Free £15 Boots voucher and Lovefilm DVD rental trial

pjays

Hello
thought it might be useful to know. Just spoke to Lovefilm, who told me they will not honour the boots voucher unless you have had an account for 28days. On the 28-30th day this is then issued, except when they charge you for another month - this is the 21st day. apparently, I am told this is the small print. Hope this is useful for people that are still waiting their voucher or didnt receive. If you did receive this anyway, then happy shopping.

slarge

codger wrote:

hi frafferty -- I don't actually think Martin can ever be held responsible for any deals / offers / opportunities publicised on MSE. If that was the case, he'd have to spend all his time checking out every single one of 'em, and have no time left to do anything else.

The best way, surely, to regard anything publicised on MSE is to treat it the same as a store's 'sale' advert in a local newspaper. You go in the shop, check out the goods, and buy if you so wish. Any problems arising are not the newspaper's fault.

Sorry you're having a rotten time with Lovefilm as, so it seems, many others have. But in all fairness, Martin has said he'll be looking at the situation again in January -- can't say fairer than that; he's under no obligation to do anything, so his "overview" is pretty generous, given everything else that must be stacking up on his plate. :beer:

I think Martin does have a "duty of care" before making recommendations and cannot simply absolve himself by saying that he cannot check all offers. He or his team should at the very least ascertain whether there is a "whiff" about a company. In the case of Lovefilm this would have taken about 30 seconds on Google to see that this is a very anti-customer organisation. The other disappointing aspect of this is that the offer was repeated in several newsletters, even after concerns were raised and even after it had become obvious that the terms did not in fact enable the "free" cash to be enjoyed without paying for it.

I hope that Martin will at some point do the decent thing and hold his hands up to the people who will have lost money on his recommendation to earn free money with Lovefilm. I also hope that in future he implements a quick check to see if a company to be recommended has known customer service issues.

codger

Sorry slarge, but I have to disagree. And no, I'm not related to Martin.

The duty of care is always on the customer: we (and I include myself in this) should've Googled before rushing to sign up.

Just as if Martin had said, there's a quick way to get across that road over there, then we have a duty of care to ourselves to look both ways first.

As to Lovefilm though, it may find it rather harder to flatten people under a corporate steamroller than might be thought.

Though its customer service emails seem -- curiously: why's that, one wonders? -- to do everything possible to discourage a customer by re-writing T&Cs, introducing time elements, claiming non-working voucher codes etc etc -- the fact is, Lovefilm is trading in the UK and as a UK-based company is subject to all the rules & regs which govern that trading.

So this latest attempt to wriggle out of its obligations -- mentioned by pjays -- is so blatant a nonsense as to be laughable. :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

slarge

codger wrote:

Sorry slarge, but I have to disagree. And no, I'm not related to Martin.

The duty of care is always on the customer: we (and I include myself in this) should've Googled before rushing to sign up.

Just as if Martin had said, there's a quick way to get across that road over there, then we have a duty of care to ourselves to look both ways first.

As to Lovefilm though, it may find it rather harder to flatten people under a corporate steamroller than might be thought.

Though its customer service emails seem -- curiously: why's that, one wonders? -- to do everything possible to discourage a customer by re-writing T&Cs, introducing time elements, claiming non-working voucher codes etc etc -- the fact is, Lovefilm is trading in the UK and as a UK-based company is subject to all the rules & regs which govern that trading.

So this latest attempt to wriggle out of its obligations -- mentioned by pjays -- is so blatant a nonsense as to be laughable. :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I guess we will agree to disagree. It was Martin who initiated this thread with details of the offer. If this is not a recommendation then I do not know what is. No doubt there is a financial incentive for Martin to make the initial plug . The initial posting was clear that it was possible to get the £15 voucher without paying anything. Those details have since been found to be inaccurate. Despite numerous warnings from people who had been burned by Lovefilm and the mounting evidence that Lovefilm is taking money without authority, the offer has been plugged several times in subsequent newsletters. I think this is a case where there has to be a duty of care not to recommend an offer, without checking whether it could damage those who might take advantage of the recommendation. Otherwise could recommemd that you kill your neighbour and then say it is nothing to do with me if you do it. Maybe an extreme example but I hope you see where I am driving at. I have no axe to grind with Martin, he is a hero of thrift, but he should be big enough to admit when he gets it wrong.

grenny

pjays wrote:

Hello
thought it might be useful to know. Just spoke to Lovefilm, who told me they will not honour the boots voucher unless you have had an account for 28days. On the 28-30th day this is then issued, except when they charge you for another month - this is the 21st day. apparently, I am told this is the small print. Hope this is useful for people that are still waiting their voucher or didnt receive. If you did receive this anyway, then happy shopping.

