Crash v E2Save -** SETTLED ** cashback issue

[crashbandicoot]

Long story (aren't they all?!) but am sending them this letter today which should explain it all:

 

"

E2Save Redemptions

PO Box 4311

Dunstable

LU6 9BJ

 

10 November 2006

 

Request for payment of cashback

 

Dear Sirs,

 

Mobile number: XXXXXXXXXXXX

 

I am writing to ask you to pay me the cash-back which you are failing to honour.

 

As per the terms and conditions of the contract I signed with you, as well as the additional literature that relates to this offer on your website, I am entitled to a cash-back payment of £70.00 once I have supplied you with the relevant airtime bill.

 

My initial understanding was that I had to send you my 4th airtime bill. However since I didn’t receive the chequeback vouchers with my mobile, I checked on your website and could see that I could print them off the internet when the need would arise. A few days ago, I printed off the chequeback information which stated that if I have an 18 month contract, I need to send my 6th, 9th, 12, 15th and 18th bills, as per the Cheque back calendar. This is the first time I have taken out an 18 month contract, so I presumed this is the way you refund cashback for such contracts, and therefore, I held back my 4th bill. Whilst browsing through your website this morning, I came across information on your website that refers to sending the 4th bill. Confused, I contacted your dedicated cheque-back number 0845-6551246, and spoke to ‘Duncan’.

 

I asked Duncan to clarify which rule applied, as your website is giving misleading information. He advised that the chequeback calendar is a new way to refund customers who’ve purchased phones after 01 November 2006 (the literature I printed off makes no reference to this). I asked him does this mean I am too late to send in my chequeback voucher, to which he replied, yes, and that my claim would be rejected if I send it in now. He also added that you were expecting to receive my September bill, because according to your system, since I’d bought the phone in June, the June bill would be counted too. I have only received four bills from my service provider, with the October bill being my last. I haven’t ever received a bill for June, and on checking with T-Mobile, my contract with them commenced on 07 July 2006. Therefore I have no idea why I was expected to send the September bill, and how I was expected to know this.

 

Your website information is confusing and misleading, as a result of which I have not sent my chequeback voucher as yet, and I am being advised that I have therefore lost out on my first cheque. When I asked Duncan if there was anything that could be done about this he advised that there wasn’t, and couldn’t assist me further, or even advise me of where to send my complaint as apparently the chequeback department does not have a complaints department. Your representative’s response to my initial call was therefore unsatisfactory.

 

I called back later in the day to check what E2save shows as my connection date, and got through the Duncan again. Upon asking, he advised my chequeback amount shows as £70 and also confirmed that the connection date was 07 July 2006 (he not read the other screen in the previous call, which would have given him the July’s date as a connection date, since I have kept my number on from a previous contract) and therefore he also confirmed that it was in fact my October bill that would be required. After all this, it appears that had I not been misled by the confusing literature, in holding my voucher back it would have been sent and received in time.

I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and I am writing this letter to you on the assumption that you will prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets.

 

I will give you 14 days to reply to me accepting, unconditionally, my request in principle and letting me know a date by which I will receive payment, which should be made by cheque. I enclose the relevant documents required for the cheque back offer. I would also like you to confirm back to me in writing, exactly which month’s bills you require me to send with the next cheque back vouchers, and when by, to avoid any further confusion.

 

If you do not respond, or you do not respond positively within this time period, I shall send you a letter before action giving you a further 14 days in which to reflect. I believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments.

 

After that, there will be no further communication from me and I shall issue a county court claim at the expiry of the second deadline.

 

By doing so, you will also be eligible for my court costs.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Crash"

 

Will see what they come back with.

[crashbandicoot]

Update: Totally ignored my prelim, so sent LBA on 01/12.

 

Received a letter on 04/12 saying: 'Thank you for your CPW order. You may recall the package you bought had a chequeback offer with it. We are pleased to send you a cheque for £70.'

 

SORTED!

[jwno1]

Hi Crash,

 

I'm very impressed by the letter you wrote to e2save. I have the similar problem here with them wonder if you could give some suggestion on how to write a good letter like yours.

