Shopping Discussion

Locked: PC Optimum Discussion Thread (formerly PC Plus)

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Feb 10, 2013
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PC Optimum Discussion Thread (formerly PC Plus)

Please change your password everyone!
Please create a strong random password! Here's the one I used https://passwordsgenerator.net/

What is PC Optimum?
It's a new loyalty program launched by Loblaws. It is basically merging both the PC PLUS program and Shoppers Optimum program into a single new program. The best of both worlds has been combined into one program.

Are there any benefits to joining?

Yes. Free groceries!
Do points expire?
No. Your points do not expire. However, your account can be closed, if you do not earn or spend any PC Optimum points at least once every 2 years or if you don’t have an open PC Financial Mastercard® registered to your account. For more details, please see the PC Optimum program

Help! I'm having issues registering!
You can try calling in for help with registering your account. The folks there will try to assist you in signing up.

I already have a PC MC. Do I need a pc optimum card?
You don't but the store prefers if you link it to a pc optimum account like the app for store penetration.

It says email already registered!
That means you probably already registered for a click and collect account or a pc insiders account. I recommend checking your email for a PC id email. If you've gotten one in your pc plus email, then you've most likely already had one and you'll need to do forget password or login with your details, and register for pc optimum that way. Simplest way if you get that message is to do forget password and register for pc optimum that way.
What is a PC™ ID?
A PC™ identification is a universal login that can be used to access your accounts across a variety of Loblaw and Shoppers Drug Mart Inc. websites. If you are registered with joefresh.com , beautyboutique.ca or online grocery websites, you already have one. Your PC™ id is your email address and password and you should use it as your login information for your PC Optimum account. If you were only registered with PC Plus you will need to create a PC™ id in order to register for PC Optimum.
By grocery websites, I'm assuming their banner grocery websites, like realcanadiansuperstore.ca
Help! I forgot my card at home! Can I bring in my receipt to get the points?
Unfortunately nope. Points cannot be applied retroactively, so try to remember your card!
You can also download the app to your phone so you'll never forget it.
Can I give the cashier a picture of my card? Isn't the same as giving them the app or my card?
No, The cashier can scan your card but you will not be able to redeem any points if you give them a picture of your card. If someone else in your household wants a card, please don't be lazy and actually get them a card or key fob available in store at your local participating pc optimum store.

Can I give them my phone number for my points?
Please don't be lazy and actually dig out your card. The cashiers can do phone number if it's attached to your linked registered profile, but cashiers will only do it for big orders and you can't find your card at all. In other words it's a last resort for folks buying a ton of stuff. You can do a points inquiry for any missing offers once you get home for your smaller orders. This is a new thing so many cashiers don't know how to do it, nor are they encouraged to do so, so please please remember your card!.

Can I present my PC Optimum Card at any time in the transaction?
Let's not temp fate again and do it at the beginning until they've worked out the kinks again. Hopefully the crashes won't happen but again let's not tempt fate

Why can I no longer view my points balance? What about Supplementary Card PC Mastercard holders?
If you are an Authorized User of a PC Financial Mastercard®, you will not see or have access to your primary cardholder’s points balance unless the primary cardholder chooses to add you to their Household. Please speak to the primary cardholder of your account.
If you’re still having trouble, contact PC Optimum Member Care for assistance or call 1-866-727-6468 for help.
The best workaround currently is to attach a plastic pc optimum card to your account and give your supplementary card holder a plastic card attached to your account and tell them to scan the plastic card and only use the mastercard to pay.

The option to change my plastic pc optimum cards to earn only is gone!
No worries, it's still there. you just need to call in and have them change it for you.
Update: The feature is now available on the website

What if the system went down? I didn't get my offers!
See below.

What if I loaded an offer and did not receive points for a particular offer?
If you are using the PC Optimum™ app:
Go to the Points section of your app and locate the transaction you are missing points from. Click on that transaction and select “Points Inquiry”. Complete the points inquiry form, submit it and we’ll look into your missing points right away.
If you are online at pcoptimum.ca:
Go to My Account and select “Points Inquiry” from the Transactions section. Complete the points inquiry form, submit it and we’ll look into your missing points right away.
If you are emailing
Please include:
Offer Name:
Amount Spent on Offer:
"CODE" at the bottom of your receipt:
Store Name:
Erumuh wrote: For those who are missing points, DO NOT submit points inquiries - the system is not working properly.
Your best bet is to use online chat (also very buggy, so do other things while waiting in the queue, and it may not work properly when you get to the front of the line, so you have to try again) and ask the person for help.
Have your receipt with the barcode number handy.

Online chat shows "not available"? Reload the page until it shows "chat now" or "available," then leave it open. Some attempts to connect may not register properly, so you have to come back to that page and click the "Chat now" button again.

