Spot Rewards and 1 Card reward points - how do they work?

[Argus Tuft]

Not sure where to post this...

I have a 1 card, use it for shopping at Central, Tops, yada yada.

On my Tops receipts, it shows me how many Spot rewards points I have from using my 1 Card, but when I log in and check on the 1 Card website, there are bugger all points in my balance.

Do they have to be transferred somehow?

Hardly critical stuff I know, just curious if anyone knows how the programs work. Can't find any info on the Tops site, and in the 1 Card online account I can see my balance but it won't show transactions.

Edited May 9, 2015 by Argus Tuft

[mogandave]

When you get to 1,000,000 you get a pen.

[NancyL]

Stop by the customer service counter at both Tops and Central and be sure they have recorded your address and mobile number accurately. That way you'll receive glossy publications from Central Department Store and trashy-looking ones from Tops advertising stuff you don't want and numerous SMS messages on your mobile.

And sometimes you'll get a message from Tops about some valuable voucher that was returned due to lack of a "proper address" Huh? What about all the junk mail from them that makes it thru?

When I go to the customer service counter at Tops and show them the SMS about the returned voucher, three of them look at their computer, scratch their head about what was wrong with my address on file and decide to give me a bottle of hair conditioner as a consolation prize.

Edited May 11, 2015 by NancyL

[Argus Tuft]

Thanks for the very helpful and sincere posts so far.

Now can any non-troll perhaps offer something constructive to assist my query?

[partington]

Don't know about why your points don't show upon the website as I have never bothered to check mine, so don't know if they are added as they are acquired or at fixed intervals.

However after a certain period of using your card they will send you mail containing a voucher that can be used just like money at Tops, the amount of which is dependent on how many points you have accumulated in that period. Mine is usually about 200B.

Also in that envelope will be a set of coupons giving you a discount say 40 or 50 baht on any purchase above 500 baht in Tops, and some giving you proportionately greater discounts for larger purchases. I usually use about one of these then forget about them until expired.

Edited May 11, 2015 by partington

[Argus Tuft]

Thanks for this. Sounds similar to the Tesco membership - I get vouchers twice a year.

Haven't seen any Tops ones, although I am getting Central brochures from time to time.

I'll visit Tops and see what they say. Sounds like there might be some issue between my contact details for the 1 Card vs Tops itself, although I thought they were linked.

[NancyL]

Don't know about why your points don't show upon the website as I have never bothered to check mine, so don't know if they are added as they are acquired or at fixed intervals.

However after a certain period of using your card they will send you mail containing a voucher that can be used just like money at Tops, the amount of which is dependent on how many points you have accumulated in that period. Mine is usually about 200B.

Also in that envelope will be a set of coupons giving you a discount of 40 or 50 baht on any purchase above 500 baht in Tops. I usually use about one of these then forget about them until expired.

I think I got the better deal with the bottle of hair conditioner.

Seriously, though, back when we first retired I actually had time on my hands and attempted to do an in-depth study of this. The best place to attempt to get information is at customer service counters in Bangkok. Once I actually scored some free movie tickets by turning in something like 10,000,000 points from my Central card. It was for the IMAX so I guess it was worth it.

I've never attempted to use their website to look at my account balance. After all, I'm retired and everyone knows the most we retirees can do with the computer is to check email, look at our grandkids Facebook pages and post on Thai Visa.

[mogandave]

I get a cash voucher from Lotus every month.

[lkn]

Went to Robinson today, the cashier asked if I wanted to use my points for a 500 baht discount.

 

Sure, so we had to go to another desk where I had to give them my passport number. Unfortunately it did not work, so we had to go to customer service on another floor. At customer service they could confirm that my card is registered with a wrong passport number, so they had to call customer support (on my behalf) to get it changed, but gave up after having been on hold for 20 or so minutes.

 

So no discount, but I learned what these points actually are.

 

You get 1 point for every 25 baht you spend (except PowerBuy and some other store, where you need to spend 50 baht to get 1 point).

 

When you have 800 points, you can exchange them for a 100 baht coupon (except Tops and some other store I think, which requires 900 points for a 100 baht coupon).

 

So one redeemed point has a cash value of 0.125 baht, and we need to spend 25 baht to get this point, meaning that the card is (if you redeem your points before they expire) giving us a 0.5% discount (in addition to the 5% discount on select non-discounted items in Central and Robinson).

 

 

Or put another way, you need to spend 200,000 baht with participating stores to get back 1,000 baht in coupons.

 

It is also possible to use points for various special promotions, but looking over the available options, it seems that going for the cash coupons is generally the better choice.

 

[fruitman]

They use very complicated systems for the rewards....i gave up trying to understand them cause i was always wrong.

 

What does work though is the One expat card...bring your passport and apply for one, you get 5% discount on full priced items..

 

I get so tired of all those cards, if you go to Tops EVERYBODY mentions their phonenumber cause they didn't bring the card..but that takes ages and that's why they have such long qeueu's at the cashiers.

[lkn]

8 hours ago, fruitman said:

What does work though is the One expat card...bring your passport and apply for one, you get 5% discount on full priced items.

 

Excluding electronics and possibly also some other groups of products, and is anything ever full price?

 

You can’t go near anything in Central without a sales clerk appearing and telling you “discount 20%”.

 

It is by the way worth installing The-1-App if you want to avoid citing your phone number, as it will have a barcode for them to scan (of course it won’t help with the queues in Tops, where there is btw no 5% discount for using the card).

[SaintLouisBlues]

Just now, lkn said:

You can’t go near anything in Central without a sales clerk appearing and telling you “discount 20%”.

Moreover in Tops the cashier will always ask if you have "member card" and if you say no they will enter a card number anyway before they even start scanning. I'm guessing it's their card number and they somehow gain benefits from doing so. I haven't found that so in Tesco Lotus; they usually don't ask and I have to hand my card over

[georgemandm]

On 11/05/2015 at 9:37 PM, Argus Tuft said:

Thanks for the very helpful and sincere posts so far.

Now can any non-troll perhaps offer something constructive to assist my query?

Are you joking you care about reward points in thailand.

you most be doing in very hard if you care about bs reward points in thailand.

you ask for  opinion and you get them good or bad .

[fruitman]

4 hours ago, lkn said:

 

Excluding electronics and possibly also some other groups of products, and is anything ever full price?

 

You can’t go near anything in Central without a sales clerk appearing and telling you “discount 20%”.

 

It is by the way worth installing The-1-App if you want to avoid citing your phone number, as it will have a barcode for them to scan (of course it won’t help with the queues in Tops, where there is btw no 5% discount for using the card).

 

I don't know which card it is but my wife gets discount in Tops and other supermarkets.

 

I agree about the always in sale items, it's just fake. But many times they do have real sale and if the sales doesn't tell you we will never know it. They don't have signs so you have to ask them i guess which i won't do

[GarryP]

Used accumulated points to get discounts on goods bought in Tops. 4,000 points represents 500 Baht I believe. Depending on when you earned your points, some will be deducted at the end of the year due to passing their use by date. Actually, I save quite a bit using the points and the vouchers sent to members (actually the girlfriend is a voucher queen).  

[lkn]

4 hours ago, GarryP said:

4,000 points represents 500 Baht I believe. Depending on when you earned your points, some will be deducted at the end of the year due to passing their use by date.

 

Points expire after two years. And yes, 800 point = 100 baht ⇒ 4,000 points = 500 baht.

 

But to earn 4,000 points you need to spend 100,000 baht, so relative to what you have spent, 500 baht is hardly a big saving.

 

Unfamiliar with the coupons mailed out by Tops, so I won’t rule out that these are actually worth something real.