Topcashback declined - given the run around for over a year!

[#1]

Hi, I'm messaging on behalf of my mother who has been with plusnet for almost 18 months.

She's on standard broadband and we set up the account via Topcashback. Initially, this was shown as tracked but a couple of months later it was declined. We could tell that we had gone through TCB as plusnet has it's own dedicated page when you link through.

Got back in touch with TCB and they looked into it - then stated I needed to send copies of our bills - duly did this and then waited and waited - I had to prompt them for several months.

Eventually, after almost a year they requested the same bills again which I duly supplied. And they have come back saying that because there is a discount on the bill that is why it has been declined. As far as I can tell, this 'discount' isn't an additional discount at all, but the calculation to make it the agreed cost for the 18 month contract terms. I have said this over and over again to them but they have now flatly refused to do anything about it. 

I'm looking for help and advice here. It's frustrating as the Cashback was factored into our choice to go with plusnet AND at that time, going through TCB to the link on plusnet's own site actually gave a slightly more expensive option (offset from the Cashback) than simply going direct.

Has anyone had success with getting this decision reversed?

[#2]

Moderators Note

This topic has been moved from ADSL Broadband to My Account/ Billing 

[#3]

Thanks for your post @KingSuns 

I'm sorry to see the issues you've had with your mother's cashback from TopCashback. From what I can see the account was signed up on a reward card offer directly through us which was claimed and sent, so we wouldn't be able to honour the cashback from TopCashback on top of this as per our cashback terms Here.

[#4]

@Gandalf, do you know you've definitely got the right account?  @KingSuns say's its his mother account, but doesn't seem to give any details of who that is (at least on this thread).  There isn't anything to say if @KingSuns has their own account that may be tied to their community account or not.

[#5]

Good point, I'm fairly sure I got the right account based on the details I can see in their forum profile and on the account, but if the OP can drop me a PM with the account username I'll be happy to double check.

[#6]

Thanks PJMarsh and Gandalf for your comments. It is my mother's account and Gandalf you do have her details (I'm not on plusnet)

The thing here that confuses me though is that was me who organised the account for my Mum and I absolutely went via Topcashback - definitely saw the TCB tag integrated in the plusnet sign up page. I'm also pretty sure that the gift voucher (amazon I think) was part of the deal at the time, with no indication that one cancelled the other out.

At least I am getting some kind of resolution here though after many many frustrating months with TCB support, so many thanks for your input.

[#7 · Accepted solution]

No problem @KingSuns 

The most common cause for cashback on an affiliate cashback site (Quidco or TopCashback are the two we'd deal with) to go a bit haywire is due to how a signup tracks (it's the stored cookies in a web browser that determine that)

Whichever way you sign up there'll be a cookie of that site (either ours or a cashback site) and we'd use that when the account's created that'll determine what offer you've signed up on.

While you may have completed the signup process via TopCashback's site, the cashback system detected one of our cookies so it created the account on an offer as if you went direct through us (in this case a reward card offer)

Normally this happens if you don't clear cookies before starting the signup through the cashback site and/or you navigate to other webpages for example a direct plus.net webpage on other browser tabs or windows.

Both TopCashback's terms and our FAQs (which form a part of our terms) explain that you won't be eligible for two types of cashback (Ours was a reward card type, TopCashback's would be through their own setup) 

This probably won't help now or change what's happened but I hope it helps moving forward.