Warning for Touchnote customers
Aerion
Posts: 4 Newbie
Touchnote use a credit based system, with credits expiring after 12 months. They will neither refund nor extend them, so if you don't use up your credits your money is lost, i.e. they are happy to steal from you.
Companies that force you to buy credits first before you can buy the actual product put profit before the customer. Credits hide the true cost of your purchase, and trick you into thinking you've bought something. Furthermore, once they have your money they can do what they want, including letting them expire without actually having sold you anything. Invariably you will forget that you have credits sitting in your account, and when you finally remember chances are it is too late to spend them, or you don't have time or a need to exchange them for the actual product.
Touchnote is no exception to this. They do send you reminders that your credit is about to expire, but when you have no time or need to send a card at that moment in time your money will be gone. You might as well have burned your money, or chucked it down the drain.
They justify the need for expiring credits with ludicrous excuses such as not being able to provide you with good deals (the more credits you buy the cheaper they become). Sure, discounts for bulk buying is nothing new, but there is not one single reason why they need to expire, just because you've bought them in bulk.
Their explanations and justifications are a masterclass in clever marketing language, hiding anti consumer business practices behind positive sounding language.
For example: if you subscribe to their monthly Bronze premium plan at £2.49 a month (billed annually, so not a monthly plan at all!), one of the perks is that you get one free card a month. The truth, however, is that you do not get a free card at all—you're paying for it, at the costly price of £2.49! To put that in perspective: the smallest credit bundle you can buy costs £9.95 for 5 credits, that's £1.99 per credit. It doesn't take a genius to work out that your 'free' card costs 50% more than if you were to buy the 5 credits bundle. Furthermore, you 'free' cards do not roll over, so if you have no card to send in a given month, or you simply forget, bye bye £2.49!
Another 'perk' of the premium plan is that additional cards 'only' cost you £1.99 each… see the problem here? No saving at all compared to just buying the smallest credit bundle!
The Silver plan fares no better: Silver gives you 2 'free' cards for £3.99 a month (again, billed annually) so that's still £1.99 each, while additional cards only costs you £1.50 each. who really sends more than 2 cards every single month in order to make this worthwhile? Because remember that in order to save 49p on a card you first have to spend £47.88 (annual billing) in order to get 2 'free' cards a month.
The Gold plan, at £7.99 a month (once again, billed annually) is where you finally start to see some savings on your 'free' cards (oh, the irony) as you get 6 of them at only £1.33 each, but apart from the fact that you're getting fleeced on the free cards, the real sting in the tail here is that additional cards costs £1.25 each, hardly any saving at all compared to your 'free' cards, and a saving for which you have to fork out a whopping £95.88 in advance. You have to ask yourself here: do you really spend £96 on postcards and/or greeting cards every single year? Is it worth spending £96 in order to get a 25% discount on postcards that otherwise would cost you £1.99? Do you truly send at least 6 postcards every single month?
The worst thing about the premium plans, however, is that suddenly your credits do not expire any longer! So it is, in fact, entirely possible to not let purchased credits expire after all, Touchnote have simply moved this behind a paywall!
It is also important to note that while your credits don't expire on the premium plans, the 'free' cards do! In other words, if you do not send your 'free' cards within 3 months on the Silver plan (6 months on Gold), you will lose them, so you're basically paying £3.99/£7.99 a month in order to get a marginal discount on any additional cards.
Let's take a closer look, shall we? If you don't use your 'free' cards, on the Silver plan you'd have to send at least 8 cards every month in order take advantage of the 49p saving per card (£1.50 per card instead of £1.99) and to recoup your £3.99 investment. On the Gold plan it's even worse: you need to send at least 11 cards a month to benefit from the 74p saving per card (£1.25 per card instead of £1.99) and to recoup your £7.99 investment. That's a lot of postcards to send every month! Sure, you can buy bigger bundles to bring the cost per card down, but even on the biggest bundle the cost per card only drops to £1.67, and that will set you back a massive £149.95—money you risk losing if you don't use up those credits within 12 months of purchasing them!
Of course you can (try to) take advantage of the rollover of the not-so-free free cards, but that really piles up: 6 cards every quarter on the Silver plan, and 36 (!!) cards every 6 months on the Gold plan, before your money goes up in smoke. Even if you could save them up until the end of the year, who really has more than 24 people on their Christmas list, let alone 72? And remember: they're not free cards! You've paid £48 (Silver) or £96 (Gold) for them, that's a lot of money to spend on postcards!
