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TopCashBack - cashback mysteriously gone missing

I see members have discussed missing cashback before, but sadly, the situation doesn't seem to have improved at TopCashBack.

Despite fulfilling every one of the conditions imposed by TopCashBack and Swinton for my purchase of car insurance, the £40.40 cashback has been declined. I am trying to find out why, but am not hopeful. All I seem to be able to do is bat emails back and forth - no chatlines or real humans on the end of a phone.

Swinton is clearly satisfied with me, as they have already sent a chq for £75, which was the other part of the cashback deal, but TopCashBack seems to be blanking me completely. Everything seemed to be going according to plan for 3 months - then nothing!

Do they have a formal grievance procedure? Have other people managed to get any sense out of them? I am definitely not impressed with their dubious way of doing business.

Comments

  • newpuppy
    newpuppy Posts: 45 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Combo Breaker
    Does anyone know how the relationship between TopCashBack and their merchants works?

    I have just been told by Swinton that TCB actually buys insurance policies from Swinton and resells them online, and so my transaction is simply with TCB. Swinton says they have no contact with TCB.

    Then again, I have also read that TCB has to get confirmation from Swinton that I have kept the policy active before they will pay out.

    So who actually funds these cashback deals? Is it the merchant or TCB?
  • keith1950
    keith1950 Posts: 2,597 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    The cashback is paid by funds provided to a marketing company by the merchant but there is no actually contact between the merchant and topcashback.

    The retailers set aside a marketing budget to these marketing companies to find new business. Everything is done online and there are so many variables that some mistakes can occur. This is all explained on the cashback sites.If topcashback don't receive the cashback you will not therefore receive it.

    Many things can go wrong such as cross-tracking, where you do a search on confused.com ( for example) and later go through topcashback and the sale is credited to confused even though you didn't buy through them.

    The information you recieved from Swinton is a load of !!!!!!!!.
  • newpuppy
    newpuppy Posts: 45 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Combo Breaker
    Rang Swinton Customer Services this morning and they were brilliant - offered to send me the £40.40 owed by TopCashBack. Sorted. Just like that. I was so grateful to be rid of all the hassle.

    They will also forward my details to their Marketing Dept, to keep them informed of problems with TCB.

    I still have no idea why TCB declined my cashback. Even having studied the lists of possible pitfalls on their Help pages, I honestly can't see where I might have gone wrong. At least I can forget about it now :T
  • Nick_C
    Nick_C Posts: 7,506 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Home Insurance Hacker!
    It would have been best to raise this on the Top Cashback thread, which is monitored by a company representative.

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4519857

    Things go wrong sometimes, but I've always found them to be very helpful in chasing things up when necessary. In my case I've had a 98% success rate with TCB. £1770 expected, £1734 paid, over 5 years.

    It took me 46 weeks to get my cashback on Churchill Car Insurance, but I got it eventually with some help from TCB's team.
  • keith1950
    keith1950 Posts: 2,597 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Same here .....so far had over £5500 cashback on TCB and Quidco with no definate failures although I do have one for ukpower that is now outstanding after 13 months.... one even paid up after waiting 17 months.
  • newpuppy
    newpuppy Posts: 45 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Combo Breaker
    Thanks to Nick and Keith for your replies and for the link (which I hadn't realised existed). Not being a big spender, I've found all this sudden activity chasing TCB and even posting on this forum a bit of a learning curve. A whole 'nother world :o I promise to be calmer and more patient in future! Thanks again.
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