CRM and the banking fraternity.

I never cease to be astonished at the poor sense of marketing follow thru that the banks display.The other day SCB calls me and informs me that the bank has decided to upgrade me to the status of a platinum card. FREE OF COST, thank you. However, all the exising reward points on my existing card would espire within 45 days. And so I embarked on a journey!
Have you ever tried to cash in on the reward points that the mobile service providers and the banks offer you? SCB was worse than a joke. After I spent a lot of time trying to figure this out from the website, I finally gave up and called them. They informed me, that as a "policy" they do not display the reward gifts on the website, and that they would now email the same to me.
The email consisted of a 6 different gift coupons. Reluctantly, I asked for 6 vouchers of Reebok(Rs 3000), 21 vouchers of Hidesign (rs 10500), and 10 vouchers of Parker pen sets of Rs 350 each. So you can imagine my desperation that I finally ordered 10 vouchers for the pen sets.
What I got was 21 sets of the Parker pen itself and 6 vouchers of Reebok. When I called the help center, they claimed the following.
1. That the parker pensets voucher value had gone up in the last 48 hours.
2.That I had ordered 21 sets of Parker pen sets and 10 of Hidesign.
And that I had run out of reward points at the end of the execution of my Parker pen set order, which had got revalued and that therefore it was not possible to send the Hidesign vouchers.
By now, SCB is the last guys that I want to deal with. In any case, I have the Reebok showroom right next to my office and off I went there this morning, to purchase a pair of Reeboks before that goes up any further in price too.
Now these guys are running a 40% discount on the shoes, but the gift vouchers are encashable only against the list price and not against the discounted price. That means, these gift vouchers are not really gifts as you and I understand it, but the outcome of some shady deal that Reebok and SCB have conjured up.
What defeats me, is as to why on earth these banks run a loyalty program at all. I had never encashed my reward points all these years, and on the one occasion that I tried, and that too with a gun on my head, the experience is most miserable.
My SCB bank card now safely adorns my drawer in the cupboard. Till recently the primary card that I was using. But I am too disgusted to use the same. Did any of you guys know that your credit card company runs a loyalty program? And can you find out the reward gifts on the website? And these are the guys who are the biggest users of technology?