Useful info about eBones prizes
Hakik
Published
06/21/2013
Here's what will hopefully be some useful info for people who are claiming prizes. I'll try to keep it accurate, but if I hear some changes or mistake I made from the staff, I'll edit this.
Keep in mind, that just like eBones prizes, this info is only relevant for US and Canadian residents.
First off, if it's your first time claiming a prize, you have to fill out a tax form (you will see that option when you claim a prize). This is more for eBaums purposes, you'll still be responsible for declaring your prizes on your own taxes. They won't send you anything until you've emailed them the completed form. You only need to do this only once. But this is probably why the first prize you claim takes forever to get.
When you claim a prize you will see under "Prize Store" in the "My Prizes" tab the status of your prize. It will come up as "processing" initially:
And after a few months, it might get updated to shipped:
Once it's upgraded to "shipped" it's usually very quick. Usually within 2 weeks you should get your prize.
But before it can ship, it usually sits for a long time in "processing". They do say to allow 8 weeks. Depending on how backed up they are, it can take under 2 months to get your prize, or sometimes when they're having problems, it can take over 6 months. Several months back, they've had a big back up, and things have only recently started to unclog. From my experience, I think on average around 3 months is a safe bet. It does seem like swag packs take less time than Visas to process.
If all goes well, you'll either get a package, or a letter from San Fransisco with this on it:
There used to be a thread in the forum, where people would tell when they claimed a prize, and when they received it. That gave people a rough idea of when they were gonna get their prize. But I think that thread has been abandoned.
eBones expiration:
eBones do expire every new calendar year, if you haven't stacked up enough points for the cheapest prize, meaning you don't have at least 50,000 points by the end of December. It expires and doesn't carry over. However, if you have over 50,000 points stacked up from 2012, and it's now 2013, you have until June 29th 2013 to use those. Also your 2012 points cannot be combined with your 2013 points.
Visa cards:
Visa cards are basically pre-paid cards. They work pretty much anywhere where Visa is accepted. You just have to activate it, and make sure you put in your correct address and zip code. If you mess up the address and zip code, you may not be able to make online purchases, and probably won't be able to buy gas either.
Also, if you do use it to buy gas, remember that some gas station take out an automatic extended sum. They might take out $100 initially, until they know how much gas you took, and then they update the amount. The problem is, the updated amount you spent sometimes takes a couple of days to get updated. So if you have a $100 Visa card, and only spent $40 on gas, don't be surprised if the next day your Visa card doesn't work.
Apart from the gas stations, I haven't had too many problems. The trick is spending those last few dollars. You have to go to a grocery store, or somewhere where you can swipe partial amounts. Also it says "debit" on the card, but always use it as credit. And finally, don't forget your card expires, and they start taking out $5 every months in the final 5 months.
Keep in mind, that just like eBones prizes, this info is only relevant for US and Canadian residents.
First off, if it's your first time claiming a prize, you have to fill out a tax form (you will see that option when you claim a prize). This is more for eBaums purposes, you'll still be responsible for declaring your prizes on your own taxes. They won't send you anything until you've emailed them the completed form. You only need to do this only once. But this is probably why the first prize you claim takes forever to get.
When you claim a prize you will see under "Prize Store" in the "My Prizes" tab the status of your prize. It will come up as "processing" initially:
And after a few months, it might get updated to shipped:
Once it's upgraded to "shipped" it's usually very quick. Usually within 2 weeks you should get your prize.
But before it can ship, it usually sits for a long time in "processing". They do say to allow 8 weeks. Depending on how backed up they are, it can take under 2 months to get your prize, or sometimes when they're having problems, it can take over 6 months. Several months back, they've had a big back up, and things have only recently started to unclog. From my experience, I think on average around 3 months is a safe bet. It does seem like swag packs take less time than Visas to process.
If all goes well, you'll either get a package, or a letter from San Fransisco with this on it:
There used to be a thread in the forum, where people would tell when they claimed a prize, and when they received it. That gave people a rough idea of when they were gonna get their prize. But I think that thread has been abandoned.
eBones expiration:
eBones do expire every new calendar year, if you haven't stacked up enough points for the cheapest prize, meaning you don't have at least 50,000 points by the end of December. It expires and doesn't carry over. However, if you have over 50,000 points stacked up from 2012, and it's now 2013, you have until June 29th 2013 to use those. Also your 2012 points cannot be combined with your 2013 points.
Visa cards:
Visa cards are basically pre-paid cards. They work pretty much anywhere where Visa is accepted. You just have to activate it, and make sure you put in your correct address and zip code. If you mess up the address and zip code, you may not be able to make online purchases, and probably won't be able to buy gas either.
Also, if you do use it to buy gas, remember that some gas station take out an automatic extended sum. They might take out $100 initially, until they know how much gas you took, and then they update the amount. The problem is, the updated amount you spent sometimes takes a couple of days to get updated. So if you have a $100 Visa card, and only spent $40 on gas, don't be surprised if the next day your Visa card doesn't work.
Apart from the gas stations, I haven't had too many problems. The trick is spending those last few dollars. You have to go to a grocery store, or somewhere where you can swipe partial amounts. Also it says "debit" on the card, but always use it as credit. And finally, don't forget your card expires, and they start taking out $5 every months in the final 5 months.
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