When Touchnote first appeared on the market, there were very few, if any, companies that made it possible to send old fashioned postcards from anywhere on the planet where you have an internet connection, right there and then. Times have changed, however, and Touchnote are no longer unique in what they offer; there is plenty of choice in the market, as is evident from this very website.
Do not fall into the credits trap, and do not believe in the premium subscription fallacy!
Stay away from Touchnote at all costs, and buy your cards from companies where you can pay with plain old money instead of credits. The savings gained by purchasing credits are minimal; only serial postcard senders are likely to see any real benefits without the risk of losing their money. For the rest of us: you've worked hard for your money, not to give it away to some company who puts profits before the customer.
If, in spite of all this, you still think Touchnote is a good company to go with, at least the print quality of the cards is nice, so they get one star for that.
Companies that force you to buy credits first before you can buy the actual product put profit before the customer. Credits hide the true cost of your purchase, and trick you into thinking you've bought something. Furthermore, once they have your money they can do what they want, including letting them expire without actually having sold you anything. Invariably you will forget that you have credits sitting in your account, and when you finally remember chances are it is too late to spend them, or you don't have time or a need to exchange them for the actual product.
Touchnote is no exception to this. They do send you reminders that your credit is about to expire, but when you have no time or need to send a card at that moment in time your money will be gone. You might as well have burned your money, or chucked it down the drain.
They justify the need for expiring credits with ludicrous excuses such as not being able to provide you with good deals (the more credits you buy the cheaper they become). Sure, discounts for bulk buying is nothing new, but there is not one single reason why they need to expire, just because you've bought them in bulk.
Their explanations and justifications are a masterclass in clever marketing language, hiding anti consumer business practices behind positive sounding language.
For example: if you subscribe to their monthly Bronze premium plan at £2.49 a month (billed annually, so not a monthly plan at all!), one of the perks is that you get one free card a month. The truth, however, is that you do not get a free card at all—you're paying for it, at the costly price of £2.49! To put that in perspective: the smallest credit bundle you can buy costs £9.95 for 5 credits, that's £1.99 per credit. It doesn't take a genius to work out that your 'free' card costs 50% more than if you were to buy the 5 credits bundle. Furthermore, you 'free' cards do not roll over, so if you have no card to send in a given month, or you simply forget, bye bye £2.49!
Another 'perk' of the premium plan is that additional cards 'only' cost you £1.99 each… see the problem here? No saving at all compared to just buying the smallest credit bundle!
The Silver plan fares no better: Silver gives you 2 'free' cards for £3.99 a month (again, billed annually) so that's still £1.99 each, while additional cards only costs you £1.50 each. who really sends more than 2 cards every single month in order to make this worthwhile? Because remember that in order to save 49p on a card you first have to spend £47.88 (annual billing) in order to get 2 'free' cards a month.
The Gold plan, at £7.99 a month (once again, billed annually) is where you finally start to see some savings on your 'free' cards (oh, the irony) as you get 6 of them at only £1.33 each, but apart from the fact that you're getting fleeced on the free cards, the real sting in the tail here is that additional cards costs £1.25 each, hardly any saving at all compared to your 'free' cards, and a saving for which you have to fork out a whopping £95.88 in advance. You have to ask yourself here: do you really spend £96 on postcards and/or greeting cards every single year? Is it worth spending £96 in order to get a 25% discount on postcards that otherwise would cost you £1.99? Do you truly send at least 6 postcards every single month?
The worst thing about the premium plans, however, is that suddenly your credits do not expire any longer! So it is, in fact, entirely possible to not let purchased credits expire after all, Touchnote have simply moved this behind a paywall!
It is also important to note that while your credits don't expire on the premium plans, the 'free' cards do! In other words, if you do not send your 'free' cards within 3 months on the Silver plan (6 months on Gold), you will lose them, so you're basically paying £3.99/£7.99 a month in order to get a marginal discount on any additional cards.
