Complete Savings "Legal but crafty"

RisingStar360

Hi All, 

I recently checked over a bank statement and noticed a £15 deduction from a company called WLY*CompleteSavings.  On further inspection I realised this transaction had been deducted from my account since 2016!  Now, you may think I'm silly, don't worry, you need not as I felt stupid enough.  The truth is, I rarely check my statement as I know my outgoing amounts roughly and am clear on what my DD's are.  
What makes this transaction slippery is that its processed as a card payment each month and to be honest, in my case, just went under the radar.  I do know however there are many others who have fallen for the same thing.  Review site are full of them!
The company are perfectly legal and offer a Cashback service that when used properly, have some potentially good benefits.  What makes it murky for me is how they begin taking from you potentially without your knowledge.  At the end of certain purchases, in my case a Beauty retailer, a box is flashed up and the offer of cashback on your purchase....For Free! Yet in the small print, and I mean small, there is a notice of it being a free 30 day membership and following that, £15 a month.  
If you click the box, they then lift your card details directly from the transaction you're making and begin taking payments automatically following the 30 days.
So, to help anyone else out there that experiences this problem Im telling my story, as I have just got the entire £1400 refunded back to me. 
Firstly, don't waste your time calling your bank.  Mine seemed so used to the call regarding this company that they did nothing but defend them and seemed to almost promote them!
Don't bother emailing them on their Website Help form.  All you'll get is a copy/paste response stating you knowingly signed up, (For the record in over 7 years I didn't receive one marketing email or request to set up my login credentials).  Call the company directly on this number 0800 389 6960 - There customer services line.  Request an immediate cancellation and don't give a reason.  Once thats done, which can be carried out on the call, request a full refund of all money's taken.  In my case the most they could transact on the call was three months worth.  The rest had to be requested via a claim form which I was told would arrive with me in 24hrs via email. 
THE EMAIL WILL NOT COME!  They're hoping you receive your £45 and forget all about it.  I gave them 48hrs and called again.  Within 2 minutes they agreed the rest of the refund and transacted the full amount there and then, NO FORM.
As I said, this is something you can very easily fall for.  Its a clickbox and nothing else.  Ive noticed that its regularly attached to train ticket purchases and also found a news article regarding B&Q who ceased using them due to there business practices. 
If you know about it and use it, i'm sure its a good service, but there seems to be an awful lot of people out there that are paying for it whilst unaware. 

Hope this helps

born_again

Good to see someone stuck at it.
But this company are always good at paying back.

As far as bank goes, until you have cancelled & they take more after that, nothing they can do. 
All I do is tell people to do exactly what you did & they get their money back 👍

Reality is it's not shady practise. It's made very clear in the tick box exactly what people are signup to. Thy even send email before the end of the free trial.
Shame people don't read it, only see the cash back offer 🤷‍♀️

Pollycat

Pollycat said:

Lots of threads about Complete Savings.
Complete Savings — MoneySavingExpert Forum
Complete Savings — MoneySavingExpert Forum
Complete Savings scam — MoneySavingExpert Forum
Complete Savings Cashback and Ebay — MoneySavingExpert Forum
Moonpig & Complete Savings — MoneySavingExpert Forum

If you 'unwittingly signed up to this service' would a dispute with your bank be successful?
There may be some information about refunds in the above threads.

It appears from a lot of complaints on this forum that a lot of people sign up to things without knowing they have done so.
As said above, it's usually pretty clear if people actually take the time to read.

stuartp2000

I use complete saving and do religiously make sure I am buying stuff that creates more benefit than I pay i.e. the £15.00.
I am ok as my free trial come from an online grocery shop so eah month I need to do 1 shop send a recipt and I get the £15.00 refunded, so I am not spending money unduly.
I did also have these about 18 months back but cancelled during the trial, unlike the others though I found it seemless, I notified I wanted to cancel and hey presto it was actioned.
This time I have been a member for 4 months and it works so will keep it going until it no longer represents value.

Moral here also is be on top of your bank statments, I am sure Martin mentions this quite a bit in his advice, but really does pay to know what is coming and going.
I use YNAB these days so I know every penny that is spent in near real time, not for everyone and a simple monthly review would work but it does pay to check

MiniAmethyst

I would definitely not recommend this service. It 100% is shady. I signed up to it for the initial cashback, and was impressed by the 10% offer on every purchase from every shop involved in the scheme. They had ASDA on there, I have to do a regular shop, and on average, 10% of that would come to a little more than the £18 membership fee. What could go wrong?

They don't pay you 10% of the cost of your shop, that's what. They pay you weird and seemingly random amounts (like 3.8%, or 2.4% of what you paid), leaving you well out of pocket. In order to get what you're actually owed, you have to make multiple phone calls and repeatedly submit every receipt and bank statement from the purchase.

Time is money, and £18 is a high membership fee. If the system was seamless, the way it's advertised (you sign up, access the chosen website through Complete Savings, make the purchase, and automatically get the 10% cashback as promised), it would definitely be worth doing. But the few quid you end up with once the membership fee is deducted is so not worth it when you have to jump through so many hoops to get it.

marcia_

Another recent thread here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80792169#Comment_80792169

MiniAmethyst

marcia_ said:

Another recent thread here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80792169#Comment_80792169

Thank you.

