My Coke Rewards leaves us with cliffhangers

I have mentioned the My Coke Rewards program in recent entries to this blog. Tomorrow is the last day, according to Coke's program rules, that you are supposed to be able to enter My Coke Rewards codes. But Coke hasn't said anything to anyone about this. They haven't even officially announced whether the program will be continuing in 2012. However, there has been places on the My Coke Rewards site that mention that codes will be accepted through at least early next year. So Coke has got a lot of confusion going on about their Rewards program right now.

And that is not the only confusing thing going on right now at My Coke Rewards. As I mentioned before in this blog too, Napster is supposed to be completely switched over to Rhapsody by Nov. 30 which is tomorrow even though My Coke Rewards is still currently offering the Napster downloads. To make things more confusing yet, Napster downloads actually replaced the Rhapsody downloads offered from the My Coke Rewards program in the past. When Rhapsody was the source of the download prizes on My Coke Rewards, the points required for downloads were only about half of what they were when Napster became the new source of downloads on My Coke Rewards. Does this mean that the MP3 downloads will go back to the old Rhapsody point level which was worth about half the points they are now once Napster finishes the switchover or will the My Coke Rewards program use an excuse to charge us the same number of points as Napster's download rewards in the future if Rhapsody once again becomes the MP3 source for My Coke Rewards? So many unanswered questions right now.

This is like My Coke Rewards' Y2K moment. You don't know whether the program is ending meaning you should enter and/or redeem points right away or whether the program will continue for many years to come and change for the better.

My Honest Review of the Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet is now on my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving break.

I am back with another video review. This time it is of the highly buzzed Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet which is becoming one of the most popular tablets of 2011. You are probably wondering if I am giving up on the Archos Gen 8 Tablet line and/or other devices I have covered in the past. The answer is NO! I intend to make videos out of ideas that I feel will be helpful and as long as I think there would be people willing to watch the material covered in that video. You are also probably wondering if I will be making reviews of other expensive products in the near future like the Amazon Kindle Fire review that I just made. The answer to that question is "probably unlikely". I usually only review products that I purchase myself with maybe a few exceptions. I don't intend on buying myself every brand of tablet on the market such as the Samsung Galaxy, the Nook Color, and the list goes on and on. If I had the money I might consider it, but for now I am stuck reviewing mostly things I purchase myself.

Now let me talk about the Kindle Fire Tablet review. In the review, I start out by showing what the package looks like and what is included. Then I discuss what can and cannot be done with one of these Kindle Fire Tablets and what may be able to be done on a Kindle Fire in the near future.

I should mention that in the video, I mention that you can't record audio or use the Skype service because there is no built-in microphone on the Kindle Fire. I recently came across information that claims you CAN hack the Kindle Fire to use a microphone through the headphone jack, but it is a little complicated to hack it to do so.

Finally, I discuss who I would recommend this tablet to and who I wouldn't recommend this tablet to.

I should also mention that even though this is Cyber Monday and Amazon.com is doing a Cyber Monday Deals Week, the Amazon Kindle Fire is not likely going to be put on sale this week. It sells for about the same price every day probably due to Amazon.com's low price pricing strategy for this particular tablet model.

To see my review of the Kindle Fire Tablet, --> CLICK HERE!! <--

Note: You can also click the above link to see any of my past videos as well. And please feel free to leave any feedback (positive or negative) and rate the videos if you are able to do so from the device you are watching it on.

Only one week left to enter any My Coke Rewards points by Nov. 30, 2011 deadline!

Just realized that the code entering part of the My Coke Rewards program here in the USA ends next Wednesday on Nov. 30, 2011 according to their program rules page. Time is quickly running out, and that means you only have one week remaining to enter any codes you have not added to your My Coke Rewards account. If you have a lot of points to enter, you had better get started entering them this week so you can get as many as you can with the weekly limits.

You will still have until December 31st though to use what points you have left in the My Coke Rewards Program towards the merchandise, prizes, and donations offered by the program.

But maybe Coke might change their mind and extend their My Coke Rewards program for another year at the last minute. So I wouldn't redeem those points right away if My Coke Rewards does manage to be extended for at least one more year.

I just wish Coke would have given us a heads up about the program coming to what appears to be an abrupt ending!

Fred Meyer starts to Ad Match (sort of)!

I just learned that Fred Meyer is doing an "ad match" where you can bring in a retail competitor's ad and they will match it if it is a lower price than the one being offered by Fred Meyer. But as the title of this post mentions above, most items are excluded since this policy is only for their Home Electronics section of their store at least at this time. It does not apply to any other department.

In addition to being limited to Home Electronics department only, you can't match the price of any online stores, or any bundle offers, and the item can't be offered at a sale price in the form of a coupon or percentage off at the other retailer. Membership store prices like Costco or Sam's Club will not be allowed either. There are other exclusions. To find out more about their policy you should go to their website.