Thats rubbish.
See my letter from Boots (back a few pages) saying i will get the voucher.
I didnt have the account for 28 days. I cancelled ON THE DAY I returned my
4th (or 5th) DVD. Definetly not 28 days.

And yes, leave Martin out of this. He is not to blame. :money:
I opened an ICICI account due to his recommendation and after were VERY ropey service, I pulled it. But that was MY DECISION BASED ON MY RESEARCH/EXPERIENCES. I'm STILL grateful to Martin for the reference to ICICI and any other tips that "go wrong". :T

Edna_Bucket_2

As per usual on this thread grenny is correct in the post. As he suggests, please go back to look at the correct T&Cs of this offer, and slap any Lovefilth CS rep very heavily across the face with them if he/she suggests otherwise.

I also agree with leaving Mr Lewis out of this, although I do agree that it was rather unwise to keep the plug for Lovefilth in the mailer when there is so much ill-feeling around about this dreadful company. The trouble is that MSE is so large I suspect it's rather hard to keep track of what's going on "on the ground" so to speak - that said a quick look at this thread before the mailer went out by whoever was editing would have put a stop to it!

codger

Fair enough, slarge! We'll agree to disagree, and without falling out over it, too (which is what makes this forum so civilised: most others I've seen appear to want to wage civil war every alternate post. . .;)

I see Royal Mail deliveries have resumed today after Christmas, though I don't see any sign of a letter from Lovefilm with the £15 Boots voucher which Lovefilm promised to provide within 30 days of sign-up on November 29th last.

But of course, that means there's still one day to go.

So I'm looking forward to tomorrow, and a nice Friday afternoon visit to our local Boots' Christmas / New Year sale. May even bump into other MSErs at the till, presenting the Boots vouchers which Lovefilm has mailed to them.

:j

bluestu

skap7309 wrote:

Just a quick one, when is the best time to cancel? I am about to return 3 dvds but dont want anymore, do i cancel the day i return them or wait until they receive them? I have read they charge you a months worth if you cancel before they receive them?

send them back asap and cancel! if there is anychance to charge you they will!
currently hasseling lovefilm, boots and my back to get back the 9.99 they took and chasing my voucher!

slarge

codger wrote:

Fair enough, slarge! We'll agree to disagree, and without falling out over it, too (which is what makes this forum so civilised: most others I've seen appear to want to wage civil war every alternate post. . .;)

May even bump into other MSErs at the till, presenting the Boots vouchers which Lovefilm has mailed to them.

:j

Life's too short for all that aggro. At the very least hopefully it will be the last time a Lovefilm offer is recommended here. They do appear to push customer disservice to new heights. I think before this is over many others will have been charged and have to fight like mad for a refund and their vouchers. Hopefully too if enough people complain to Boots they will cut off all ties with this unscrupulous organisation.

Oh and as for other MSers at the till spending their vouchers, keep a look out for Elvis and Jim Morrison in the queue as well, because seeing them is just as likely

AaronAA

skap7309 wrote:

Just a quick one, when is the best time to cancel? I am about to return 3 dvds but dont want anymore, do i cancel the day i return them or wait until they receive them? I have read they charge you a months worth if you cancel before they receive them?

Hi skap - to be doubly sure they don't get me with their DVD posession charging 'scam', I have cancelled and completely emptied my list of titles, so they can't send me anything else.

Cutting my losses, less than 2 weeks into my 3 month not-so-free trial, I decided to cancel yesterday (£22.09 out of pocket, having received just 3 DVDs on the free trial). Adding more frustration to the whole thing, clicking on "Cancel Account" on the online control panel just brings up a page telling you to ring a phone number (0870 I think - probably costing an arm & a leg) to speak to a CS rep to cancel your account (as expected, a very distant sounding non-UK call centre).

A last ditch attempt of explaining my situation and asking for some form of compensation just fell on deaf ears. Helpless, I gave up, and just told them to cancel my account.

Words fail me when I try to express the frustration I have experienced with lovefilm.

I'm not generally a bitter person, but this whole saga leaves me wanting revenge somehow! Just £22.09's worth, that's all!!

But it ain't gona happen! I'll just have to be contented telling people to steer clear of the cowboys that are lovefilm.