Recent Changes Make This Site Iffy at Best
Written: Mar 31 '01 (Updated May 06 '01)
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The Bottom Line
Etour has done away with their rewards program as of May 4, 2001. I currently don't recommend Etour to anyone who wants to earn rewards.
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| Full Review |
Once upon a time, I loved Etour. In fact, it has only been in the last few weeks that I have been questioning my usage of Etour. I have Etour as my homepage and enjoy it.
Let's first talk about what Etour is. You sign up with Etour to earn points which can then be redeemed for gift certificates and the like. Once signed in to Etour, the site takes you to a site which falls into one of the categories that you've chosen in your preferences. For example, they have directed me to great kayaking and mountain climbing sites. The "Wacky and Oddly Useful" category has sites which are exactly that -- and fun, too. This is a definite plus. There are so many sites in cyberland these days that trying to explore them on your own can sometimes be a bit of a minefield. Etour cuts through the minefield and breaks it down into tiny steps. Very rarely is there an error when you are directed to another site (unlike other similar programs I've used). Occasionally, I find sites that are low quality but I usually just move on and forget about them (unless they are really bad, in which case I rate them thumbs down and then move on).
Points are earned with each site you go to in a day, up to four per day. At 20 points a site, you can earn up to 80 points a day. Some days, I go to 4 sites, some days I don't even go to one. It just depends on my web activity for the day. I use Etour as my homepage and so usually, unless I am in a hurry, I get at least one site in per day. That means that points add up at a respectable rate. The average number of points you need for redemption is 5000. That will give you a $10 gift certificate for a number of different places.
The way that I approach Etour makes it super easy to use. It is my homepage, so unless I move on before letting the page load, I get one click. At the bottom of my browser is a navigational bar which lets me move to another site, bookmark a site, go to the Etour homepage (and check points, update my account, etc.), rate the site that I am viewing, or a few other things. Additionally, it is easy to send a site to other people by email using the navigational bar. I occasionally do come across sites that I know others would love and like to send them on to people. If that person then signs up for Etour, I get 400 points. No pressure from me for them to sign up as my main motivation in sending the link is their enjoyment.
In November or December 2000, I redeemed some points for free tickets to AMC Movie Theatres and free drinks and popcorn. The process was easy and I received my coupons within a reasonable amount of time. The coupons were easy and stress-free to use and I could go to any movie, any time that I wanted.
Now, starting in March 2001, this process has changed. I discovered the change because I wanted to check how close I was to earning a $25 gift certificate. I knew I was within a few hundred points but didn't remember quite how many points I needed. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that they no longer had $25 gift certificates. Most of the "prizes" were worth $10 except the AMC package, which was the same as before. Okay. I can deal with that if it weren't for one teeny, tiny change in their redemption policy.
They now only offer a limited number of prizes per week from each sponsor. For example, there are only 5 AMC packages offered each week. Overall, there are less than 2000 "prizes" each week offered. Of these, about 500 are basically so unpopular that almost no one wants them and they aren't used. The numbers are reset at 2 p.m. EST on Saturday. So, if you aren't sitting at your computer at 2 p.m. EST on Saturday, ready to refresh the page and choose what you want, you can either have the unpopular prizes or nothing. For me, that means noon on Saturday. I have so many better things that I could be doing at noon on my day off.
As this is a new policy, I am willing to give Etour the benefit of the doubt and some time to work out the gliches (and respond to the numerous complaints that I am sure that they are receiving). With the policy as it currently stands, I say redeem if you can and then bail. If you haven't joined, don't waste your time right now unless the only thing you are looking for is cool sites to play on.
Saturday, March 31, 2001 3:00 p.m. EST
UPDATE: I decided, being home and curious as to how hard it would be to redeem my points, to give it a try today. I made it to the redeem screen for one of the rewards but when I clicked to "Send Request" I got the lovely hourglass and have had it for almost an hour now. Was my request processed? Your guess is as good as mine but I am sure that if it didn't, the prize is no longer available. SIGH. Etour used to be such a great site.
3:30 p.m. EST
UPDATE #2: Well, after an hour and a half of hanging out, I finally got the "page cannot be displayed" page. So, I wandered over to my points history and have found that no points have been subtracted. I guess my attempt to cash in was a big ol' bust. I wonder what the trick is. I could hypothesize for forever but I think I'll just move on with my day knowing that I have all these points which are now valueless.
4/3/01 3:30 a.m. EST
UPDATE #3: When I finished writing my original review three days ago, I sent a copy of the link to Customer Service. I received the generic, auto-reply response almost immediately. Today, I received this personal reply.
"Thank you for writing Customer Support at eTour.com.
We understand your frustration with the current Tourpoints
redemption system. Currently, we are working to implement a better system that will still allow us to keep the Reward Partners that members have made clear they want. Please bear with us for the next several weeks until we can get the
new system in place.
Thank you for your patience and have a great day!"
So, for what it is worth, it seems like they are trying to fix the problems. I certainly hope so. As stated before, I really did like Etour. I'll keep you posted.
May 6, 2001
I've been keeping a gentle eye on Etour since receiving this last email. Today, when I logged on, there was this message:
"Effective May 4, 2001, eTour is ceasing its member rewards ("TourPoints") program. See rewards page for more details."
Upon going to the rewards page, there was this message:
"Dear eTour Members:
As of Friday, May 4, 2001, eTour is ceasing its member rewards ("TourPoints") program. If you believe that you qualify for any of the rewards below, please send an email to rewards@corp.etour.com. We apologize for any inconvenience."
So I've sent them an email asking for them to honor my TourPoints but I am not holding my breath. With this change, I'm knocking my rating down a notch. It wasn't that high to begin with but I do still like the quality of the sites that show up so I am not rating it a one-star. I'll keep you posted.
Recommended:
No
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About the Author
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
Reviews written: 20
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me: "Follow your bliss."
--Joseph Campbell
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