OSPS (cashback rating)

Summary analysis of the poll results now provided at the top of this post - I'll try and update it periodically as and when I have the time to do so


* As of 3pm on 13/10/06, there are 96 votes in this poll

* 76 of these are included in the following summary analysis.

* The remaining 20 are excluded from analysis for one of the following reasons:

1. not yet at the first cashback point (14 votes)
2. selected "other" but didn't provide further info (6)

SUMMARY ANALYSIS

Received all the cashback (77.6%)

This is made up of the following components:

received cash with no problems: 42/76 = 55.2%
received cash with some problems: 9/76 = 11.8%
received cash only after legal action: 8/76 = 10.5%

Lost some/all of the cashback (22.4%)

This is made up of the following components:

fell foul of the terms & conditions: 5/76 = 6.6%
retailer didn't honour the agreement: 12/76 = 15.8%

ALTERNATIVE ANALYSIS

If we rank each of the above 5 responses in order of how positive the outcome was and assign a score from 0-4 as follows:

0: lost cashback - retailer didn't honour the agreement
1: lost cashback - fell foul of T&Cs
2: received all the cashback only after legal action
3: received all the cashback with some problems
4: received all the cashback with no problems

We get an average "confidence" score of 2.84/4 or 71.1%.

What this means is that the "average" person is likely to find themselves in either category 2 or 3. i.e. you are likely to receive your money but it won't be without the odd problem and there is a (small) chance that you might even have to go as far as issuing court proceedings.

By my reckoning, the evidence on this forum seems to concur with the above mathematically based analysis.



Other retailer-specific polls in this series:

Mobile Rainbow


###### ORIGINAL POST BEGINS HERE ######

I usually stay silent these days but some topics of conversation are simply too important to ignore.

I would like to give Ka7e full marks for her recent efforts to collate members' experiences of various cashback companies. However, I can't help but think that there's a better way of doing this. I hope Ka7e won't feel usurped by this thread...in a way, she has made a significant contribution to it by seeking to pool the collective experiences of the membership of MSE in the first place.

Basically, the larger the company, the larger the potential pool of disgruntled customers. Thus the raw poll counts in each of Ka7e's polls can be misleading in isolation.

If each company were to be given it's own (set of) polls, members could see both the positive and negative in the same thread and look at the PERCENTAGES for that company, which are arguably more important figures than absolute counts.

So here's my attempt at a fairly constructed poll, using the most commonly discussed retailer on these boards (OSPS) as a guinea pig. If it works well, I guess it could be extended to all cashback retailers (one thread per retailer).

To be perfectly honest, a means of gathering cashback retailer ratings from previous customers is something that I've been wanting to add to my site but lack of time has prevented me from implementing the necessary user registration system which is required to safeguard the facility from abuse...so I guess you could look on this as me using MSE's well-established member registration system for the same purpose in the meantime.

PLEASE NOTE: this poll will only work if you are totally honest with yourself. Please read all of the options carefully before placing your vote.

IMPORTANT: for this poll to work well, we need ALL OSPS customers to participate in this thread, not just those with an axe to grind. Please, no conspircay theories about OSPS stooges skewing the results...as it's one member one vote, there should be little chance of that happening if everyone with a previous or current experience of OSPS participates.

cheers,
RM