Warning: Online Cash Backs

Guanxi

I cannot urge you enough to avoid all ONLINE cash back offers.

They are purposefully misleading and some are designed to reject upto 90% of all claiments irrespective of merit.

I got stung by JUST3G.co.uk. I lost my cashback on a irrelevent technicality that they claim voided my offer. I really dont understand it, but in a nutshell they claimed that I should have sent them 7 bills to show 6 months of good standing with three. They dont answer emails and their 0870 number charges about 10p a min to keep you holding before being cut off.

I have since been talking to people in the trade and they have told me the following to be so:
- Online retailors depend on rejecting a vast amount of their claims because they have no local presence and it easy to ignore emails and phone calls.
- THREE network is unique in NOT clawing back commissions if the dealer has followed procedures. In other words, one could default after a few months and the dealer would not lose anything. The whole cash back process is designed to be complicated so as to fustrate users. There isnt any real way of defrauding the dealer.
- Cash Backs are good but only use a business with a local physical presence. Here you can go in and have your claim processed in person. My contact who runs a physical business says, that his rejection rate for cash back is less then 3%, ie. 97% of all his customers get their money. The opposite seems to be true for online retailors. My contact tells me that he personally knows of online business that will never pay out a cashback no matter the validity of the claim.

In a nutshell, DONT do online tariffs that involve cashback. Only go for cash back where you can physically see the shop and drop in their claim.

Obviously not all online merchants are likely to be so inclined to screw their customer base, but the fact remains if things go wrong online, short of the hassle of a small claims court there isn't really much recourse. They know that too.

GeoThermal

Sorry to hear you've lost on on this deal. Did you follow the instructions to the letter? Their T&Cs state: "To claim, after 6 months all statements up to and including a statement indicating the contracts have been connected over 6 months must be submitted." The T&Cs could be clearer. They could just say send your first 7 bills. If you did this then you are entitled to your cashback and if they are refusing speak to Trading Standards.

Cashback deals do seem to be generally ok though going by this and other forums, so long as you follow the letter of the T&Cs. Main thing that puts me off are concerns about the company doing the deal being around in 6 months.

Legal_Academic

Interesting to see this post on Just3G.co.uk reneging on their cashback deal again (and again and again).

A friend of mine recently obtained a County Court judgment against Just3G.co.uk for exactly this!

There are more comments about this rather dubious retailer here:

http://www.blagger.com/db4/company_...unications.html

GeoThermal wrote:

Sorry to hear you've lost on on this deal. Did you follow the instructions to the letter? Their T&Cs state: "To claim, after 6 months all statements up to and including a statement indicating the contracts have been connected over 6 months must be submitted." The T&Cs could be clearer. They could just say send your first 7 bills. If you did this then you are entitled to your cashback and if they are refusing speak to Trading Standards.

Cashback deals do seem to be generally ok though going by this and other forums, so long as you follow the letter of the T&Cs. Main thing that puts me off are concerns about the company doing the deal being around in 6 months.

Guanxi

http://www.blagger.com/db4/company_id/2812/companyname/Just3g-Communications.html


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