impossible to win instant awards

[Tomsowa]

I'm deeply distrustful of the whole Rewards operation.

For one, I've gone through more than 400 consecutive Instant Wins and won nothing. NADA.

And why is that?  Anyone explain that?

And what about finding out some general information on who's winning the rewards sweepstakes? Is there any attempt on the part of the provider/operator or AARP Rewards to give out some information that explains there are real people winning the sweeps?

AND why can't the provider of AARP Rewards provide me a running total of my cumulative entries into a sweepstake? It used to do that, provide a running total on all my entries, but now it doesn't do that.

As always, I'm deeply skeptical of the people running this thing...

[Jason2020]

Good to see 7 IWs available, but I feel like a sore loser when I state that I am unhappy about not winning anything in awhile. 😞

[andrewtoo]

Just to share some data...

Won the $10 Sephora eGift card at 8:10PM (EST...opps!)

today 1/25/22.  Today is the first day it was

available and I won using the "Free Method of Entry"

from the Official Rules.

Daily Instant Win Rules links I have been using are at 

the following link :https://www.aarp.org/about-aarp/rewards-terms-and-conditions/instant-win-rules/ 

If others shared when they won, maybe we would see a pattern?

This is not the instant win that I wanted to win.

[KennethG683811]

Hi Andrew - I won an Athleta card at around 2:30PM ET, I can't use it but my princess loves yoga clothes and can use it.  Hope that helps!

Kenneth

[BillD916633]

I know what you mean Andrew concerning the Sephora Card. I kinda pucker up when I click on that one myself. I guess we could just skip over the less desirable cards, but where is the fun in that after all someone out there would appreciate a little "gift". wink wink 👀

[gm5271]

I don't try for Instant Win gift cards nor Sweeps can't use that being said not much been available I will try for...1 or 2 each day and last week few days were none could use to try for 

Really sad situation... boy us old timers thought last year & early days was bad it's truly took a deep dive downhill lately

So many greeting cards magazines... site is overrun with mess

So many sweepstakes & I've never won any since new rewards & can't recall last time won Daily Instant Win... oh well 

Take care stay safe everyone 

Ginger ;  )

[AnneG461594]

Congrats Andrew!!!  I have not won in a while, but I have won twice while playing in the middle of the night when I wake up (nature calls!), like 3:00/3:30 AM ET.

Anne

[lisak691619]

I am extremely disappointed and really not happy = earning rewards to redeem for gift cards is a joke! And there's not much to redeem with the points! Really a scam in my opinion - shame AARP! I don't want to have to use my points to enter sweepstakes which the change of winning nearly 0% and I am not paying a discount amount to buy gift cards. The points should be allowed to be used. This whole earn points and redeem is a joke! and waste of time. I don't need fitness tracker - I have 2 already so using points to redeem for that is useless!

[CandiceT89042]

I'm done with the whole AARP thing. Their rewards are pathetic. For instance,  the  coloring sheet...Come on! I'm not 2 years old! Lol

[coolmaine]

Really funny. Thanks I needed a good laugh.

[al45009948]

😂 I really can't stop laughing. Hello everyone 🤗. Not only that, but what about points for senior dating ( we can't afford to eat out anymore lol ) Along with the senior dating, they should provide some $10 - $25 e-gift cards for points to some restaurants. I don't see any dating for the members that are 13 yrs old and under 40 yrs old , I guess they're to busy winning. You know that they get paid for the ads that start before the videos we watch. I'm just saying. Happy New Year to everyone

[rednexsrus]

Hey Al: you did notice that none of the vendors in those ads are contributing to any gift cards in the catalog. I will continue to click on "skip ad" as long as they don't

Just Saying 

[rednexsrus]

@al45009948 @KennethG683811 

Have you noticed a new rash of ads inserted at the beginning of the video's ?

