Highcreditscore.co.uk & rewardsnow.co.uk [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

zoena

somebody save me from rewards now hell, i had an email today saying prices where changing got very confused but somehow recognized the name etc.. rang them up and said what the hell is it had a convo with man said my partner had paid 11 payments to them!! i did free trial for credit score matters for my other half when we were going to apply for a loan etc.. cancelled the same day, do not ever acknowedlge anything to do with rewards now.. anyway as the name rang a bell i went through our old phone bills as we moved house in feb and remember my other half seeing something on his bank statement for 19.95 for rewards now, so i googled it and got a number he rang them up and went mad etc said we never agreed to anything had no emails etc.. and they "cancelled" the account... so since march they have still been taking these payments and i am furious!! he offered me 5 months back as compo but have said there is no way im happy with that as i want proof we entered into an agreement for money being taken i have sent two emails today copied from here then realised where i knew the name from and have just rung back to be told he will send me confirmation by way of the welcome email they sent, told him that proves nothing etc.. he went well with have date and time stamp on it , i said that still doesnt prove we had it!! i have searched all my sky emails and there is not one email from this company other than the one i recieved today telling me as of november i will be paying still 19.95 etc.. i have worked out they owe my other half £219.45, and im so cross at him as well as hes only had a bank account 18 months and i entrusted him to keep track of things lol and having checked them today myself , yep its been going out since november of last year and was never cancelled! i have a feeling they are going to get back to me and just offer the five months back pay, where do i stand and what is my next course of action!! he said someone will be in trouble for not cancelling it but funnily enough even though he told me in the prior telephone call that all calls where recorded, he couldnt find the record of the call we made!! good blinkin job i have the phone bills to hand....

Fyffes

Zoena, they will indeed offer you a "gesture of goodwill" of a percenatge of the full amount. Don't be tempted to accept it though because there is no way this company will be prepared to face you in court over this. Mainly because they know they would lose. It seems to me that they are usually quicker to refund people who've lost small amounts than people like yourself with a much bigger loss. My theory is that it isn't worth the hassle for them to argue over £19.95 and they prefer to do battle over larger sums like yours because they invariably get away with the victim accepting the offer of a partial refund. They know that partially refunding somebody who has only lost £19.95 won't tempt anybody but if they were to offer you £80 of the original £220 you may well accept and they would therefore get to keep £140 even though they have absolutely no legal entitlement to it whatsoever. This is their business model unfortunately.

Don't make the mistake of wasting your time speaking to them over the phone either. This is how they prefer to do things as they can say whatever they like then deny it if necessary. Just stand firm against them and get everything in writing. Make copies of all correspondence and let inform them that you are effectively building a case against them which you will present to the relevant authorities unless they refund you in full.

I found it interesting that they're now stating that their "welcome email" is somehow validated by a time and date stamp. That would not stand up in a court of law and they know it. It's like saying they could prove they hand delivered a letter to you because they made a photocopy of it first. Any reputable company will ensure that any important document is signed for (either manually or electronically) to ensure that any contract/agreement is legally watertight. Rewards Now don't do this purely because they are deliberately trying to slip under the radar and directly into your bank account.

dalesrider

You do know that if you ring rewardsnow and complain they will refund 3 months worth of charges.......
How do I know.
I have put enough customers through to them and spoken to them afterwards to find out the outcome.

How the hell all you people fall for it is beyond me as it is so clear when you click the YES to the discount and FREE trail on these co's.
We have even gone as far to signup ourselves on these co's and it is so CLEAR. that you cannot fail to miss it. (unless you simply don't look)
Cancelation is as simple. Call and tell them.
Never debit afterwards.

Also ask which site you used which then linked you too them.... Then complain to that site.

Only way to stop this from happening is if the companies who get the kick back get loads of comlaints about it.

Fyffes

dalesrider wrote: »

You do know that if you ring rewardsnow and complain they will refund 3 months worth of charges.......

This may be true but these forums are littered with dozens and dozens of examples of this company flatly refusing to refund people who have telephoned them to complain.

Also, it is very easy for an experienced internet user like yourself to condemn others for falling for something like this but please remember that not everybody is fully aware that companies operate like this until they've been unfortunate enough to encounter them. The OFT takes a more neutral stance than you have and reached the conclusion that this company were misleading it's "customers".
http://www.oft.gov.uk/OFTwork/consumer-enforcement/consumer-enforcement-completed/adaptive-affinity/

So as you'll see, this company has already had many many complaints which triggered the OFT investigation.

I'd be interested to hear if your experience of signing yourself up with this company was before or after the above OFT investigation? I presumed they'd changed their ways following this investigation and actually made the signing up process fairer and clearer. Perhaps you are comparing two entirely different processes? It would be unreasonable to criticise somebody for falling for a process which was entirely different to that which you experienced wouldn't it?

It must be said that there have been considerably less cases of these types of complaints since the OFT intervened - thus suggesting that they had at last cleaned up their act.

Incidentally, your suggestion that people should pick up the telephone and complain to both rewardsnow and the company which linked you to them might just be a waste of time. This is because both companies are owned by Adaptive Affinity and you will be ringing the same office twice in succession (one company is the bait and the other is the snare). If you're lucky you might even get through to the same telephone operative who's just told you you won't be getting a refund under any circumstances.

dalesrider

Fyffes wrote: »

I'd be interested to hear if your experience of signing yourself up with this company was before or after the above OFT investigation? I presumed they'd changed their ways following this investigation and actually made the signing up process fairer and clearer. Perhaps you are comparing two entirely different processes? It would be unreasonable to criticise somebody for falling for a process which was entirely different to that which you experienced wouldn't it?

