e-RewardsReviews 254

I had a decent relationship with e-rewards up until the present when I had problems with a Starbucks e-gift card that they issued. The code yielded an empty card. I contacted Starbucks and they sent me back to the issuer. That is when a number of frustrating e-mail messages ensued from e-rewards. They sent a boilerplate answer which did not address my problem and then asked me for information that they already had access to in their database of my account (information they later accessed so I know they had it) and then sent the same original boilerplate reply and I had to start all over again. After a series of frustrating e-mail messages, they ended up finally putting money on the reward card and then claimed that it was my error (that I was trying to redeem the previous reward card). The runaround was bad enough, but the lying to cover up their mistake and blame it on me was the absurd part. I no longer trust that they will issue the rewards they say they will and they will make you waste enormous amounts of time trying to get them to pay you for your efforts.

After accumulating $125 worth of credits, IO thought I might redeem them for some restaurant certificates. What a joke. ONLY AFTER YOU REDEEM POINTS DO YOU FIND OUT THE REAL STORY. (1) There isn't a restaurant within a hundred miles of me that accepts these. (2) The ones that do beyond 100 miles traveling distance, you wouldn't eat at anyway, they are substandard and probably only survive on discounted meals. (3) Your $50 certificate is not worth a cent towards the food, unless you spend twice that on food. So you have to spend $100 at some dive to be able to get 50% off your meal. Major chains and places that are upscale, won't touch these worthless coupons. Don't waste your time with E-Rewards- their phone number is disconnected and bogus, and they will NEVER respond to you via e-mail.

The rewards aren't great, but if you need extra airline miles it's good for that. I have earned Starbucks gift cards before, but it takes a while to get to that reward level -- one $25 gift card costs $75. Too bad you can't redeem your 'cash' for actual cash. The other rewards are magazine subscriptions and e-gift certificates which you have to spend a certain amount first (like $10 off a $50 purchase at macys.com for example). The surveys are usually long, boring and very tedious.

E-Rewards will sell your personal info to JUNK MAIL companies.

I began receiving junk mail shortly after signing up for e-Rewards, and as I am very careful with my personal info and don't otherwise get junk mailings, I knew exactly who the culprit was.

I was subscribed to THREE magazines that were of absolutely no interest to me, and which I actually found offensive due to their low-brow, low-IQ, hyper-sexualised content, that had obviously been chosen because I have a last name which suggests a certain racial background. I emailed the companies sending the magazines to cancel the subscriptions and found out who had placed the orders: Universal Subscriptions (search them), a junk mail company that collects people's personal info and uses it to spam them. They even have a specific form you can fill out to request they stop sending you junk mail and remove your name from their database.

I emailed e-Rewards about the junk mail I was getting, asking them if they had provided my information to anyone, and, tellingly, received no response at all.

Long review short - if you're ok with receiving lots of junk mail in your real-life mailbox, go ahead and sign up for e-Rewards. They'll be happy to sell all your personal details to the highest bidder!

I've had an account for years on their site. Their rewards aren't all that great, but they do have a lot of good magazines that you can get (or give) and for free so it's worth it to me to do a few short surveys every month. I have ordered Outside, Parents, Maxim, the Economist, Smithsonian... they have a lot of different types of magazines and it doesn't take much to earn the rewards. The surveys are easy, some are really short (and you only earn a buck or two) and others might take 20 minutes and you can earn up to $5 or so. I had one long (and surprisingly interesting) survey where I earned $8.50. The magazine subscriptions start at $10 and go up from there.

They also have gift certificates but for kind of obscure places. I did get a $25 off of a $75 purchase at ebags.com which was pretty cool. But the stores they have are ones I don't really shop at too often.

The only thing that is annoying is some of the emails for surveys I get and click on are already closed, like a few minutes after I get the email. I guess that's just how it works. I do like that you can pick how often you get survey emails and you don't have to do them obviously.