Looks Like ECH0.COM is no longer a deal

[gwbaker]

It appears that echo is changing thier rules for the betterment of its members (did you hear the sarcasm?) They are dropping the max hours per month from 300 to 100, and the amazon gift certs are going from 4,000 points to 12,000 points. Not worth the effort beginning the 28th.

Here is the email they sent me...

Dear Echo Member:

Thanks to you our Beta period has been an enormous success! You've rated
music, tested our service and provided us with invaluable feedback.

We are writing to let you know about some upcoming changes to our Rewards
program. Echo is totally committed to rewarding our members for
participating in the Echo community. At the same time, we need to be
fiscally responsible in order to insure that our company is around for
years to come. To achieve these goals we are planning to experiment
regularly with different approaches to the Rewards program until we arrive
at the system that works best for Echo and our community of listeners.
As part of this learning process, we will be introducing a series of
limited-time Promotional programs that reward Echo members in a variety of
different ways.

As a first step, we are initiating the following changes to the Rewards
Program effective September 28, 2000:

- Echo will launch the Referral Club Promotion. The club is designed to
reward Echo members who refer a higher than average number of friends to
our service. The way it works is simple. Refer the required number of
people to our service every month and you can attain club status. Once
your referrals register and listen for 2 hours, you earn bonus CD's. The
club levels are:

Gold Club:
Refer 20 people to our service in a month and you earn a bonus CD
Platinum Club:
Refer 40 people to our service in a month and you earn 2 bonus CD's
Diamond Club:
Refer 60 people to our service in a month and you earn 3 bonus CD's

Club status resets every calendar month. Club CD's are earned independent
of other Rewards and do not affect your ability to redeem points for other
Echo Rewards.

- The cap on earning time will be changed from 300 hours to 100 hours per
month. You can still listen to Echo non-stop but you will only earn points
for 100 hours per listening month.

- New prize costs on all Echo Rewards:
The InternetCash Reward changes to 11,400 points
The Amazon.com Gift Certificate changes to 12,000 points
The WebMiles Reward changes to 19,500 points
The Cambridge Soundworks PCworks speakers change to 40,500 points
The Cambridge Soundworks Digital Home Theater Speaker system changes to
201,000 points

- Bonus points for referrals will increase from 75 to 300 points per
referral. This affects the one-time bonus point payout and has no bearing
on the points you accrue per hour for referral listening time.

We hope you will recognize that even after these changes Echo Rewards is
still one of the best incentive programs available on the Web. Refer just
3 friends to the service and you can earn a CD in a month. Refer 10
friends and you can earn a CD in a few days. Refer 20 friends and earn
Echo Club Rewards in addition to our other great prizes. After September
28th you can refer to the Rewards program Terms and Conditions on our site
for details on all the changes to the Rewards program.

Your participation in the Beta program gave us a real proving ground for
our service and we think you deserve a little bonus for your valuable
help. As a small token of appreciation we have enclosed a $5 gift
certificate off of a $10 purchase at Half.com. Echo has teamed up with
the good folks over at Half.com to bring you savings of 50-90% on CDs,
DVDs, movies, books, and video games - over 4 million items available!
Use this Half.com coupon code at Checkout: ECHO
Click here to start shopping: http://promos.half.com/ECHO


Sincerely,

Dan Hart
Chief Executive Officer
Echo Networks, Inc.

From time to time, Echo plans to make available preview Beta releases of
new products that include extra reward incentives. If you would like to
participate in such future Echo Beta programs, please reply to
beta@echo.com

Echo is committed to open and honest communication regarding all aspects
of the Echo service, including the rewards program. If you would like to
provide feedback on the above changes or if you have suggestions related
to future promotional programs, please send your comments to
feedback@echo.com

 

[403Forbidden]

that sux...they better not institute this change before Sep 28th. I am halfway towards an Amazon GC right now.

 

[andrewlago]

I knew it could not last
I wonder if they will send me the Amazon gift
certificate that I redeemed.

 

[rhinox99]

Um okay this is just sickening now... with the new 100 hour limit per month.
53 points per hour x 100 hours = 5300 pts
The Digital Desktop Theater Set is 201,000 pts... that would take over 3 years to get assuming you listen for 100 hours every month. ewwwww

 

[403Forbidden]

...but they do give you CD's for refering members....hahah yeah right...

I can dowload any full cd I want in 5-15 minutes via NewsBIN PRO and
any number of the Binaries Newsgroups

 

[Nutzo]

My wife & I were able to earn $170 in Amazon Certs last month by maxing out at 300 hours each (no other referals). To good of a deal to last.

If you don't have any referals, now it will take over 2 months to earn a single $18 gift certificate. Not worth it anymore.

 

[Hossenfeffer]

Of course it's still a deal, it's just not quite as insane. I got into the deal rather late and only had accounts for my girlfriend and I and still racked up around $200 in gift certificates.

I was wondering how long they would go before they changed the rewards program and back off a bit.

To be honest, I kinda like the service. I've been introduced to several songs I like but otherwise would have never been exposed to. For all practical purposes, it's like a radio where I can fast forward. Nifty.

No longer a deal? Hardly.

 

[Hoeboy]

i was trying to rack up some GC for a palm at amazon. heard bout echo wen it just started but never took it seriously. i've only been able to get 36 bux of GC. got 6 more days til they change the rules . anyone wanna sell their amazon GC?

 

[cerebusPu]

how long does it usually take for them to email the GC once you redeem them?

its been over a week for me already. getting worried.

 

[Kraeji]

ill sell my amazon certificates

 

[gtbuzz]

oh, stop complaining. it's still a good deal- you're practically making something for nothing. if you're on a high speed connection, the sound quality is also pretty cool. i'll admit that i was disappointed that they're changing the rewards system, but i won't stop using it just because.

i'm sure it would still be popular even if they didn't use the rewards system in the first place. it's a good idea.

 

[403Forbidden]

i know some people that are still waiting for GC they redeemed back in july!

 

[Nutzo]

Still waiting for the 14 Amazon Certs. I (and the wife) ordered over the last 6 weeks. First one was ordered on 8/10, and nothing yet. They did say it would take 6-8 weeks, so I guess I need to wait another 2 weeks before I start to panic.

 

[Clemguy]

I just saw it today... I was pissed. I was working my way towards those darn speakers.... only about 2 months to go...
what a crock. I can understand where they are coming from but it still stings. i wonder if they could keep things semi the same for the orginal beta people. That or increase the amount of hours you can listen. no one i know has a high speed line for this so i'm kinda stuck with the 100 hours thing. oh well, just anohter company trying to make more money after they get settled in with people.

lata,
Old_Man

 

[MrLeo]

I never got a chance to exploit Echo because of being stubborn to switch from WMP to Real. I finally did and now they change the rules AHHHH!
I still think that Sonnicnet has better sound quality. STEREO all the way

 

[Venomus]

Just fyi, my husband and I got two Amazon GC's out of them so far- over two months after we cashed in the points. And that was back when they were saying the turnaround was 2-3 weeks. Now we have about 16 GC's waiting to come back, some requested back in August. It's quite a wait.

Still, I think it's a good deal, even with the new rewards setup. Good music, no commercials, and how many radio stations do you know of that give out freebies like GCs, guaranteed? So it's a GC once a month (if you have any referrals; longer if you don't), instead of once every four days. I'll still take that over nothing.