Loyalty Points - but no way to use them?

WoozleWife

Hi all.

I use a site to order the odd chinese takeaway from, and have been using the site since 2011 and have racked up a number of 'loyalty points' from it over the past four years. Initially there was something on the site about using the loyalty points to take money off the balance of your order once you had earned enough, but then no longer had any info about them on the site. Back in 2011 I emailed them about how to use them as there was no option to use your earned points as part payment. They replied to say they were working on a way to be able to allow customers to do this on the site... nothing. I emailed again about it in 2012 - no response, and again in 2013 - no response and again in 2014 - yep - no response.

If a site openly displays the fact that you are earning loyalty points on your orders, where does the consumer stand with their 'right' to use these points in some way? Does trading standards have to make them put some system in place to allow customers to actually be able to use them, or if they cannot do this - to give customers a credit amount on their account to use for a future order and remove the loyalty points completely?

Initially you would earn points for your order and points (5) when you reviewed your order. They then stopped doing the points for reviewing an order sometime last year or the year before, but still show you earning loyalty points for your order - as it tells you how many points you have 'earned' as part of the order confirmation screen.

It also has a Loyalty Points section to view the history of your points earning activity.

I can't be the only person who uses this site who is wondering what is going on!

Thanks in advance for any responses!

tomtontom

Which site is it? I can think of several points schemes that only allow you to make full payment with them. What do the terms and conditions say?

WoozleWife

Hi tomtontom

The site is eat-hot.co.uk

The terms of use page doesn't mention them at all.

And nothing in the FAQ section. There used to be something about them back in 2011 but after a while the information disappeared. But still happily applying the loyalty points to my 'account' after each order. Nothing in the payment section to add any points at all.