"Complete Savings" scheme

stemcgoo

pipulator wrote: »

I too have fallen for this scam. Yes, it's scam.

For me, I clicked on a link asking if I wanted £10 off my next Ryanair flight.

No doubt Ryanair would point to the small print - like they so often rely on doing.

I called completesavings.co.uk on 0800 389 6960 and they readily agreed to cancel my 'membership'. A little more pressure and they fairly easily caved in and refunded the £10 monthly payment they'd been taking from my account.

Two points I'd like to make:

i) the ease at which completedsavings.co,uk refunded my money suggests they know its a scam and are looking to avoid any 'fuss' i.e. keep em 'quiet by giving them a refund.

and

ii) personally I don't think "Money Saving Experts" should be encouraging these people. You might save a few quid but, for me, they, and Ryanair, are a morally corrupt organisation. Surely no-one wants to save money at all costs.

Hopefully, someone will find this post via Google and be able to get a refund. And hopefully someone in authority will get a grip and clamp down on these rogues.

Pipulator, its quite laughable really, you say 'surely no-one wants to save money at all costs'...... So the alternative is waste money? I'll remember that the next time Tesco give me a £5 voucher and so 'no thanks'. But seriously if saving money 'at all costs' is an issue why'd you fly with Ryanair? Were Aer Lingus/ BA too expensive or does leg room and access to a toilet not happen to be a problem for you?

wild_life_fan

Having just read through all the posts in this thread, I feel I should add my tuppence worth.
I too was sceptical when I first saw one of their pop-up joining invitations.
(I use adblocker software in both browsers I use, so usually don't see them, unless I have the blocking app turned off)

I read the details + small print and decided I felt confident enough to sign up and give it a go.
The rest is history.
I've signed up 4 times, cancelled 3 times in order to avoid paying the £10/mth fee.
I've banked all their 'bonus' cheques, have received cheques for cashback from previous transactions, and also regularly buy a few £25 giftcards for £20/ea.

Depending on the website from which you signed up (where the joining invite popped up), you can use ANY online purchase to claim your bonus or monthly cheques. (no need to keep shopping at Play or Pizza Hut, etc). That's handy, as any online purchase receipt will do.

I also use Quidco and Topcashback, as the Webloyalty site has a fairly limited range of e-tailers.
But Webloyalty sites offer at least 10% (as opposed to the paltry percentages for Q and TCB).

I'm not a webloyalty employee or 'agent'.
I don't often comment in forums.
But on this occasion I thought I should have my say.
If you're savvy and careful in diarising when to claim your monthly bonus chq (and cancel at the last moment, if you don't want to remain a member), sign up. Nothing to fear.
On the other hand, if you're a bit sloppy, don't read small print, can't be bothered with detail and don't diarise anything, you will end up paying the monthly £10 membership fee without getting anything in return.

A scam? I don't think so!
You decide.
:beer:

Hairypete

I am not in any way connected with Complete Saving - I want to get that clear from the start as I am about to defend them!

I signed up to the scheme unaware of what I was doing - it was just a tick box on a hotel booking offer casback on my next booking. I certainly did not realise I was going to be charged £10 per month on my credit card. After 2 months of being charged I did some research about this strange charge on my card and saw all the forum posts about scams and thought I had been had.

However I called the customer service number on the web site and asked for my membership to be cancelled which they did with immediate effect and sent an email to confirm. Further more they advised me that I was eligible for £30 in cashback that I had not claimed and all I needed to do was send the receipts. I did that not really expecting any money back but today cheques for £30 arrived in the post.

I think a lot of people get "conned" into joining and then get angry and upset when they find out - I can understand that - so was I but if you contact them they seemed reasonable people to me and cancelled my membership with no bother.

pinkpets5

I joined Complete Savings earlier this year and think it is absolutely fantastic. I get my £10 monthly bonus every time which offests the monthly fee (didn't know I could use any purchase until I read the post from Hairypete above). So far I've had over £100 back in addition to the monthly bonuses. Yesterday I ordered a the new Kindle Fire from Tesco Direct via Complete Savings and will get 10% of my £199 back!! One point - you need to check the cashback amount before you purchase as this can change.Would highly recommend, I love this site.

jimmybrid

ic wrote: »

How is MSE associated with the company in question within this thread, other than hosting a thread discussing it?

As for this loyalty reward company, it is so obvious that all the supporters in this thread are employees of the company - all new accounts that have registered just to back one another up. Absolute nonsense. This company clearly suck people in with their advert that is only displayed on completion of a transaction - its a shame the companies are willing to support them in this way.

