The Verizon Smart Rewards is actually the dumbest rewards program ever created: Here's Why

                The other day after logging onto verizon wireless, I noticed that over 20,000 points had been added to my account and that there was now a program on Verizon's website entitled "Verizon Smart Rewards".  I immediately signed up, as I am a member of numerous rewards programs through credit cards, retailers, hotel and airline chains.  I accepted terms and conditions, figuring that releasing my information would be worth what I could redeem from the rewards program.
                I have never been more wrong.
                To begin with, this program markets that members receive 10,000 points for every year they have been with Verizon.  However, I have been with Verizon since late 2008, and was only given credit for 2 years.
                Second, every single travel deal I searched for on their website I found would still cost me more money after I used points than booking via other websites:  Cruise Fare, Hotel Fare, Car Rental fare.  I have several vacations planned in the near future, and I figured my points would help me save money, but after researching different vacations to Hawaii, Los Angeles, and the Caribbean I found that is definitely not the case.  
                When it comes to booking hotels, Verizon is asking people to sacrifice any points they may earn via hotel loyalty (most hotel’s policy), they are only offering a discount off their standard rates, whereas many times hotels have better promotional rates. And in the rare event someone should find a better standard rate than shown on their website, they don’t even offer to beat the rate, but simply offer a refund/credit.
                The gift card sales sent my hopes skyrocketing.  Every rewards program I am a part of gives a value of at least 1 cent per point.  With 20,000 points on my Verizon account, that would be an easy $200.  Verizon's gift card sales seem to affirm the value of 1 cent per point (as well as their travel discount program), but it is absolutely insulting that you cannot redeem more than 10% of a gift card via points.  No other rewards program I am part of has this limitation.
                Yet, for all the above flops, their auction system is the worst offender of the program, in my opinion.  I would easily have to spend an hour on the site to win a gift card via the extended play option, and it seems like a snowballs chance in hell that I could win an auction that doesn’t have the extended play.  In the few times I bid, I felt like I was fighting for tickets to a popular event (IE. Superbowl) when in fact I was bidding on a $100 gift card.
                Even Verizon's daily deal feels like a kick in the face at times.  A $5 gift card for 500 points seemed to be the best offering yet, again affirming the 1 cent per point value.  But 15 minutes past the time when it was offered I was unable to obtain the item, as every one of them was already in other peoples carts.
                In my sincere and educated opinion, this program is more of an insult than if they had never implemented one to begin with.  Verizon is rewarding years of brand loyalty by asking people to sacrifice more of their privacy in exchange for 10% off coupons, extensively time-consuming or near impossible to win auctions, travel deals that are for suckers, and the chance to win a single galaxy note tablet in a sweepstakes that could potentially involve an entry for each of their 100 million+ customers.

Update 9/17/15: I have left Verizon, happy to no longer think about this ridiculous program that wasted 2-3 hours of my life.  My account balance is over 103,000 points, which Verizon can take, and shove up their butts. (For reference, I recently used 70,000 points from a different program and redeemed for a $7K business class flight overseas, so to be willing to give up 103,000 points IMO is a great example of how worthless this program is.)