Scripto

RisingStar360 has prompted me to seek out a forum on consumer rights and subscribe. My first such subscription.

Regardless of any other response made to that posting, the behaviour concerned is unacceptable. I today placed an order with Toolstation and with their usual confirmation response I was bounced to another URL and ‘Complete Savings’, with the promise of a £20.87p cashback.

As is well known hereabouts, ‘suspicious’ is my middle name. I first checked the URL and then made further obvious checks online. My suspicions were confirmed. In my opinion, it is yet another sprat to catch a Mackerel.  A monthly membership fee of £18.00. The presentation of this scheme falls well inside my definition of a scam.

Above all I am incensed and appalled that Screwfix would engage with such a scam, after years of being a customer. I will of course complain directly to Screwfix by letter (I saved the page as a PDF file) and quickly circulate a warning to the many on my ‘consumer rights’ email list.

There may be people who have found a way to benefit from the scheme but that is irrelevant. The fact that the scheme survives, confirms that most people will not benefit.

Thank you RisingStar360, you are providing a public service.

I have another matter to report elsewhere now I have started and will deal with that later …

powerful_Rogue

Scripto said:

RisingStar360 has prompted me to seek out a forum on consumer rights and subscribe. My first such subscription.

Regardless of any other response made to that posting, the behaviour concerned is unacceptable. I today placed an order with Toolstation and with their usual confirmation response I was bounced to another URL and ‘Complete Savings’, with the promise of a £20.87p cashback.

As is well known hereabouts, ‘suspicious’ is my middle name. I first checked the URL and then made further obvious checks online. My suspicions were confirmed. In my opinion, it is yet another sprat to catch a Mackerel.  A monthly membership fee of £18.00. The presentation of this scheme falls well inside my definition of a scam.

Above all I am incensed and appalled that Screwfix would engage with such a scam, after years of being a customer. I will of course complain directly to Screwfix by letter (I saved the page as a PDF file) and quickly circulate a warning to the many on my ‘consumer rights’ email list.

There may be people who have found a way to benefit from the scheme but that is irrelevant. The fact that the scheme survives, confirms that most people will not benefit.

Thank you RisingStar360, you are providing a public service.

I have another matter to report elsewhere now I have started and will deal with that later …

Why would you complain to Screwfix when you ordered from Toolstation?

Might fall within your definition of a scam, but it's not.

Pollycat

Scripto said:

RisingStar360 has prompted me to seek out a forum on consumer rights and subscribe. My first such subscription.

Regardless of any other response made to that posting, the behaviour concerned is unacceptable. I today placed an order with Toolstation and with their usual confirmation response I was bounced to another URL and ‘Complete Savings’, with the promise of a £20.87p cashback.

As is well known hereabouts, ‘suspicious’ is my middle name. I first checked the URL and then made further obvious checks online. My suspicions were confirmed. In my opinion, it is yet another sprat to catch a Mackerel.  A monthly membership fee of £18.00. The presentation of this scheme falls well inside my definition of a scam.

Above all I am incensed and appalled that Screwfix would engage with such a scam, after years of being a customer. I will of course complain directly to Screwfix by letter (I saved the page as a PDF file) and quickly circulate a warning to the many on my ‘consumer rights’ email list.

There may be people who have found a way to benefit from the scheme but that is irrelevant. The fact that the scheme survives, confirms that most people will not benefit.

Thank you RisingStar360, you are providing a public service.

I have another matter to report elsewhere now I have started and will deal with that later …

Are you sure you were 'bounced'?

I've posted numerous times on this thread about getting the 'cashback' 
"Complete savings"...scam?? - Page 9 — MoneySavingExpert Forum

Pollycat said:

Pollycat said:

I noticed on my eBay buying account the following:

Your order is complete.
£20.87 cash back!

Click here to claim the above reward, credited onto your card, when you next place an order!

Claim Your £20.87

By clicking above, you can join our third party partner programme for 18 pounds/month and claim your reward with

I wonder if people are clicking on the cashback link without realising that there is a monthly fee involved.

I don't click on anything without reading everything first.

I posted this on the first page of the thread.
It seems very clear to me that there is a monthly subscription attached to the cashback offer.
So, it's definitely not a scam and I don't think it's scammy.
I'm surprised that the regulator decided that the ads were misleading.

From the MSE article:

Too many people are caught out by quickly seeing, then clicking the 'Click here to claim your £20.87 cashback, paid on your card' button – which people interpret as a reward for shopping, rather than the reality, which is an £18 a month subscription scheme.

Hoe much nannying do some people need?

Despite seeing the cashback offer numerous times on eBay and various train websites, I've never been bounced to the Complete Savings URL.
I just ignore it.
I've actually ignored it today with an eBay purchase I've made.
 

born_again

If this company is such a "Scam"
Then why do they refund people when you call them?