Amid the ongoing Loblaws boycott, some Canadians report receiving offers of 60,000 PC Optimum points (worth $60) after trying to close their PC Optimum accounts.
As spotted by Daily Hive, some users on the ‘r/loblawsisoutofcontrol’ subreddit shared emails they received after attempting to cancel PC Optimum accounts. For example, Redditor ‘average_legend‘ posted a screenshot of an email offering them 60,000 Optimum points to keep their Optimum account. The user’s account had a balance of zero points at the time.
Average_legend said they attempted to claim the 60,000 points but, in a follow-up post, said they received another email cancelling the account without making good on the points offer. The Redditor suggested that the PC Optimum loyalty team saw the original post, which included their case number, and pulled the offer.
Another Redditor by the name of ‘SaintBananaDuck‘ also received an offer of 60,000 Optimum points. They took the points and spent them to get close to $60 worth of wine, chips and dip, and other snacks. After redeeming the points, they went back and cancelled their account.
A Loblaws spokesperson told Daily Hive that the company doesn’t have a program to offer points to people who want to close their account, but it generally offers “goodwill points” in response to poor in-store experiences and other issues.
This comes amid an ongoing boycott of Loblaws-owned stores, such as No Frills, Superstore, Shoppers Drug Mart, and others. Canadians fed up with the cost of groceries are trying to avoid spending money at Loblaws-owned stores to send a message.
There’s some debate on the r/loblawsisoutofcontrol subreddit about whether to use points during the boycott or not. Some view spending points instead of money as a double whammy, especially if they’re spent on loss leaders — items that the company will take a loss on to draw in customers. Others note that companies hold points as deferred revenue liability on the balance sheet, and they become revenue once used. Instead, they recommend people not use points during the boycott, though it’s still recommended to use them up before cancelling an account, which helps the company’s bottom line.
Image credit: Shutterstock
Source: Reddit, (2), (3) Via: Daily Hive
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