Memolink is Rapidly Disappearing From the Radar Screen
Written: Nov 17 '01
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The Bottom Line
Don’t waste your time. The next major change will probably be bankruptcy.
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| Full Review |
At one time Memolink was a fairly good program for earning gift certificates. It was simple, easy to understand, and reliable. It is still simple and easy to understand but about a year ago it started becoming not so reliable. I have also noticed that the reviews on Epinions rated very helpful and featured for information about Memolink are outdated. There are a few recent reviews addressing new developments but they are rated helpful or lower and do not get seen as much. I would encourage anyone with a featured VH review to go back and update it.
There are still several ways to earn points at Memolink. They have a daily trivia, a few click throughs to other web sites each day, signing up for offers, shopping through their sponsors, occasional surveys. As I write this, they also have a search option but this seems to come and go and the points seem to vary weekly.
Memolink is fairly quick at crediting points. The trivia gets credited over night and the click throughs get credited immediately. When I shopped through them I had my points credited in less than 30 days. The only time I consistently have a problem getting points credited is for searches. They have had that search function off and on for a year and I never get my points unless I write email after email and document every thing.
A daily visit to Memolink might earn a member 5 points for trivia, 5 points for the site of the day and 5 to 10 points for visiting other web sites. If you can get the searches to credit, at this time you can earn 6 points per day (2 points for each of 3 searches). With a few sign ups or by participating in an offer a member may be able to get 20 to 25 points a day on average. Shopping through the site brings from 7 to 25 points per dollar spent or a lump sum amount from 300 points and up.
The list of prizes at the site includes restaurant gift certificates (such as Olive Garden, Wendy’s, Chili’s), store gift certificates (such as Best Buys, Barnes and Noble, and Wal-Mart) magazines, phone cards, and donations to the Red Cross. The home page lists 177 available prizes and they even have the option of receiving cash. The following is a list of the APPROXIMATE number of points needed for a gift certificate. (Note: it takes more points to receive the same value of cash.)
$10 gift certificate 1800 points
$20 gift certificate 3400 points
$25 gift certificate 4300 points
$30 gift certificate 5000 points
It takes about two and a half months of clicking (not shopping) to get a $10 gift certificate.
But the problem with Memolink is that they do not ship the gift certificates in a timely manner. This came to light last year when many members ordered gift certificates in the fall hoping to have them by Christmas. At the time the web site proclaimed its redemption time as six weeks. In spring of 2001, there was a general uproar from members who had not yet received their gift certificates after four months or more. Memolink management solved this problem by coming up with a new redemption schedule (dragging some redemptions out to six or seven months), awarding extra points to those who had to wait, and promising future redemption would be filled in four weeks.
I must say that at first this worked out fine. I had redeemed in February and received the gift certificate in September. I redeemed again in August and received that gift certificate in October. But that was not exactly four weeks. By now the members were starting to notice another problem. Memolink would list a prize as “filled” within the published time frame and yet the member would not receive it for another four weeks after it was filled. This, too, has caused a bit of an uproar. The US Postal Service isn’t that slow.
This past week has Memolink has outdone themselves in the “alienation of members” department. Many members received an email telling them that recent redemptions could take up to over one year to fill (and another four weeks to ship, right?). The exact schedule is
April 2001 Prizes filled by May 31st, 2002
May 2001 Prizes filled by July 31st, 2002
June 2001 Prizes filled by September 30th, 2002
July 2001 Prizes filled by November 30th, 2002
August 2001 Prizes filled by December 31st, 2002
They also stated that all redemptions after December 10 would be filled in 4 to 6 weeks.
It would seem to me that the right, moral, and ethical thing to do is fill the gift certificate orders in the order the requests were received instead of making some people wait 16 months for their prize while others, who order later, get a prize in four weeks. When the members redeemed in April, May, June, July, and August were told they would get their gift certificates in 12 to 16 weeks. Now they find out it will actually take over a year.
With this in mind, I cannot, in good conscience, recommend this program. There are plenty of easy point earning opportunities but what good are the points? Why waste your time if you can’t get a prize? To summarize the problems with Memolink:
Memolink has a tendency to change the rules of the game without prior notice.
Memolink does not use a “first come, first served” system.
Memolink takes advantage of their older, loyal members so as to benefit newer, more recent members.
The future for Memolink and their members can only be worse.
Recommended:
No
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About the Author
Member: Colleen Farley
Location: Lubbock, TX
Reviews written: 146
Trusted by: 146 members
About Me: Happily married, mostly retired, and addicted to the internet.
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