www.three.co.uk and quidco

Quentin

Reestit_Mutton wrote: »

I do have to take my hat off to Quidco for what they are trying to do - despite the obvious threat that they pose to my contract mobile phone price comparison website, I have an immense amount of respect for the people behind the site

It appears your respect is faltering:

Reestit_Mutton wrote:

...methinks that Quidco has no choice but to say nothing and keep the compensation payment for itself as anything else is too complicated to administer..

Unlike your site (should you be advertising it here?) Quidco is a co-operative, with this on their site:

We are not a big faceless corporate conglomerate, we are not out to take all the money we can off people, we are a couple of people who have a passion for creating a site that provides members with a cashback option that has integrity, honesty and transparency.

If you have a genuine concern regarding Quidco's integrity, then this thread is hardly the place for it.

Put up your allegations to appropriate authorities.

Or is this just sour grapes against a competitor?

Reestit_Mutton

Old_Gold wrote: »

Reestit I enjoyed your post. I am wondering though of what the legalities would be of persuing the retailer on the basis that you would not have entered into the contract if it had not been for the promised cashback.

Hi Old Gold,

The retailer has no control over how its commissions are used by the affiliate. Furthermore, it only has a contract with the affiliate over the commission payments, not the customer.

In legal terms...you as the customer only have a case with the retailer over the goods supplied at the price advertised on the retailer's website. This is where you as a cashback site customer at at the mercy of the cashback site's grievance policies. If they can't be bothered to chase the retailer for your commission payment, you have no right to do it yourself.

Just imagine how many Quidco users there must be by now - afterall it's mentioned in every second breath on this forum and has been recommended by Martin in his email tips (which now go out to over a million people). It's also a common recommendation on many online forums these days. Add to that the sheer number of websites on their books and you can just imagine how many complaints they would have to field on a daily basis if people expected them to champion their cause with the retailers on an individual basis.

£5 per customer per year simply wouldn't cover the cost of sufficiently staffing up a complaints resolution department - let alone the continual development and maintenance of their retailer database and website and the administration of the monthly cashback run to thousands of users. That's why they (and probably just about every cashback site) rely on a largely automated approach to cashback enquiries.

No doubt some less than scrupulous retailers are well aware of this and simply ignore their monthly submissions or always refuse every claim that they contain. However, if Quidco had the resources to hound the retailers on a regular basis and deal with exceptional cases individually on a more personal level with the retailers and affiliate networks I dare say that they would bear more fruitful results.

(For Quentin's benefit...the above is intended as a defense of sites such as Quidco to explain why some cashback enquiries are destined to never bear fruit.)

regards,
Reestit Mutton

Reestit_Mutton

Quentin wrote: »

If you have a genuine concern regarding Quidco's integrity, then this thread is hardly the place for it.

I have no allegation to make and I said as much in my post.

regards,
Reestit Mutton

AJP558

Reestit_Mutton wrote: »

Alas, a kelkoo test will by no means guarantee a trouble free tracking process with any other site. This is because tracking can fail for one of three reasons:

(1) Quidco's tracking system fails
(2) The affiliate network's tracking system fails
(3) The retailer's tracking system fails

Testing with a kelkoo transaction only safeguards against (1) and (2) - and only if you use a retailer on the same network as Kelkoo.

RM, I think you have missed reason 4, which for me is the most likely - my PC setup has caused the tracking to fail either through web browser configuration or security, spyware and cookie handling changes I have made. In the past I have tried stopping SpywareBlaster and Spybot but still lost some transactions to the point where I considered a dual boot PC with minimal security on one just for Quidco and Rpoints purchases - just AV and firewall (begind h/w firewall anyway) and not to b used for surfing, email, etc.

However, the cashback still can't be relied on and I agree there is little or no comeback on Quidco, the tracking agency or the retailer if a biggie fails for me. Thats why I sweat for half an hour constantly refreshing Quidco after signing up for another mobile contract with £100 cashback.

Quentin

Reestit_Mutton wrote:

I have no allegation to make and I said as much in my post

This mustn't be an example of you making one then.

Reestit_Mutton wrote: »

...methinks that Quidco has no choice but to say nothing and keep the compensation payment for itself as anything else is too complicated to administer...

Reestit_Mutton

Quentin wrote: »

This mustn't be an example of you making one then.

and it was quickly followed by

This isn't intended to allude to any kind of malpractice - it's just an acknowledgement of the complexity of the situation.

i.e. I am fully understanding if that is their chosen approach to the situation as I can see no other solution that is manageable under the circumstances while also being fair to the customers affected.

It is, in essence, a thorny issue that all cashback sites have to deal with as the technology failure has unfortunately prevented them from marrying up the payment with the relevant customers.

However, if you genuinely believe that my words were harsh I would have absolutely no problem in removing both paragraphs from that post. Just let me know and it shall be done.

Maybe while I'm here I could make a (genuinely) constructive suggestion...

As the site is a cooperative, it could be seen to be a mutual organisation of sorts where the customers own a stake in the business. If all unaccounted for income (such as bonus payments from retailers for reaching certain monthly sales levels and compensation payments for tracking failures) is totalled up at the end of the year, it could be divided up among the customer base in proportion to the level of cashback that each customer has generated.

This is much like a loyalty bonus, similar to those that you sometimes get with certain building societies, payable out of their profits. Even if Quidco don't want to divide all such income up, they could always state what percentage has been shared out, thus allowing them to set teh percentage each year according to their business needs. Afterall, why shouldn't they plough some of this unallocated money into improving and expanding the service offered?

Just a thought...

regards,
Reestit Mutton

Quentin

It was because you were "harsh" that the reply was made.

But don't alter your work just cos I questioned it.

Let others read what you have said and decide whether there are any sour grapes in all this.

Reestit_Mutton

Quentin wrote: »

It was because you were "harsh" that the reply was made.

But don't alter your work just cos I questioned it.

Let others read what you have said and decide whether there are any sour grapes in all this.

Okay...I can't say fairer than that.

best regards
Reestit Mutton

InnesL

:wall:

chatty123 wrote: »

they are excellent in paying out....i ordered one in the middle of december, it tracked the day after and i got paid out at the end of january. will certainly be doing the same again july when i have another contract at an end.
it does say clearly that the offer from quidco is not available on the talk 500 deal. JUST always read the small print and clear all cookie/files

I am pretty sure it is not my PC as all of my other transations in the last 6 months have tracked.

It does say that Video Talk 500 is excluded NOW, but that exclusion was not there when I ordered (although it is goint to be tough to proove it I guess).

I guess that the whole thing is irrelevent as Three clearly dont give a rats !!!!! about the transaction that dont track and I am now outside the 14 day returns window.

Its back to nice reliable :wall: cashback claims (or free gifts) in future.

Reestit_Mutton

Rogerb wrote: »

Closest I can recall to this is the Computer Shopper situation last June / July when the payment was made in full to the earliest date/time order of transactions for which claims were made until the payout was used up. Don't know too much about the detail but I was one of the fortunate ones to get my payment.

Hi Roger,

Could you explain your situation a little more? Are you saying that a transaction was initially logged but subsequently (incorrectly) revoked?

While it's good to be provided with an example of an honest attempt to deal with the situation as best they can for the benefit of their users, I can't see how this would work in the case where there are NO transactions logged due to a tracking error.

This problem is a much tougher nut to crack without opening yourself up to fraudulent claims from some of your more unscrupulous users (alas, there will always be a few bad apples in every cart).

cheers,
Reestit Mutton