Lightspeed Surveys (merged)

daisy2002

I've been saving my lightspeed points up because i thought you'd get proper voucher to go & spend in a shop. I don't like e-voucher

I was going to get it paid into paypal but by the look of it, to get £40 you have to give them the equivalent of £6 just to get them to pay it into paypal, that seems a little steep.

Why do you have to pay them money just to get you're voucher?

spud30

markwi wrote:

iam owed £15 since the beginning of october,sent loads of emails chasing it up,but nothing.they send me more surveys but i wont be doing any till i get what iam owed.

Both me and my hubby are owed money from a while ago. Still chasing it.

The good news is that they seem to have changed the voucher system. I ordered one on Saturday, and it came through by email within a matter of a few seconds.

Here's hoping things are improving ehh !!

Foxy_Pegs

daisy2002 wrote:

I've been saving my lightspeed points up because i thought you'd get proper voucher to go & spend in a shop. I don't like e-voucher

I was going to get it paid into paypal but by the look of it, to get £40 you have to give them the equivalent of £6 just to get them to pay it into paypal, that seems a little steep.

Why do you have to pay them money just to get you're voucher?

I'd get it paid to Paypal quick while it's working lol

jennarothen

im stil waiting for the one i ordered the other day by email fotr hmv e voucher

Toxic_Bunni

Foxy_Pegs wrote:

I'd get it paid to Paypal quick while it's working lol

I agree! I got mine paid into my account a few hours after I requested it.


That was on a Friday as well.

fallen121

I got a reply from Lightspeed tonight which seems to suggest that quite a lot of people who ordered vouchers from the old incentive partners haven't received them as it is a canned response. My OH also ordered vouchers under the old incentive partners and hasn't recieved them either.

Did Lightspeed change incentive partners from ovationincentives to perks for reasons other than those stated? (they claimed it was because the 'old' system was too slow and cumbersome but maybe reliability was a factor or they knew the company was in trouble or something).

Here's the email anyway:

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your enquiry.

We apologise for the extended delay.

Please be advised that due to the time of year the delivery of rewards were taking longer than normal.

All vouchers orders placed have been dispatched and should either be in transit or have arrived by now.

As we depend on the Royal Mail to deliver the vouchers your patience has been sincerely appreciated.

We will begin addressing non receipts in the New Year to give time for the Royal Mail to deal with the back log of post from the holidays.

Please be assured that every effort will be made for you to receive your outstanding rewards.

Kind regards,

Lightspeed Panel

Online Rewards

Somewhat confusingly I also received a different email about the same request. The email was basically a rehash of the FAQ section on the site but did contain an interesting paragraph:

In case you have not received the voucher from the shop of your choice:

We will ask our incentive partner for an update on the status of your order.

Please note that we are an intermediary, we don’t have access to our incentive partners database to see the status of your order.

Unfortunately it is not technically possible to re-assign points on your members page or to switch to our new reward system.

The words 'passing' and 'buck' come to mind, (let's blame Royal Mail and if that doesn't work blame the incentive partner) but I would urge anyone who hasn't received a requested voucher under the 'old' ovation incentives system to chase it now. Don't bother with submitting it via the website, just send your email (including the order number in the format 12345-123456-12345 - yours will contain different numbers than this example) to lightspeed@ovationincentives.co.uk and put a return receipt on it. The order number ISN'T the same as the 'Panel reward Code' you recived as the first stage in the order process, they need the code you got when you ordered the voucher itself at the ovation incentives website.

One final thing. Mark your email "For the attention of Sindi Chigaru" as that will send a message that we are keeping tabs on who looks at these emails (probably some call centre in India).

Anyone who has already chased through the website and hasn't recieved a reply ought to try again using this process.

Here's my sample email. Feel free to copy and paste. Stuff in bold needs replacing:

To:lightspeed@ovationincentives.co.uk

Subject: Order Number 12345-123456-12345 Not Received

Dear Sir or Madam,

Order Number 12345-123456-12345

I ordered a £0.00 Iceland/Tesco/Whatever gift voucher for delivery to the address below. I ordered it on DD/MM/06

My Name Surname
1 Main Street
Sunnytown
Sunnybridgeshire
Postcode

I was informed that the order should be delivered to me within 10 working days, but insert x weeks/months has passed and there has been no sign of the voucher.

Please can you investigate and advise when this was posted. I have not been experiencing any problems with my mail and have also visited my local sorting office who have confirmed that no undelivered mail is being held for me.

Regards,

Your name

Hope this helps people!!


