Quidco problems

bugeyed

Could we have a discussion about the problems that people have with Quidco refusing to pay out in large quatities to members. Quidco is recommended on this site and I personally would like to see them removed until they sort out the number of unpaid transactions. I have not been paid any amount since 2 years ago by Quidco. Here are the last 2 transactions they refused me.

1 - Aviva car insurance £75 cashback
The rules of this cashback claim was that the cashback couldn't be tracked for 3 months. After this had elapsed, when I tried to manually track it, I was informed by Quidco that the claim had to be made within 45 days of purchasing the insurance. Does that make sense to anybody ? You must wait 91 days but claim within 45.
2 - 3 mobile broadband £100 cashback
This cashback claim requires that I provide a 3 customer reference number starting with a '3' and 8 digits in length. Having spoken to 3 customer services today, they confirm that they don't provide any such number and have also said they have no agreement in place with Quidco to provide cashback and have passed the whole thing to their investigations department. Fortunately, they have said they will credit me this sum to my account in the event that Quidco don't respond to a complaint I have made. Which they flatly refuse to even respond to.

Having typed Quidco cashback problems into google, I got 367000 hits !

So, the question is, what have been the problems moneysavers have encountered and should moneysavingexpert still be recommending Quidco. Apparently, according to a lot of the hits, topcashback don't seem to have these problems.

:money:MSE should check this out with its members before too many select a slightly higher cost insurance or mobile only to find the cash back is refused, costing us money we often desperately need.

I am aware that many members have saved a fortune over the years, and have myself saved over £290 with Quidco until recently. But recently seems to be the problem.

Hope I have posted this in right section, feel free to move post to right place if not, but I felt this was a site feedback issue as Quidco is recommended on this site.

Jennifer_Jane

Sorry, can't help. Have never had any problems with Quidco (over 4 years).

When you first did the transaction via Quidco, did you check that it was noted on the system? (ie My Account, Transactions, Compose an Earnings Query? It should give the time and date of the transaction).

Re MSE recommending Quidco, I don't think they actually recommend anybody or advise, I think they just tell you what's available. I know that Martin always says that you shouldn't buy things via cashback sites purely for the cashback as it's never guaranteed, but I would still keep on at Quidco about it (as I'm sure you will).

Good luck with it. I'm sorry to hear you have problems. I'm always buying through Quidco (including some daily clicks) and no problems at all.

Jen

bugeyed

Jennifer_Jane wrote: »

When you first did the transaction via Quidco, did you check that it was noted on the system? (ie My Account, Transactions, Compose an Earnings Query? It should give the time and date of the transaction)

Thanks Jen, yes I did that, but the problem is now, Quidco seem to have a lot of these for the larger purchases such as mobiles and insurance, where the purchase won't track and you can't request the track until a much later date. Very similar to the old problems of the mobile phone sales some years ago where it used to be - You can't claim til 3-6 months later and then, don't forget to supply the slip attached to the packaging used all that time ago. Some cynics would say these ploys are used to ensure a high failure rate of claims
Unfortunately, this seems to be a common issue - sic the google search
Although MSE doesn't endorse the site, by having the link in the 'recommended' section of cash back sites, when so many people seem to be having recent problems, is questionable as to its having earned the placement there :exclamati

wileycat

There are threads in the rant boards for it.

On number 1 if you speak to Quidco and explain they should put a manual claim in for you. It sounds like someone hasn't thought.