Be polite - remember that Loblaws knows how screwed up the system is and is trying to fix it, so customer service is motivated to help you WHEN you get a hold of them. But a lot of other people are also trying. Be one of the nice ones and you'll get your points for sure.

It is much recommended that you do a points inquiry via the website as it seems to be gotten to a lot faster than just emailing.

Here is a link to the help faq for pc optimum for additional questions.

https://www.pcoptimum.ca/help-and-support/faq

PC OPTIMUM TOS
https://www.pcoptimum.ca/company-policy ... conditions

Update

PCF DEBIT CARDS CAN NO LONGER BE USED TO EARN PC POINTS. If you recall your pc plus login information, you can attach it to a pc optimum account though the link pc plus login information option

UPDATE #2
PointsHubby wrote: PC OPTIMUM PROGRAM - Announced

Its official the marriage of these two programs PC Plus & Shoppers Optimum is set to happen on Thursday, February 1, 2018

Preliminary Details are rolling out today (well since Midnight) on the two Retailers websites, here is the link to the info as it appears on the PC Plus website
https://www.pcplus.ca/static/announcements/english.html

Looks like a decent amalgamation... The PC Plus Points remain the same, and are worth exactly what they were before.

The SDM Optimum Points remain the same cash value, but flip over to the system that PC Plus currently has...
So 95,000 Optimum Points worth $ 170 becomes 170,000 PC Optimum Points worth $ 170
PLUS... and at the time of conversion, one will be credited for any points that are accumulating between SDM tiers as well (so your entire balance)... That is especially fair
There is a point conversion calculator that appears on the link I supplied above

One of the nice things is the threshold for cashing in goes from 20,000 = $ 20 down to 10,000 Points = $ 10
And BOTH Programs will allow members to cash in a maximum of 500,000 = $ 500 at one time
(that is a nice bonus for those who like to buy electronics & tech at Shoppers... no more having to worry about a $ 170 maximum).

Points will be earned at SDM at the rate of 15 Points for every $ 1 spent this is a 50% increase as today the Optimum Program accrues at the rate of 10 Points for every $ 1
AND there will be still be Bonus Earns (like 20x the Points)
Points will be earned in the PC Plus Program in the same way they are now (seems to remain points on personal offers loaded, and no ongoing points on total amount spent instore)

Another change is in how cards will be managed. There will now be one card per household (no more transfers between accounts) ... once the program is rolled out, PC Optimum Members will link all the cards in their household to one person who will be that households contact person & account manager

That's the basics... but there will be more news to come I am sure in the days & weeks ahead
Last edited by bluebellrose on Oct 30th, 2018 7:34 am, edited 26 times in total.
Thread Summary
Q. Can i redeem PC Optimum points for prepaid gift cards?
A. No. So pay for your groceries with points, then use the cash you thus saved to buy the gift cards.
10940 replies
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Jan 3, 2014
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Wonder how long it'll be before someone starts the "Official PC Plus Discussion Thread"
Proud RFD member since January 31, 2007. Feel free to add 3,034 to my post count.
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Feb 10, 2013
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You want me to change the thread title? I thought we needed mod approval 1st before starting "official" threads.


*tilts head* Bah, I think that 1st post could use some info on there. *goes and edits*

ok uh, if there's any common Q and A that i should probably put in the op, tell me xD.
Sr. Member
Jan 8, 2011
506 posts
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London
Thanks for creating it. It will be nice not to discuss/read a thread about the program that isn't complete "BS" in terms of its title. :)

https://www.pcplus.ca/loyalty-help.jsp has lots of FAQ information.

A way to discover all the PC Plus flyer offers without perusing the whole flyer. On the store's website, go to view the flyer and make sure you're in "Item View." Along the side, there should be the option to narrow results by "PC Plus Points" offers. This works on the Superstore website for sure...not sure about the other associated stores.

Also good to remember: NoFrills does not participate in PC Plus.
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bluebellrose wrote: Erm from the one of the PC PLUS threads, few folks thought we needed a new thread for pc plus discussion, here it is. And I think we need one consolidated thread where all the discussion goes instead of scattered thoughout rfd on multiple threads.



What is PC Plus?

It is a loyalty program launched by Loblaws across various banners. At this time the program is not available at tnt, supervalu and no frills.
I used my PC Plus points to pay at No Frills last week so I'm not sure that your first line is entirely correct.

They also gave me 5 points (don't remember exact number ) for every bag that I brought in to use.
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No frills is only participating the old pc points loyalty program, so there's just no bonus point offers at no frills. Just what you would earn with a pc mc or pc debit. My guess is that's how you were able to redeem. Mind you, I'm not an expert on this, just a spectator
Moderator
May 28, 2012
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Saskatoon
bluebellrose wrote: No frills is only participating the old pc points loyalty program, so there's just no bonus point offers at no frills. Just what you would earn with a pc mc or pc debit. My guess is that's how you were able to redeem. Mind you, I'm not an expert on this, just a spectator
I think you are correct. If he has a PC Mastercard, the points are put into the same account as the PC Plus ones, and he can use these PC points to redeem for groceries. When you shop at stores that participate in PC Plus, you will have a tally near the bottom of your receipt with the digital and in-store points you have earned, along with your points total.

