Quidco Question and Answers

quidco_Company_Representative · 24 June 2011 at 9:53AM

Good morning everyone,

@quick-sand – Each merchant will work with a different affiliate network, so if you contact the merchant’s affiliate/marketing department they should be able to provide you with this information.

@network1 – If you have definitely not cancelled or amended the purchase then we may be able to overturn the merchant's decision. Can I ask you to send a copy of your confirmation email to members@quidco.com, FAO Rosie MSE, and I’ll be happy to pass this on for you to be checked over.

@bristolleedsfan – Thank you for bringing this to our attention!

@my definition – Can you clarify whether you went through the Quidco Compare service? As purchases made through this service can take 8 weeks to track in, so don’t worry as you will not need to raise a normal cashback claim for this. Can you also make sure you have verified the purchase, you can find this page by going to your “insurance quotes” tab.

@MCN_CAM – The majority of cashback websites use the same affiliate networks to process their cashback, we do not process the cashback ourselves. The payment speed will simply depend on the merchant, and some do take a lot longer than others; it will all depend on what you have purchased. With the cashback system, we cannot pay the cashback on to you until we receive it from the merchant, as this is how the process works.

Have a great weekend.

Kind regards,

Rosie

quick-sand · 24 June 2011 at 2:08PM

I think some basic information on how quidco actually works would be helpful.

The process seems to be that I select a retailer from the quidco site and click through to the retailers site. At this point, quidco know I have gone to the retailer via quidco, but do not know which of several offers I am going to sign-up to. Now, I assume that when I get to the retailers site, they can see that I have come via quidco. How do they do this?? Do quidco pass a code to the retailer??

I then complete my purchase, and somehow (in theory, at least), quidco are able to see what I purchased and can "track" the correct amount of cashback. How do quidco get this information?? Is it passed back from the retailer??

What other information will the retailer or their chosen affiliate network have access to?? Much is made of cookies, but when are they interrogated and by whom?? It is surely ridulous to say that a cookie is "stronger" than the site through which I clicked to get to the retailers' site. A cookie could have been hanging around on my PC for weeks - in which case it is not "stronger", just a cheaper option for the retailer. If I have a number of PC's sharing the same IP address, how do you ensure that the cookies found are not the result of the activities of other users??

MCN_CAM · 25 June 2011 at 10:59AM

quidco_Company_Representative wrote: »

@MCN_CAM – The majority of cashback websites use the same affiliate networks to process their cashback, we do not process the cashback ourselves. The payment speed will simply depend on the merchant, and some do take a lot longer than others; it will all depend on what you have purchased. With the cashback system, we cannot pay the cashback on to you until we receive it from the merchant, as this is how the process works.

Have a great weekend.

Thanks for your message Rosie, but you haven't really offered any reason for Topcashback paying out months ahead of Quidco. If both use the same affiliate networks as you say, then surely the delay is simply down to one of them being Quidco and the other being topcashback.

If what you say is true there shouldn't be any significant difference in the length of time it takes to pay out from either site. I would have thought that you guys at Quidco would want to get to the bottom of this problem rather than offering the kind of empty explanation that you have above.

With the number of purchases that I have made through both sites, it would defy statistical probability that I might have just picked all the slow ones through Quidco and the speedy ones through topcashback...pretty unlikely I'm afraid.

MCN

quidco_Company_Representative · 27 June 2011 at 9:02AM

Good morning,

@quick-sand – The affiliate network uses cookies to identify your purchase. When you visit the merchant via Quidco, a cookie will be recorded for this. However, if you have previously visited other sites relating to the merchant (e.g. voucher sites, Google, the merchant’s own site) and not cleared your cookies before going through, then you will have several cookies recorded for each of these different sites. The way that the affiliate system works is that the strongest cookie will be awarded the commission, so this may not always be Quidco.

As it is the affiliate network who track the purchase for us, they provide us with this information as opposed to the retailer, and they will only have access to the information that they require. We do have many members who make purchases on computer networks, and as long as you do clear your cookies before every purchase there shouldn’t be any problems with receiving your cashback.

