AA claws back Quidco's cashback

Pasareti

The roadside assistance package I chose would have cost £99. Checked Quidco,cashback is £36,so it would only cost me £64 for the year.
BUT.
When I arrived to the AA website through Quidco,the only way to get the cashback,the price suddenly became £119. That's £20 more than originally. So the saving has become only £16.35-£20,not the £35 I saw.

Has anybody experienced anything like this? It is the first time it happened to me but I find it alarming. Imagine other companies following AA's example and increase their prices for those of us who use cashback websites.

motorguy

Pasareti wrote: »

The roadside assistance package I chose would have cost £99. Checked Quidco,cashback is £36,so it would only cost me £64 for the year.
BUT.
When I arrived to the AA website through Quidco,the only way to get the cashback,the price suddenly became £119. That's £20 more than originally. So the saving has become only £16.35-£20,not the £35 I saw.

Has anybody experienced anything like this? It is the first time it happened to me but I find it alarming. Imagine other companies following AA's example and increase their prices for those of us who use cashback websites.

So you're upset that the AA were offering you a discounted price of £99 down from £119 but via Quidco you get a discount of £35 off the £119?

You want the £35 cashback / discount off the discounted price?

Sorry, but it does sound like you're wanting to have your cake and eat it, and are "alarmed" because you cant?

stator

A lot of companies do this now. Was it AVIVA do it for home insurance? If you go via cashback you get a higher price

regprentice

had the same with a number of retailers. TM Lewin shirts, open the site from google - Shirt is Price no 1, follow a link from an email which ha a £10 voucher Shirt is price No 2, Follow link from Quidco Shirt is price no 3. Can't use the voucher from the email if ive followed a link from Quidco.

Car insurance is the same as well, barely used Quidco and TCB in the last 2 years because of this - Its seldom the cheapest way, or if it is the risk of having cashback declined isnt compensated for by the slight saving made by following Quidco.

JP1978

They refused my topcashback of £141 a few months ago.

We purchased AA breakdown (full package) and the Breakdown Recovery Cover - £500 towards parts that cause the breakdown - so total was about £320 before TCB. I wasnt intending to spend that amount, only purchased it as it had TCB and thought the AA, been a big company would honour it.

Its been refused.

Never mind, 1 car had £300 worth of work two weeks ago that the AA are standing £90 for and the other car is about to go in for £800 worth of work and they will stand for £500 of the work - so have my money back anyway!

Ectophile

Alarming? It sounds totally fair to me.

That £36 had to come from somewhere, and that somewhere will be the AA. Why shouldn't customers who bypass the middleman get a discount in return for the AA not having to pay a hefty commission to Quidco?

EdGasketTheSecond

Makes cashback sites pointless though if it is not genuine cashback. If you are charged an inflated price for using a cashback site then you are just paying your own cashback to yourself.

I've seen this on some holiday sites, the holiday price is jacked-up by the amount of cashback offered if you go to the site via cashback.

There are genuine cashbacks to be had but others are not all they seem.

Tinks74

Having noticed this a while ago I always check the price with and without cashback.
I always think the cashback system is one of those "Too good to be true" things, obviously someone is making money by selling on your data somewhere.......

scaredofdebt

Tinks74 wrote: »

Having noticed this a while ago I always check the price with and without cashback.
I always think the cashback system is one of those "Too good to be true" things, obviously someone is making money by selling on your data somewhere.......

It's not too good to be true as they are simply passing on the commission they get from the retailer to you and keeping a slice for the privilege. I've had over £3k worth of cashback from Quidco over the years, happy for them to keep £5 a year of it.

motorguy

EdGasketTheSecond wrote: »

Makes cashback sites pointless though if it is not genuine cashback. If you are charged an inflated price for using a cashback site then you are just paying your own cashback to yourself.

I've seen this on some holiday sites, the holiday price is jacked-up by the amount of cashback offered if you go to the site via cashback.

There are genuine cashbacks to be had but others are not all they seem.

Its not necessarily that they are "jacked up", its that they may have other incentives available through other advertising mechanisms. Perhaps the direct method and keeping the price below £100 works for a particular advertising stream, other people like to see a large cashback amount.

Go through one route and you get a headline price with a discount of £20 off the RRP, go through another you get £36 cashback off the RRP. Not hard to see that they wont be in a position to offer the £20 discount AND the £36 cashback.

Its hard to be "miffed" just because you think you should have your cake AND eat it

EdGasketTheSecond

Well excuse me but the price definitely is jacked up. You go to a holiday site on any browser and all are the same price; no offers nothing, fixed price. Go through cashback and you can get 5% cashback but the holiday price is also inflated 5% so no saving; in fact you are worse off because you are paying up-front and then maybe sometime later getting back what you overpaid.