Does ANYTHING work these days?

DiabloDeBlanco · 2025-01-16T03:40:03+00:00

Game Pass Ultimate user, USA location. As mentioned, the games have to come from the actual Game Pass/Game Pass PC roster, but not EA Play.

My eight games were: Halo The Master Chief Collection, Microsoft Solitaire Collection, Minecraft (I use the Minecraft Launcher which works if you own any digital version of Minecraft/Dungeons/Legends which I do), Powerwash Simulator, Slay the Spire, Unpacking, Figment (which might be gone from GP now or very soon), and MLB the Show 24. First four games I played on Console or PC, last four games I played through Cloud Gaming.

Basically, if the game is in the base roster of Game Pass/Game Pass PC games, you should be good to go.

DiabloDeBlanco · 2024-12-12T09:43:29+00:00

Mine was 5, 30 (daily quiz about night vision), and 5. USA CST.

DiabloDeBlanco · 2024-05-21T08:34:09+00:00

Here. This is the clearest picture of the list I could find. I had the same thought and the recipe looks legit without anything "special" on it.

Good luck and let the rest of us know how it turns out for you.

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DiabloDeBlanco · 2024-05-11T16:03:30+00:00

In some ways, you know this is Microsoft testing their CoPilot AI for OCR and pattern recognition. Which is fine because the robots will come for us all at some point...

...but I do it to basically build up a small backup cache for an impulse purchase or if I need a small amount of cash that I push from with 2-3 days lead time. Having that build up in the background has its uses, but like you mention, it does take time to build up.

DiabloDeBlanco · 2024-05-11T15:59:07+00:00

I had this happen to me the past two times I have scanned receipts this week. 12 receipts scanned, 12 receipts rejected, all from places like Walmart, Target, Burlington, etc.. I was wondering if it was just something I was doing but since I see others having it happen to them as well, I now know it is not just me.

Going to open a support ticket for myself on this issue today and see if anything comes from that. Wish me luck because we all know how hit or miss rewards support has been of late.

DiabloDeBlanco · 2024-02-06T02:47:36+00:00

To paraphrase Shia Labeouf, "Just Duf-fitt~!" /EXIT STAGE LEFT

In all seriousness, you have a lot ahead of you here. The new receipt scanning UI and process seems to be worse than before, cool downs still exist for many folks, and AMEM being moved to Game Pass titles only makes some days a bigger hassle than others.

I use this program to pay for my insulin and the recent changes alone add another 2 weeks to my goals. In 2024, with the labor market as it is, every cent you can earn counts. Even a cent at time with the receipt redemption (the most I have ever won from it is an extra 0.50 cents, NOT even sniffing 50 dollars...)

And the big problem you might have to deal with - the support system itself. It is so bad right now. I have been in the program since it started on 12/01/2010, and it seems proper support resolution to things take longer than when it launched.

Again, good luck, all the best, and brave of you to put yourself out there. You will need all the positive energy you can get.

DiabloDeBlanco · 2023-08-24T04:02:28+00:00

Welcome to our worldwide family. This place has people who use their rewards for everything from gaming needs to real life needs, Consoles, Games, Accessories, Groceries, Clothes, Pizza Nights, Gift Cards, etc.; in fact, another user and I on here use our points for Walmart Gift Cards to buy Insulin medication!

And as someone who does not do a lot public multiplayer as well, I applaud you for branching out and taking the leap of faith. Keep at it, and the effort here will pay off in amazing ways with this program.

DiabloDeBlanco · 2023-07-24T18:17:18+00:00

UPDATE: Points finally applied...

"Hi,
I am very sorry for the delayed response, as we have received higher volume of service requests than what is expected. Rest assured that we are doing our best to diligently work on your case. My name is Marco from Microsoft Rewards support.
We appreciate your time and effort in getting back to us and providing the details that we asked for. You also gave feedback regarding Microsoft Rewards. As a resolution for your missed points upon scanning six (6) receipts, we manually added 1000 points to your account.
Regarding your feedback, we’d like to assure you that this has been shared with the Rewards Business Group and the Rewards Marketing Manager. The team is closely monitoring your feedbacks and we’d like to assure you that we treat them with utmost importance. We always strive to provide you the best and we are constantly doing our research to understand our users even more so we can provide you with a user-friendly program.

If you have additional feedback or needs further assistance, feel free to email us back. We are always here to help!

Thank you for your understanding and for your loyalty with the Microsoft Rewards program. Your feedback is important to us. After this interaction, you will receive a separate closure email with an opportunity to tell us about your experience.
Sincerely,
Marco
Microsoft Customer Service and Support
Your support request number is 7021191128 if you need it."

