Q. How do I get BuddiRewards onto my phone?
A. First check that you have a compatibile phone, then register online. Complete our sign up process and the BuddiRewards download link will be texted to your phone. Alternatively, register directly from your phone. Direct your mobile web browser to http://www.buddirewards.com and click the download link. Install the BuddiRewards application and complete our sign up steps from your phone.
Q. How much does BuddiRewards cost?
A. Nothing! It's free. The banner ads that appear on your phone fund our operations and ongoing development and support costs.
Q. How do I earn Reward points?
A. Points are earned from the banner ads that appear on your phone and by inviting friends to install BuddiRewards. Friends who accept your invite and install BuddiRewards earn you bonus points. These points are shown as 'My BuddiRewards' and automatically accumulate in your account.
Q. How and where do the advertisements appear?
A. BuddiRewards displays ads whenever there is an incoming call, an SMS, an email or missed call alert. These are banner ads and do not affect the functioning of your phone.
Q. What control do I get over the advertisements that appear on my phone?
A. The ads that appear are determined by your AD FREQUENCY profile. This selection can be found in your BuddiRewards SETTINGS. The frequency settings can be set to HIGH, MEDIUM and LOW. And if you wish to stop the ads from appearing, select PAUSE from the ACTIVITY option. And to restart your ads (and continue earning Reward Points) select ACTIVE from the ACTIVITY option.
Q. How do I find out how many credits that I have earned?
A. Select the STATUS screen and below the name of your account is a summary of your total Reward points. SELECT this option and a summary of your points earned and purchase points deducted will be displayed. This summary includes your points earned from banner ad displays (My Rewards), your points from friends who have accepted your invitation to install BuddiRewards (My BuddiRewards) and your points from clicking banner ads (My Click Rewards).
Q. How do BuddiReward points work?
A. Invite a friend to install BuddiRewards and if they accept your invitation to subscribe, you will receive 25 Reward points. These bonus points are automatically added to your account and appear as BuddiReward points. The more friends who accept your invitation to subscribe, the more Reward points you earn.
Q. How do Click Reward points work?
A. Each of the large banner ads that appear on your phone hold special attributes. By clicking the ‘5’ key on your phone you are able to trigger an embedded action. This action may take you to a mobile website, play a video, call a sales consultant or initiate an online purchase. Each of these actions earn you additional points.
Q. Do I need to switch off the Active Screen on my Nokia Eseries phone to use BuddiRewards?
A. No. BuddiRewards includes its own missed call, SMS and e-mail counter via onscreen widgets. This provides the same functionality as Nokia's Active Screen component and works across all phone models.
Q. Can I get to choose my email address with BuddiRewards?
A. Your email address is created automatically when you register. This is formed from your username, i.e. myusername@buddirewards.com . Effectively, what you sign up with will automatically become your email adddress on the BuddiRewards Community Network.
Q. Do my friends have to be using BuddiRewards to send me messages?
A. Absolutely not. You are free to message anyone who has an email address and they are free to reply. The big plus with BuddiRewards is that the incoming emails and SMS's that you receive earn you Reward Points. Just remember to tell them that you have a new email address on the BuddiRewards Network (yourusername@buddirewards.com).
Q. How do I add a friend to my BuddiRewards Contact list?
A. First of all, determine that your friend has installed BuddiRewards. Then select the ADD BUDDY option from the OPTIONS menu within the Buddies Contact list. In the pop-up dialogue that appears, enter your Buddies username. If the username is correct, your friends picture will automatically appear in your Contacts list. The words 'Invite sent...' will appear alongside the picture. When this invite has been accepted, your friend's username will appear.
Q. I don't seem to be able to Sign in. What's the problem?
A. There are a number of variables that can affect your ability to sign into your account. Check that you are in a strong wireless reception area. If you are using GPRS or an Edge connection, it will take some time. If you are using 3G or 3.5G (HSDPA) sign in occurs very quickly. Often if your phone has been charging overnight or you have been outside of a data connection cell, you may have to force your phone to resynchronise with your service provider. Typically, a power off/power on sequence will reestablish a connection and prompt you to select a data access point. This option usually resolves most Sign in and authentication issues.
If you have made a keying error and misspelt your username or password, BuddiRewards will report an 'Authenication failed!' error. If you have forgotten your password, you can initiate a reset from our website. Select the LOST PASSWORD link on the bottom of any page.
Q. BuddiRewards is locked on 'Checking mail..." and doesn't seem to be connecting to my email account. What's the problem?
A. Typically, this is an Access Point connectivity issue. From the SETTINGS menu check that BuddiRewards is set to your default Internet Access Point. Then force a retry of the connection by selecting EXIT from the OPTIONS menu and then restarting BuddiRewards. You will be signed in automatically and if you are in a strong coverage region, BuddiRewards should connect and synchronise with your email account. The 'Checking mail..." will revert to 'New messages...' when the connection is made.
Q. How do I hide my visibility on the BuddiRewards search engine?
A. We accept that some people like to 'surf below the radar'. If you wish to avoid other subscribers finding your profile, just select the INVISIBLE TO SEARCH option under PRIVACY in the BuddiRewards SETTINGS menu. You will find this link on the STATUS--> SETTING display. You can reverse this option at any time by selecting the default value of VISIBLE TO SEARCH.
Q. How much data is downloaded?
A. BuddiRewards stores banner ads in your phone. These ads are updated when you sign in. Data is only exchanged when a new campaign is downloaded and when user authentication occurs. Typically, this is about 100k of data.
Q. What is the validity period of my points?
A. Your points remain valid for 12 months from the date that the points were earned.
Q. Who pays for the invites I send to my friends?
A. If you send an invite by SMS from your phone, you will incur this charge. If you send an email invite from our website, will pay for the cost of this transmission.
Q. Who pays for the reward items in your store?
A. Indirectly, our advertisers pay for the items that appear in the store. For every advertising banner that is served on a phone, we allocate a percentage of this revenue towards Reward redemptions.
Q. Can I cash out my Reward Points?
A. Not at this present time.
Q. What happens to my Buddies and Reward Points if I change my phone or service provider?
A. BuddiRewards stores a snapshot of your Contacts and Reward Points on our servers. Changing phone handsets or mobile operators (service provider or mobile phone number) will not affect your existing account balance or Contact list.
Before the change occurs, be sure to synchronise your settings. This feature appears in the OPTIONS menu on the BuddiRewards Status screen. By synchronising your phone, you store a snapshot of your current Reward Points and Buddies on our server.
To complete the changeover, sychronise again on your new handset. This will update your points balance and display your Buddies.
Q. How do I change my picture?
A. Your picture (personal avatar) can be changed by clicking UPDATE PROFILE from our website. This page also allows you to update any of the details associated with your account.
Q. Can I import my friends from other webmail and social networking applications?
A. Not at this present time. However, this feature will appear in a future release of BuddiRewards.
Q. How do I reset/retrieve my password/username?
A. All the account reset functions can be accessed from our website. This page controls the reset and retrieval functions for your password and username.
Q. How do I access the latest version of BuddiRewards?
A. When you Sign In to BuddiRewards or Synchronise your account, BuddiRewards will automatically check if an application update is required. A prompt will appear on your handset asking if you wish to upgrade.
To manually check the version of BuddiRewards that is operating on your phone, select OPTIONS --> ABOUT from the BuddiRewards Status screen. This will show you the version number of the application that is installed.
The latest production version can be manually download from this link:
www.buddirewards.com/br.sis
To review a change log against each release version, go to this link:
www.buddrewards.com/download.htm