Crown Shopping Rewards

[oldsthallmark]

Am I alone in being frustrated with the crown shopping rewards coupons?

I earned three coupons a year because I'm a platinum member because I buy ornaments. I rarely buy cards or anything else.

I just got a new coupon in the mail and again it's not usable on ornaments and it ends at the end of June. Last year my store quietly accepted the coupons for ornaments, but this year they're long expired by then! So it's not even a benefit to me.

[curt1108]

you are not alone.. and now that you cant even go to hallmark.com to buy anything, it is almost useless recieving those reward coupons..

[msu79gt82]

I agree to an extent. However we buy enough other stuff at Hallmark to use the rewards.

I am frustrated by the new discount offered for pre-purchasing 2008 ornaments sight unseen.

[oldsthallmark]

May 30, 2008 12:07:15 GMT -5 msu79gt82 said:

I am frustrated by the new discount offered for pre-purchasing 2008 ornaments sight unseen.

Is that just your Hallmark store? I hadn't heard about that.

[Ginny]

I know some stores discount, but many don't. Many years ago I got a discount based on the size of the pre-order, but I have not seen any discount offer around here in years. I no longer pre-order. I like to spread the purchases out over the last 5 months in order to purchase when it's most beneficial to me to qualify for various other promotions because of it.

[calamity]

If you have a Reward Certificate you don't plan to use before it expires, you can ask to have the points redeposited in your Crown Rewards account so they won't be lost. The catch is, depending on when you make the request and when your next Reward Certificate is scheduled, you may not get those points back in the form of a certificate right away. I redeposited a $5 certificate at the end of May but my next certificate was issued in June and was based on points accumlated up to May. So I guess I have to wait 'til my "next" next certificate before those points will be cashed in again. (I did check my account and the redeposited points are there. It'd been nice to get them back in time for Ornament Premiere though.)

There's no Hallmark store in my town anymore so I have to go to the one in the city where I work. It was sort of a lucky break for me though because I discovered this other store gave a 15% discount on ornament purchases totaling over $100.00. And that was good for the year, meaning if you buy $100 worth of ornaments in July, they'd put your name on a list and you'd get 15% off all subsequent ornament purchases up to Christmas. This year they're still going to give the volume discount for purchases of $100+ (pre-orders aren't required) but haven't announced whether they'll honor that for later sales too. One other thing - a women working at a different Hallmark store once told me that since their shop was company-owned, they would accept expired Reward Certificates. I never knew about any of this stuff until various clerks were nice enough to tell me so it wouldn't hurt to ask if your stores have any of the same policies.

P.S. This is my first post here (hi!). Sorry it's so long!

[Ginny]

Yes, ALL stores were advised by Hallmark at least a year or two ago to accept expired Crown Rewards certificates. I realize some refuse to do it, but you could always call 1-800-Hallmark and report any that refuse. Their rep will probably have a talk with them about it then. I forgot how many months expired they can be.

Also, at anytime that you have accumulated at least 3,000 points in your account, you can request online or on the phone for a $10 certificate to be sent to you. You don't have to wait until the next regular mailing. It usually only takes a week for them to send you what you request.

(I do realize the original topic was not about Crown Reward certificates, but instead those reward coupons .... but just responding to the most recent posts. As for those reward coupons, they've been pretty much useless to most from what I've heard.)

[oldsthallmark]

Since we are talking about certificates now has everyone gotten theirs for June?

The only piece of Hallmark mail I've gotten is a fold out flyer for Premiere. I took it in to my store and was talking the manager and she said that becaause I got that particular flyer that meant I wasn't getting a certificate this time. Those who were got a bigger one with the certificate attached to the front page.

On Hallmark's website it shows I had one coming in June, which is why I was wondering about everyone else.

[oldsthallmark]

I finally got my Gold Crown mail with my certificate with details about all the weekend bonus points! It's 2 days after it's all over now. Great!

[setter]

My Gold Crown store actually let me use two of my reward coupons AND gave me the 10% discount for pre-ordering. I wonder if the stores all have different policies?

[claudia]

Setter, count yourself lucky to get 10% off of your pre-order. I have pre-ordered Hallmark ornaments for years and never received any discounts.

[nicki]

Jul 15, 2008 8:49:11 GMT -5 oldsthallmark said:

I finally got my Gold Crown mail with my certificate with details about all the weekend bonus points! It's 2 days after it's all over now. Great!

Actually, it's not too late to get the Premier Bonus Points on ornament purchases. The Bonus points offer ends on July 20th....so if there is another ornament you'd like to use that certificate to purchase, go for it.
Otherwise, I'll hope you find many others you'd like when the Oct and Nov ornaments are released!

[oldsthallmark]

Jul 16, 2008 20:50:52 GMT -5 nicki said:

Actually, it's not too late to get the Premier Bonus Points on ornament purchases. The Bonus points offer ends on July 20th....so if there is another ornament you'd like to use that certificate to purchase, go for it.

I guess I should have said too late for the best bonus points.

I gota call from a friend this week who told me she had totally forgotten about premiere this year because she had not got a single thing from Hallmark about it. She got two mailers on tuesday and went to her store and all the limiteds she wanted were long gone.

I told her about the kansas city event and hope she will still get the special room rate. She is paying for club membership so seems like she should get her courier on time.

[Ginny]

I and several others that I know of also were surprised to receive one of the Premiere flyers AFTER premiere.

[nicki]

Aug 3, 2008 11:09:26 GMT -5 Ginny said:

I and several others that I know of also were surprised to receive one of the Premiere flyer's AFTER premiere.

I would guess it was a bulk mail problem...
The timing on bulk mail can be tricky. Usually they do go out and arrive in a timely manner, but the Post Office has a longer window of time to process them than 1st Class Mail, so there can be delays which can be a problem for time sensitive mailers.