All Loblaws stores give bonus points when you use your PC MC and bring your own recyclable shopping bags.
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Feb 10, 2013
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lol what about tnt? Do they give bonus points for bringing own bags?
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Feb 27, 2014
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Need a physical card or smart phone when checking out.
Sr. Member
Jan 8, 2011
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London
That thread started as a bashing of the program and the same arguments are getting rehashed over and over. Hopefully we can put that all aside and actually discuss the program, offers, tips, etc.
Deal Addict
Feb 10, 2013
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Added something to the op. Hope it helps smooths out transactions at the till with the pc plus card and prevent crashes.
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Jan 7, 2002
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bluebellrose wrote: The workaround is to present the card at the beginning of your transaction before the transaction proceeds. Saves everyone a big headache when done at the beginning.
That can be difficult to do if you start putting your items on the conveyor belt as the cashier is ringing up another customer's order. You're busy putting stuff on the conveyor so you may not notice that the previous transaction has ended and, in an effort to speed things along, often the cashiers will start scanning your items without asking if you have a PC Plus account.
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Sr. Member
Jan 8, 2011
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London
bylo wrote: That can be difficult to do if you start putting your items on the conveyor belt as the cashier is ringing up another customer's order. You're busy putting stuff on the conveyor so you may not notice that the previous transaction has ended and, in an effort to speed things along, often the cashiers will start scanning your items without asking if you have a PC Plus account.
At Costco, where you need to show your card first, I always just put my card on the conveyor belt at the front of my order so that I don't have to stop loading groceries. Maybe that would be a way to ensure it gets done at the beginning. I've never had that particular problem - but hopefully they'll get their computers fixed up soon so that it can be scanned at the end like every other reward program.
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sn02py wrote: At Costco, where you need to show your card first, I always just put my card on the conveyor belt at the front of my order so that I don't have to stop loading groceries..
I think cashiers hate that, especially since if they don't see it it's a good way to get your card sucked into the belt. Is the crashing at the end a frequent problem for all the locations? For most of my purchases (Loblaws), I've scanned at the end and never had a problem.
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Feb 10, 2013
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lol people solved that issue by putting their pc plus card on top of their stuff like their cans. Crashes seems to be happening more and more often. Computer used to be fine with small orders but now it seems to crash even with those. Now it even has issues in the middle of a transaction. Crashes are random lol. It's like russian roulette if scanned at the end. If you're lucky it won't crash and if you're not lucky and hit the jackpot the computer decides to crash.
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Jan 8, 2011
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RemedialChaosTheory wrote: I think cashiers hate that, especially since if they don't see it it's a good way to get your card sucked into the belt. Is the crashing at the end a frequent problem for all the locations? For most of my purchases (Loblaws), I've scanned at the end and never had a problem.
Yeah, I put it on a box or a can, not directly on the belt. I doubt the cashiers at Costco, anyway, hate it, since it means they can just proceed with the next customer rather than waiting for them to show them their card. I've never had a problem with someone not seeing it.

I went to Superstore today. Just short of the $200 for 25000 points. Thought for sure I was there and it was too busy to grab some "top up" items. Annoying. Anyway, I specifically asked the cashier if I had to swipe first, and she said I could do it at any point in the transaction. I did it at the end. So, it sounds like maybe it's just some stores that have problems with computers crashing if you swipe at the end.
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Feb 10, 2013
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I think it may have to do with combing though a large order to award you your points that's causing it. Somehow I'm wondering if maybe the smaller orders at the other stores may be the reason why the computers don't seem to crash. The likelyhood of a crash is smaller with a smaller order. Larger orders has a bigger chance. Seems to be a game of chance on whether or not the computer crash


xD Computer: omg too much data! Can't take it.Too heavy. *dies*
Reality: Cashier sees pc crash. *not again!*
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Nov 23, 2005
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This is such a poorly run/organized program, its not even funny. After my purchase yesterday, I apparently somehow lost 500 points. I could care less about losing them, but its more about the principal. WTF happened to the points? At the same time, according to my app, it says last time I made a purchase was in the middle of December despite me going there countless times since? Ohhh PC. What a joke.
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boyoflondon wrote: This is such a poorly run/organized program, its not even funny. After my purchase yesterday, I apparently somehow lost 500 points. I could care less about losing them, but its more about the principal. WTF happened to the points? At the same time, according to my app, it says last time I made a purchase was in the middle of December despite me going there countless times since? Ohhh PC. What a joke.
How do we know it was Loblaw's fault and not your own?

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