This story immediately made me think of the blood bank that devalued its loyalty program in 2014.
I admit I didn’t even know that 7-11 had a rewards program, which is good because if I did I might have been invested in the program and now I’d be really disappointed.
Here are the changes:
- Earning drops from 25 points per dollar down to 10.
- Instead of points expiring after one year of inactivity they’re moving to expiration after 90 days of inactivity.
- But don’t worry – new earning opportunities are coming that are non-specific and aren’t likely to make up for the reduction in base points-earning.
We are also adding additional ways for you to increase your points with additional bonus point opportunities on participating products; a chance to multiply points when buying certain products; and other ways to accelerate your rewards!
At least when the blood bank devalued its points you could still be saving a life by engaging in transactions with the program. Gas station nachos, on the other hand…
(HT: Scott G.)
My local store offered a free cup of coffee with the purchase of 6 cups. They’re less expensive than Dunkin Donut across the street, and the coffee is surprisingly good.
The changes are well within their rights. What I despise is the slimy use of the word “updating.” This is a “who cares?” program, but it’s a common tactic in corporate speak these days.
Damn. I was almost 7-11 Diamond and everything.
But will I still get my 7th Slurpee free?
In the current program you can redeem 1200 points for a single serve bag of M&Ms or similar candy, or a burger, or a hot dog.
I’m gonna cancel my 7-11 credit card. It’s no longer worth the $711 annual fee. But I’m gonna miss their free annual anniversary coffee. The good news, I heard McDonalds is offering a status match.
I’m less concerned with the points devaluation and more upset about the elite status changes. Gold members will no longer receive any of the following:
1) Complimentary Slurpee upgrades when cups are available (Anyone can still buy them ahead of time).
2) Elite member line at the register so you can get around that guy who spends 20 minutes choosing the same scratch ticket that he buys every day.
3) Fast-pass past the height chart at the door.
and, of course…
4) the fee waiver on the 7-11 credit card.
for all the mockery here it’s been a surprisingly valuable program…taking kids to the pool meant a lot of free slurpees last summer. Add into that the Halloween free slurpee coupons that still counted to the total and things got VERY cheap. They’ll see less business from me now 🙁
I’ve been buying my 40 oz cans of Old English there for four months now and almost had enough points for a breakfast burrito with e coli sauce, but they went and devalued the program with no notice.
Now I’ll be waiting another 3 months for the burrito! Time to just burn up the points on a Slurpee and status match over to Circle K. I’m done with 7-11.
Company’s seem blind to how changing rewards programs impacts customer behavior.
I remember Starbucks had a program some time ago, where one paid something like $50 and got 10% (or something like that) discount on coffee. I went nuts. I always made a beeline to Starbucks to buy beans and coffee. A year or so later they discontinued and went to a traditional points type of programs. Guess what, I couldn’t be bothered. While I still shop at Starbucks, from time to time. But I buy my beans from Whole foods (roasted fresh in the store!) and my coffee, well I don’t avoid Starbucks, but if there is another premium coffee place around the corner, I might try that instead.
There are people out there, who cared about the 7-11 program. Hard to get those people back.
Don’t get me started on the airline points programs.
In Vegas, my local Chevron has a comp program for slot players: free soda and a 6 pack of those little GEM donuts
So glad I became a free agent last year. Sometimes I still drink 7-11 coffee, but I also go to Wawa, Sheetz, Dunkin, Kum-n-Go, whatever makes sense based on location and schedule. Circle K lets you buy up to an extra large sometimes for just pennies.
The 7/11 slimline lids are unusable for more than three hours.
I also hear the new 7/11 CEO hasn’t even tried the coffee yet.
Some hilarious Comments here! I mean, really, who cares? If you do, sorry, you’re just tragic…..
Should investigate further. They don’t even award the bonus points for certain product purchases. Example is the powerade gatorade buy 4 get 800 bonus points. I routinely do this and never get the points. I have called brought it up in the store and nothing. Even the clerk admitted the same thing happens to him.
I just noticed today that they suddenly reduced points from 300 to 200 for buying a coffee and a ring donut, and, they changed it half way through the offers original exp date! The original 300 point offer expiration date was June 2019. That means I’ll be losing 100 points a day for the next 2 months or so! I want the 300 point offer back the way it was. Why do they do that? First the $25 to $10 reduction, now they’re reducing points before the offer even has a chance to reach it’s expiration date! That not nice at all.
To add insult to injury, now I’m only receiving 25 points for my daily morning bakery item and coffee purchase instead of the 100 points their promo page promises! I’ve been in touch with numerous
7-11 reps, I’ve sent out tons of emails with receipts, I’ve written letters with documentation…….. yet no one seems to be able to explain the problem no less rectify it! 7-11 customer service has to be
the most frustrating dept. I’ve ever dealt with. Yesterday I finally wrote to Joseph Depinto CEO at their 7-11 headquarters in Dallas. We’ll see what that brings.