It must be said that there have been considerably less cases of these types of complaints since the OFT intervened - thus suggesting that they had at last cleaned up their act.

Incidentally, your suggestion that people should pick up the telephone and complain to both rewardsnow and the company which linked you to them might just be a waste of time. This is because both companies are owned by Adaptive Affinity and you will be ringing the same office twice in succession (one company is the bait and the other is the snare). If you're lucky you might even get through to the same telephone operative who's just told you you won't be getting a refund under any circumstances.

It has been done over several months, by many people in out department. And I never knew about the OFT investigation.

I only advised to ring rewardsnow (or any of the other such co's)
Complaining to the company that linked you. Such as trainline, ticketmaster, EBAY (clearly not part of the same group) can be done via email.
It is complaints to these co's that will see the likes of rewards now being dropped.
People need to get passed the 10% discount vouchers AND ACTUALLY READ the sites. Even 2 years ago. It was clear enough that it was a 30 day trial and you would then get billed.
People need to get into the habit of checking SPAM/JUNK folders on their email. As often this is where there go.

People complain about Amazon prime being charged. Yet not only does it have a tick box for T/C for it it places it on the invoice stating 30 day trial. As well as a nice logo in the top left of the amazon page when you go to it afterwards.
You get a thankyou email again advising 30 day trial and what is required to stop any debits.....
Still get people saying I have no idea what it is....

A lot of this has been picked up by people far less innternet savy than me.
Who have printed these pages of, so we can better advise people.
Personally. That is a wate of time as all they say is never saw it at the time.... Of course not 10% discount is al they saw..

Greed is a dangerous thing and people need to remember that they have to take responsibility for their actions and not balme others for their short commings.

zoena

thankyou for replies, when was the oft thing done, he applied to credit score matters in november 2011, i have again spoken to them stating i have it on record that we rang etc, and he said that someone will get back to me within 48 hours.. they have offered five months back pay, but thats not even long enough to cover when we actually cancelled it in march anyway, my other half rang his bank today and they have sent a letter stating they are cancelling the recurring transaction their end etc.. i not once saw any thing to suggest we would be charged from anyone but credit score etc.. and we cancelled that the same day we opened it . he continued on about the welcome email and i told him in no uncertain terms it does not prove whatsoever that i RECIEVED the email. funnily enough he was alot less "attitude" towards me once i told him what i had researched, i have sent two emails stating i want proof of us actually accepting the payment withdrawals from rewards now etc.. and i made sure i got delivery and read reports for both so will just have to wait and see whats said now. from what i have googled i am far from the only one thats been duped by this??! if it was one payment ok i would probably let it drop but even if you count when we actually cancelled via telephone the total deducted to date is £139.65!! thats alot of money, i told my other half i hope he has learnt a valuable lesson and so have i to do more research on websites before doing things etc..

zoena

and dales there is nothing in my actual sky emails on line from rewards not one single email as i trawled through every single page and searched using the search box!! the only one that comes up is the one i had about the payment changes in november which i think came through yesterday or this morning!!

zoena

we signed up to credit score matters, and cancelled the free trial the same day they asked for card details to verify who he was etc.. so in theory i did every thing right, cancelled before the trial ran out etc.. like fyffes said, rewards now slip under the radar to get into your bank, i am very internet savvy and usually very careful to notice these things and not once did i click any free voucher or anything!! nada zilch never...........

Fyffes

dalesrider wrote: »

People need to get passed the 10% discount vouchers AND ACTUALLY READ the sites. Even 2 years ago. It was clear enough that it was a 30 day trial and you would then get billed.

Would you kindly point me in the direction of your factual evidence of this? You can't just state that this was "clear" without providing us with the source of your opinion.

Furthermore, if you had no idea of any OFT investigation into this company, why on earth do you consider yourself to be in any position to comment on this matter? The investigation has been mentioned many times in these forums (it is in fact the second OFT investigation into this company). You clearly haven't researched this matter fully and indeed haven't even bothered to read the relevant forums on this website yet you feel as though you have the right to criticise others for not reading up on everything?

You advise people to read everything available to them before making a decision despite the fact that you yourself hadn't read very much before deciding to blunder your way into this thread. Very hypocritical don't you think?

Now if you'd like to get down of your high horse I'll briefly explain the situation so you can save yourself the effort of reading previous posts.

The basic act of deception came at the end of the signing up process of a company which was offering a service (lets call them Company A). The customer willingly supplied their details in order to gain access to the service of Company A. Unfortunately at the end of this signing up process a second company (Company was subtly added into the sequence without explanation. The customer is presented with the offer of a free voucher from what he believes is still Company A. The customer has no idea that a second company is involved because this is not made clear (verified by OFT).

Therefore, the customer has no reason to suspect that they have inadvertently signed up with Company B. This would mean that they would have no need/desire to check their spam because they would not be expecting to find anything relevant to this matter. Company B of course will claim that they sent a "welcome email" but suggest that it may have been deleted as spam. Company B will also be entirely unable to prove the existence of any such email.

Hey presto, the customer has a trojan horse sitting in their bank account. If you'd bothered to do any research, you'd have known this already before making pompous and unsubstantiated remarks. It is not the "greed" of the customer that's to blame here as you claim. It is the greed of those who dreamt up this horrendous act of deceit who should be blamed entirely.

zoena

have had a voicemail saying they are reimbursing another one month etc, no mention of the emails i sent even though ive had confirmation they have been read! he is on the phone to him now and we have no idea what to say