Steer clear and use a real cashback site that gives you cold hard cash - Quidco and TopCashBack (personally I prefer TCB as its completely free, but sometimes quidco are offering a far higher rate, or just has a store that TCB that justifies the £5 expense).

ic, you have uncovered my secret, OBVIOUSLY YOU ARE RIGHT, I AM AN EMPLOYEE OF COMPLETE SAVINGS. Oh no, wait, that's not true. Thanks for questioning my integrity though :T

I defended the Complete Savings scheme because I made it work for me (and still do to this day), in exactly the same way as you have defended Quidco and TCB (don't suppose you work for one of those, do you?). If you want my opinion, which I suspect you don't as it sounds like you're only interested in your own opinion, then I will give you some other Money Saving recommendations:

1. First Directory - £12 per month gets you annual family travel insurance, mobile phone insurance, full breakdown cover and (limited) savings on hotels, golf, meals etc. Only available to First Direct customers.
2. American Express cashback card - 1.25% cashback on all spends. Be aware that some places don't accept Amex, but all the supermarkets do, as do Next, Debenhams and many other high street retailers. CAUTION - £25 annual fee (I know you're not keen on having to make an outlay to get an overall saving).
3. Barclaycard Cashback card - not as good cashback rate as Amex, but no annual fee, and great for using in those places that don't accept Amex.
4. Morrisons Miles card. Use this in conjunction with your Amex cashback card and make the most of your fuel purchases.
5. Offset mortgages (mine is from First Direct). If you have sufficient deposit/equity to meet the low LTV then this can be a great product. It gives payment flexibility and allows you to offset money in your current account against your mortgage, giving you an effective savings rate equivalent to your mortgage rate. Wouldn't recommend it for everyone mind, would suggest that if you can't read and understand T&C's on something relatively simply (like a cashback scheme) then a more complicated financial instrument like a current account mortgage probably isn't for you.
6. Regular saver account (First direct again, sorry) - 8% interest rate, max savings of £300/month. Gives a year-end interest payment of about £130 after tax.

I realise you'll have a dilemma now ic.......which one of these companies do I work for? (The answer, by the way, is none of the above).

jimmybrid

pipulator wrote: »

i) the ease at which completedsavings.co,uk refunded my money suggests they know its a scam and are looking to avoid any 'fuss' i.e. keep em quiet by giving them a refund.

Pipulator, I recently placed an online order for some bedroom furniture for my daughter from Argos. A couple of days later I noticed the price on one of the items had dropped so I rang Argos customer services to cancel the order (and place another order at the new price shortly afterwards).
The ease with which Argos refunded my money MUST suggest that they are complete scam merchants. Mustn't it?
Or maybe they just want to give good customer service. And abide by the distance selling regs of course.

jon5791

Same old story...

I was in the middle of a transaction with ticketmaster when i signed up to this.

I think the combinations of worrying about being timed out and being on a website I trusted (ticketmaster) made me let my guard down.

I didn't realise I was going to be charged £10 a month and I also though the credit would be applied to my ticketmaster account.

Yes i did put my bank details in and No i didnt read the T&C's...so a moment of stupidity no doubt, but if it hadn't been embedded into Ticketmasters website they wouldnt have got near my money.

boobbby

jimmybrid wrote: »

Pipulator, I recently placed an online order for some bedroom furniture for my daughter from Argos. A couple of days later I noticed the price on one of the items had dropped so I rang Argos customer services to cancel the order (and place another order at the new price shortly afterwards).
The ease with which Argos refunded my money MUST suggest that they are complete scam merchants. Mustn't it?
Or maybe they just want to give good customer service. And abide by the distance selling regs of course.

Same with me.. I phoned Argos when I spotted a new lower price for goods I had ordered and paid and they immediately refunded me the difference and still sent the item so didnt have to re-order again. Cant really see how you would consider it a scam as price changes all the time. Would you have volunteered to pay extra if the price had gone up instead of down.

I_love_Cornwall

Going back to the original forum about "Complete Save", yesterday I noted the withdrawal of £10 per month and checked back... they had taken 4 months to a total of £40. I found your site forum and did as suggested. I phoned 08003896960 (Monday to Friday 8.00 to 8.00). The customer service lady was very helpful. She said I could cancel my membership immediately and offered me £20 refund. I pushed for all £40 and after "speaking to a supervisor" we agreed on £30. So I only paid £10 for my stupidity. The moral of the story is "read the small print" even if you think you are still on the original site eg "the train line".

jimmybrid

Obviously I have been a supporter of Complete Savings, and I still am a member and make the most of the savings available, but I have noticed a slowdown in the processing of Cashback cheques recently. Complete Savings say it's due to the busy Christmas period, but I wondered if anyone else was experiencing the same?