[Rant] I had some Yodobashi points that I didn't know about

Couple of days ago I got a postcard from Yodobashi telling me that I had some point in my Yodobashi  points card and that they will be expired in February. Funny thing was, I thought I had used up all my points. It wasn't even a couple of hundred points. It was 4020 points. That was totally unexpected. Now I can buy something using those points. The Plantronics Backbeat Go 2 Bluetooth wireless headset perhaps?

But there was one problem. I had lost my points card. Well, I guess I knew it back then that I had lost my points card but because I thought that I had used up all my points, I didn't care about the getting it reissued. Luckily for me, the postcard included instructions on how to get it reissued.

Today we decided to go to Costco. On the way there, we decided to pay a visit to the Yodobashi Camera and get the points card fixed. But my wife didn't feel well, so I decided to go alone. Yay! It gave me the chance to check out the DSLRs as well. First, I went to the information counter and got my card reissued. They didn't even charge me anything for it. Then I asked them if they could attach the point card with my online account as well. They said they could give me an access code for my points card and that I had to use it on the website to share the points between the actual physical card and the online account. There was a valid period for the access key and I had to do it within a couple of weeks. No big deal, right?

So I did some looking around and found the Plantronics BackBeat Go 2 wireless headset. Actually they are a pair of ear buds. To my dismay, the in-store price of those amounted to JPY7,980. But when I checked their website, they were listed for JPY7,280. Both were with 10% points. This wasn't a mistake though. These things are not uncommon in Japan. You get special deals something when you go shopping at the shop and at other times you get better deals online at the same shop.

Anyways, I didn't want to pay JPY700 more for those so I wanted to buy them online. Since I didn't have the points in my online account yet, I decided to use the access key. I entered the card ID and the access key but I couldn't get them to work. I got an error saying that the access key couldn't be used. I tried a couple of times. But it didn't work. So I decided to give them a call.

The girl on the other side checked my details and came to the conclusion that my name written on the card and the name registered on the website were not matching. One had first name first and the surname second and the other one in the reverse order. Additionally I had not put the apartment number when I registered my address on the website. The girl on the other side fixed these problems and told me to try again. And it worked.

So now I could order through the website using my points and everything is good. First of all I have to put in my Credit Card details in there.

[Lifestyle] Ordered a Domino's Pizza via online for the first time

Yesterday when I arrived home after work, I discovered that there was a Domino's Pizza brochure in my mail box. In Japan, you get these brochures and offers almost everyday and I throw them away, most of the times even without reading. But today I read it and there was a discount of \1,000 on select pizzas. I took it home and told my wife, "Let's order a pizza tonight." I had never ordered pizza before. 

The offer was for 6 new pizzas which have a usual price of ¥2,500 for the medium sized one. They have dropped the prices of them to ¥1,500 when used with a correct coupon. The coupons were printed on the brochure. I chose the "Summer Quatro" and decided to give them a call as per the instructions printed on the brochure.

But then I noticed that if I ordered online, there was a 5% discount. It was no brainer which method to choose. I already had made an account with Domino's Japan but I had never used it (Pizzas are expensive!). I logged into their English site but couldn't find any of those 6 new pizzas. Then I went to their Japanese site and there they were. Instead of using the same website with just English translation, they had made a whole new website for English and haven't updated it. Stupid!