Caesars FAILS again -- new Total Rewards Gift Card comes with an ugly surprise for purchaser
This isn't something I would have purchased anyway, but it's just laughable how silly the powers-that-be at Caesars can be sometimes.
As with many Caesars elements, they started with a smart idea and then completely screwed up the details as a result of greed and failing to understand their market.
They recently introduced the Total Rewards Gift Card for purchase. On the surface, this seemed like a bright idea. It would make a nice gift to a friend or family member who enjoys Caesars properties, while at the same time, it has to be redeemed at Caesars properties (or associated entities), thus guaranteeing them business.
Here is how they promote the card:
Quote:
When you give the gift of excitement and hand someone a Total Rewards Gift Card, you’re not just giving a gift. You’re unlocking a world of possibilities. The TR Gift Card can be used at nearly 40 Total Rewards resorts and casinos across the United States. You could go on a Las Vegas shopping spree, enjoy a weekend of downhill skiing in Lake Tahoe, pamper yourself with an Atlantic City spa weekend, enjoy a round of golf in Biloxi or experience Southern hospitality in Tunica. The choices are all yours.
Sounds like a decent idea, right?
Well, how about they take that decent idea and completely ruin it by tacking on ridiculously high fees, which run completely counter to the gift card industry?
That's exactly what Caesars did.
Quote:
The cost for a TR Gift card is $2.50, this will be charged to you upon checkout.
Upon check out, before your order is be placed you will see a convenience charge; this is a pass through fee that is charged to process your transaction online via your credit card. The convenience fee is approximately 4.5% of your TR Gift Card load amount. For example for a TR Gift Card loaded with $100 there will be a $4.50 convenience added to the total.
So there are not just one, but TWO fees. First, you pay a flat $2.50, and then you pay 4.5% of whatever the gift card value is. So a $50 gift card costs $54.75 (almost 10% markup), $100 gift card costs $107 (7% markup), and a $250 gift card costs $263.75 (5.5% markup).
Horrendous.
Keep in mind that you could simply give cash to your friend/family member to spend at Caesars, and that will have both a 0% markup and complete flexibility to be spent elsewhere.
There is no advantage to having the gift card over cash.
This is why the gift card industry never sells company-specific gift cards for more than face value. If you go to the store, you can buy Amazon gift cards, Apple Store gift cards, etc. These are always at exactly face value. It is understood by Amazon, Apple, etc that they will eat a percentage of the sale in order to give the store commission for selling it. At the same time, the business gets prepaid expenditures by a customer, which is very valuable for several reasons (including the fact that some of these will be lost, forgotten, or never redeemed!)
So instead of just being happy that someone commits money to CET before actually visiting the property, they had to tack on obnoxious fees in order to reimburse themselves for the credit card processing and mailing costs.
Obviously this will piss off all but the most clueless of customers, and hardly any of these will be purchased.
What college did these Caesars people go to?
:fail
