Topcashback [Edited by ForumTeam]

accorian wrote: »

Of course it's not a scam. It's a very large, massively profitable enterprise (use WebCheck to call up its Annual Reports filed at Companies House) which depends for its existence on the stupidity of consumers whose grasp of the English language is so inadequate that they can't tell the difference between the words 'discount' and 'rebate'. Instead, they accept -- as Gospel-- the word 'cashback', as if it always had a legitimate meaning and was not a silly Americanism dreamt up long ago by car dealers across the Pond.

In practice, the, er, 'cashback' model is that you, as consumer, fork out lots of your own money for something you may or may not necessarily need, in order to get back *some* of that money . . . but only if the 'cashback process' actually works and your cash isn't mysteriously snaffled by some other party on its way back to you.

The cashback model also works well for intermediaries who can hang onto the money you've forked out for many a month if they feel like it, earning interest on those funds day by day. Don't complain, as a half witted consumer, about the fact that you were stupid enough to hand over that money in the first place; it was your decision, you were not obliged to buy a product or service via a 'cashback' website.

In practice, I've always done better with getting a discount at the time of purchase than some money back at some stage -- weeks, months, years, whenever: who knows? -- after purchase.

But hey: good luck to Top Cashback. Clever idea, and not a scam.

Just as long as there are enough suckers out there to fall for the 'cashback' concept, then no wonder its annual accounts report £millions in profit whilst many of its users live in increasingly desperate hope of ever getting back some of their own money amidst a slew of idiotic explanations and justifications -- "failed to track" or a third party didn't perform as it should've done, etc etc ad nauseum.