We are now subjected to Honda, NordicTrac, SinpliSafe, and a company I am not familiar with, Zoro.com. All are non contributors to the rewards catalog and management even eliminated the "skip ad" button from this advertizer. Oh !! by the way KUDO'S to Dicks Sporting Goods, this advertiser is participating in the Sweepstakes. I will enter that sweepstakes and hope to see a points only reward appear soon. Just Saying 

[AnneG461594]

Lucy - I think part of the ad thing is connected to places you have searched for in the past, so Kenneth is right about getting the ads after he went to Prana and Patagonia.  I need a new sofa and was searching on Raymour and Flanigan's site, now I get their ad when watching the videos all the time!  They must pay AARP or the rewards company to show their ads, so I get your idea about contributing some of their gift cards to the cause too!

[rednexsrus]

@AnneG461594 

Anne,

You say you do a search for a sofa at seller xxx.com's web site.

Later, when you login to aarp's reward program and play a video there is an ad from the seller in the video. There definitely is some type of tracking going on here and it would appear the advertizer and management (HelloWorld) are both conducting some form of spying/tracking on our activities. 😡 Not that computer savvy but I am sure their are members that know how they are able to accomplish this. I don't think this is legal.

Just Saying 

[BeachGirl23]

The pop up ads are not something the AARP Rewards web site is doing. It is a function of your browser. There is a way of having your browser not track your prior searches minimizing the number of advertising pop ups directed at you when you go to AARP or any other web site. It is called the 'incognito' mode. How you implement this is dependent on the operating system of your device. So for Android you would start it up differently than Windows or IOS. 

If you search 'incognito mode' on your browser (google, bing, etc) it will display what keys you need to press to go into incognito mode for your device. This is also known as anonymous mode. What I do not know and am still trying to figure this out is if this mode can be set permanently on your device or if you have to set it every time you fire up the device which is not convenient at all.

Now the ads that pop up when you start up a video have nothing to do with this. I do believe that these are paid ads to AARP and we have to live with it. I personally like the ones that allow me to skip them after 5 seconds. I am on it as soon as 'skip ad' shows up. 

Hope this helps. If anybody has a good, more permanent solution to the pop up ads, please let me know. This is new to me as well so we're all in the same boat trying to navigate this intrusive stuff. Take care.

[HokiePoq]

@rednexsrus   Google does this all the time to me.   Bing not as much.  If I look at a product online but don't buy it, I find ads on the side of my browser for that product.   Probably when I do buy it as well.  I have lectured DH about what he searches because it is all going into a giant data bank to target ads.   I guess it's legal or it would have been stopped I'd think.   I don't like it, either.

[KennethG683811]

I just saw a commercial for an app called DuckDuckGo where they can block those kind of ads and stop the tracking for your privacy, we are definitely looking in to that since we are sick of the ads, not sure if it would work here though

[rednexsrus]

Hi Kenneth, It did work !!

I have had DuckDuckGo for some time, but never tried it here with AARP because they favor Chrome. I did not change any settings in the browser and not one ad showed up in the video's. I will be using this browser a lot more now. The ad's have become so annoying and now there is an ad before every video, some are longer than the actual video we watch to earn points. What's with that ?? Just Saying

[KennethG683811]

Great point!  Seems when I shop online at places like Patagonia and Prana for birthday/holiday gifts I suddenly see ads for those places when I earn my points, I would kill for gift cards from places like that!

[al45009948]

Hello everyone 🤗. Each ad,  whether or not you watch the whole thing or not AARP still gets paid. Can you imagine with all the members even if they only get a quarter but most companies pay at least one dollar for each ad that is incorporated into their website. 

About the use of Incognito pages , this is from a search I did ( Why you should never use incognito?

Your IP Address: While your device might not know what you're searching in incognito, your internet service provider does. Your ISP can still track your activity and collect your data. This data may even be sold to third-parties. Your Site Data: Many users believe incognito prevents a website from collecting your data )  companies like AARP sells mailing list ( makes it seem harmless) Big Big money in companies selling to other companies

Has anyone noticed the ads at the top of your inbox. I'm just saying. 

.

[k142667b]

You are correct about Incognito, that only keeps the data from your browsing history - the site you visit still knows!

