If you are a PC Optimum there’s a good chance you received an email from the program this past Friday stating they are amending some of the terms and conditions of the program. Whether this stems from the increased media coverage of the program’s ongoing issues this year is unknown. However, the addition of the term that members in Quebec will be notified if their account if frozen makes it seem that perhaps our ongoing pressure has played at least a little part in this?
Recommended reading: PC Optimum frozen account issues persist + some tips to take if it happens to you
These amended terms and conditions are effective as of October 31, 2024.
The Terms & Conditions amendments
These are the changes to PC Optimum program terms and conditions as summarized in the email they sent out. I will dissect these and provide my comments about them in the next section
- Confirmation that our Program members may only have one open PC OptimumTM account at any given time.
- To prevent account takeovers, the option to create new Households will be removed, subject to the following exceptions:
- Program members who are primary or additional cardholders on a PC Financial® Payment Product may continue to join or form a Household exclusively with another primary or additional cardholder on the same PC Financial® Payment Product;
- If you currently have a Household of 5 members or less, there will be no changes and you will be able to continue to be a part of that Household until you leave it. However, if someone leaves the Household, you will not be able to add the same member or another person to your Household in the future.
- In the event that your participation in the Program is suspended, PC OptimumTM points in your account that have been accumulated as a result of an abuse of a Program privilege, failure to follow the Program Terms and Conditions or a misrepresentation may be forfeited and removed from your account.
- For members residing in Quebec: If you reside in Quebec, you will be informed if your account has been detected as compromised, and a notice will be sent out if your account is frozen or suspended for suspected fraudulent activity.
Commentary on these amendments
Here is my commentary on each of these changes based on the same bulleted numbers:
- If I recall correctly this was already in their T&C’s somewhere but perhaps it is being brought to a more conspicuous place? I tried to check PC’s T&C’s but their web version already shows these new terms and the old T&C’s wouldn’t load for me in the Internet Wayback Machine. (I’ll see if I can confirm these were in the old terms)
- It does appear an area that has caused the program a lot of issues are these household accounts. Some of the members who have emailed us about their accounts being frozen have household accounts and have to have multiple members call in to get everyone unfrozen! However, here PC Optimum is stating the reasoning behind this is to prevent “account takeovers”. So to me I wonder if there is an “easy” hack for hackers to get into household accounts or some other easy reason for these accounts can be taken over? Based on what has happened with some other loyalty programs, household accounts do tend to be a major source of fraud or other unscrupulous activity, it’s the reason why we still haven’t seen Aeroplan’s family pooling come back. At least PC Optimum will allow existing “smaller” household accounts to continue and will allow the creation of new ones for PC credit card holders.
- This one is interesting, they have taken the term about being having “points forfeited and removed from your account” from other parts of their terms and conditions and added them to the “Penalty Box” account status. That’s what I call their suspended accounts as PC Optimum has three level accounts: normal (I don’t know what else to call it), suspended and cancelled. I have yet to hear from anyone who has actually had their account cancelled outright by PC Optimum, it just seems like everyone is suspended. If you have had your account cancelled by PC Optimum and not the other way around, let me know!The frozen accounts seem to be the ones that are suspended, well, at least for those who have been told their use of the program doesn’t fall in line with the terms and conditions. They are put into this penalty box where the accounts are still active, that is, members can still log in and earn points for spending money with all the Loblaw brands but they can’t redeem their points.Those who have their accounts frozen for the safety of their account by PC Optimum are also put into this penalty box but I don’t think they will be subject to this amended term.In the end PC is now giving themselves the right to take away points from members they put into the Penalty Box without actually having to cancel the member’s account outright. Prior to this PC only could do this if they chose to cancel your account and their existing Term #8 only allows for them to remove points earned “in excess of reasonable household quantities” during a promotion. So this newly updated term makes it seem like they can take even more points away, if not even your entire balance.
As I have stated in my posts, in the media and even proposed to PC Optimum, anyone knowingly breaking the terms should just have all their points removed and be kicked out of the program entirely. But it seems that PC Optimum simply refuses to do this and would rather keep them as active members. Of course the “Penalty Box” is a chance for members to save their accounts, especially if they broke the terms unknowingly and it allows for them to come to a resolution with the program so they can continue with it. And with this amended term there is the possibility that the penalty to be paid, even when someone unknowingly breaking terms, is the removal of some or all of a members points before an account is granted the option to redeem again. All of this though still begs the question: how is a member going to know any of this if the program doesn’t tell them they have been suspended?
Also, there’s a key term above and that is “active member“. There is speculation that rather than kicking members out of the program completely for breaking terms, the program just silently puts them in the penalty box and since the member has no clue about it until sometime in the future when they try to redeem, they just continue on their merry way spending money at Loblaws stores and earning points and by doing so they are considered an active member. Which makes us have to consider that it’s all about the numbers. The more active members a program has the better it looks, and that’s good news to provide to shareholders. Not to mention the more members that continue to spend money with the company, the better it is for their bottom line.
- This is by far the number one item we have been asking for since taking on this advocacy role. Notify members an account is frozen or suspended. They have yet to do this. I’m still getting emails from members who find out the hard way their account is frozen when trying to redeem points and based on this amended term it will continue to be that way, unless the member resides in Quebec. It does seem with this frozen account issue coming to light in the media, that PC Optimum has, in some way, learned that not telling members in Quebec their accounts have been frozen is a big no-no.It just sucks that they won’t extend that courtesy to the rest of the Canada, at least based on these amended terms they aren’t going to. For the rest of us, we’ll continue to be the ones who are “on their merry way spending money at Loblaws stores and earning points” without knowing if our accounts are frozen for redemption. I will feel really sorry for those who are saving up points for the Black Friday Biggest Redemption Event and are potentially at risk of not being able to redeem those points for what will most likely be a Christmas gift. I can only hope PC Optimum does an about face and decides to implement a notification process for any and all members when their accounts are frozen.
Wrapping it up
PC Optimum is making amendments to their terms and conditions that will see the program do away with the ability to create new household accounts, allow them to take away more points from members placed in the penalty box and have them notify Quebec members of their accounts being frozen or suspended. The notification for Quebec members is a step in the right direction that I hope the program extends the courtesy of to all Canadians. The nixing of the household accounts, well at least creation of new ones, I am totally fine with if it means better security of members accounts. And the amended term of forfeiting points for suspended accounts? Well, I guess it gives them a way penalize members for breaking the terms rather than kicking them out of the program and it allows them to keep their membership numbers up.