BDO Rewards: A scam?

I have been informed by several BDO depositors that their rewards points were not credited. BDO keeps on advertising the said loyalty program on TV, radio, and print for several months now, but points are not given. Some enrolments have not been processed, even if they have qualifed months ago.

Flyers have been distributed in all BDO branches, with the following information:

Qualified customers:
- depositors who have a SA or CA with a maintaining balance of P10,000
- depositors who have a UITF account
- BDO or Equitable credit card holders

Points distribution:
- 10 welcome points
- 20 points for a P50,000 deposit
- 2 points for every P5,000 in excess of P50,000
- 10 points for 1st time enrolment of bills for bills payment
- 4 points for phone banking / mobile banking bills payment (min. of P400/transaction)
- and many other points incentives for availing other BDO services

Apparently, upon doing some of the transactions, these depositors didn't get the points as promised. Only the points earned upon presenting the card when purchasing at SM were credited. (and that is a non-BDO transaction). They have forwarded this concern to the BDO Rewards hotline, but they were informed that there is an ongoing “systems upgrade” that resulted to delays in crediting points, especially in the months of May, June, and July. The months of August and September were no different too; no points were credited, according to the depositors.

And the member acquisition program went on and on... with commercials on TV, radio, and print...

... and so did the complaints, follow-ups, and @$#^$&%* of disgruntled depositors...

And guess what? Whatta surprise to them! After maintaining the P50,000 deposit for months with just a measly 0.60% net interest on savings, and waiting for their accounts to get enrolled in the program, depositors are now being informed that points have been lowered! That really pissed off a lot of people. BDO released such a “rewarding” points scheme, lured thousands of depositors to pour in P50,000 into the bank, delayed the enrolment processing of qualified applicants, snubbed the crediting of higher points, and now turns its back to its customers by cutting down on the points they were promised with!

I find it really “baduy” for people to get crazy about collecting points. But what can we do? It's the BDO-SM marketing might. Remember the TV commercial “Points! Points! Poiiiiiints!”? The man going crazy, shouting in front of the tellers just because of the BDO Rewards points he earned? Yeah, it sure is “baduy”, it's crazy—I'm referring to the commercial and the loyalty points program, in general. But it would be crazier for people to fall into this BDO trap once again, after experiencing the BDO Rewards “scam”.

They now say that we should never trust BDO. They never give something for the benefit of their customers. Remember one of their older TV ads? “Because your time is more important than MONEY...” Ha ha ha! Anong drama yan?

For BDO, all is money. All is to their advantage. A common joke among SM shoppers is: “Do you have an SM Disadvantage Card?”. But right now, depositors and shoppers think of it as more than just 'Disadvantage', but rather, an “SM Take Advantage Card.”

SM Advantage and BDO Rewards cardholders may recall having experienced their points being deducted because of an automatic enrolment in an unpopular insurance firm. SM Advantage claims that the cardholders need to fill out a form so that they may be “de-enrolled” from the insurance program.

Hmmm... What was that? Martial Law? You have no choice but to do business with SM's co-advantageous partners? And it is the cardholder's responsibility to submit a request in case he chooses to opt-out in a mandatory availment of insurance?

Another thing... you might have experienced receiving calls, numerous calls from Philam, offering another insurance. Where did they get our contact numbers? It's simple. SM-BDO sold our personal information to them! And on top of that, SM-BDO would also get a commission in case you availed of the Philam offer.

Now, tell me, are we still in a democracy?