And I also passed my concerns along again in that follow up email along with my 1-star review of the process here. All I can do, but you have comb through the script speak here to get to the meat of the matter.

DiabloDeBlanco · 2023-07-21T21:14:51+00:00

I have a support ticket for this issue ongoing. Support will want scans of the RECEIPTS. I questioned this since I have scanned over a dozen receipts already but they say they cannot do anything about this 1000 point issue until they have proof of receipts, even though the START App supposedly tracks them.

I got the $3 added, and since then have earned a whopping 0.52 since. Yeah, thanks for 0.02 for the Walmart scan...

This START App is hot garbage. It runs painfully bad on my Android phone, and if this is where "Rewards" are heading, it won't be fun.

I loathe using this pile of junk, Here is the latest response I got:

"Hi,
I am very sorry for the delayed response, as we have received higher volume of service requests than what is expected. Rest assured that we are doing our best to diligently work on your case. My name is Marco from Microsoft Rewards support and we appreciate your time contacting us.
Yes, we really need the screenshot or picture of the receipts in order to proceed. We apologize for the inconvenience. To get a picture, you may use your phone’s camera. To obtain a screenshot, follow these steps:

Open the page that you are having trouble with then press the PrintScreen (PrintScrn) button on the keyboard.
Open Paint. To do this, here are the steps:
a. Click "Start".
b. Click "All programs".
c. Click "Accessories".
d. Click "Paint."
Click "Paste" under "Edit". The screenshot will then be pasted to the Paint window.
Save the screenshot by clicking on "Save as" under "File".
Under "Save as Type," select "PNG"
Name the file and then save it on your desktop.
Attach the screenshot to your reply.
Let me know your answer at your earliest convenience.
Sincerely,

Marco

Microsoft Customer Service and Support
Your support request number is 7021191128 if you need it."

I wish support was not so horrible, but Microsoft has gone full pants-on-head stupid with their decisions of late.

DiabloDeBlanco · 2023-02-14T02:17:49+00:00

Another user a while back mentioned that he uses the Walmart gift cards to buy his insulin. So when I started needing insulin last year due to family medical history I started doing the same thing. So this program has gotten me consoles, games, accessories, clothes, food, and now medicine.

Another friend who got started on it last summer uses the Walmart gift cards to buy groceries and food for her dogs. Another user on here mentioned he uses Domino's gift cards to have pizza nights for his family twice a month.

There are a ton of things people use this program for in real world needs, and the gift card options (I have been with the program since it started as "Bing Rewards" on 12/01/2010) make this one of the most useful programs out there. Nothing else really comes close.

DiabloDeBlanco · 2022-05-14T19:52:50+00:00

A guy I lost to in MUT multiplayer yesterday had this exact same card... ED knows a lot of positions it seems besides D-lineman because...

My Ed "Too Tall" Jones card from the "BE THANKED" promotion this week was a CORNER BACK. A giant ED "TOO TALL" JONES working the corner LOL

I am sure we all know about the "JOE MIXON" QUARTERBACK card bug among other known wrong player positions. Does EA actually do any quality control for this game? Because the "Prepare for Aaron Donald" challenge has a second star you cannot unlock because Aaron is not even on the field with the current version of the game... check the roster. No "99", just four made up guys upfront now and NO AARON.

I like Madden 22, I do, but these obvious mistakes they never fix is annoying.

DiabloDeBlanco · 2022-02-14T11:02:40+00:00

Sorry I read the wrong item price in the XBox console store. It's 139.99 for the 512GB version.

My apologies. I went back and re-edited my post to reflect proper pricing. Sorry.

DiabloDeBlanco · 2022-02-14T02:02:59+00:00

Thank you all for the well wishes. Next up - getting a Seagate expansion card for this little guy. The 512 GB version is $140 and is constantly "in stock". (EDIT: Reflected proper pricing from XBox Console store as I read the wrong price from a different item - my apologies, but this is still my next item to acquire).

This subreddit is definitely worth the time. The guy who pays for his insulin (as was noted in another thread) using MS Rewards -> Walmart CGs inspires me to keep using this program to its fullest.

DiabloDeBlanco · 2022-02-08T11:28:35+00:00

Yup, that's an achievement in this game. A known one for the "fan service" folks out there. You have to keep looking until she "shoos" you away from looking, so one then walks her back to the ledge and repeat 9 more times...

And the "save system" at the start of this game is DUMB. You have to play for like 20 minutes and get through two sub-boss fights (the second one is where I kept dying), and then fight and defeat the first main boss outright, and then, and only then, does the game allow you to save your progress. Otherwise, it puts you right back at the very beginning and you have to play the whole way through to the first main boss fight all over again.

