A masterclass in how not to design a loyalty programme
The concept of auto-crediting rewards is a step in the right direction — but the execution is so poorly thought through it's almost impressive.
Where do I start. You're capped at saving only 2 payment cards. No explanation for why, no transparency about how that data is stored or secured, and no indication this was ever tested with actual users who (surprise!) own more than two cards. This isn't a feature, it's an artificial constraint that undermines the entire value proposition.
Mastercard only? So if your bank doesn't have a partnership with CapitaStar, you simply don't earn. Debit card users are silently excluded. Cash users don't exist. DBS Pay Lah gets a carve-out while the other three local banks are apparently an afterthought. This isn't a rewards programme, it's a special little place for a very specific type of customer that isn't most people.
To make it worse, manual receipt submission (the fallback that worked!) was removed without a functional replacement. The Ask Casey chatbot can't handle it either and is overall a perfect example of how not to implement chatbot - the thing is useless. So users are left with nothing. That's not innovation, that's regression dressed up as progress.
The UI is inaccessible, the information architecture is unclear, and the whole system seems designed to create enough friction that you either spend at very specific amounts or give up entirely.
Someone greenlit this without talking to users and with “I know best” thinking that CapitaLand should have outgrown decade ago.
Where do I start. You're capped at saving only 2 payment cards. No explanation for why, no transparency about how that data is stored or secured, and no indication this was ever tested with actual users who (surprise!) own more than two cards. This isn't a feature, it's an artificial constraint that undermines the entire value proposition.
Mastercard only? So if your bank doesn't have a partnership with CapitaStar, you simply don't earn. Debit card users are silently excluded. Cash users don't exist. DBS Pay Lah gets a carve-out while the other three local banks are apparently an afterthought. This isn't a rewards programme, it's a special little place for a very specific type of customer that isn't most people.
To make it worse, manual receipt submission (the fallback that worked!) was removed without a functional replacement. The Ask Casey chatbot can't handle it either and is overall a perfect example of how not to implement chatbot - the thing is useless. So users are left with nothing. That's not innovation, that's regression dressed up as progress.
The UI is inaccessible, the information architecture is unclear, and the whole system seems designed to create enough friction that you either spend at very specific amounts or give up entirely.
Someone greenlit this without talking to users and with “I know best” thinking that CapitaLand should have outgrown decade ago.
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Worst loyalty program ever 👎🏼
The CapitaStar app has gone downhill. Previously, you could simply scan a receipt and earn your points. Now, in the name of so-called “seamless integration,” they’ve removed that function and are aggressively pushing users to link specific credit and bank cards instead.
Let’s be honest — this isn’t about convenience. It’s about hard-selling financial products. This just shows how desperate and frankly shameless they are. Not everyone wants to sign up for yet another credit card just to earn rewards that used to be accessible with a simple receipt scan.
And here’s the most important part: the person scanning the receipt isn’t always the one making payment. Families and friends shop together. Why should rewards be restricted only to whoever’s card is linked? The old system was straightforward and fair. The new one feels restrictive, intrusive, and unnecessary.
If this is what “improvement” looks like, it’s a step BACKWARDS.
If this is the direction they’re choosing, I’ll simply take my spending elsewhere. There are plenty of other malls that don’t force customers into bank tie-ins just to earn basic loyalty points. CapitaLand malls are no longer my first choice.
Let’s be honest — this isn’t about convenience. It’s about hard-selling financial products. This just shows how desperate and frankly shameless they are. Not everyone wants to sign up for yet another credit card just to earn rewards that used to be accessible with a simple receipt scan.
And here’s the most important part: the person scanning the receipt isn’t always the one making payment. Families and friends shop together. Why should rewards be restricted only to whoever’s card is linked? The old system was straightforward and fair. The new one feels restrictive, intrusive, and unnecessary.
If this is what “improvement” looks like, it’s a step BACKWARDS.
If this is the direction they’re choosing, I’ll simply take my spending elsewhere. There are plenty of other malls that don’t force customers into bank tie-ins just to earn basic loyalty points. CapitaLand malls are no longer my first choice.
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Really bad way of earning rewards!
Your new initiative of automatically crediting rewards purchases instead of manually scanning receipts is finally a new innovation that’s been a long time coming and welcomed, but a very POORLY executed and thought out plan.
Firstly, do you know your target user audiences? We don’t only keep 2 credit cards, we have MANY. How do you expect us to earn rewards by saving only two cards?
Secondly, only Mastercard partnerships are included in this initiative?? How can it be our fault to not earn rewards spending at your malls when you’ve failed to secured partnerships with all card companies?
Third, for the older or younger folk who still use debit savings cards, they are excluded from earning rewards and are expected to pay using DBS Pay Lah only? What about the other 3 local banks?
Fourth, you roll this poorly thought out campaign but remove the function to still manually submit our receipts. Worse, your Ask Casey chatbot can’t even handle receipt submissions. Innovation and productivity initiatives at its worse for Singapore’s leading mall operator!
This rewards programme is really not a rewarding programme if Capitastar continues with this ridiculous moves. And I’m not the only one, see your app reviews and you’ll see many upset users who share the same views.
I’ll gladly return to the manual receipt scanning and retrospective points crediting any day like what other mall operators maintain doing. Shame on Capitastar for not taking user feedback seriously and poorly rolling out this!
Firstly, do you know your target user audiences? We don’t only keep 2 credit cards, we have MANY. How do you expect us to earn rewards by saving only two cards?
Secondly, only Mastercard partnerships are included in this initiative?? How can it be our fault to not earn rewards spending at your malls when you’ve failed to secured partnerships with all card companies?
Third, for the older or younger folk who still use debit savings cards, they are excluded from earning rewards and are expected to pay using DBS Pay Lah only? What about the other 3 local banks?
Fourth, you roll this poorly thought out campaign but remove the function to still manually submit our receipts. Worse, your Ask Casey chatbot can’t even handle receipt submissions. Innovation and productivity initiatives at its worse for Singapore’s leading mall operator!
This rewards programme is really not a rewarding programme if Capitastar continues with this ridiculous moves. And I’m not the only one, see your app reviews and you’ll see many upset users who share the same views.
I’ll gladly return to the manual receipt scanning and retrospective points crediting any day like what other mall operators maintain doing. Shame on Capitastar for not taking user feedback seriously and poorly rolling out this!
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Getting worst
The new Mastercard tagging is a real inconvenience. I now have to be extremely careful about which cards I can or cannot use, and I can hardly rely on Apple Pay anymore since the Apple Pay card number differs. It’s a very poor change overall. I’ve even started visiting Fraser malls more often because this app imposes far too many restrictions. CapitaMall management should seriously reconsider this rewards system and whoever implemented these changes.
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All is good
Too bad it can’t scan receipts anymore. Some of my frequent shops like McDonald or Yakun that paid through their apps so it’s unable to got points. Only can get when you paid directly.
