Warning TopCashBack dirty tricks

NewForest_2

Today I too found I had been caught by automatic (unwanted) Plus enrolment and a £5 fee that TopCashBack (TCB) wanted to deduct from my earnings. Both were promptly cancelled with no argument by TCB when I raised a support ticket - credit to their Customer Service for that. But it shouldn't have been necessary in the first place.

It appears that the first time I logged on to my TCB a/c (on 19/6/13) after Plus membership was introduced, I was enrolled onto a 3 month "free trial". I have no recollection of this.

The next time I logged on was 6 months later on 23/12/13 and I then discovered I'd been automatically enrolled as an annual Plus member for the past 3 months since 19/9/13 and a £5 fee was pending!

I can't recall whether I acknowledged the free trial (6 months ago) it or if it was automatic. But I was most certainly NOT aware that I would automatically be rolled over into a chargeable membership. This was not made clear and I would never have agreed to it, had I been aware. Furthermore, no notifications were ever sent by TCB - either at the start or the end of the free trial period; there's no excuse for that, given the volume of other emails I get from them.

I won't go as far as some posters who have labelled this a "scam" or “dirty tricks” as per the title of this thread, but it does appear to be sharp practice, which easily catches out not just the unwitting but the cautious too. I would guess that the company's owners decided that the TCB business model now needs to generate more income, so I fear this may be a sign of things to come.

So although it's all sorted now, it has seriously dented my trust in TCB. I used to regard them as a stress-free way to recover a few pounds on my shopping; in future I will be on guard and I will think twice before using them in case I get any more “hassle”. I also used to recommend TCB unconditionally to friends and family; in future I will only give a heavily qualified warning to only use them if you're prepared to monitor your account carefully to watch out for this sort of thing.

Also MSE really need to update their unqualified recommendation of TCB on their main website at https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/cashback-websites to include a warning of these issues that members are now having.

whitesatin

They took £5 off me but I am fairly sure I was aware that it would happen in return for Plus Membership. I assumed that I would get a higher cashback rate for my membership but I am not sure now. It is an annual fee so I will look look into it a bit more before my renewal is due. If it is a higher cashback rate for Plus Membership then I will be happy enough to continue it.

NewForest_2

whitesatin wrote: »

They took £5 off me but I am fairly sure I was aware that it would happen in return for Plus Membership. I assumed that I would get a higher cashback rate for my membership but I am not sure now. It is an annual fee so I will look look into it a bit more before my renewal is due. If it is a higher cashback rate for Plus Membership then I will be happy enough to continue it.

I think the Plus membership "exclusive cashback bonus of up to 5%" (quote from TCB) is only calculated on the cashback itself, not the value of the purchase. eg if normal cashback was 2.5% on a purchase of £40, you would get £1 normal cashback. The bonus is 5% of £1 - NOT 5% of £40 - so you only get an extra 5p. You'd need to be a very big spender for these bonuses to cover your £5 fee! Also, you already get a 1% bonus with Classic membership, so the advantage is only 4% - and remember it's "up to...". I think the only way it might be worthwhile is if you make Tell-a-friend recommendations, which appear to pay £5 more for Plus members.

Interesting to see how strongly TCB state the advantages of Classic (ie. standard) membership at http://www.topcashback.co.uk/blog/new-topcashback-plus-membership/view/. That does somewhat undermine their case for Plus membership!

Also you DON'T have to wait for your next renewal to cancel Plus membership. If you tell them you're unhappy how it was applied automatically, their Customer Services are very fair and will cancel the fee retrospectively.

zoebel

This is how topcashback viewed my complaint about a sudden and unexpected £5 deduction on my cashback:

"Hi there,

Thanks for getting back to us.

As you were already a member at the time of the Plus Membership launch, you would have seen a page when you first logged on requiring you to choose plus, classic or a plus free trial The trial worked as stated in the terms and conditions that the member would downgrade before the end if they didn't wish to continue at that level. The downgrade button would have been active at the time and only disabled after you became a plus member. I am sorry if we didn't make all of this as clear as we should have done, but there was no intention to mislead anyone.

You can view the benefits of plus membership by following the link: http://www.topcashback.co.uk/classic-or-plus

Looking at your account I can see since you have been on plus membership you have earned an extra £1.83 cashback in your earnings.

Please can you be aware that plus members earn 5% top up from all earnings and classic earn 1% top up on all earnings so if you were on classic membership you would have only earned 0.37.

If I proceed with downgrading your account the extra 1.46 will be deducted from your earnings and we will waive the fee so you will not have to pay the £5.00.

I hope that this clarifies; please can you get back to me confirming if you wish for me to downgrade your account for you and waive the £5.00 fee?

I will look forward to your response.

Many thanks,"

Does this sound familiar and, if so, did I somehow miss something? Did I somehow enter into some (tacit) agreement that I did want to pay them £5, even though I have no recollection whatsoever of doing so? Also, forgive my ignorance, but what is the benefit anyway? I pay them £5 and they give me an "extra" £1.46? Doesn't that mean I'm £3.54 down?

savingrod

I was about to start relationship with Topcashback but, probably won't now.

sarah1972

savingrod wrote: »

I was about to start relationship with Topcashback but, probably won't now.

I love topcashback and have had 100's of £ cashback, in fact I ditched Quidco in favour of TCB as I find them reliable.

marvin

sarah1972 wrote: »

I love topcashback and have had 100's of £ cashback, in fact I ditched Quidco in favour of TCB as I find them reliable.

I personally have ditched both Quidco and TCB due to having to raise a ticket for just about every cashback I do through them, still have 3 from last year lingering on with TCB and the last one I did is still being queried. They have become just too unreliable for me.

I now mainly use Imutual (http://www.imutual.co.uk/) as they seem more reliable on actually stumping up the cashback.

Only use these 2 for their in store snap receipt stuff now.

kuepper

just stumbled on this 'scam' myself. I don't recall the £5 being flagged up. I never even realised there were 2 categories of membership. How can you find out whether it has been worthwhile or not being a plus member?

Mr_Grumpy_69

Realised today I'd been caught out too. I've complained to TCB as like most other people I think this is really underhand practice. Do you really want to support a business that relies on slight of hand to make money out of you ? I'll be cancelling my membership.

DCFC79

Its the same with quidco too, theres 2 different options, a free 1 and 1 that costs £5 a year.