gift cards yesterday and got no point. I was buying gc to purchase monthly transit pass to save a buck earlier....guess good things dont last for ever.
Last edited by Hexane on Feb 27th, 2018 6:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Feb 24, 2012
284 posts
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TORONTO
Jonric wrote: I'm trying to compartmentalize the problems since launch until now, and not to judge PCO until I've seen it functioning the way it's supposed to. They're not completely separate of course, but neither are they one and the same.
I agree that they need some time to adjust, find system bugs, and their actual policy, which is why I kept just observing and did not complain so far.I might wait for another month. I think two months is long enough to trace the changes and see if they are going to a good direction or, if considering their new policies on their offers we, the custmers, do need to reconsider our loyalty to them too. So far, in these four weeks, I’d say they fail, as the offers are stingy and the products they offer points on are such irrelevant ones... Those rare weekly offers I have are on products that I never buy, more like they try pushing me to buy unhealthy products like coke and unhealthy snacks. I hope it gets better.
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Dec 28, 2007
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Alberta
rdiamond1 wrote: Seriously - what is with the SDM candy offers ? This is our third this month....

I am NOT doing this one ( did the other two )

BTW: I know the cashiers are having issues but one SDM cashier told me on Feb 4th ( when I mentioned about not having SDM offers ) that the offers would start coming once she scanned my card.

I have no idea if THIS is why they started coming- OR that they were going to come anyway... OR how she knew/thought this.
lol. This is our 3rd one also. We also used the first 2 but won’t be using this one.
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Jul 13, 2014
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Parry Sound
I joined a household and I'm getting more offers now. I think maybe it just combines offers but doesn't provide anything new.
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Sr. Member
Nov 13, 2017
547 posts
393 upvotes
British Columbia
mkl38s wrote: ↑ I did not know you can redeem and still got all the bonus points. I bought $21 of seafood at Loblaws, some beef and pork, total more than $30 ($36 to be exact). They gave me 5000 pts plus 3000 (It said RCSS exclusive coupon, not sure how it works at Lobaws). So I saw 8K points into my account before I paid. So I asked if I can redeem and kept the points, cashier said don't see why not. So I redeemed $30. At the end, got bunch meat, paid $6 and got back $8 :)
PointsHubby wrote: Yup, you can redeem UP TO the amount of points you had in your account BEFORE any new transaction.

So in this case if your bill was $ 36 you would need to have $ 30 (30,000) BEFORE this transaction. Then you still earn on the current transaction too.

If you had had only 22,000 and were earning 8,000 ... you could not redeem the combined 30,000 for $ 30. The most you would be allowed is 20,000 = $ 20 (remembering that redemptions are only allowable in $ 10 increments)
Well, I went to RCSS today and was trying to use my Ziploc bags offer (600 pts/$3) for sandwich bags which is $8.97 for a package of 4.
At the end, the total was $19.07, I redeemed 10,000 pts and paid $9.07 with my credit card. However, the expected 1800 pts did not show up and Ziploc offer is still showing under my account.
Don't know why I didn't get points while redeemed points.
Member
May 11, 2012
237 posts
55 upvotes
I have 1.2M points and I got 25,000 pts exlusive offer yestersay first time for $100 spending.

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