By the way, this policy will not be in effect from this Sunday until about the end of the month because they are excluding this policy during around the time that the Black Friday sale ads occur at places like a WalMart, Best Buy, or a Target.

Holiday Coke Rewards Catalog "Insiders" identified

I did some more investigating into why the My Coke Rewards Holiday Gifts were wiped out so fast today. I made mention of "insiders" as I was about 90% sure that there had to be people with an inside knowledge of what was going to be offered today.

Well shortly after I wrote the last blog entry, I came across this disturbing piece of info from the My Coke Rewards Facebook webpage:

START OF FACEBOOK QUOTE

My Coke Rewards Season of Giving
Instead of a Wednesday Deal, we wanted to do something special to celebrate the season. Enjoy these exclusive holiday offers available to our fans first. Get rewards from Nike®, AMC Theatres® and Best Buy for half the points. Take your pick before they're available to everyone: http://CokeURL.com/8wv2.

END OF FACEBOOK QUOTE

So basically My Coke Rewards offered the same offers only to Facebook members first before people like me had a chance to get them. Not illegal, but rather unethical to favor users of a social network like Facebook over the general public.

The best thing for people like us who didn't get a fair chance at great rewards like the ones offered today is to let Coke know these kind of Facebook offers have to cease to exist like I am doing here right now. And like I mentioned in the last post, we need to let Coke know they should be letting us know of offers in advance by about 24-48 hours instead of after the fact.

My Coke Rewards program still has a major flaw

I want to let people know that if you are into the My Coke Rewards Program like I am, you might have received an e-mail from the My Coke Rewards Program telling about their 50% off items out of their Holiday Rewards Catalog.

They show many gift cards for places like Subway, Home Depot, Best Buy, and others that you can get for half the points for a limited time.

I went to the My Coke Rewards Holiday Rewards Catalog webpage to check out these rather good looking deals.

One major problem. They were already wiped out of many of the items (mainly the more valuable gift cards, of course!).

You can still get the Coke merchandise such as t-shirts, but let's be honest: those items are not worth near as much as the gift cards were.

What bothers me about this is that I get the e-mail from Coke telling me about these would-have-been good deals after it is already too late. Clearly the program is being abused by "insiders," and Coke has not tried much to make this a more fair process to all the My Coke Rewards members who want to redeem points for great deals like these.

How easy is it to make this more fair in the future? Extremely easy. Send the e-mails AHEAD of these point drop offers by around a day or so and not AFTER they already have been grabbed by the "insiders" of the My Coke Rewards program.

Hopefully, Coke will read this and follow my advice.

My video about Initiative 1183 is now on my YouTube Channel

I have just uploaded a new installment of my Confusing Olympia video series to my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel. It is called "Confusing Olympia: Initiative 1183 Deceptions".

This is my look at the claims made by the two opposing sides of Washington State Initiative 1183 which if passed would make hard liquor available for purchase at certain regular retail outlets instead of just the current state operated liquor stores. This is the Initiative that has gotten a lot attention here in Washington State this year since Costco has spent millions of dollars for the Yes side while many out-of-state liquor companies have spent thousands of dollars for the No side.

As with many past issues here in Washington State, both sides exaggerate their claims and I give my opinion on which way people should vote. However, you can choose to vote which ever way you want after watching my video.

Please feel free to rate or comment on this video and look for my other videos on my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel.

To see this video, --> CLICK HERE!!! <--

How long does a Memorex DVD Case last? My newest YouTube video gives a very surprising answer

Well I have just uploaded my 28th video review in my "Honest Video Review" video series to YouTube.

This video provides the answer to the above question in the title of this blog entry. I will give you a hint: if you think these cases will last hundreds of years, you are way, way off.

As you will see as you watch this video, Memorex DVD cases have major defects in them and should be completely avoided. I am telling people to stay away from buying the Memorex DVD cases like the ones in the video, and after you watch it I am sure 90% of the viewers would agree with me. These cases were literally falling apart as I was recording the review for these cases.

I want to make clear though that I am not telling people to avoid all Memorex products. They do make many good quality products. Unfortunately, these DVD cases like the ones with the design shown in this video are nowhere even close to their usual good quality levels.

I am just glad I didn't purchase more than two 10 packs of these cases. 20 DVD cases falling apart in a rather short time period is still 20 too many to add to our garbage dumps.

To see this rather surprising video, --> CLICK HERE!! <--

And please let me know what you think about my video reviews by commenting on them and by rating them. And look for the other videos I have done on my NATHANROADINWA YouTube channel while you are at my YouTube NATHANROADINWA channel.