Take Quidco to small claims court and consumer rights

cashbackKiller

Take Quidco to small claims court and consumer rights

Firstly I'd also like to know what are our consumer rights when it comes to these cashback sites that so often don't pay out.

Secondly I wanted to ask if anyone has taken these scammers to the small claims court? I am seriously considering doing it to try and set a precedent (which I know probably won't succeeed). However it would make me feel better to at least try and hopefully encourage other people to do so. It isn't about the amount of money they owe me but more the principle.

There don't seem to be any recent posts on these issues. The last one was from 2009 on MSE and seems Quidco are still at it 12 years on!

I have read lots of bad reviews of Quidco not paying out large amounts and only paying small amounts which is exactly what has happened to me. They seem to operate with impunity and always blame the retailer for non payment or payment of the wrong amount. They never provide proof of this and we only have their word which frankly I don't believe. I am very sure they withhold cashback based on the numerous accounts i've read on Trustpilot and other consumer sites.

They cashback companies really need to be regulated as I can see people having the same issues with them now as over 12 years ago.

Surely anyone could start a cashback company and have in the t&c that cashback isn't guaranteed!

A brief history:
I bought a soundbar from Currys via Quidco last November 2020. Quidco had an offer of 20% cashback so I decided to make the purchase via Currys.

The transaction tracked at 1% initially instead of 20% but Quidco assured me it would be uplifted to the correct rate on payment received from the client. Of course this did not happen and they paid me the 1%. This happened in July 2021 so almost 9 months later.

I have tried to resolve this with Quidco until I'm blue in the face. All I get is the usual response of the retailer paid the cashback amount and they would follow it up with them. I raised the claim and absolutely nothing has happened to date. I have even contacted Currys to see how much cashback they actually paid Quidco. Unfortunately they have given me the run around as well and told me to contact Quidco.

gettingtheresometime

I gave up using these cash back sites a long time ago for this very reason 

seatbeltnoob

OTOH I've got 100% of the money due to me. Some of them didn't track so I put in a manual entry and it did get tracked. I use ms edge for quidco exclusively, nothing else. I will surf and get the urls of thje items I want to buy from my ususal browser and then I will open up ms edge, log into quidco and then follow the link and then search the product name and order it.

You may get conflicting cookies otherwise and the sale may not be credited to quidco and thus you lose cashback.

Also use your desktop computer and not mobile apps because the privacy settings (especially iphone) will prevent tracking and getting cashback.

y3sitsm3

cashbackKiller said:

Take Quidco to small claims court and consumer rights

Firstly I'd also like to know what are our consumer rights when it comes to these cashback sites that so often don't pay out.

Secondly I wanted to ask if anyone has taken these scammers to the small claims court? I am seriously considering doing it to try and set a precedent (which I know probably won't succeeed). However it would make me feel better to at least try and hopefully encourage other people to do so. It isn't about the amount of money they owe me but more the principle.

There don't seem to be any recent posts on these issues. The last one was from 2009 on MSE and seems Quidco are still at it 12 years on!

I have read lots of bad reviews of Quidco not paying out large amounts and only paying small amounts which is exactly what has happened to me. They seem to operate with impunity and always blame the retailer for non payment or payment of the wrong amount. They never provide proof of this and we only have their word which frankly I don't believe. I am very sure they withhold cashback based on the numerous accounts i've read on Trustpilot and other consumer sites.

They cashback companies really need to be regulated as I can see people having the same issues with them now as over 12 years ago.

Surely anyone could start a cashback company and have in the t&c that cashback isn't guaranteed!

A brief history:
I bought a soundbar from Currys via Quidco last November 2020. Quidco had an offer of 20% cashback so I decided to make the purchase via Currys.

The transaction tracked at 1% initially instead of 20% but Quidco assured me it would be uplifted to the correct rate on payment received from the client. Of course this did not happen and they paid me the 1%. This happened in July 2021 so almost 9 months later.