@MCN_CAM – As previously stated, I cannot comment on the speed of the affiliate networks and their payment system as we do not know this information. We chase up the networks on a daily basis to ensure that we get to the bottom of all delays, however you will find that a lot of the time when one particular merchant is delayed, this will be across the board. Of course this isn’t always the case, but more often than not it will be.

Kind regards,

Rosie

plindoe · 27 June 2011 at 1:18PM

All,

I can only say that at present I a reletively satisfied with the outcome so far from a rather long and tedious claim I had with sky HD upgrade. Been told this morning that my £90 is to go through. Just hope that this does so, and if so, many thanks to quidco

Basic problem was sky's systems not working together to process my order placed on the last day of the quidco offer, them ringing me back (sky that is) to either cancel my order and replace it or pay £15 for delivery which they would credit back straight away. I went for the second option as I didnt want to void my quidco cashback deal. £15 paid back but they then (sky again!) claimed my order was outside of the valid time frame. Several hundereds of minutes or phone calls to sky (and several long web chat sessions with sky!) and ticket questions etc with quidco and I am seemingly near to the end of it successfully.

So thank you quidco for eventually sorting this out, and as far as I can see from my experience sky were at fault although quidco were a little slow on the uptake of processing my very valid claim, possible due to large number of tickets, claims, etc and my tickets being answered by several different employees.

I have been reassured my comments have been taken on board as one of my main gripes was when speaking to sky, their customer service team CLAIMED never to have heard of quidco or any partner deal in place. So hopefully the end vendor staff should be fully aware, or at least know someone/where in their company to help you with your issue/claim/etc

So, thumbs up at the moment for quidco in my eyes. Just hope the lawnmower I am about to buy via quidco goes through like the pruchases from M&S I made and not the sky upgrade.

Requiem · 27 June 2011 at 4:39PM

Hello,

I've been directed to this thread in the hopes of possibly getting my wrongly-declined cashback fixed.

Towards the end of last year, I spent £10 on Paddy Power Bingo, referred via Quidco, to receive £20 in cashback. The claim was declined, despite ensuring I followed all terms and conditions and spent the full amount on bingo games, as was required.

I submitted a cashback claim and was told that Quidcare would look into it. I was then later asked for proof of purchase, so sent Quidco screenshots of both my account at Paddy Power Bingo, and my transactions screen, clearly showing the time, date and amount paid and played with.

Quidco thanked me for the evidence and submitted it to PPB, and basically told me to wait patiently.

I chased it up twice after hearing nothing for months. The first time, I was yet again told to wait to hear back from them and that Quidco were "still working on this for me". The second time, I was told that the cashback has been declined and that it was now too late to do anything about it and they cannot overturn the merchants decision, despite me sending proof of purchase etc. They have also given no reason whatsoever for why the claim has been declined.

It seems to be that Quidcare simply "forgot" about chasing up the claim as promised, and have now, through their own fault, left it far too long to claim from the merchant.

Is there anything I can do to claim my rightful cashback?

Additional information:

- I've used Quidco successfully for 3-4 years. I've never had cashback declined before like this. I have hundreds of pounds of cashback that I have received successfully, this is the first issue I have ever had and any and all previous cashback claims that, for whatever reason, didn't track properly were all successfully paid.

- In regards to how I can prove they "forgot", I can't, as such. However, I had chased up the claim and was told that they were attempting to rectify it, as I had provided them with all the necessary personal details, account info, transfer info, screenshots, etc. I then received no updates on the claim for several months, so chased it again, it was still "open" and I had not received any further confirmation of it being declined or closed in any way.

- In regards to the T&C's, I am fully aware of that cashback is not 100% guaranteed. However, if, as a customer, you meet all the criteria required for the claim, I fail to see *how* they can allow companies to decline without giving a proper reason. (I think I neglected to mention in my original post, the initial reason was "play deposit not met" or similar, which is why I was required to send transaction screenshots to prove otherwise). As their reason for declining the claim was clearly based on incorrect information, I was led to believe by Quidcare that it would be "appealed".

