On 26 September 2014 I changed my energy supplier from EDF to First Energy via Quidco/confused.com/energy. As I changed both electricity and gas, a cashback amount of Ł28 was promised.
This was shown to be paid in December, followed by delays. I subsequently contacted Quidco who said that confused.com was yet to confirm the cashback. Following that, the estimated payment date was to be 3 February 2015 (last Tuesday). Yet again, this has now been missed and there's no payment date shown whatsoever. Once again, I contacted Quidco and here their reply:
"Hi Mr $quandaŁot,
thank you for getting in contact with us.
I would like to apologise for the inconvenience of the delay of your Confused.com cashback.
Please do be assured we are doing everything in our power to chase this retailer to retrieve your cashback. They are yet to give us a time frame on when you will be receiving this payment but as soon as we get any information on the status of your cashback we will contact you and inform you of this.
Again we do sincerely apologise about the delay as it is something we wouldn't wan our customers to face.
I do hope this has helped.
Kind regards,
Nadira
Quidco Support"
I must point out that I do not rely on the promised cashback when using Quidco. Nevertheless, this does not make confused.com look good and I may as well google the best energy deals in the future.
There has been a fair amount of criticism about the main UK comparison websites. As I am quite savvy with my utilities and know how much I am normally using annually, I don't see this as a problem. You can always check the deals on utility companies' own websites and then compare them to the ones on comparison site. Very often they are exactly the same.
I think the main problem here is that as the cashback industry is currently growing, it needs to be urgently regulated. They may be seen as a consumer's friend. In reality, however, it is just a clever way of marketing and much cheaper than running lengthy media ads.
In general, Quidco is quite good but I think there should be clear payment dates said and cashback amounts should be treated as part of the contract. I'm tempted to have a chat with our Paul and find out what he thinks!
This was shown to be paid in December, followed by delays. I subsequently contacted Quidco who said that confused.com was yet to confirm the cashback. Following that, the estimated payment date was to be 3 February 2015 (last Tuesday). Yet again, this has now been missed and there's no payment date shown whatsoever. Once again, I contacted Quidco and here their reply:
"Hi Mr $quandaŁot,
thank you for getting in contact with us.
I would like to apologise for the inconvenience of the delay of your Confused.com cashback.
Please do be assured we are doing everything in our power to chase this retailer to retrieve your cashback. They are yet to give us a time frame on when you will be receiving this payment but as soon as we get any information on the status of your cashback we will contact you and inform you of this.
Again we do sincerely apologise about the delay as it is something we wouldn't wan our customers to face.
I do hope this has helped.
Kind regards,
Nadira
Quidco Support"
I must point out that I do not rely on the promised cashback when using Quidco. Nevertheless, this does not make confused.com look good and I may as well google the best energy deals in the future.
There has been a fair amount of criticism about the main UK comparison websites. As I am quite savvy with my utilities and know how much I am normally using annually, I don't see this as a problem. You can always check the deals on utility companies' own websites and then compare them to the ones on comparison site. Very often they are exactly the same.
I think the main problem here is that as the cashback industry is currently growing, it needs to be urgently regulated. They may be seen as a consumer's friend. In reality, however, it is just a clever way of marketing and much cheaper than running lengthy media ads.
In general, Quidco is quite good but I think there should be clear payment dates said and cashback amounts should be treated as part of the contract. I'm tempted to have a chat with our Paul and find out what he thinks!
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