Top Cashback Sites Article Discussion

markieteeee

JDPower said:

markieteeee said:

As of 14th April 2020 Topcashback no longer lets me log in (and yes, I know my password).    When I use the form to reset my password, it doesn't send me a link.   Is the site now dead or having technical difficulties?  I'll be a bit annoyed as I recently changed some utility and insurance providers and have £200+ tracked and was looking forward to the cashback but I suppose it's easy come, easy go if they've gone under.

Working fine here. maybe try again tomorrow and if still not working send them a message:

I already tried this when the password reset links didn't work - there's no reply.  I'll wait a while, in case they're overwhelmed or understaffed in the current crisis.

markieteeee

markieteeee said:

JDPower said:

markieteeee said:

As of 14th April 2020 Topcashback no longer lets me log in (and yes, I know my password).    When I use the form to reset my password, it doesn't send me a link.   Is the site now dead or having technical difficulties?  I'll be a bit annoyed as I recently changed some utility and insurance providers and have £200+ tracked and was looking forward to the cashback but I suppose it's easy come, easy go if they've gone under.

Working fine here. maybe try again tomorrow and if still not working send them a message:

I already tried this when the password reset links didn't work - there's no reply.  I'll wait a while, in case they're overwhelmed or understaffed in the current crisis.

My e-mail and password to login began to work again after 48 hours.  It's unclear whether they fixed the issue or it fixed itself.  While it was not working they had sent me an e-mail to the e-mail address I am registered to them with and the same one I had given when contacting customer services, asking me for my e-mail address(!).  And after it began working again, I received a password reset e-mail from them (which was no longer necessary). Since it's been reactivated, I have received multiple e-mails telling me about account activity, which I have never received from them in the past despite being a regular user since 2007. Very odd but I'm pleased it's fixed. 

markieteeee

Customers should be aware that it's a good idea to check if your cashback has tracked correctly, especially if you've been ordering more online during lockdown.   Out of the last 6 purchases I've made during lockdown via Top Cashback, only 1 has tracked at the correct amount (thank you Fragrance Direct!), others at much lower rates than promised and one not at all.  Of course you can make missing cashback claims, but how successful these are can be variable and it's often a long process.   If you're deciding between two providers with the same or similar items and you make the decision due to the higher cashback, £ or %, you might end up feeling that this was akin to false advertising when it tracks at a lower rate or gets spuriously declined. Anyway it's worth checking and raising missing cashback claims.   

SRi130

hi - im having issues with topcashback and Virgin Media. My issue is that in november 2019 i took out a VM broadband deal M200 at £30 per month. I went through topcashback website to get the deal because they offered £130 cashback. This was the main reason i took out the deal because i thought i could save money as the monthly cost would actually be less for me once cashback is paid out. It is now May 2020 and after many replies to topcashback regarding my cashback not tracking and providing them with the WS ref number they have siad that my cashbackk had been denied by Virgin media because "i broke terms and conditions". I replied back to topcashback as to what conditions i had broken. I explained to them that i took out the deal vis topcashback website which then send you to the virgin media website and i choose my M200 deal.  I also explained to them that i had not used any voucher or discount codes, nor had i used any other site apart from top cashback. I also explained that i pay my monthly direct debits on time and the M200 package has not been changed or ammended in any way. I did not get any explaination as to why VM refused my claim, Just "you broke terms and conditions". searching the web ive read many people having similar issue..bottom line was that they just blamed each other and kept going in circles. To me it seems like that they do not want to pay out the cashback and simply split the money amongst themselves. Ive notice that when using top cashback small amount of cashback claims track immediately yet larger amounts do not. Something is not right here. Im still waiting for an explanation by either parties as to what exaclty the conditions were that i broke.. still waiting..no reply from topcashback. Trying to talk to VM is impossible, agents havnt got a clue what topcashback is, yet its advertised on tv.

