Adidas' Rewards Are Unrewarding

In this tight economic climate, where customers work hard for each note in their pocket, a company that promises rewards and fails to deliver deserves to be publicly called out.

Adidas South Africa offers an incentivised tier-reward system. The more you spend, the higher the tier. And at each new level, you are sent a discount code voucher.

I have bought my husband so many full-price pairs of gazelles and spezials that I reached the top tier, Tier 4, in under 6 months.

I have received 3 vouchers. Not a single one worked.

To date I haven't bothered questioning it. It was too much hassle. But over the weekend I wanted to buy - another - pair of shoes for him. I tried to apply the newly-sent discount code, and as usual, it did not work. This time I queried it.

Finally, they rep**** with >>> Greetings from adidas and thank you for your response. This is regarding your recent query concerning the voucher. The attachment you shared shows that you are trying to redeem the voucher on new arrival full-price product and it is one of the restricted products for voucher redemption. We thank you for your patience and understanding in this situation Kind regards, Adidas Team<<<

No. I do not understand. I don't want sale items. I don't wait for sales. I want this now. Before it sells out. Please and thank you.

And so, Adidas, in a world that has become a global village, where anyone can buy whatever they want, from wherever; and in a competitive climate where other companies offer actual rewards for currency spent, perhaps your executives and management need to go back to the drawing board.

People are tired of being taken advantage of.

Yours sincerely, Big mistake. Big. Huge. I need to go shopping now.

{To those of you out there, if you want to purchase Adidas products, by all means do so. They are good. They are comfortable. But do not be fooled into thinking the rewards and incentives are commensurate. There are caveats aplenty.}