topic Re: New Plusnet Customer order not being tracked in topcashback in Plusnet Feedback

New Plusnet Customer order not being tracked in topcashback

boardmattplusne — Thu, 20 May 2010 14:09:17 GMT

Hello, I ordered a new phone line and broadband through a cashback website (topcashback.co.uk) with the promise of £38 cashback through this website, however the order is still not being track by the cashback website. I ordered on the 16/04/2010 and informed topcashback a week later to tell them it had not been tracked, topcashback tell me they contacted plusnet on the 30/04/2010, but alas I still have not heard a thing about this cashback.
Has anyone else had problems claiming cashback?
are there any plusnet employees on here who can help me?
Thanks Matt

Re: New Plusnet Customer order not being tracked in topcashback

bobpullen — Thu, 20 May 2010 15:02:43 GMT

Presumably you signed up after following a link on the aforementioned website? Without the necessary cookies being stored by your web browser I doubt the tracking would work. I guess this could also present a problem if you have cookies disabled or use some sort of security software that tampers with your web browser settings.
If I'm completely honest I'm not sure how best to approach this from here, did topcashback tell you how they'd tried contacting us?

Re: New Plusnet Customer order not being tracked in topcashback

boardmattplusne — Thu, 20 May 2010 15:57:41 GMT

Hi Bob, Thanks for the swift reply!
You presume correctly, I did sign up to Plusnet through a link from the cashback site, yeah, I'm aware of the cookie situation and my cookies are enabled to log the info, I used to collect Airmiles which operates in the same way so I know I should be set up for this to track. Also I don't use any security software so it won't be that and I used the cashback site the day before and a few days after with different companies and these orders track almost straight away.
So, Topcashbacks system registered the date and time I linked through to the Plusnet website, so part of the tracking must have worked?? I have then filled out a forms giving information, date, time, value of purchase, order number etc, and after a few weeks they have said to me they have passed the information on to you, I presume buy email. Now I only have there word they have contacted Plusnet, They might simply be pocketing my £38!! as its quite a decent cashback amount
I was just thinking, If Plusnet agrees to these deals with these companies, there must be a department at Plusnet (maybe in marketing or web based technical stuff) that deals with things when they go wrong, now I'm sure if a department does exist the last thing they want is me annoying them about my situation, I just thought if I was able to raise the issue with someone at Plusnet, they may be able to tell me if or when they get back to topcashback.
Cheers very much!

Re: New Plusnet Customer order not being tracked in topcashback

ITWorks — Thu, 20 May 2010 16:39:30 GMT

Quote from: boardmattplusnet
Also I don't use any security software

Thats very worrying that you do not use any form of security software at all , you are leaving your system fully open to attack.
I would recommend at least installing and running the basics , Anti-Virus , Firewall, Malware/Spyware Scanner
Avast Anti-Virus http://download.cnet.com/Avast-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10019223.html?tag=contentMain;contentAux

Zonealarm Firewall http://download.cnet.com/ZoneAlarm/3000-10435_4-10039884.html?tag=mncol
Malwarebytes scanner http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html?tag=contentMain;contentAux
the above are all free and score very high in their respective fields of security
Regards
Mike

Re: New Plusnet Customer order not being tracked in topcashback

bobpullen — Thu, 20 May 2010 16:40:12 GMT

Quote from: boardmattplusnet
I was just thinking, If Plusnet agrees to these deals with these companies, there must be a department at Plusnet (maybe in marketing or web based technical stuff) that deals with things when they go wrong, now I'm sure if a department does exist the last thing they want is me annoying them about my situation, I just thought if I was able to raise the issue with someone at Plusnet, they may be able to tell me if or when they get back to topcashback.

We do have a department that deals with affiliate relationships, I'll see if they're able to shed any light on the situation...

Re: New Plusnet Customer order not being tracked in topcashback

boardmattplusne — Thu, 20 May 2010 17:16:16 GMT

ITWorks - Thanks for your concern, Probably was not telling the whole truth about security, I'm sure I have a Firewall as part of he OS, but it's not something I think about, I work on Macs as well so I don't think any of those links apply to me, I've nnot had a virus yet (fingers crossed!)
Bob - Thanks very much, I appreciate your help.

Re: New Plusnet Customer order not being tracked in topcashback

ritz — Thu, 20 May 2010 21:45:22 GMT

matt, i am also having a (slightly different) negative experience with quidco: in my case the transaction has been tracked, but just recently declined, god knows why. i've done everything as requested and according to the terms of plusnet and quidco. i do regard both plusnet and quidco equally responsible for me not receiving cashback yet. plusnet's response to my ticket says the following:
"Unfortunately the Quidco offers are not managed by ourselves but are purely paid out and managed by Quidco. We will be more than happy to confirm the details of your order with us if needed for your investigation with Quidco."
like you, i subscribed for phone+broadband. despite the advertised £38, i only saw £28 tracked.
there is zero transparency or some secrecy with these affiliate transactions to my opinion; they never actually tell you the reason why a transaction is declined.
it'd be certainly an advantage to their customers if plusnet could help resolve cashback promises that have been declined (and potentially expose any wrongdoing by 'affiliates').
thx, ritz.