:T

kezia

I emailed over a week ago to ask to have the points credited back to my account to start again, but what with it being xmas haven't heard. I ordered my high street vouchers in November but didn't get any kind of email with any details about which shop or anything. The screen only gave me a choice of high street voucher ( no shops given) or cd wow type vouchers. I haven't had any codes or emails confirming a voucher is on it's way. The only proof I have of it all is the screen on lightspeed saying when the points were converted to a voucher. I have emailed Lauren about 7 times and get nowhere.

fallen121

kezia wrote:

I emailed over a week ago to ask to have the points credited back to my account to start again

Perhaps they didn't reply because they can't credit the points back as stated in their email to me (see above).

kezia wrote:

I ordered my high street vouchers in November but didn't get any kind of email with any details about which shop or anything.

They don't send an email confirming this. They assume if you order them that you know what they are. What you get is a 'Love2shop' voucher and these are valid at the following stores:

A1 Motor Stores
Adams Kids
American Golf
Bargain Crazy
Bensonshoe
Bhs
Bonmarche
Boots
Brantano
Carphone Warehouse
Comet
Contessa
d2 men & women
Ernest Jones
Ethel Austin
Fabric Warehouse
Fads
Fawcetts
Focus DIY
H. Samuel
Halfords
Happit
HMV
Homebase
T J Hughes
Iceland
Instore
JJB Sports
Joplings
La Senza
Lewis's
MK One
Mothercare
New Look
Optical Express
Original Shoe Co
£-stretcher
Partners
Peacocks
Peter Briggs
Ponden Mill
QS
Qube
River Island
Robbs
Robert Dyas
Rosebys
Semi-Chem
Shoe Express
Shoe Zone
Shoefayre
Stead & Simpson
Streetwise Sports
The Local
Threshers
Virgin Megastores
W H Smith
Wilkinson
Woolworths

kezia wrote:

I haven't had any codes or emails confirming a voucher is on it's way.

That's because they don't send them. So you haven't missed out in that regard.

kezia wrote:

The only proof I have of it all is the screen on lightspeed saying when the points were converted to a voucher.

As you say you ordered in November this would have been under the 'old' ovation incentives system. You would have requested a reward on the Lightspeed site, then several weeks later would have recieved an email containing your 'Lightspeed Panel Reward Code'. The email would also have contained a link to the following site:

http://www.ovationincentives.co.uk/lightspeedpanel/index.htm

where you would have ordered your reward via a shopping cart system. On checkout you would have recieved a message saying

Your Order is Confirmed!

Your gift vouchers should be with you within 10 working days.
Please print a copy of this page for your records.

The Lightspeed Consumer Panel Team
email: lightspeed@ovationincentives.co.uk

Your order number is: 12345-123456-12345

Delivery Details:

Your Name Surname
1 Main Street
Sunnytown
Sunnybridgeshire
Postcode

If you didn't print this then you've effectively lost any record of your order number as it isn't sent by email. That's going to make it exceedingly hard to chase. Sorry.

The golden rule at these sites should always be to print copies of everything and save copies of all emails until the reward is safely in your hand.

kezia wrote:

I have emailed Lauren about 7 times and get nowhere.

What email address are you using? That might be the problem.

fallen121

Here's some contact details if anyone wants to write or phone them regarding non receipt of a voucher:

Lightspeed Research Europe
The Old Town Hall
4 Queens Road
Wimbledon
London
SW19 8YB

Telephone: 0207-896-1900

I've also unearthed an email address which looks like it might be the parent company. intlinfo@lightspeedresearch.com. Might be worth copying them in on any emails.

I notice that emails are now starting to say:

If you experience any problems with your voucher code or order, YOU MUST contact us using the contact form on this website – otherwise your enquiry will not be dealt with in a timely fashion

All email addresses and other contact details have also vanished from the website. It is generally a bad sign when companies do this and a clear indicator of problems and/or a desperate attempt to forstall a deluge of unresolved complaints.

Anyone who is also a member of ipoints will remember that you used to be able to email the staff individually with queries, now all queries are dealt with via a website form which creates a 'Support Request' which then sits in 'queued' status for anything up to two weeks before it is even looked at. Nothing like efficiency, eh? Lightspeed are certainly going that way.

PS if you need email addresses for ipoints staff just PM me

Edna_Bucket_2

A poster previously gave emails on MSE for "real" Lightspeed people - here they are again:

kavakava wrote:

They are really, really bad when it comes to paying out. If you have problems, email these people (the owners/CEOs of Lighstpeed):

info@lightspeedresearch.com (general email)

ahedde@lightspeedresearch.com (ceo)

bbreslauer@lightspeedresearch.com (global director)

eu@lightspeedresearch.com (London office)

acayton@lightspeedresearch.com (London manager)

It has helped me a couple of times - just CC them all with your query. They do not seem to reply when you email them through the website.

Good luck!

Here is the page of the parent company that gives the names of their senior staff - the email format they use seems to be as above;

http://www.lightspeedresearch.com/ourpeople.php

Please tell them what a terrible reputation they are developing on the "internet chat rooms" - that should shake the blighters up a bit!