 

My contract started with them on 06/06/07 on a free line rental 12 months contract. Monthly payment is £40. I was told to send 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th bill then they will credit £96 each time. I sent my 4th bill to them on 17 Sep, then yesterday (24 Sep) I received a letter from them said my claim has been done too early therefore I am disqualified for all cheque back in future. I phoned them up to ask what they meant by "too early", they said I can only send the claim when the connection is 120 days. According to them, I will have to wait until 6 Oct to send my claim. However I still think the t&c conflicts itself as 120 days later the 4th bill would have become expired. (30 days of the date stated on the relevant airtime bill).

 

 

Here is the letter:

 

 

 

 

Dear xx,

 

We have receive your "cashback" claim information, however it has been sent too early for the claim periods of your offer.

 

All of our offers have set claim periods. As your claim has been received after the allotted time frame your claim has been rejected, under the Price Match Terms & Conditions', which govern the cashback deal which you agreed to.

 

As a result of your cashback being rejected you are ineligible to claim for any future claims associated with this phone offer. Unfortunately, we are unable to enter into further correstpondence with regards to this purchase, and cannot return your original paperwork.

 

From your"Price Match Terms and Conditions":

 

"Where a valid claim has not been received by us within one calendar month of the required bill, which is the closing date for your claim. You will not be entitled to any part of the Cash Back Offered. Cash back files are closed and cannot be reopened in these cases."

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Cashback Team.

 

 

 

 

Obviously they don't know what they are doing as they keep mentioning in the letter that my claim is AFTER allotted time frame. Even the T&C they quoted is about late claim.

 

Do you think I could get my money back in this case? Somebody suggested me to draft a letter, but because I lack of legal knowledge so not sure how to write a letter in this case.

 

I would really appreciate if you can give me some advices.

 

Thanks!

[crashbandicoot]

Hi there, if I'm understanding correctly, they are saying that you've sent the claim in too early, yet in the letter (which I'm presuming is standard) they've sent it according to someone who's sent in their claim too late?

 

If that is so, you absolutely can claim this cashback, and all future ones. I suggest you use the basic info from the letter I sent, but tailor it according to your circumstances, perhaps mentioning something along the lines of:

 

'I am surprised that I am receiving a letter from you making all future cashback claims null and void because you are under the impression that I have sent my cashback in late. How eager you can be to prevent people from claiming back what is rightfully theirs. I have spoken to your customer services on xxx with xxx who advised me that my claim was in fact EARLY. I am re-sending all the information for yet a third time. I would also like you to confirm to me in writing which future month's bills you require as you are obviously making this fairly easy to mislead people in their claims'

 

Add the rest of the standard bits about if your money's not received in xx days, the court threat etc. I'd suspect you'll be getting your money pretty quickly after that.

 

If you haven't done so already, I'd call them and get someone to clarify what they show on their system as the bills/dates you should be sending each other claim...with a name of the person, so that you can use this as back-up if they try to shaft you again.

 

Hope this helps.

[jwno1]

Hi there,

 

Thank you so much for the reply, they are very well worded. I am going to use the standard info from your letter and the "I'm surprised ..." paragraph.

 

Hope I will get my money back. Being so stressed because of it.

 

 

Thanks very much again!

[crashbandicoot]

No probs, let me know how you get on, and don't be surprised if you have to send them an LBA before they cough up. Who knows, they may even pay up sooner!

[djb2002]

I am trying to get some clarification on the Price Match Cashback.

 

I have taken out multiple phones with e2save over the years and never had a single problem with cashback.

 

This time I took out one of the 'Price Match' Cashback offers, which have different terms.

 

My order was placed and connection took place on 10th August 2007, and my first bill was dated 21st August 2007.

 

Am I correct in thinking that as I need to send the bill showing 120 days of connection, it would be the bill on or around 8th December ?? (120 days from connection).

 

If this is the case, would it be the most recent bill received as of this date, or would I wait until the next bill is produced (on 21st December), and then send that one ??

 

Can anyone confirm ?

 

Thanks

Darren

[jonni2bad]

You should ask them directly, taking note of the person you speak to and recording the call if at all possible, but otherwise make notes of everything stated.

[djb2002]

You should ask them directly, taking note of the person you speak to and recording the call if at all possible, but otherwise make notes of everything stated.

 

Thanks - Although I have been trying. It is almost impossible to get through to them at the moment

[djb2002]

Anyone else had any experience with their 'Price Match' cashback deals ?