But, no one is paying anything close to 25 cents per ad, $1 per ad is like 20 years ago rates.  The majority of ad income comes from someone clicking on an ad, and the ready payoff is when someone actually buys something. And as an advertiser I'd never pay for more than the third time the ad is played for an individual and only if they watched at least 50% of the ad, so AARP might be making 3 cents per user per unique video ad they play in front of their videos.

That said, guess why I'm retired?

[al45009948]

Hello everyone 🤗. Hope everyone is doing well. This is the second time I'm replying to this topic. First time disappeared and asked me to sign in. I tried to reply to Beachgirl23 it said I couldn't do that. To the point, I believe AARP has about 44 million members . Which compromise of associate member ( age 14 to 50 ) and full members. Odds of winning an Instant Win Game prize depend on the number of prizes available divided by the

number of eligible Instant Win Game plays. Also ( . If you are the first player to play the

Instant Win Game at or after one of the randomly-generated times, you will be a potential instant winner

of the prize offered for this calendar day ). So what are they actually saying. Someone please explain it to me. I also noticed that Beachgirl23 mentioned that certain people seem to be winning rather frequently. I've mentioned this before. I've even seen the same name and initial twice for the same prize. Someone REALLY NEEDS TO INVESTIGATE THIS. I'm just saying. Everyone have a Blessed Day and happy holidays

[AJF2K1]

I have posted several times before that this "rewards" program needs to be renovated again. It has as now been over a year as a paid AARP member that I have not been able to win one Instant win or a Sweepstakes Gift Card. The only way that I am able to receive a gift card is through the Gift Cards by points. Can you please explain why that is? There is definitely something wrong when you have many members complaining with this same issue. But the best AARP can do is increase the amount of winners to 125. Like if that was going to fix this problem. I have asked before, why is it that AARP does not try to help explain to us why this program so hard to win. What good is it if your paid members can't win a simple $10.00 gift card in over a year. Ridiculous.

[rednexsrus]

How about 400 winners now 

Just Saying

[KennethG683811]

Hey, looky here, there is a 400 winner Super Play today, but for a store on the opposite coast from where I live (Albertsons), won't bother playing that, good luck to all you West Coast folks who are members and deserve to win this.  And the Quiznos here closed years ago, I didn't even know there were any left!

[AJF2K1]

That is a great idea. But remember as I stated before in one of my posts, that AARP memberships are growing every day. So, just because we increase the quantity of gift cards doesn't mean that the odds are going to get any better. But definitely AARP needs to be heading in that direction if we want to win anything.

[shamit]

@rednexsrus :  But as you might notice, when the number of winners are larger the prize is a smaller $5 card and not the $10.  

[AJF2K1]

Well folks I have come to a conclusion, why bother. I am sure that some of you will agree that why do we try to complete any of the quizzes if you can't win anything with those points. As I stated before I haven't won a single instant win in over a year.  Now even the gift cards by points are less and less. So why bother. Basically, it's a waste of time. I will continue using what I have left in points towards the gift cards by points if and when I do happen to come across any. Until then I will no longer need to complete any of the quizzes. It's sad ☹️ and frustrating, because several years ago it used to be fun trying to get an instant win card but now it's like trying to win the lottery. 

[rednexsrus]

Not only has the value of the points only gift cards been reduced to the paltry $5.00 but have you noticed that the 75 points for the quizzes has also been increase nearly doubled. That means less and less 450 point quizzes. Back in the day of R4G we got 600 points and sometimes double points of 1200. AJF2K1, you are so right about the sad and frustrating conditions have become. I am like you, all the FUN is gone 😡

Just Saying 

[Jason2020]

Agreed! I have ony been a member for a few years, but since the beginning and fast-forward to now, it's not fun at all! It's mainly due to not being able to redeem x3 for one, trying to check in for anything new to redeem (x1 x3 every month, and lately I have been missing out, and losing 2 redeems per month), losing so many points to a 'shell game,' (aka IWs, and Sweepstakes), by which you keep putting points into something, and not getting anything out of it, blah, blah, blah. So, yes, I agree... 'I am like you, all the FUN is gone.' 😔