Ralphs grocery company operates two rewards programs where they automatically track your purchases with your loyalty club card and reward you once you have spent either a $100 on pet items or $200 on 750 ml. Bottles of wine. They issue this reward onto your loyalty card and then require you to purchase an additional $9 on pet items or $10 on 750 ml. Bottles of wine. Once you have met all the requirements of the program, they tell you that you must use your club card to redeem the certificate. Once you have done that they do not keep their promise in redeeming the rewards certificate.
This certificate is at the bottom of your receipt from the order which you earned it in and contains an expiration date of less than a month. This expiration date is a lie and they don't expire. Every certificate which is issued chain wide all have the same number attached to it and all have the same number to redeem them. This rewards program is an ongoing program which doesn't end or expire. These certificates will accumulate on your club card and will never be redeemed by the company automatically, as they were issued. Any certificates not redeemed represent a profit for the company, this is why they want the customer to think they expire.
Not only do they not want the customer to redeem they, they have also taken away the customers money which they have earned by purchasing products at their stores. These customers, like myself, will never even have the chance to earn these rewards even after spending hundreds of dollars in their stores.
Every time I have shopped at ralphs and purchased pet items, I look at the bottom of my receipt to see how much money I have earned towards my certificate and they have taken away all my money and set the total back to zero. If you go to their web site www.ralphs.com you will see how the program works. You must go to their pet club page to see the details. They also use this program to fire employees who are honest with the customers in giving them their earned rewards which they are entitled to.
I know of many customers who had over 20 certificates on their club card and never received one them in the form of savings off their bill. The company fails to inform most of their loyal customers about the programs when they earn their reward.
The customers are automatically enrolled in this program, automatically issued these rewards, and then not automatically rewarded. I would say one out of five certificates are actually redeemed and the rest are kept by the company as tax free income which no one knows about. Lets not forget about the customers who don't speak English, which is a large number in So. Cal., they will never receive their rewards or even know how the company is using them in order to profit. This is some kind of rewards program, for the company not the customer.
If you are a ralphs shopper and purchase pet items or 750 ml. Bottles of wine, you can call the ralphs club card hotline M-F 7am.-4pm. To see how many reward certificates you have earned and not redeemed.
One last thing, the company also has a senior rewards program which is operated properly and automatically rewards the customer once they have met the requirements of the program. This way the customer does not have to carry around a receipt, with a certificate attached to the bottom, with them until the next time they shop, and then not forget to give that same receipt to the cashier once they have purchased the additional product required. Most customers can't even remember to bring their grocery bags into the store so they may save the environment!
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