 

Been trying to make contact with them for some time now. They don't reply to e-mails, and their phone lines are impossible to get through on.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

[crashbandicoot]

Hi there, sorry, not familiar with their Price Match deals...unfortunately you'll just have to keep trying to contact them. The only other thing I can think of is if you register online on their website and access your account details, sometimes this can then tell you which statements are due. Give that a try.

[lanczspringer]

Hi,

 

There seems to be a reoccurring trend here!

 

I bought my phone from E2sve having previously had cashback with them work ok.

 

I'm pretty sure it was a price match offer but not 100%

 

I got the forms and doubled checked via their website mycashbackclaim.co.uk which bills are required to be sent in. It stated that month four claim December in December 2007, month six claim in Feb 08 etc etc until the 12 month in aug 08.

 

I then emailed via their electonic system a question asking

I need to claim cashback in 5 segments totaling £64 each time.

When I send my first cashback token in do I only need to include Decembers bill?

 

This will be the first time I've claimed so just wondering if I need to send bills in two at a time or just the latest one?

 

to which I got a standard reply of blah blah blah sending the most recent air time bill, this can be no more than 28 days old.

 

I duly sent my Decembers bill which was issued to me on the 28th Dec, this was received by them on the 10/01/2008.

 

However this weekend I've received a letter stating that I've not sent my bill in to them on time and that all other cashback claims will be null and void.

 

on phoning them up I spoke to a lady (name recorded) who told me I had not sent the bill in on time. I explained what I had done and also stated the incident number I received from their reply. I was told that I had to claim after the 120 days which meant my period would run from the 4th November. I had assumed that I needed to send Decembers bill in and even asked in the email above if Decembers was the correct bill?

 

I now have no comeback and all other claims are void.

 

I'm fuming and would really appreciate any advice you guys could give and maybe suggestions for a letter similar to above.

 

Regards

 

Anthony

[crashbandicoot]

Hi Anthony, I'd definitely send them a letter similar to the one I sent, and explain what you've put in the post about sending an email requesting info, and give details of when the Dec bill was received etc. Follow the course of first letter then Letter Before Action...from what you've said you've followed protocol so there is no reason for them to be refusing you your cashback. Let us know how you get on.

[terrier2]

Hi antony

 

I too recieved a letter like this on Saturday. I am on a price match deal, and followed my terms and conditions to the letter (I printed them off at the point of sale and keep everything religiously!( I think the problem is that SOME people were sent different instructions for the cashback claim which state that there is a predefined time limit in which to make the claim - I only say this from reading threads on this and other similar sites, and E2save's customer services mentioned something about a 'claim window' when I range them to complain, even though i kept asking them to point out where exactly in my terms and conditions this is mentioned ....it is not in my terms and conditions so he couldn't"!!!.

 

It seems that you, like me, were not given these instructions, but rather told to claim with the month 4 bill (or the one showing that you have been connected for 120 days) within 30 days of the date on that bill. IF this is what your terms and conditions state, then they must honour the cashback, or else you can sue for breach of contrcat, and recoveer the entire cashback amount plus expenses in a single hit. I spoke to customer services but they just tried to fob me off, so I rang carphone warehouse top get the registered address of E2save to file legal papers (interestingly they don't publish this on their website....).

 

I wrote to them immediately (recorded delivery and e-mailed a copy also) giving them 14 days to pay, and made it clear that on the 15th day I will issue legal proceedings. I very much expect either a glib response ('it's the way we operate cashback schemes and that's that') or no repsonse at all. On day 15 I will issue legal proceedings, make no mistake. Too many people simply let these big companies get away with it, but they are trying to steal your cash!

 

 

I'll keep you posted about the outocme - if I get a positive response from them, I'll post the letter I used so people can see what I wrote.

 

Cheers - and don't take it lying down!!!

[Alchemy28]

Hi,

 

I've got cashback problems too I'm afraid. the problems a little different from the others. Can anyone offer me any advice please?

I purchased 2 separate contracts on the same day, one by phone and the other over the internet (one is on my name and the other is on my sisters) in August 2007. They sent me a confirmation e-mail for only one of the accounts, and I didn'd bother too much about chasing up the other one as both mobiles arrived within a couple of days.