JDPower

SRi130 said:

hi - im having issues with topcashback and Virgin Media. My issue is that in november 2019 i took out a VM broadband deal M200 at £30 per month. I went through topcashback website to get the deal because they offered £130 cashback. This was the main reason i took out the deal because i thought i could save money as the monthly cost would actually be less for me once cashback is paid out. It is now May 2020 and after many replies to topcashback regarding my cashback not tracking and providing them with the WS ref number they have siad that my cashbackk had been denied by Virgin media because "i broke terms and conditions". I replied back to topcashback as to what conditions i had broken. I explained to them that i took out the deal vis topcashback website which then send you to the virgin media website and i choose my M200 deal.  I also explained to them that i had not used any voucher or discount codes, nor had i used any other site apart from top cashback. I also explained that i pay my monthly direct debits on time and the M200 package has not been changed or ammended in any way. I did not get any explaination as to why VM refused my claim, Just "you broke terms and conditions". searching the web ive read many people having similar issue..bottom line was that they just blamed each other and kept going in circles. To me it seems like that they do not want to pay out the cashback and simply split the money amongst themselves. Ive notice that when using top cashback small amount of cashback claims track immediately yet larger amounts do not. Something is not right here. Im still waiting for an explanation by either parties as to what exaclty the conditions were that i broke.. still waiting..no reply from topcashback. Trying to talk to VM is impossible, agents havnt got a clue what topcashback is, yet its advertised on tv.

First rule of cashback - never make a purchasing decision solely on any cashback you MAY get. Also larger cashbacks usually do take longer to track (or at least to track at the correct amount). Makes sense as handing out a few pence is trivial, handing out 2 or 3 figure sums to thousands is gonna have a few more checks done. I do get that your peed off, but that's the risk of cashback sites I'm afraid, cashback is never guaranteed. And ultimately accusing TCB or VM of wrongdoing is slightly unfair as it's the affiliate companies between the two that are usually at fault. If the middleman fails, it's not really the fault of the company on either side.

markieteeee

JDPower said:

SRi130 said:

hi - im having issues with topcashback and Virgin Media. My issue is that in november 2019 i took out a VM broadband deal M200 at £30 per month. I went through topcashback website to get the deal because they offered £130 cashback. This was the main reason i took out the deal because i thought i could save money as the monthly cost would actually be less for me once cashback is paid out. It is now May 2020 and after many replies to topcashback regarding my cashback not tracking and providing them with the WS ref number they have siad that my cashbackk had been denied by Virgin media because "i broke terms and conditions". I replied back to topcashback as to what conditions i had broken. I explained to them that i took out the deal vis topcashback website which then send you to the virgin media website and i choose my M200 deal.  I also explained to them that i had not used any voucher or discount codes, nor had i used any other site apart from top cashback. I also explained that i pay my monthly direct debits on time and the M200 package has not been changed or ammended in any way. I did not get any explaination as to why VM refused my claim, Just "you broke terms and conditions". searching the web ive read many people having similar issue..bottom line was that they just blamed each other and kept going in circles. To me it seems like that they do not want to pay out the cashback and simply split the money amongst themselves. Ive notice that when using top cashback small amount of cashback claims track immediately yet larger amounts do not. Something is not right here. Im still waiting for an explanation by either parties as to what exaclty the conditions were that i broke.. still waiting..no reply from topcashback. Trying to talk to VM is impossible, agents havnt got a clue what topcashback is, yet its advertised on tv.

First rule of cashback - never make a purchasing decision solely on any cashback you MAY get. Also larger cashbacks usually do take longer to track (or at least to track at the correct amount). Makes sense as handing out a few pence is trivial, handing out 2 or 3 figure sums to thousands is gonna have a few more checks done. I do get that your peed off, but that's the risk of cashback sites I'm afraid, cashback is never guaranteed. And ultimately accusing TCB or VM of wrongdoing is slightly unfair as it's the affiliate companies between the two that are usually at fault. If the middleman fails, it's not really the fault of the company on either side.

Interesting. At the current time, the middleman is seemingly finding many ways to spuriously decline cashback or track at a much lower rates than advertised. It's happening on most occasions, whereas it used to be the minority of cases. You're correct - it's best not to make a decision purely on cashback, but it often does help you make up your mind about where to make a purchase that you were already going to make.  As there's no openness about the reasons for most declined/lesser cashback, it's totally understandable why people get frustrated.  I'm beginning to see it as a 'lucky dip' - I'm buying the thing or switching to a different financial product at a lower monthly free anyway and there's a small chance I might get some money back later; whereas in the past your odds of 'winning' the advertised rate of cashback were much higher. 

