Ongoing dispute with Very,co.uk

MrsW88

Hello, this is my first post and I do apologize if this is in the wrong place, I've had a good nose round and I think this is the right spot! Sorry if this is a long one also, but I suppose I need to be thorough.

I ordered a laptop back in September whilst an offer was on where you received £100 cashback if you spent over £500 and checked out on Buy Now Pay Later, which I did. I have done this in the past with Very when I needed a new TV with no problems and i paid it way before the 12 months were up. 2 weeks later I received a statement saying a payment was due so phoned up asking why this was, apparently the laptop was not on BNPL, I explained I checked out on BNPL when I ordered the laptop as the cashback offer was one of the main selling points so I made sure I did, the woman apologized, amended this, and when I asked I was told that I was still receive the cashback by the middle of October as it was their mistake.

However I never received this by the end of October (I left it just in case it came later than what they said) so I phoned them back asking why I hadn't got it yet, and I was told by an advisor that I would not be receiving it as I wasn't eligible for it as I never checked the item out on BNPL. I explained the whole situation and that I was promised I would still receive it the last time I called, but she wouldn't budge so I asked to speak to her superior, I was put on hold for over 10 minutes, she then came back saying that they will listen to this phone call as if I was told I would still receive the cashback then as a company they have to honor it, so they will phone me back in 3-5 working days to let me know what happens.

I never had a call back so yet again I phoned them the week after, explained what was said last time, but now they were saying I had to send proof that the offer even existed via email as they have no record of it! I had to go to the internet wayback machine to get some screenshots of the offer, so I sent these in an email that also explained everything, only to get a generic response back a few days later stating again that I wasn't eligible because I never checked out on BNPL (when I did and I explained all this in the email!)

Phoning again and going over everything yet again, I was advised this time to reply to the person who emailed me and request that they listen to the call where I was promised the cashback as they have more authority than the people on the phone. I did this, and lo and behold a generic response a few days later stating that I wasn't eligible as I never checked out on BNPL, no mention of the phone call at all this was completely ignored.

Phoning yet again and explaining everything including the recent emails, I was put on hold for nearly half an hour whilst they "listened to the phone call" where I was promised the cashback, and the interesting thing here is that I assume for the first ten minutes of "being on hold" they forgot to mute me as I could her several of them, including the person I had just been speaking to, having a little party as all I could her was laughing, joking, party poppers being pulled, and then it suddenly going silent after about 10 minutes. Really professional and it did not sound like they were listening to the call at all! Anyway after this near half hour on hold, I was told someone would phone me back in 5-7 working days as they have listened to the call and they need to discuss it with their manager. As expected nobody ever called and I left it nearly 3 weeks as it was just before Christmas so gave them more time in case of holidays over New Year etc.

So another phone call a few days ago where I had to explain everything again as there was no notes on my account about this issue(!) and the same sort of response, that they will go and listen to the phone call then call me back to let me know what the outcome will be. This time they did actually call me back yesterday but I wasn't home, so they left a message with pretty much the exact response the emails always say, I couldn't believe it! I called again today and went over the whole thing again and it's like history repeating itself as the man is going to go and listen to the phone call and take it to his manager and get back me in 3 days. I expect the same outcome.

So basically I am lost here on what to do! Do I take them to small claims court? Though I have no idea how those even work really. Do I keep repeating myself and driving myself more and more insane everytime I have to go over it? Up until this started in September I have never had an issue with Very, I've got stuff from them for a couple of years and have always paid everything off without problems, my credit score is the highest it can be, and it's like they are just completely disregarding my good business with them in the past and I feel like I am trying to be conned or something. It's like the company is a sham, every time I call the advisors speak in broken English and the emails have always been bad with grammar and spelling, so it is hard to even take them seriously a lot of the time. Doesn't help when they are having a party in the office either!

Thanks in advance for any advice, I am truly stumped over where to go from here, it's all new to me. :eek:

jumpedtheshark

I ordered a laptop back in September whilst an offer was on where you received £100 cashback if you spent over £500 and checked out on Buy Now Pay Later, which I did. I have done this in the past with Very when I needed a new TV with no problems and i paid it way before the 12 months were up.

Did you make this initial purchase online or over the phone? Whilst you got a subsequent promise to 'correct' the records to show how you purchased it, given that this 'correction' never happened, it seems that, in order to now claim against them, you will need to be able to prove that your initial purchase complied with the terms of the offer. Have you got this proof?

When I had a similar (not identical - Very advertised promotional items included with purchase of a Surface pro 4, then didn't include them and denied they ever advertised them, then they said they had run out of stock of the promotional items), I had to both produce screenshot proof of the offer and my order confirmation, and start arguing about their breach of the CAP Code before they coughed up. I did this all via email as I found their Phone CS less helpful.

MrsW88

Hiya and thanks for the response.

I made the purchase through the website which is what I've always done, there is nothing in the confirmation email about any payment schemes, it's just a generic "thanks for purchasing x, price is y, it will be delivered on z" email that you get whenever you buy anything. On my end when I ordered it I definitely made sure I chose BNPL over 12 months and I knew how to do that as I did it before a couple of years back when I got the TV, but on their end it is as if I never picked that option so it doesn't show anywhere on my statements (I use paperless also) until after I phoned and they changed it to BNPL, and I can't understand why it didn't show up on their end. My husband can confirm that I chose BNPL when it was ordered as we both chose the laptop on the website together, but obviously that means nothing legally...

I think the main argument with them now is about the fact that when I phoned asking why they were requesting a payment, I was promised that I would still receive the cashback after they rectified the issue so they have to honor that, but I never receive it no matter how many times they say it. I am going around in circles with them all the time, they are good at evasive and delaying tactics it seems. I checked their Trustpilot recently and it seems they are notorious for this kind of thing, if only i had seen that sooner!

wealdroam

It looks like it is time to write them a letter, doesn't it?

Make that a real letter reminding them of their promises and including printed copies of their emails where they agree to rectify the situation.

karl271186

Email matt.dixon@shopdirect.com (Group Product Director).

I previously had a similar issue and customer services were useless to rectify and at one point transferred me to Apple :mad:

Needless to say, the Executive Office rectified the situation for me.

Stushons

Sadly I too find myself having experienced this RIP OFF from Very.co.uk. I purchased a PS4 PRO with the lure of a 20% cashback offer in Dec16. This made the console the cheapest by far online and on the high street. I got a message pop up stating thanks for the purchase and that the cashback would be applied no later than mid Jan 17. I checked my account last week and nothing had changed - it was still the same price. I called customer services to ask where the cashback was and received the following response (or thereabouts) - "I did not order the item in the correct way (buy now pay later) therefore did not qualify for the discount".

I was disgusted. I asked to talk to a line manager, but was informed that they do not have line managers...... I have since used their on-line chat to try and rectify this but it seems I am getting nowhere. BEWARE VERY offers..... I have paid my balance in full and will be closing the account once the payment has been received and acknowledged from them. NEVER AGAIN will I use Very.co.uk