Microsoft appears to be nickel-and-diming users and fans of its Microsoft Rewards program, which gives "frequent-flyer" points that can be traded in for gift cards.

Microsoft guts Microsoft Rewards points, and its fans are outraged::Microsoft appears to be nickel-and-diming users and fans of its Microsoft Rewards program, which gives “frequent-flyer” points that can be traded in for gift cards.

  • JTskulk@lemmy.worldEnglish
    352·
    11 months ago

    Let’s make a replacement program for Free software. The more points you get, the more Free software you can install.

  • Free Palestine 🇵🇸@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    4515·
    11 months ago

    I remember using this (cheating a little bit with VPNs and proxies so I could claim the rewards like 20 times every day, because they are separate in every country) to get some Xbox giftcards

    I also had ~15 Microsoft accounts and I put them all in a Microsoft family so I could transfer points from one account to another, it was really fun lol

      • helenslunch@feddit.nlEnglish
        408·
        11 months ago

        I mean in their defense, fuck Microsoft with a rusty nail, and this system was basically designed for exploitation.

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        43·
        11 months ago

        No, this is why systems that aren’t rigorously designed to preclude exploitation like this simply shouldn’t be released. If flaws like this exist in the system, they will be exploited. It’s not on the users if they exploited a flaw, even if you say “please don’t exploit the flaw”.

        • lolcatnip@reddthat.comEnglish
          3·
          11 months ago

          There’s a continuum between this kind of thing and, say, ransomware attacks. I’m not sure where the line should be drawn.

        • DesolateMood@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          11 months ago

          Idk man I get free game pass every month and people much more patient than me have been able to get entire free consoles. I’d call that pretty nice

      • grayman@lemmy.worldEnglish
        13·
        11 months ago

        They’re giving out made up points and then letting you trade them for copies of digital files. They’re not really losing much.

      • Free Palestine 🇵🇸@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        615·
        11 months ago

        I stopped doing this a few years ago but the system was flawed from the ground up. The fact that they did nothing to this kind of abuse it mind-boggling. No one actually used this the way it was intended to be used.

    • stolid_agnostic@lemmy.mlEnglish
      62·
      11 months ago

      People like you are why normies can’t buy pax tickets. This isn’t simmering to be proud of, you should be ashamed of abusing a system.

    • Pxtl@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      For ones where they give you a code for a non-MS service (eg LoL or Overwatch tokens) couldn’t you bot-farm this and then literally just sell the redemption code?

  • Evilcoleslaw@lemmy.worldEnglish
    165·
    11 months ago

    Meh. This seems relatively minor, and geared towards people purposely gaming it. Which, yeah, I’ve done at one time or another. Lately I’ve just been getting the points from searching. It might take a couple extra days to get enough for each $5 gift card. Oh well.

  • kbtaco@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    11 months ago

    I’m most disappointed with the cooldown between searches. The lowering of points was expected as they were cutting back everywhere else.

  • Pxtl@lemmy.caEnglish
    61·
    11 months ago

    I mean I’ve bought 2 Overwatch passes using those points. I couldn’t justify paying cash for skins to myself, but MS rewards points I could rationalize. But I basically fire up Edge/Bing to collect the points and then go back to Firefox & DDG. It was obviously not sustainable for them.