I will just say if a transaction doesn't track in you're account, then Quidco won't get paid for it...so they're not refusing to pay out.

bugeyed

Thanks for the comment wileycat

I did ask Quidco to put in a manual claim but they have refused because they say I must claim within 45 days - but not before 91 days !!
Quidco say the same, they won't get paid so tough - but they refuse to even accept that the rule is ridiculous that you can't claim before you must claim.Quidco charge a fee albeit it small to provide a service, but looking round the rant boards, they seem unwilling to help the customers paying this small fee - £5. They claim to have a million plus customers, so that makes it a £5million + set of fees for what ?
The thing is, when you read other boards such as on consumeractiongroup, you see time and time again that topcashback don't seem to get these problems. So it seems the answer to Quidco's woes are entirely of their own making.
The purpose of placing this on this board was because this is a site feedback board and I feel that when the site 'endorses' Quidco by linking to it through the insurance board amongst others, that Quidco having a poor to nil customer service record, should cause concern to MSE for linking to it as customers are often likely to pick a slightly higher quote due to the cashback promised, and by not getting the cashback, are actually spending more, against the ethos and probably against the ethics of MSE. That was my main point.

Premier_2

I've not had any issues using quidco. Always paid out for me when used

OP - is it that quidco are failing to pay out on tracked transactions, or are you suffering from transactions not even tracking? Tracking normally occurs in a matter of hours at the longest (they say 3 days) ... certainly not months. The 3 months relates to the time it takes to validate the transaction, not track the transaction.

Don't confuse the time to validate a transaction (i.e. when the retailer has agreed to pay cashback to quidco, and hence you) with the validation period (the time allowed to raise a query with quidco over a non-tracked transaction)

quidco_Company_Representative

Hi,

@bugeyed- I do not normally respond on this thread as we have a thread I post on daily, daily, as advised to you by chinakat, who I see has recently joined MSE.

I have raised a ticket for you in response to your latest ticket and to your post on here. What I will clarify here, however, is that you were advised by ticket when you first raised this issue with us on 26 February that you have to wait 90 days in order to raise an enquiry with Aviva and then you have 19 weeks from the date of purchase to do this, so in effect you had 43 days during which you could have raised the earnings enquiry.

We have dealt with the tickets you have raised in a courteous, timely and professional manner at all times and I do not feel that there has been a service issue here.

To conclude, I would like to put the record straight that neither Quidco nor Aviva have acted incorrectly here. Aviva have also seen your post, though, and they wish to investigate further so I have asked you for your policy number.

I will respond to all future contact from you on the same ticket so that we can keep a record of events.

I hope that this has clarified the situation.

Kind regards,
Julie Wells,
Quidco Quality Manager

MSE_Martin

Hi

I've read the discussion above.

I am glad to see this one is being sorted out.

My view and the sites of cashback websites (all of them) is always "see it as an added benefit" and "never see it as guaranteed unless its in your bank account."

We make that as plain as possible in the articles - always suggest you pickt the right product first - and deliberately differentiate between this type of cashback and others because of the problems.

To suggest one company is removed because of problems that blight the industry seems disproportionate to me - especially as there are many supportive posts above (often when someone's 'bad' all the posts are negative). So from our perspective the best we can do is warn people and try and explain how to fit cashback into your purchasing or product decisions.

Martin

bugeyed

Thank you Martin for taking the time to respond personally. I take your comments on board and in future will be wary of cashback promises. As you put it - "never see it as guaranteed,,,, etc.

I still believe cashback is useful, but would sooner see cashback disappear in favour of putting the product out there at a price that is fair to all, as not everybody who needs the money has the access to a PC to read this great site and get its advice. Surely at the final reckoning, cashback is purely refunding an overly priced policy to start with ! Wouldn't it be a wonderful eutopia if the cashback was just knocked off the starting price for all :A

Hopefully Quidco will resolve this and in the event they do, I will of course follow up all posts on this site and others to let consumers know.

I am sure you are probably thanked all the time for this site and the broadcasts you make, and would just like to add yet another big thumbs up and to record my thanks for the huge amount of money you have helped us all recover / save :beer: (if I ever bump into you I'll make that a real beer)

bugeyed

Well, we are starting to get somewhere at last. 3 mobile broadband have suddenly discovered the reference number after a phone call to the press office. And Aviva have promised to look into the problem, so fingers crossed.
Julie Wells, MSE poster above for Quidco has worked hard so far to try to sort this and I'll post the outcome later.