JDPower

markieteeee said:

JDPower said:

SRi130 said:

hi - im having issues with topcashback and Virgin Media. My issue is that in november 2019 i took out a VM broadband deal M200 at £30 per month. I went through topcashback website to get the deal because they offered £130 cashback. This was the main reason i took out the deal because i thought i could save money as the monthly cost would actually be less for me once cashback is paid out. It is now May 2020 and after many replies to topcashback regarding my cashback not tracking and providing them with the WS ref number they have siad that my cashbackk had been denied by Virgin media because "i broke terms and conditions". I replied back to topcashback as to what conditions i had broken. I explained to them that i took out the deal vis topcashback website which then send you to the virgin media website and i choose my M200 deal.  I also explained to them that i had not used any voucher or discount codes, nor had i used any other site apart from top cashback. I also explained that i pay my monthly direct debits on time and the M200 package has not been changed or ammended in any way. I did not get any explaination as to why VM refused my claim, Just "you broke terms and conditions". searching the web ive read many people having similar issue..bottom line was that they just blamed each other and kept going in circles. To me it seems like that they do not want to pay out the cashback and simply split the money amongst themselves. Ive notice that when using top cashback small amount of cashback claims track immediately yet larger amounts do not. Something is not right here. Im still waiting for an explanation by either parties as to what exaclty the conditions were that i broke.. still waiting..no reply from topcashback. Trying to talk to VM is impossible, agents havnt got a clue what topcashback is, yet its advertised on tv.

First rule of cashback - never make a purchasing decision solely on any cashback you MAY get. Also larger cashbacks usually do take longer to track (or at least to track at the correct amount). Makes sense as handing out a few pence is trivial, handing out 2 or 3 figure sums to thousands is gonna have a few more checks done. I do get that your peed off, but that's the risk of cashback sites I'm afraid, cashback is never guaranteed. And ultimately accusing TCB or VM of wrongdoing is slightly unfair as it's the affiliate companies between the two that are usually at fault. If the middleman fails, it's not really the fault of the company on either side.

I'm beginning to see it as a 'lucky dip' - I'm buying the thing or switching to a different financial product at a lower monthly free anyway and there's a small chance I might get some money back later

And that's exactly how it should have been viewed from the start. Like I said, I get the frustration, but it's never guaranteed. Personally I've only had 2 or 3 declined cashbacks in the ten plus years of using TCB and Quidco. Every now and then you get someone come on here accusing them of being crooks and stealing 'their' money, but if that were the case, EVERYONE would be complaining. That they are in the minority suggests you were just unlucky, not a victim of some nefarious scam.

May be a bit late, but perhaps have a read of the cashback guide on here https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/cashback-websites/

markieteeee

I would have thought it's okay to discuss cashback sites on this thread without being met with patronisation (or, seemingly, anger).  The balance has noticeably changed -  purchases declining or tracking at a much lower rate used to occur occasionally but now they occur in the majority of occasions, so it's worth mentioning to users. 

flashg2000

Been a member of Topcashback for 4 years now and have been paid £3073 in that time,getting insurance policies,etc for friends and family who haven't got the time to do it themselves.
I even got talktalk sim cards for £4 a month at one point for me and the wife and got paid £58 cashback per account

JDPower

markieteeee said:

I would have thought it's okay to discuss cashback sites on this thread without being met with patronisation (or, seemingly, anger).  The balance has noticeably changed -  purchases declining or tracking at a much lower rate used to occur occasionally but now they occur in the majority of occasions, so it's worth mentioning to users. 

There's no patronisation or anger in my replies to you. Any seemingly basic advice I gave was to help you or anyone else reading, not to patronise. You're a new member who signed up to discuss this, so none of us have any idea how much of the site's advice or guides you have read, or how much understanding you have of how the cashback sites work. Better to offer advice unnecessarily than to say nothing.

It's your experience that purchases are declining or tracking lower in the "majority of occasions". That the majority of their (apparently) 5 million users aren't seeing that suggest either a technical issue your side or, more likely, you've sadly been unlucky. All my replies to you have been to offer advice with your actual cashback issues, or to help you understand the sites themselves. If all you wanted was an echo chamber to complain about cashback sites with other people and don't want actual help, this is probably the wrong place.