PC Optimum site

Toronto isn't liking the new PC Optimum program

Hell hath no fury like a loyalty reward points collector scorned, as whoever runs the PC Optimum Twitter account surely knows right now.

Card-carrying Shoppers Optimum and PC Plus members were recently tasked with combining all of their precious points from both Loblaws-owned savings networks into one.

The merging process for the new network, called PC Optimum, went live today, and it seems as though many of the roughly 19 million combined members were eager to get started.

I mean, some people carry thousands of dollars worth of points on these cards. They're a pretty big deal, and card-holders are intent on seeing their points carry over safely from one system to the next.

Unfortunately for members of both systems (not to mention the people running PC Optimum's website), things got pretty hairy online just hours after the merge program went live.

The program's website has been experiencing problems and outages all day.

The app that customers were encouraged to download has been of little help, either.

Many are reporting that their hard earned points aren't showing up under the new system – which is probably every Optimum point collector's worst fear. 

The old Shoppers Drug Mart system was designed to encourage point hoarding, as the value of points went up based on how many you'd collected.

Hitting a reward level of $170 would mean that you had spent $9,500 at Shoppers. It can take years to hit that level, and only if you avoid "cashing out" early.

"We broke the Internet because of your love of loyalty programs!" PC Optimum wrote in a tweet that annoyed many early Thursday."We are currently above our expected volumes and are working to have our app back online shortly."

Customers are still able to swap their cards in store, according to Loblaw spokesperson Catherine Thomas, which might be a good option if you want to get your points secured like, yesterday.

As of 4 p.m., the PC Optimum program's website was still displaying watermelons of error.

Lead photo by

Screenshot / Lauren O'Neil


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