Quidco

Fenris

@ Amistoso

The problem is it's not small amounts we're talking about. If it were just a few quid I'd cut my losses and be done with it. I'm personally out of pocket to the tune of £135; no small amount when you've got only £51.45 a week to live on.

And it's not like it's just a handful of people; there are many, many more people not on this forum who are awaiting money. On page 21 of the thread linked to above, you can clearly read that Jules, one of the Quidco reps, states that there are thousands of tickets opened every week!

We've been over this T&C issue several times in the other threads and yes, I agree it's there, but is it fair? We all thought Bank Charges were something we had to put up with until around 2005. Now look at where we are! I don't see how Quidco can hide behind that paragraph; they're offering a service, which we pay for, and then not honouring it. If you paid a gardener to cut your grass and he only did two-thirds of it, you'd not be happy would you? Presumably you'd refuse to pay, or demand that he did the last third. As far as I'm concerend it's the same thing with Quidco; they take a £5 fee off their customers, only to honour a few transactions. And it's odd that it's always the larger transactions that aren't being paid. Low value cash is trickling through quite fast, yet most of us are waiting months for the higher value ones to be paid.

At the very least it's false advertising. They advertise that if you buy XYZ you'll get some cashback. When the cashback is not forthcoming, you're left with XYZ that you may not have bought had you not been tempted with the cashback sum. So you've been reeled in, bought the product and are now out of pocket. Can't be right, and no amount of hiding behind a paragraph of T&C's can make it factually or morally correct. The Banks tried that and look where it got them! Lol!

Lynsey

Amistoso, who is to say that the T&C's are fair??
Cashback sites are still in the novice stage and I've always been interested in the advertising side of things, ie: what is advertised is what should be paid.
Remember, we have no contract as such with a merchant/retailer etc., only with the cashback site, whichever one it may be.
Would a judge say definitely "yes" that the T&C's are fair??
In truth, no-one really knows until tested.
If anyone is happy to go along with "cashback is just a possibility", that's fine.
Others who believe it should be paid are prepared to fight, fight for what they believe is rightfully theirs.
I'm only talking about genuine tracked transactions.

Lynsey

mrcol1000

I disagree. Its nice to get cashback but if you buy something purely to get the cashback as profit then your setting yourself up for a fall. This very site warns you to make sure you get the best deal on anything regardless of cashback. Cashback is a bonus. Sometimes you get. Sometimes you don't. You should try the News Of The World cashback website. They pay you straight away without waiting for the money to be paid. But you only get paid if you have a min of £25. Plus they only pay out once a month. You also get much lower cashback. But as long as its tracked they will pay out.

MrC_Beds

mrcol1000 wrote: »

I disagree. Its nice to get cashback but if you buy something purely to get the cashback as profit then your setting yourself up for a fall. This very site warns you to make sure you get the best deal on anything regardless of cashback. Cashback is a bonus. Sometimes you get. Sometimes you don't. You should try the News Of The World cashback website. They pay you s traight away without waiting for the money to be paid. But you only get paid if you have a min of £25. Plus they only pay out once a month. You also get much lower cashback. But as long as its tracked they will pay out.

Isn't getting a profit supposed to be the point of cashback? This site is dedicated to things like exploiting Clubcard loopholes and all sorts of other things. I don't suppose these sites or their merchants are operating cashback incentives out of a sense of altruism, so as long as a transaction is genuine, then they should pay out.

negg

Sometimes you get. Sometimes you don't.

QuidCo state that if you do a certain course of action, you will get paid a certain amount of money back. The "Sometimes you don't" comment is irrelevant since they do advertise that you will get cashback.

When they don't pay out, who gets the cash back? There's a thought...

Lynsey

I've just asked on the Quidco thread if it would be possible for the affiliate networks to agree that tracked transactions could be paid within a max. 6 month schedule. That would almost guarantee cashback within a reasonable limit.
TBH, it's time for regulation of these sites with guarantees to be put in place.
I would never suggest it happens, but what is to stop "skullduggery"??

Lynsey

Browntoa

playing devils advocate here , think some of the delays in payments are partly due to people (not accusing anyone on here !! ) abusing the sytems at cashback sites. Argos vanished for a while as I believe people were reserving goods to get the cashback and then either not collecting them or returning the goods , if you look now its only for Online purchases. Think the Insurance companies got stung the same way , people buying policies and then cancelling within the 14 day window , paying out cashback on policies that were no longer valid, so they now extend the validation to 90 days or longer and ask for additional checks to be made.

think the bad guys have spoilt it for use good guys

Fenris

Browntoa wrote: »

playing devils advocate here , think some of the delays in payments are partly due to people (not accusing anyone on here !! ) abusing the sytems at cashback sites. Argos vanished for a while as I believe people were reserving goods to get the cashback and then either not collecting them or returning the goods , if you look now its only for Online purchases. Think the Insurance companies got stung the same way , people buying policies and then cancelling within the 14 day window , paying out cashback on policies that were no longer valid, so they now extend the validation to 90 days or longer and ask for additional checks to be made.

think the bad guys have spoilt it for use good guys

I totally agree with you on this. And I can understand the need for caution on the side of the retailer/service provider.

However, that does not explain why the delays have, in the case of the Co-op for instance, been many months more than Quidco advertised. According Quidco's page on the Co-op Car Insurance, cashback takes three months to be paid. Now, it's taken five months for my Co-op insurance to validate and now Jules is saying it could take a further three months to be paid! So, in total it's going to be eight months, at the very least, of waiting. I don't think this can be blamed on the provider; their 90 day validation period is understood. The further delays are either with the network or with Quidco themselves. Jules is currently stating it's a problem with the network, but I know of people taking out the same insurance on TCB and they have been paid, so is this really the network's fault? I can't say, I've no proof either way. But it does lead one to speculate and speculation is not taking me to a happy place!

Amistoso_2

What if it's the retailers and not quidco withholding the cashback tho? it does say that if they don't get paid for the transaction then they can't pay you.
It definately isn't 100% guaranteed. You can clearly read the terms and conditions they aren't hidden or confusing in any way. common sense says that sometimes you aint gonna get what you thought you were. It's hardly comparible to the bank charges debacle!!! come on.

MrC_Beds

Amistoso wrote: »

What if it's the retailers and not quidco withholding the cashback tho? it does say that if they don't get paid for the transaction then they can't pay you.
It definately isn't 100% guaranteed. You can clearly read the terms and conditions they aren't hidden or confusing in any way. common sense says that sometimes you aint gonna get what you thought you were. It's hardly comparible to the bank charges debacle!!! come on.

The problem here is that there are relatively large amounts of money involved. If it was spend £10 and get 25p back, most people wouldn't give a monkey's.

However, Co-op and other merchants are actively pulling in customers with offers of £50+ if they take their products - serious money in my book! A deliberate failure to pay out on a genuine transaction would be dishonest. Perhaps someone there didn't do their sums properly on the margins involved - at the very least Quidco need to explain the situation clearly.