OneStopPhoneShop/Quidco money for nothing??

Murray

I recently bought a phone from the OSPS website and went through Quidco to get cashback. OSPS changed the phone offer before they sent me the phone (sent it with 5 months 1/2 price rather than 8 months free!) so when it arrived I sent it back to them.

I've noticed that although I sent the phone back a month ago, the cashback of £15 is still showing as validated on my Quidco account. This £15 is far more than it cost me to post the phone back to OSPS (hence the money for nothing' bit). Has anybody else experienced this? If they are going to cancel the Quidco cashback I would have expected them to have done it by now

Disclaimer!
I'm not advising anyone to go out and order a load of phones just to return them because there's still time for them to cancel the cashback (In my experience OSPS aren't particulary efficient when it comes to paperwork!)

grumbler

Murray wrote:

...Has anybody else experienced this?

I had exactly the same experience with OSPS and FundsForMe. Although FundsForMe pay cashback more than 3 month later after a purchase, I've got cashback in May for the order placed in Jan and returned in Feb.

Murray

Thanks for replying grumbler, I'm glad that you got your cashback anyway because I think its shocking that OSPS expect you to pay return postage when they've changed the offer (if thats what happened in your case).

I've got a little way to go before I reach the minimum amount you have to have in your account before Quidco will payout so I'll just have to wait and see what happens (& keep my fingers crossed!).

michaels

OSPS will refund the the postage if you can prove you ordered on a different offer and write to them mentioning you have contact trading standards who say they are breaing the distance selling regulations (which they are) by not informing you of the change in T&C prior to sending the product - the regulations take presidence over osps dodgy T&Cs

Murray

Thanks michaels, I'll give the letter approach a try. I've phoned them and told them pretty much what you said but was ridiculed by the girl that I spoke to so gave up (well put it on the back burner for when I have more time!!). You've given me (& I'm sure others reading this) renewed hope!!

yaacov81

i have twice ordered phones from osps and then cancelled them , the first time because the offer was changed and the second because the order had taken so long and a better one came along so i just cancelled it.

i got cashback from rpoints for both and neither has been cancelled. a couple of times i have started to write to rpoints to tell them about the cancellations and then stopped since it is not my fault. i could just cash out already and close the deal but i still have issues about wether it is my ethical responsibility to tell rpoints.

jjames_3

If rpoints have been paid, OSPS will not demand a refund. If they haven't been paid, you wouldn't have received your cut. So rpoints are not out of pocket, and if OSPS are too inefficient to cancel the cashback then that's their lookout

I was paid twice by <ahem, a cashback site> for <ahem, a service> recently when I should have only got one payout. Ethics don't come into it, just look at it as payback for all the times cashback didn't show on your account.

Murray

Thats a tricky one!

Where do the companies like rpoints and Quidco get their money from? If we use their links to get cashback does OSPS for example pay them anything?

I have no issues about taking money from OSPS after the treatment that I've received from them however I may feel some responsibility towards the cashback site. Also the more I think about it, the more I'd feel guilty if peeps didn't get cashback if OSPS were to go bankrupt and I'd contributed (albeit a small amount)

...what a moral dilema!!

I suppose at the end of the day its up to the cashback site to ensure transactions are processed (ie. by holding on to it for 3 months as in FundsForMe's case). If it takes OSPS longer than this to filter the paperwork back down to the cashback site then its the cashback site's bad judgement in choosing to represent that company and not ensure suitable measures are in place...Oooo, I can be quite harsh sometimes!!

LD

OSPS aren't likely to go bust, they sold out to carphone warehouse earlier this year, doubt if they'd have bought a lemon.

BaS..'s owe me for two returns, two referrals and now have just refused me a cash back it being made out on the 45thday (it was a three month I thought 4) anyway I will be suing them when I have the energy to write out the paper, and since its breech of contract will get the court to close the contract asking for the other two cash backs due and the little odds and sods about £250 all told and then take great joy in dropping my tariff to the minimum