I have tried to resolve this with Quidco until I'm blue in the face. All I get is the usual response of the retailer paid the cashback amount and they would follow it up with them. I raised the claim and absolutely nothing has happened to date. I have even contacted Currys to see how much cashback they actually paid Quidco. Unfortunately they have given me the run around as well and told me to contact Quidco.

It definitely won't succeed. The small claims track doesn't set precedent.

elsien

Quidco pay you when they get the money from the retailer. If they’ve not had the money from the retailer to pass on to you, on what grounds would you expect a court claim to succeed? 

tacpot12

Even if you don't set a precident, there is nothing to stop you publishing the details of your claim and your evidence to the court so that others can use it to bring their own claim. 

But for your claim to succeed, you need to know what law has been broken, which needs a detailed understanding of contract law, and consumer legislation, and how the relationship between the parties to the contract works. I would recommend that you sue both  Quidco and Currys on the same claim so that they can't try to blame each other. The judge will enjoy sorting them out if they do.

If you have home insurnace, check to see if you have legal expenses cover as part of this. They are very unlikely to represent you in court, as your case is unlikely to succeed, but the should give you some initial legal advice that will help you understand what legal basis you may have for a claim. It will help greatly if you can become more of an expert on the relevant law that the judge and the solicitors that Curry's and Quidco are using. You might need to take out a subscription to a legal database to help you do this.    

cashbackKiller

seatbeltnoob said:

OTOH I've got 100% of the money due to me. Some of them didn't track so I put in a manual entry and it did get tracked. I use ms edge for quidco exclusively, nothing else. I will surf and get the urls of thje items I want to buy from my ususal browser and then I will open up ms edge, log into quidco and then follow the link and then search the product name and order it.

You may get conflicting cookies otherwise and the sale may not be credited to quidco and thus you lose cashback.

Also use your desktop computer and not mobile apps because the privacy settings (especially iphone) will prevent tracking and getting cashback.

All my transactions have tracked.It tracked at 1% and they kept stating it would uplift to 20%. Guess what it didn't.

You seem to be one of the few people who have had 100% of the money due to them. Tracking isn't an issue. The issue is that they just don't pay out claiming the retailer didn't pay them. Hundreds of people have said the same. I spent quite a few while reading reviews of quidco and it's shocking to see how many people say the same thing.

Anyway, this isn't the point of my query.It's a consumer rights and small claim court query not cashback not being tracked.

cashbackKiller

elsien said:

Quidco pay you when they get the money from the retailer. If they’ve not had the money from the retailer to pass on to you, on what grounds would you expect a court claim to succeed? 

See my original post above. How do we know they've not been paid by the retailer? Read around about quidco and so many people say the SAME thing. They pay out small amounts but not large amounts and blame the retailer. We have NO proof of this.

At least taking them to small claims court could demand them to show proof they weren't paid or not paid the right amount by the retailer.

cashbackKiller

gettingtheresometime said:

I gave up using these cash back sites a long time ago for this very reason 

I gave up for years for these reasons. Decided to give them another go and sorry i did. Someone needs to stand up to these guys and I'm willing to take it to small claims court just to make a point. Doesn't cost much to take them and I don't mind if i lose but getting my day in court would be worth it if it draws attention to these scammers.

y3sitsm3

cashbackKiller said:

elsien said:

Quidco pay you when they get the money from the retailer. If they’ve not had the money from the retailer to pass on to you, on what grounds would you expect a court claim to succeed? 

See my original post above. How do we know they've not been paid by the retailer? Read around about quidco and so many people say the SAME thing. They pay out small amounts but not large amounts and blame the retailer. We have NO proof of this.

At least taking them to small claims court could demand them to show proof they weren't paid or not paid the right amount by the retailer.

You're assuming they'd turn up.

Chances are it'd be cheaper if they didn't, so they very likely wouldn't.

cashbackKiller

They probably won't.  However it's not about the actual cashback anymore. I'd rather pay the court costs and draw attention to these scammers so hopefully other people won't be conned into using them OR quidco might sort themselves out. Probably not the latter.