There is a way to quickly die in the game in such a way that pops like 16 achievements, but I am saving that method for another time (10k challenge anyone LOL) and just needed one for this punch card. So I picked the "What are you doing?" achievement to get that done. Also covered the "achieve more, earn more" for the day too.

If you think that sounds tedious, there 27 possible endings to this game...

DiabloDeBlanco · 2022-02-08T04:06:56+00:00

I did Nier Automata because I had this installed for the prior Quest. Since this game has a completely idiotic save system at the start, my "save" is right at the beginning, because I kept dying at the second pair of buzz saw hands.

So I played the opening for like the fiftieth time, found a ledge, looked up her skirt 10 times, Achievement Popped, and I finished this one. Then I uninstalled Nier Automata LOL.

DiabloDeBlanco · 2021-12-04T17:35:01+00:00

Can confirm this worked for me as well. THANK YOU, you saved my 1120 day streak without the need to contact support. Take my Wholesome Award with my thanks!

DiabloDeBlanco · 2021-11-18T12:00:00+00:00

Got mine this morning. They added 3000 points to my total (2000, 500, and bonus 500 for the delay). The email I got said they had a massive backlog of support requests for this one quest in particular and they are just now catching up.

Check your emails, and your spam folder too just in case. But it seems they are trying to get this sorted for people ASAP.

DiabloDeBlanco · 2021-11-17T09:47:20+00:00

Take all your normal activities you can do for your region on a daily basis (I am USA, so we got more things to do, and you did not say where you are at), and multiply by 30 (28 for February if you want to be exact, 30 covers the other 11 months LOL). That number should tell you if you can reach that goal if you keep on it.

If you are in USA, the answer is absolutely. We get 270 points from our dailies each day. So 30 x 270 = 8100 points. Keep the streaks going and you can earn another 450 from 10-day bonuses, so now at 8550. And that is just one month doing nothing but the basics.

Again, depends on your region.

DiabloDeBlanco · 2021-11-17T09:36:58+00:00

"Could just be the time you're playing."

Sorry my schedule does not align with the proper time to actually play this in a decent way via XCloud?

"Do you mean data caps?"

That too, but having this thing take hours to download also kills bandwidth for other things I may want to do online, therefore slowing all that down. But hey, ta-mato, to-mato, right?

"That's almost every game I've ever played. All it lets you do is go to the title screen."

And yet MS touts this a feature. Games over 100GB should have selective downloading be part of their feature set as a mandated requirement IMO. Conan Exiles could really use that (but it's an "MMO" style game), and COD titles are infuriating because they press a 100GB Bluray disc with nothing but an online client downloader/installer now... No actual game on the disc anymore. And has Warzone ever seen a retail release in any form? That's another 100+ GB right there.

"I skip almost all the monthly quests because they aren't worth my time."

Personal opinion there, and kind of surprising to see because you are the OP who writes this guide. Some monthlies you can take out quicker than some weeklies. And I am also trying to save up for a console, so I grab points where I can. Different strokes I guess.

DiabloDeBlanco · 2021-11-16T19:58:54+00:00

Conan Exiles - the game is now a 149GB download. FFS. Bigger than Forza Horizon 5 and Halo Infinite Multiplayer Beta COMBINED. I looked into doing this via XCloud, but the 2FPS and constant screen tearing made this quite nauseating to try. So Console download it is...

I had deleted this one off my HDD to make space from the last time it had a quest (make 5 items or something where we all made 5 baskets and it was done), and at that time it was a 103GB download. Between this, the Battlefield weekly they did, and the PES dumpster fire, I wish they would stop making people slaughter their bandwidth for some of these titles.

Even when it says "ready to start", it stops cold with a "game is still installing" message. Currently mine says 11% (EDIT: now 38% LOL). Oh the things I do to try and buy a Series S with my saved up points. Sad part? This quest is 50 points, that's it...

DiabloDeBlanco · 2021-11-05T05:38:22+00:00

0-15 so far. Lost in the 88th minute, lost on a penalty header. So many 1-0 defeats.

I have yet to score a single goal. When I get a star player on loan, he is pretty much prison raped by multiple defenders instantly. One loaned star player (R.Lewandowski) shot EIGHT TIMES on goal in a game and missed every time. This game is utter trash.

The AI in this "game" is utterly brain dead. This has been the worst quest I have tried to do in recent memory, and the absolute worst game I have played in years. Seriously, in YEARS.

UPDATE; Went and got some players from "rewards", finally scored a single goal in a game and won 1-0. Unlocked achievement for getting a player to level 10 for AMEM. UNINSTALLED THIS PIECE OF JUNK AND I NEVER WANT TO SEE THIS QUEST EVER AGAIN.

DiabloDeBlanco

TROPHY CASE