A great reward program with a flawed system and even worse customer service when you ask "non-standard" Questions

I normally don’t post publicly about Cashback and Reward Programs or do public complaints about a company. In this case, I am at the end of my patience and ways to communicate with @Discovery.

Over the view years and especially the last two years I have opened somewhere in the range of 50-100 of Support-Tickets. Some, I am still waiting for a response. Especially the ones where I am asking talk to someone other than a Call Center Agent. You will see later in my story, why.

First of all, let me explain where I am coming from. I would call myself a “power-user” when it comes to Reward Programs. I understand the program, the requirements, and my rewards extremely well. Most of the time even better than some of the Call Center Agents I had to deal with.

I used eBucks and Vitality to its maximum potential until eBucks became unattractive to use. Low Cashbacks and your “discount” level of 40% can only be app**** to pretty much-overpriced articles you can buy for the same or less by a 5min google search. @ebucks @FNB – be better!

Vitality (on paper) is still an attractive reward Program. That is even the case after reducing the great benefits from Vitality points to the much lesser valued Discovery Miles.

Now, as I said, on paper it's great, however over the last 2 years, I regularly had to contact Vitality as “something” went wrong. Here some example of my typical Queries:

• Food Cashback not registered and too low

• Petrol Cashback not registered and too low

• Vitality Active Points not counted against my Status

Once I noticed a discrepancy you have to notify Vitality and here is how does the process work:

1. I call or my preferred option is to eMail with my concern || BTW. Vitality removed their eMail address from their Website.

2. After 3 days of no response, I follow up with another eMail.

3. Most of the time I have to follow up another 2-5 times before an Agent calls me at a random time where I am not available OR I get an eMail with a standard answer which doesn’t address my issue.

4. Rinse, repeat for about 3 times before I can speak to someone || At that stage I am already a week – a month or longer in the process.

5. Now, I have the pleasure to speak to an agent. They are very lovely and trying their best, but after going through that process so many times I know that their capabilities are limited.

a. First, they will check what is wrong.

b. Then, I have to send Proof that my claim I am doing is correct by sending them the mentioned slips || Here is already my first issue with that…. How many of you are keeping your PnP or BP slips for over a month to just proof Vitality that they are wrong?

6. After I now have proven my “innocents” and Vitality’s Failure, they take their sweet time to correct it.

7. I likely have to follow up twice as they nor I can see the update in the system as it's only reflecting in the next cycle || Fun Fact: You as a user still can’t see if they did update the system as your old Reward Dashboard won’t show it. So you have to triple check again with an Agent to make sure it's now paid.

It can go faster or even slower. Overall it is a very lengthy and annoying process for me as a client. I do understand the need to ensure that no false claims were made by any customer, but I believe there must be exceptions like in my situation.

I have proven that Vitality’s System is flawed in so many ways and each and every time they needed to rectify their mistakes. EVERY single time.

I went through the process so many times and showed proof that I am not lying, by providing Slip or other documentation which showed my claims were justified. After all my calls I hear from the Agent: “We are very sorry”. After the third time… a “Sorry” doesn’t cut it anymore. Really, it doesn’t.

The negative impact on me as a client can be massive. E.g. Last year, the system didn’t register my Vitality Active Points when I went to the gym. The reason was that the system picked up two data points: Gym Visit and Fitbit Steps. I had reached my max Points for Steps so it wouldn’t count against my Status Points. I had to call (again) and had to prove to your agent for the last 3 months, which dates he needs correct, and to delete the Fitbit data to register my 100 Gym Visit points.

That “little flaw” alone would have cost me my Diamond Status, with all the extra benefits and discounts.

Let's not talk about all the Cashback not given because I haven’t noticed it or didn’t have the right slips anymore. It's thousands of Rands.

Here my request to you @Vitality :

You need to find a way to resolve this issue quickly and for good. I have requested to speak to someone who can resolve it, but the only thing I got is false promises by your Call Center Agent that their Manager, the Complains department and and and who are going to contact me. As you can imagine, it's now weeks and months ago.

This is bad customer service and an even worse customer experience. Promising great Deals with your Vitality Program, but when put to test you can’t deliver.