Disregarding the fact that the bonus points that could be earned on the Sony Rewards website have all but disappeared (as of February 2012, the Wheel of Fortune game is still available but there is no link for it on the Sony site), it is virtually impossible to find a decent product on the Rewards site to make it worth cashing in your points. The selection of Sony products is extremely limited. Prices on the site are higher than on many authorized Sony dealer sites (B&H, Amazon, J&R, Buy.com, etc.). The rewards program still allows you to redeem your points for Sony purchases made elsewhere but they might charge a 15% premium and make you wait several months for the credit.

If you do find something you want on the Reward site, good luck trying to get it. A Blu-ray player was listed at a substantial discount to list price but was “out of stock” (despite the fact that it was available on the Sony Style website). When it was once again shown in stock, the price had magically returned to the original, non-discounted amount. I ordered a set of headphones at a price that was lower than I could find elsewhere but, after waiting two weeks for delivery, I got an e-mail telling me that the order was cancelled and that the item was “no longer available”.

I’m told that the problems are unrelated to the change to Capital One and that it’s all Sony’s handling of the issues. In any event, take your credit card business elsewhere. This one’s mostly crap.

They delivered the wrong items sending all 10 mediocre ones about 10 days later and I am still in the process of fighting to exchange the 4 for the correct ones. They didn’t even show any sympathy that they messed up on the order and even trying to make me pay for the shipping back. I have proof they messed up and they still wouldn’t fess up. The points for the better speakers now show higher rate and they want me to also pay for the difference if I still want the better speakers.

It’s now a few days until Christmas and they still have no resolved my issue. I now have to get new presents for the 4 I was expecting the good speakers for or give them these mediocre speakers that were heavily overcharged.. Ugh

I feel cheated. I redeemed my reward points for a $250 macy’s gift card. They said it has been mailed. I never received it. They said tough luck for you. We are not responsible for lost cards as mentioned in the disclaimer on the website somewhere.
Very fishy. I never lost mail. I felt like a fool. Very disappointed in Sony.
Not buying anything from them ever again.

The Sony Reward website used to have a bunch of programs you can enter to receive free points. As mentioned above, you could theoretically get up to 10,000 an year if you entered all the daily and weekly programs. It was a fun website.

However, all that is gone now. Also, the forum was shut down. It was a very supportive community with tight knit communities. There were people offering prayers and well wishes for a member undergoing surgery. There were a few committed members that posted the answers to every program every chance and they were well respected and thanked. However, one day, the forum was shut down without warning on June 2. And it has been back since (as of July 2011). Way to just destroy a community.

Not happy with Sony Card, the reward program, and how the members where treated once Capital One took over.

Before the end of 2010, Capital One had an attractive credit card offer for new cardholders which was 20,000 which is equivalent to a $200 Gift Card on first purchase with no minimum amount of purchase. A lot of members posted this on the Community Forum. A lot of non-cardholders as well as Chase Cardholders signed up for it. Before the end of 2010, members who signed-up posted favorable comments as to how fast they got the 20,000 points. In March 2011, negative postings became overwhelming. A lot of members started to gripe as not getting the points promised.

Sony Rewards used to be a fun and the best rewards running. Not anymore. Since the hacking of PlayStation Network, Sony rewards and Sony Online Entertainment, Sony Rewards has been taking away points contributors like Jeopardy and Sony Pictures Television since May 30, 2011. These were cut down from 5x a week to 3x or 2x and 1x a week until Sony Rewards totally took them out. Total of 60 points per day gone and no news of what the rewards program is going to replace them with. Sony Pictures Television had a Forum, where members interact, voice out their complaints about the rewards program and help each other on how to navigate the rewards site. In May and up until June 2, people were unhappy with the program, confused on what was exactly happening. This was a friendly community where people vent their frustrations concerning points that were on hold for a long time for Cash Credit Mail-In Request. The Mail-In Request is for Cardholders who purchase Sony products from Sony Authorized Dealers. Members get reimbursed for the amount that is charged on their credit cards and get points as well. Since most of the postings were negative and unfavorable to Sony Rewards, this was taken out completely in the afternoon of June 2. The link to the Forum has a Notice saying “Our apologies, this page is unavailable”.

Sony Rewards is not reimbursing rewards members the cash that is due to them since May. Points are left on hold, for how long, nobody knows. They still accepting Sony Gift Card orders, although these are not being processed and points are placed on hold. E-mailing or calling Sony Rewards are not helping because the Customer Service Representatives has been telling members that it is taking a little longer because of the transition from Chase to Capital One. Capital One took over last Monday evening of June 13 and still nothing is being processed. If you are planning on signing up for the Sony Rewards, think twice before you do so.

Prices for items on the site are such that every point you have is equal to 1 cent of the price of the item… So you spend 1000 dollars you end up with 1000 points which is worth $10 in sony equipment.

Prices that the items are listed at are often much higher than you can find the same item in your local Bestbuy… so if you spent the same amount of money on a discover card and took your year end cash back you could get the same product from bestbuy that you could have gotten on the sonyrewards site… only with discover card you would also have some money left over.

As some have said, items are often out of stock…. and this makes no sense as often a new item will be listed as out of stock the very day it is listed on the site…. If they never had the item to start with they should never bother to put it on the site it is a bit like false advertising.

Reverse auctions that they have are the biggest scams, they start at a price WAY above the street price for the item and it drops so slowly that it never becomes as cheap as the bestbuy… also a reverse auction item can’t be purchased with sony points only with your real money.

All said… you probably wonder why I have one… well because once in a great while they have something on the site called and “insider special”… and once in a great while they are very cheap and actual bargins… I used to travel a lot for business and generated lots of points using my sony card to buy plane tickets… so for me it works out as a reasonable deal (also Discover card isn’t accepted in a lot of foreign countries but my Sony Visa is so I didn’t have the option of Discover).