£75 cashback via MSE website is actually £50

[#1]

I signed up for phone line and standard broadband through a deal advertised on the MSE website. This included a £75 cashback offer in the form of a prepaid Mastercard. The deal was concluded, the connection made and a week or two later my cashback card arrived. However, it was only for £50, not £75. I queried this via a chat session with the Plusnet service centre and was told it was possible my connection had been broken and I'd been diverted to the the standard Plusnet website sign up pages where the offer was £50. I was advised to check with MSE and get confirmation from them of when I accessed the deal through their website. They were unable to provide any such details, saying that once I navigated away from their site they can't help, as they have no info.

I note from other contributions to the forum that I'm not alone in finding the amount of cashback I get is lower than that advertised. The excuse given seems to be related to cookies or pop-up blockers. At no point was I aware that any connection had been lost or that I had been diverted to an altrernative offer. I find I am unable to provide any hard evidence and am effectively being short-changed through no fault of my own.

I note that a very truncated version of this is posted as a 'closed question' in my account but with no ready means of response.

I am not impressed and am considering passing this on to Trading Standards. I am obviously not alone and would be grateful to receive an apology and the missing £25.

[#2]

I signed up 4 weeks ago via Topcashback and received £85 into my bank account just yesterday. No issues whatsoever. I almost signed up through MSE, but I was still about 5 days remaining on my BT contract and would have paid a penalty for leaving before the contract ended. I had to time it literally to the last day. The Topcashback sign up worked out better for me in the end.

[#3]

Hi @Chrisfg,

I'm really sorry that there seems to have been an issue when signing up through MSE.

Unfortunately without evidence of the sign up being through MSE we are unable to investigate from our end.

I know this isn't the news you'd like to hear and would like to apologise again for any issues that have been encountered during your sing up process.

However, if there is anything else we may assist you with please feel free to get back in touch!

Thank you.

[#4]

Thank you for your reply Ollie.

You are correct in saying it is not the answer I hoped for.

It is clear from a number of posts on the Plusnet forum that I am not alone in not receiving the correct amount of cashback. Mine is therefore not a unique or unusual complaint and the issue is well known to Plusnet.

The usual response is that there has been a problem with an order failing to track properly, usually for reasons cited as related to cookies or pop-up/ad blockers resulting in a break in the connection, and, unbeknown to the user, the order process being then redirected to a default path to a different offer.

Of course, the user is unaware of any of this and surely cannot be expected to predict and avoid the problem before embarking on the order process.

I think it is extremely unreasonable for Plusnet to take the view that if I can’t provide evidence of what happened within your own systems then you can’t investigate it! This is simply not good enough.

I applied for a service that contained an offer of £75 cashback, not £50.

If I do not receive the £25 due to me within 10 working days I will have to take this further. I am extremely disappointed and not prepared to just let this go.

[#5]

Hello @Chrisfg,

We are sincerely sorry that you feel this way, and as my colleague Ollie has advised we would need some sort of paper trail that shows the deal was taken through the affiliate at the start of the sign up process.

Can you advise if you received an email confirming the order or quote? If anything of this nature can be provided we can escalate this back to the correct team for you.

 Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Tag fixed.

[#6]

Hello Sammy,

Yes, I'm afraid I do feel this way, as I'm sure you would too in my position.

Providing a paper trail for an on-line transaction is going to be tricky. MSE have already confirmed that they do not hold details, they simply provide a link and that transactions are conducted entirely on suppliers' own websites. No confirmation is therefore available from them. I pursued this with them at some length.

I have attached pdf's of the confirmation emails I received at the time of ordering - these confirm the date but contain no specific details relating to the cashback offer.

I also attach a transcript of a chat session with one of your staff when I first raised the issue of the shortfall.

I confirm, once again, that I accessed this deal through the MSE website and at no point became aware that any connection had been lost or that I had defaulted to a standard sign-up page. I remain adamant that I should have received £75 cashback, not £50.

[#7]

Hi @Chrisfg,

I appreciate this matter has been ongoing for longer than either of us would have liked, however could you leave this with me for now and I'll get an update on this situation as soon as I can for you.

I've dropped an email over to a colleague on our Marketing department, who deals with affiliate stuff and hope to have more information on this (hopefully) tomorrow.

I appreciate this is an incredibly frustrating situation and will aim to bring this to a resolution as soon as I can.

[#8]

Thank you Harry.

[#9]

Hi @Chrisfg,

I've responded via the ticket on your account Here.

I hope this helps.

[#10]

Hi

I seem to be in the same situation 🙁

I signed to Plusnet via MSE on 21 July. Offer being pay £197.88 upfront for line rental, £75 cashback via a link that would be sent later. The cheque arrived yesterday £50.

I still have original email showing the offer and a screenshot of same.

When I queried it last night I was told that the offer was only for £50 and that I need to speak to ‘Grassroots’ 

I phoned them today (they are company that deals with rewards and they can only issue cheques with info from Plusnet) On checking, he said that was for £50.

I thought I’d try this forum root or is there another phone number to try?

Can anyone help with this?

Thank you

[#11]

Does anyone from Plusnet help team read these posts?

[#12]

Hi @carolynwild,

Sorry to hear your cashback has come through less than expected and I do also apologise that your previous post here was missed.

I've checked over the account and the account does show as being on a £50 offer code and looking at the offers we had running at the time of your signup, there doesn't appear to be a £75 offer for the package you've selected, although it does look like a £75 offer started a few days later.

Could you send me a PM with the email and screenshot showing the offer so I can look in to this further with our marketing team for you.

Thanks.

[#13]

Hi Harry

Thank you for replying. I don’t know how to send you a personal message

Help please!

[#14]

Worked it out

Personal Message sent

[#15]

Hi Harry

Did you get my personal message last Thursday? (Screenshot of MSE email)

Thank you