Re: New Plusnet Customer order not being tracked in topcashback

boardmattplusne — Fri, 21 May 2010 08:43:30 GMT

Hi ritz, Thanks for your post, it seems we are in similar boats! I agree with what you say about the transparency and secrecy with the affiliate schemes. All the power seems to lie with the affiliates themselves and we have to just take what they say. I understand that technically Plusnet are not responsible for paying the cashback directly to the customer, but if in your case Plusnet have told Quidco that your transaction happened and completed, then quidco should put there hand in there pocket and pay what is due to you, no questions!
I think that if Plusnet are willing to be associated with these affiliate schemes, it's in there interest to make sure they are operating fairly, surely, they could send an email to Quidco, copy you in, and ask them why they have not paid you the cashback you are due yet. Then at least the ball's in their court, Quidco don't care how many emails they get from you, but they might start to care if they came from Plusnet.
Are you a regular user of Quidco? do they normally pay up? when did you sign up to Plusnet?
I've only recently Joined Topcashback and I have transactions being tracked at the moment, but have not actually received any money yet, so am sceptical until I do!

Re: New Plusnet Customer order not being tracked in topcashback

Mand — Fri, 21 May 2010 08:52:55 GMT

Hi guys,
I'm chasing both of these with our affiliate expert now.

Re: New Plusnet Customer order not being tracked in topcashback

Mand — Fri, 21 May 2010 09:09:53 GMT

@boardmattplusnet, we've sent an email to the topcashback Account Manager to make sure you get your cashback, we definitely haven't had any contact from them though so not sure how they've tried to contact us.
@ritz, I've confirmed with our affiliate's guru that we definitely haven't declined your cashback, so we've sent the info to quidco telling them to apply the full rate.

Re: New Plusnet Customer order not being tracked in topcashback

Mand — Fri, 21 May 2010 09:34:26 GMT

@ritz, your offer is showing as validated in our tracking system now.

Re: New Plusnet Customer order not being tracked in topcashback

ritz — Fri, 21 May 2010 09:56:18 GMT

mand, thx. i almost instantly received a response to my ticket from quidco, now reporting as validated. i will investigate with them what the reasons for the original decline were. i will take this further for investigation if required and hoping that i will have your support guys!
thx again.
ritz

Re: New Plusnet Customer order not being tracked in topcashback

Mand — Fri, 21 May 2010 10:42:00 GMT

Glad to hear it.
If you need anything more from us let me know. We had a bit of trouble tracking your account down in the affiliate system which may have something to do with them saying there were problems, but as I said, we at no point declined the cashback.

Re: New Plusnet Customer order not being tracked in topcashback

boardmattplusne — Fri, 21 May 2010 11:29:43 GMT

@Ritz - Sounds like a good bit of news for you! I hope I can report similar soon
@ Mand - Thanks very much for getting that email sent to Topcashback, I appreciate that! I will update on here when I get some news, hopefully good news!
Thanks Matt

Re: New Plusnet Customer order not being tracked in topcashback

ritz — Fri, 21 May 2010 11:35:18 GMT

@mand - you say you've had "a bit of trouble tracking my account down in the affiliate system"
i would appreciate if you could add a description of what exactly the trouble was, by replying to my older ticket regarding quidco: 33239878. i intend to share your response with quidco, if that's ok, hoping to shed some light on the not-so-transparent affiliate channels.
many thanks.
@matt - i can only sympathise with you, i had to track a few of these 'affiliate' transactions on my own in the end. i believe one should report them to a watchdog for more transparency.
i'm glad plusnet are cooperating on this matter, thumbs up!
ritz.

Re: New Plusnet Customer order not being tracked in topcashback

Mand — Fri, 21 May 2010 15:30:44 GMT

@ritz, there's not a great deal more I can tell you without specifics from quidco as to where they think it was declined. Basically we have a web portal we login to and all affiliate sales are logged there (usually around 15 mins after signing up). We validate them once a month (to prevent fraud and to make sure the process is efficient). When we first looked at this your account wasn't logged under the quidco sales, so we emailed them to see what was happening. It then showed so we validated it.
There's a separate process for disputed transactions.
@boardmattplusnet, we've manually validated yours now too, so should all be sorted.

Re: New Plusnet Customer order not being tracked in topcashback

boardmattplusne — Sat, 22 May 2010 09:16:12 GMT

@ Mand - I take my hat off to you Mand! Just as you put your message up I got an email from Topcashback saying I had been awarded the cashback and it was in my account, I would have replied yesterday but I had a very important meeting with a beer in the sunshine, so thought i'd leave it until today to reply! So Thanks very much for your help you were spot on!
@ Mand & Bob - Thanks very much for your positive, can do attitude, I know I'm even happier that the result was good, but you also keep me well informed about what you were trying to do. I had a not so nice experience with emails to and from your customer service department only a few days earlier, who where not helpful and there advice was to be patient. Unfortunately for you, that now means any future problems will bypass customer service and come straight to the forum.
Thanks again for your help guys
Matt

Re: New Plusnet Customer order not being tracked in topcashback

Mand — Mon, 24 May 2010 08:26:02 GMT

Beer and sunshine is always more important.
Glad to hear things are sorted.