The glory days of iCoke.ca have indeed passed us by.

[thebitterguy]

Man, when you say something like that it totally sounds like an Onion headline, doesn't it?

Anyway, I noticed that iCoke.ca has an 'account history' tab that lets you see what has happened in the history of your account. Which makes sense.

But apparently the "point cost" (you get points off of Coke product bottlecap liners, and you can redeem them for various thingies and knick knacks) have gone way up. Seriously, the cost for a couple movie passes has more than doubled this summer

I strongly suspect this is due to the fact they've doubled the amount of points you get from a bottle. So now, you get twice as many points from a bottle, but you get less than half as much.

Is there a technical term for this, other than "Oh, man, you should see the look on your face!"

I'm not sure if this is just them playing silly buggers, or if they honestly think people won't pay attention. But this is the douchebaggiest thing I've ever seen a loyalty program do.

Comments

[absinthe-dot-ca.livejournal.com]

It's no worse than the Coke auction thing they ran a few summers back - I logged into it with a largish handful of bottle cap liners (maybe 500 Coke points?), thinking I could at least get some random little trinket. Everything on there was like a million points - I'd have had to drink enough Coke to turn an entire town into diabetics to get anything.

[bandersnitch.livejournal.com]

Cadbury Easter Creme Eggs didnt get smaller - You got Bigger!!

This year the eggs cost the same and are 60% the size they once were.

[canker-canison.livejournal.com]

I stopped using the Coke points. It costs a fortune anyway for anything halfway decent, and they're always out of stock.

[uhlrik.livejournal.com]

IIRC, the technical term for that is "short-sizing" - it's a trick that companies that sell food items and packets of pretty much anything pull as an alternative to raising the cost-per-item. They keep the same price but reduce the item size or how much is in the packet. Have you noticed how bags of chips have an ever-increasing amount of open air in them compared to chips? Same thing.

[greenlion.livejournal.com]

On the other side of the beverage aisle, my third CD acquired with Pepsi points is in the mail.

[thebitterguy]

I'm still using them. It helps that the entire office knows I collect them, so I get a few caps on my desk every day or so.

Of course, they now won't let you use more than 10 a week, but I have broad shoulders on which they can pile further injustices.

[thebitterguy]

Yeah, the really good stuff (Olympic hoodies) are all hundreds of thousands of points, and now they won't let you put in more than ten codes a week. So now, even if you can get lots of points, you can't really use them.

Why not just put points on bags of sugar?

[michaelgorman.net (from livejournal.com)]

This would not only mean I wouldn't need to overdose on Caffeine,it would also look much cooler on a portable mirror.

[canker-canison.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately for me, I do not like Pepsi. I grew up in a Coke house; my wife in a Pepsi house. It's like the Montagues and the Capulets up in here!

[canker-canison.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was annoying too.