Topcashback Do not rely on it !! - Try asking retailer first instead !!

hannahp

Based on ineffectual service over the Iast 3 years (and still on going!)

I advise that if you are contemplating a large transaction through Topcashback (or any other similar)

IE:- A holiday (TUI in my case has been particularly troublesome)

Its worth first trying to negotiate a discount directly with the supplier/company which could save you time and trouble.

In my case with Topcashback I used them to click through to TUI for an advertised 4.5% cashback on a £3,000+ cruise and have after 3 years only recieved 1% (paid out within just a few months) missing out 3.5% (approx £110)

There is no dispute about the purchase amount or anything else.

It just seems to me that TCB cannot enforce their advertised deals.

I've had a couple of transactions refused and I have accepted those as reasonable and within the spirit of the rules, but this is entirely different and unjustifiable !

Considering TUI paid out at 1% and Topcashback must know what promos they run and when? But nether the less here I am 3 years on and still waiting despite Nudges, dozens of to and fro communications and promises that TCB they are "chasing it" !!!

On the flip side I left some stuff in a "basket" with one company (while working out if the cashback was going to apply to my purchase)  using Quidco and the company rang me and offered to match the 'cashback' and therefore save me waiting for the cashback!

This is now my 1st choice method of 'cashback'

I will update this thread if Topcashback ever resolve the issue.

But for heavens sake its worth a try and then these companies might try harder to ensure you get your money when its due. 

jon81uk

There has already plenty of similar posts on this site before. Never rely on cashback, it is a nice extra to get. Always go for the lowest possible price you can get otherwise, then see if you can get cashback on top of that price.

hannahp

Thanks jon81uk

I totally agree with your sentiment and I know others have posted about not getting paid out at all.

But my 'Rant' is about the incorrect amount and the 3 years of waiting (ongoing) for someone to do thier job properly!

hybernia

Although it remains coy about how it actually operates, Top Cashback is part of an invisible web of enterprises leeching off monies arising from and associated with online sales transactions in the UK and elsewhere.

It is not, as its hype likes to pretend, a single solitary entity via which a customer makes a straightforward purchase, but a business dependent on a variety of unknown unidentifiable third parties being honest and efficient in their own dealings.

Cashback users generally have absolutely no idea of the size of the cashback web or the complexity of the relationships between the many and various different parties involved in it: hints at the truth only become evident when people like the Top Cashback representatives posting on MSE reveal that TCB is "waiting to hear" from such-and-such an intermediary and is going to do "all it can" to get the promised cashback to the TCB user. (On which basis, presumably, the user should be grateful for TCB's astonishingly heroic efforts).

The advice about regarding cashback as a bonus is often given by different posters on MSE and it's good advice -- and certainly less disingenuous than all the juvenile nonsense about "earnings" from cashback schemes which aren't "earnings" at all: no effort has gone into "earning" anything; no work has been involved and no effort has ever been made.

All that has happened is that a customer has been rebated a percentage of the money she/he has already paid out: it was their money to begin with, it's still their money which comes back. As more and more businesses move to rebate schemes without recourse to third party involvement, or to discounts at point-of-sale ('flash sales' especially), the days aren't too far distant when we'll look back on the so-called 'cashback' era and the  overwrought nonsense that it always was and smile.

DoaM

hybernia said:

As more and more businesses move back to rebate schemes

Rebate schemes were around long before the likes of TCB came about.  

mattyprice4004

I've been using them for many years, and have had 4 declines in thousands of pounds worth of cashback - 1 I understood when explained and 3 never made sense. 

Still, only a tiny percentage of what I was paid out so it's OK really  

DaveDR

I have tried Top Cash Back twice now this year and both times have been disastrous. The first time they offered a free car care kit with a Shark cordless cleaner - this never arrived and Top Cash Back blamed Shark. I tried again with a set of car tyres from Just Tyres (back in March). I am owed about £28 in cash back from this transaction which is a confirmed status. 4 months later and despite several support tickets with Top Cash Back, I am still awaiting payment. I think that previous advice is vital - get the cheapest deal without any reliance on cashback. I won't be pursuing cash back deals again.