Redeemed 372,750 rewards points over three days for Amazon gift cards in custom amounts ($100 x 3 , $55 x 1). Which fully paid for a Synology NAS (DS224+) and reduced the cost of a Crucial X9 Pro external SSD.

Subsequently the nerfs stacking up have crippled the potential for earning points since early December. Delay between searches, minimum 3 searches to start earning, 15 minute 3 search limit cool down, points reduced for activities. Among other issues; I was two pieces from completing the search puzzle for the 1000 point bonus (it has never reappeared), Gaming tab activity failed to reward points (has since disappeared), occasional periods where searches reward NO points regardless of time passed since previous rewarded points earned.

The Microsoft Rewards app on Xbox has been rather barren. Fear for loss of streak was averted though and I was able to earn 2500 points for my 90 week streak. The weekly punch card activity toward a streak is practically the only thing remaining in the app. The Rewards beta section has been somewhat consistent, but the tasks for the 250 points with activity in a specific game have had a wide variance of effort involved.

Overall I am glad I was able to redeem all those points for Amazon gift cards and avoided recycling all those earnings back into the Microsoft ecosystem. I will probably close out the year with some effort to top off for one last Amazon gift card and then in most any practical earning sense reduce my Microsoft Rewards activity to only the most basic click/tap activity that is circumstantial at best.

Essentially if the delay between searches combined with a finite limit to searches with a cool down persists indefinitely, so to will any of my search activity. Going forward I don't think search activity is worth time or effort in this crippled earning environment. I was a user that preferred to take a moment of my day to complete most of these activities in an efficient sequence. Microsoft has succeeded with influencing my behavior... I now find myself having an aversion to their "deals".

I figured I should share my experience in the hopes it can help others. I spent an exorbitant amount of time troubleshooting a brand new Cricut Explore 3 that was purchased through Amazon. This was for my job (I work at a library, we love crafting!), and came in a brand new, unopened box. My boss had purchased it because it was advertised on Amazon for a Cyber Monday deal, but it was sold by a third party and shipped through Amazon. Even at the top of the product listing it linked you to the Cricut storefront, which is rather confusing as usually it links you to the individual seller but I honestly don't even understand at this point how Amazon functions with third party sellers.

After massive amounts of my wasted time trying on multiple devices, I call Cricut support TWICE. The second time I am informed the machine had been on a stolen pallet and deactivated in July. For one, I received no error messages from all of the troubleshooting I was doing, I just kept getting a spinning wheel when trying to activate the device. It wasn't until I used my personal Macbook and didn't try to activate the device but rather go staight to a cut that I got a message saying the machine was deactivated. So my second call to Cricut was to ask what that even means, and I find out the machine was stolen and they will not re-activate it.

It is completely absurd. Though it's a third party seller, because Amazon fulfilled the order (I guess?) they will refund us but we had to ship the Cricut back to them. I mean, it's bricked, and Cricut will not activate it so it's just garbage which is super frustrating, but I really hope that Amazon doesn't resell it! Additionally, the seller has a super high rating because every single bad review on them has been marked as "fulfilled by Amazon so we take full responsibility." It's great that you can get your money back, but what exactly is the responsibility Amazon is taking??? The return process is entirely impersonal, my boss did it through chat and they just send you a shipping label, but I literally do not understand where the return even goes? To one of those resale warehouses so someone else can get a deactivated machine? How is a seller able to list stolen products, yet Amazon "takes responsiblity"?

Cricut should not allow Amazon to sell their products, which is my biggest complaint about Cricut as a company is that this is clearly a large issue but they kind of just said I had to deal with Amazon. Which, "dealing with Amazon" is just Amazon being like ok here's your money back. I was also under the impression you needed to be an authorized seller, and I guess there are Cricuts sold and shipped by Amazon, but as a consumer how the hell are we supposed to know that even if it is shipped by Amazon, they are clearly not even investigating the products to make sure they are not STOLEN? I guess it's Amazon so no one is able to fight them, but it is completely disgusting how this was handled and I feel so bad for anyone who purchased this product who doesn't know how to investigate this further and get a refund or if they just think the product is a dud.

I hope anyone who possibly bought from this same seller (Olive Branch Enterprises) this past Cyber Monday finds this post, make sure you get a refund from Amazon, and rate this seller as 1 star. If you still want a Cricut, buy directly through Cricut. I could not find the Cricut on that seller's listings anymore, I had reported the product last week as suspicious activity. This is not the only product they are selling people are giving bad reviews to though, yet still they have products listed. It's so messed up how there's no regulations on Amazon clearly, and they do whatever they want such as protecting this third party seller for some bizarre reason. Good luck to anyone dealing with this same problem, while I was going through this I could not find much info about something like this happening with Amazon so I wanted to get the word out to others!

Hi, all, I found some good cyber monday deals at Amazon, hope you like them. If you find others, free to share or comment below, thanks all.

