Scam ebay nectar bonus points

ThePhoenix

Ebay did one of their bonus points offers in April, buy 3 items (+£10 each) for 500 bonus points, 4 items for 1,000 points & 5 items for 1,500 points. Points were supposed to be awarded May 16th but were not.

I complained to Nectar & they said it was nothing to do with them, so I complained to ebay. Three times I spoke to them & they hung up the call. On the fourth attempt I was put through to a supervisor who rang me every few days with an update saying she's waiting. Over a week later 500 points went onto my account & she emailed me to say only 3 items I'd bought were eligible, end of discussion. I'd read the terms (as I always do to get my bonus points), so knew that the seven items I'd bought were eligible. So I replied they were wrong. A different person then emailed me back & said she could see that I'd made more than enough purchases to get the 1,500 points & would look into it. The next email (again from someone different) said it was nothing to do with ebay, so I should contact Nectar.

So I'm owed 1,000 nectar points (worth £5), ebay & nectar are blaming each other for not issuing the points. It all seems a bit convienient.

As we all know these points are worth money, so clearly by not issuing these points they are depriving me of my money. To me this seems very much like fraud or theft. It also seems like ebay & nectar are in this together as they are both blaming each other.

If they will not honour their 'offers', then it is fraud in my opinion. I searched online & read several posts of others having a similar experience, so my question here is:

Has anyone here experienced the same & if so collectively what can we do to get the money they owe us.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Can't speak for Nectar but eBay customer service is terrible for anything off script, the front line CS just can't do anything and often when an issue is flagged to a back department you wait a long time for an answer or simply hear nothing at all. 

If you feel the promotion was misleading you can, I believe, complain to the ASA, but probably best to keep it factual and put aside the scam, theft, etc comments  

Newbie_John

T&C:
https://pages.ebay.co.uk/nectar-rewards/2024/app-exclusive-booster/index.html?mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&siteid=3&campid=5336549684&customid=2700085286&toolid=10001&mkevt=1

What do they mean 3/7 were eligible, why the other 4 weren't? Were you awarded usual Nectar points for them?

I've given up on all Nectar offers that award points in the future - it's almost impossible to get them if things go wrong - and you can spend months getting angry and wasting time just to get them back as goodwill gesture - is it all worth a £5? Try couple more times - at Nectar and eBay and set yourself a deadline and then just let it go.

ThePhoenix

They didn't explain why only 3 of the 7 were eligible. I got regular nectar points for each purchase, each was greater than £10 (& ticked all the boxes for the t&c's), but I didn't get the bonus points at all. I've spent the last month complaining, then mystically 3 became eligible & they gave me 500 points. They still owe me 1,000 points. They claim the remaining four are not eligible - no explination, but one of their emails does say 'you made 5 eligible purchases, so I'll look into it'. Now they claim they were not eligible.

Clearly it's a scam. I will write to ASA as the lunatic in my head suggested.

Yes, £5 is always worth it & it's my £5 that they are withholding. They are perminently depriving me of it & that's the legal definition of theft.

I expect that there are many others that have been scammed too, hence my post here.

Aylesbury_Duck

It's not fraud or theft, and I doubt very much it's a scam.  It's misleading, and followed up with hopeless and incompetent administration and customer service.

If you were sure it meets the legal definition of fraud or theft, you'd go to the police and report the crime.  

RefluentBeans

To add, writing to the ASA won’t help you personally, but will (if enough people complain) compel them to look into the advertising of the nectar points. 

In all honesty, these points are always a nice to have, but I wouldn’t ever bank on them being guaranteed. Like others have said, £5 is a nice to have but I also wouldn’t be wasting hours of my time chasing it.