I called to check my cashback dates....because just like most of you have experienced, the dates were confusing/misleading. Anyway, my first checkback claim was sent after X-mas. I didn't hear anything from them and so asked my sis to make a call to them and find out what was wrong. She was told that 'we have recieved your cashback claim, but you sent it to the wrong address, and the T&C therefore says all of your subsequent cashbacks are invalidated'.

I couldn't understand how 'they received it but it was in the wonrg place'! I got the address from the order confirmation e-mail they had sent me because it said the vouchers were on the net. there was a link in the email and i printed it off and followed it exactly. That link was still active last night when i check and I saved the PDF file...just in case.

I called today...and what seems to be the norm, was told sorry can't do anything, blah blah. I explained that it was e2save that sent me that info when i ordered and i was not advised otherwise and that the e-mail link was still active to prove my case. He asked for the link...and what do you know...its been redirected! since last night!!! so he said tough!

I told him thats rubbish and not fair, and i e-mailed him the voucher i downloaded and told him to check its properties for date of download.

I haven't heard back from him and conveniently they have no direct numbers. I'm a bit miffed because this will set me back by £900 for both:mad:

 

What can I do?

[crashbandicoot]

Hi Alchemy,

 

I'd follow the same route as above - send them an initial letter explaining what's happened, just like you have in the post above. Hang on to the downloaded voucher but send a copy. If they don't cough up within 14 days, its a letter before action..I'm finding increasingly that calling them doesn't really resort to anything. See how you get on. Good luck.

[Unholymess]

Hi there, I too am having the same problems as all of you!

 

I've followed the above guidance and sent a letter requesting payment, received a glib no from e2Save referencing clauses that are not in the terms and conditions. I then sent a letter before action giving them 14 days. The 14 days has been and gone with no reply at all, and so I'm about to commence proceedings against them.

 

What would you recommend I do, should I submit a claim through HMCS Money Claim Online for the full cashback amount, plus expenses, or is there another way of doing this that would be better? (i.e. suing for breach of contract)

 

Also, what happens if I lose (unlikely, I know, but still...) do I have to pay e2saves costs or anything like that?

 

I'll be honest, I'm a bit green to all this, I've never had to threaten court action before, let alone commence it, so your advice would be appreciated!

 

Thanks

 

Unholy

[Alchemy28]

Hello,

 

I'm not sure about pursiung court claims. You'll need to ask someone who's experienced in that matter. Personally it makes me uncomfortable, and I'm not sure of the chances of a positive outcome.

But...I have been on the phone to them (chequeback customer services) and after about 2 hours of interrupted calls...the lady asked me to fax over my proof of postage, and said that all the customers who had sent the claims to the wrong place were being redirected. She stated the amount is likely to be raised and credited, it was unlikely to cause a problem and to proceed with the next chequeback claim - which for me is now in the next 30 days and gave me the new address in Crewe.

 

I'm not much of a letter writer, but more keen in appealing to thier nature. I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

 

Good luck if you pursue the claim....maybe Crash can give you some advise?? Let me know how you get on.

 

A

[AlexWLondon]

Hi Terrier2 and every unfortunate e2Save customers,

 

I have similar problem with the way they calculate 120 days from connection rather than using the bill dated around 120 days to work out the claim time frame- surely thats what the terms say; has anyone sucessfully challenged this and won?

 

One of the terms they said I am subjected to is https://www.secure-mobiles.com/files/pdfs/cashback_price_match_terms.pdf

 

Please post if anyone has any news on this? I spoke with Citizen Advice B by phone, they said it sounds like I have have been given an unfair term, but I should show a lawyer of the docs...

[Alchemy28]

Success!!

 

After about half a dozen phone calls probably totalling around 2 hours, and a fax of my bills they raised my cheques on Friday and the money is on its way!! I've just sent off my 2nd claim to the 'correct' address. Phew....what a relief!

 

Good luck to everyone else!

[DB_SamX]

Based on all the hassle e2save is causing, would anyone still recommend them if all precautions are taken? I wasn't born yesterday and from previous bad experience with 3 (which I am considering leaving), I now record all my conversations, take names, have threatened court action, rebuffed debt collection agencies, etc. The only reason I am thinking of buying from e2save is their, frankly, bargain offers and I was a customer with them for 2 years a while back (01/02) with no issues getting cash back whatsoever. Are they bad/worse than others now?

 

Or should I stay well clear and take my business somewhere else? Any recommendations other than from networks directly?