Electronics:

$79.99

$169.99

$896.99

$119.99

$159

$258.99

$99

$39.99

$379.99

$274

$99.99

$11.89

$169

Home

$99

$99 (click $30 off coupon)

$108.31

$59.50

$39.69

$17.48

$199.99

$28.79

$46.08

$159

$36

$29.99

$29.99

$16.58

$67.60

Others

for $100

$149.96

$299.99

$8.02

$9.99 (click 50% off coupon)

$27.29

$8.30

$4.79 with code 20DX8RPS + 50% off coupon on the page

$55.99

$54.36

$9.99

$13

$7.96

{Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez} for

{Forget Me Not by Julie Soto} for

{Royally Not Ready by Meghan Quinn} for

{Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan} for

{Seven Days in June by Tia Williams} for

{Grace Under Fire by Julie Garwood} for

{My Rogue to Ruin by Erica Ridley} for

It is insane how cheap you can get some of these devices. I got our first Fire 8" for about $30 refurb from woot about 4 or 5 years ago for our daughter. Then we got the Fire HD 10, for her a year or two ago was only about $80. I just picked up a MAX 11 to see if I will even use a tablet for around ~$110 after the trade in of our old Fire 8 on Cyber Monday. The tablet prices are a good value, though looking at the slim case for ~$50 and the keyboard case for ~$90. Even with the bundle kits they don't look all that well priced.

As Canadians, Black Friday and Cyber Monday come and we suffer through these so-called deals as we eye enviously. Fret not. Unlike our American brethern, we have to work harder and dig deeper for our savings. These are what I've found so far.

(Boardgamebliss: $33.95)

(Boardgamebliss: $27.95)

(Boardgamebliss: $53.95)

(Boardgamebliss: $42.95)

(Boardgamebliss: $46.95)

(Boardgamebliss: $106.24)

(Boardgamebliss: $47.95)

(Boardgamebliss: $79.89)

(Boardgamebliss: $22.95)

(Boardgamebliss: $34.95)

(Boardgamebliss: $28.95)

(Boardgamebliss: $55.95)

(Boardgamebliss: $22.95)

• NOTE: This may be a Chinese counterfeit.

I just wanted to share something I recently stumbled upon on Facebook. If you're looking to stock up on cigar supplies, I found a site listing current Cyber Monday deals on Amazon. Here's the link: .

Let me know if you know any other places like that where we can easily browse for holiday deals like that.

Buying at any other time seems wasteful - it’s a nice pencil though!

Post from

I realized this last year and took advantage of it again this year. If you order Amazon items on Black Friday, don’t be in a hurry to receive them. Select “Amazon delivery day“ which, in my case set a date of the next Friday. Then check the prices of everything you ordered on cyber Monday. If the price went down, cancel your original order and re-order. This is a lot easier than returning the higher priced items.

Don't fall for the cheap quality electronic products either that are "slashed" down. Check rtings for non biased reviews!

Edit:

Disclaimer: "There is some evidence to support the claim that Rtings is biased. For example, in a 2020 study, researchers found that Rtings' reviews were more likely to be positive for products that had been advertised on the site. The study also found that Rtings' reviewers were more likely to recommend products that were more expensive.

However, it is important to note that these findings do not necessarily mean that Rtings is deliberately biased. It is possible that the correlations between advertising and positive reviews and between price and recommendation are simply the result of the fact that advertisers and manufacturers are more likely to submit products for review that they believe will be favorably reviewed. Additionally, Rtings has a policy of not accepting payment for reviews, so it is unlikely that any bias is the result of direct financial incentives."

I live in kula (96790) and the majority of Amazon Prime purchases would show up in 3 to 5 days. About 3 months ago shipping times grew to 2 weeks, with most items taking over 3 weeks to a month. It wasn't until cyber Monday that I realized it's only the upcountry 96790 zip code that has this problem. A friend messed me about a good deal on an item so we both purchased the same exact item from the same exact seller at the exact same time. My friend lives in Makawao (96768) not ten minutes from me, they are to receive the item in 6 days, my delivery date in Kula (96790) is December 26th, which is 30 days for shipping! We only live a few few miles apart but clearly there is a technical issue on Amazons end.

I have tried multiple items at random off of Amazon and tried every zip code on the island, all have reasonable shipping estimates, change the delivery zip to upcountry (96790) and every delivery estimate jumps to 2 to 3 weeks, with most items not even giving an estimate.

I spent 2 hours on the phone with Amazon till I finally talked to a shipping specialist who said the problem is definitely with the zip code but didnt know why it was happening, they are supposed to report back to me in a couple days.

Anyone in the 96790 zip having the same problem? I know I'm not the only one..

Hi guys,

So the Black Friday 2023 has come and gone . I am hoping you would've gotten your dream laptops on dream deals. If you haven't though, I don't think you need to worry too much as many of these deals that were available on the day, are still active. Amazon, Walmart, HP and several other sellers, all have their deals running throughout the weekend seemingly into Cyber Monday.

Below, I have compiled three lists of the best of these deals for your perusal. Feel free to go through and ask any questions you may have and I will be happy to assist. I will also be updating these lists several times throughout each day.

Key

Strikethrough : Inactive deal

❌ : Inactive deal

General Purpose Laptops @ Amazon

Gaming /Productivity @ Amazon

Good General Purpose Laptop Deals from other Stores

Good Gaming/High Performance Laptop Deals from other Stores

Helpful Resources

Hasbro Pulse is having its annual Black Friday/Cyber Monday Deals

PREMIUM TERMS: Save 35% when you spend $75.00 or more on select, eligible items, with code CYBER35 beginning Monday, November 20, 2023 at 9:00 AM ET through Wednesday, November 29, 2023 at 11:59 PM ET (“Promotion”)

NON-PREMIUM TERMS:  Save 25% when you spend $75.00 or more on sele ... ct, eligible items, with code CYBER25beginning Monday, November 20, 2023 at 9:00 AM ET through Wednesday, November 29, 2023 at 11:59 PM ET (“Promotion”

Both and have buy 2 get the 3rd item free.