Let's take a closer look, shall we? If you don't use your 'free' cards, on the Silver plan you'd have to send at least 8 cards every month in order take advantage of the 49p saving per card (£1.50 per card instead of £1.99) and to recoup your £3.99 investment. On the Gold plan it's even worse: you need to send at least 11 cards a month to benefit from the 74p saving per card (£1.25 per card instead of £1.99) and to recoup your £7.99 investment. That's a lot of postcards to send every month! Sure, you can buy bigger bundles to bring the cost per card down, but even on the biggest bundle the cost per card only drops to £1.67, and that will set you back a massive £149.95—money you risk losing if you don't use up those credits within 12 months of purchasing them!
Of course you can (try to) take advantage of the rollover of the not-so-free free cards, but that really piles up: 6 cards every quarter on the Silver plan, and 36 (!!) cards every 6 months on the Gold plan, before your money goes up in smoke. Even if you could save them up until the end of the year, who really has more than 24 people on their Christmas list, let alone 72? And remember: they're not free cards! You've paid £48 (Silver) or £96 (Gold) for them, that's a lot of money to spend on postcards!
When Touchnote first appeared on the market, there were very few, if any, companies that made it possible to send old fashioned postcards from anywhere on the planet where you have an internet connection, right there and then. Times have changed, however, and Touchnote are no longer unique in what they offer; there is plenty of choice in the market, as is evident from this very website.
Do not fall into the credits trap, and do not believe in the premium subscription fallacy!
Stay away from Touchnote at all costs, and buy your cards from companies where you can pay with plain old money instead of credits. The savings gained by purchasing credits are minimal; only serial postcard senders are likely to see any real benefits without the risk of losing their money. For the rest of us: you've worked hard for your money, not to give it away to some company who puts profits before the customer.
If, in spite of all this, you still think Touchnote is a good company to go with, at least the print quality of the cards is nice, so they get one star for that.
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Comments
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Hi, we move threads if we think they’ll get more help elsewhere (please read the forum rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board. If you have any questions about this policy please email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com.I’m a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Quick Grabbit, Freebies, Overseas Holidays & Travel Planning and the UK Holidays, Days Out & Entertainments boards.
If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com.
All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.0 -
How is it relevant to Overseas Holidays?0
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How is it relevant to Overseas Holidays?
Because people send postcards when they're away on holiday I suppose. At least you know they're likely to be received and will arrive a darned sight quicker than mailing them from your holiday destination.
The thread has been moved to a more appropriate board now as this appears to be both a warning and large scale vent.0 -
Well said, Aerion, couldn't agree more. They also have sneaky ways of getting you to sign up for a Plan without your even realising, and then refuse to refund, even if you don't use it. Try FreePrints instead - they currently charge £1.49 for a 6x4" postcard, no subscription or commitment.-1
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I've just been charged £38 for a yearly subscription to Touchnote, after my free trial ran out. They didn't warn me that the trial was ending soon and I forgot to put it in my calendar. Also, despite having the app, I had to login on a computer, search through everything to find where to cancel, click 2 boxes to say I want to still cancel, refuse a 20% discount and then type CONFIRM in a text box to actually cancel. Surely they shouldn't be allowed to make it that difficult. I've complained, but I'm not holding my breath as I've read on here they don't actually refund anything.
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I used TouchNote for years, travelled extensively and was always very happy with everything. However, I noticed that they started putting a use by date on credits, I complained about that, but they didn’t care. They also took away the signature option, which was always standard. They then introduced the monthly packages, and within the packages was the signature option. I was fuming! I felt let down and so disappointed that my loyalty counted for nothing. I used up my existing credit and deleted the App. I’ve found another App I like, which includes the signature, and is a user friendly company.0
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I have just tried to cancel and it says to log in online to do so. It says to go to the "My membership details’ section, however I cannot see this section. I am wondering if they have removed this. Can anyone advise where this is or link to it please. thanks0
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I like Touchnote and have used it repeatedly even though I have lost unused credits in the past but today I thought I would send two elderly relatives a card as an alternative to a phone call but was shocked to see that the price has increased from £9.95 to £12.99 for 5 cards! This seems like a huge hike in price. 23% to be precise! Has the cost of printing or postage increased this much recently? As you can lose credits I’m not going to bother. Is there another company out there that offers the same service?0
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hi, I stopped using touchnote a while back. Took me a while to find another company I was comfortable with. I found PostSnap, and have been very happy with it. Good quality cards and customer service. You don’t have credits, just cash you have put on your account.-1
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