- No other referrers were used. As mentioned previously, I have a lot of experience with using Quidco and am fully aware of how it works.

- I'd agree that the problem is definitely with PPB rather than Quidco - however, as my transaction was via Quidco, the responsibility lies with them. For whatever reason Quidco will not comment on why the cashback has been declined *despite* proof of transaction being supplied, nor will they tell me PPB's reasoning for declining after receiving the additional proof.

My main issue is the way that the claim was "hushed away" and left open for such a long time with no communication, after being told to "be patient".

BilboBaggins_3 · 27 June 2011 at 9:24PM

BilboBaggins wrote: »

Rosie

I have raised a second claim ticket. Date 17th Jan for transaction.
Status= Claim Raised

Into the 6th month now and still waiting.

rgds
bilbo

Anything that can be done on this ?

tazmac25 · 27 June 2011 at 11:22PM

Hi

message for quidco rep - or anyone else who can help of course

I took out Tesco life insurance policy with the offer of a £50 cash back and a £50 tesco gift card ~ I have raised a claim for cashback not being tracked on the 31st May and got the standard thanks for your email and nothing since
I have emailed support at quidco again on the 23rd June and still no response
Im not very impressed with the quidco support is there another way of dealing with this issue?
I doubt I would have taken life insurance out had it not been for such a good deal and now I feel very let down about it
thanks

quick-sand · 28 June 2011 at 9:47AM

Rosie

You have managed to answer some of my questions, but one thing I am still unclear about, is who do these affiliate networks actually work for and who pays them? You say "it is the affiliate network who track the purchase for us" so I cannot understand why you claim not to be able to say where the commission has been assigned - the affiliate network must have identified the marketing organisation they consider to have the strongest claim to the sale. It sounds as if the affiliate network is taking kick-backs from the retailer to deny valid claims.

Turning to the question of cookies, do they identify who may have visited another site? I am referring of course to the fact that a cookie may be on the computer I use because of the perfectly legitimate use of that computer by another person. I don't think the affiliate networks or their staff are clever enough to recognise that, in which case the information they provide is to all intents and purposes, worthless. The retailer is saying "I will use the activities of one person to prevent another person receiving their due cashback" - it's called fraud however you cut it!

You also use the term "strongest cookie" - how is that strength measured? All the evidence at the moment points to the "strongest cookie" being the one which allows the retailer to deny payment. In the real world, the "strongest cookie" would be the one which identifies the purchase most clearly - if I go to Tesco's and look athe price of fish and then go to Asda to make my purchase, do I expect Asda to pass on the profit to Tesco? You would have to be really, really stupid to expect that to happen!

To help you, I have high-lighted and underlined my questions - please do try to provide answers.

Other people having problems with 3Mobile may be interested to know that in a recent conversation with Rachael Kidd of the 'executive office' (sic), she told me that 3Mobile would do all they could to make sure I never found out the truth behind my cashback claim being denied. Not the attitude I expect from a company with nothing to hide.

Lynsey · 28 June 2011 at 10:10AM

quick-sand, have a look at the mobiles forum and you will see that 3mobile have a very, very poor Customer Service record.
As highlighted earlier, this issue with 3mobile has gone on for ages and ages now. If they haven't been removed from cashbacks sites by now, then the assumption is they are going to be allowed to carry on being promoted in the future. Hence there will ALWAYS be issues, especially with this company and the unfortunates are the members losing cashback.
Pretty much a hopeless case and maybe getting ASA (Advertising Standards Authority http://www.asa.org.uk/) involved to look at the form of advertising is possibly an option. Clearly what is being promoted is NOT being given - there is no doubt there.

Good luck with your continuing saga with both Quidco and 3mobile, you understandingly must be very, very frustrated and of course angry. Watching with interest as it may just help other unfortunates.

Lynsey

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