Rebates and the like

[Saracen]

Yep, I was reading a newpaper the other day and saw something like this. Great phone deals through cashback, company went bust and owners ran off and now all those people are paying like £75 a month for their phones. I wouldn't chance it.

Some of these mobile phone cashback deals have been the subject of unprecedented levels of complaints to the telecom watchdog. One of the problems is that to get them, you take out two contracts - one with the phone supplier with whom the cashback deal exists, and the other with the airtime provider, who often have NO liability over the cashback of the phone itself.

So .... if the phone supplier goes down, you won't get the cashback, but you're still stuck with what may well be an expensive and unattractive airtime contract once the cashback element has been taken out, with no way to get out of the airtime contract.

But med2003 is right too - Canon are currently running a rebate program on a number of cameras, lenses and accessories, and have done so for several years running. There have been some complaints over this sort of scheme being slow to cough up, but I know some number of people that have availed themselves of that Canon deal quite successfully ..... and I'm about to.

To come back to freddie's question, as far as I'm aware there's no legal problems with these in the UK, but I'm certainly not aware of it being all that common. I think it's not not something that's done very often. Maybe it's been tried and not proven popular, or maybe it';s just a marketing technique that hasn't been extensively tried here.

[Lee H]

Creative are doing cashback on some of their offerings at the moment

[schmunk]

I love being right

Cashback summit in Parliament

But this is only one company, there are many others still in existence and providing cashbacks to customers.

In fact - consider this linked from the page page you linked.

"In a statement on the Cool New Mobile website administrator Philip Lyon of accounting firm Mazars said: 'Unfortunately the number of customers that were able to comply with the terms and conditions and hence became eligible for the cash-back payments exceeded the company's expectations. The company is therefore no longer in a position to meet its ongoing liabilities to those customers."

Yes, they've gone into administration (backing your view), but the reason they've done so is because they have paid so many cashback payments (backing my view).

TBH, like any situation where you pay upfront to claim later, it's an inherently risky situation for the customers. However, that said, many many people have successfully had cashbacks, and at worst, people who have failed to do so have simply paid the market rate for the service they've received - really, nobody has been ripped off.

[mcmiller]

Creative are doing cashback on some of their offerings at the moment

like ? i need a new soundcard

[Workaholic]

Hp also offer rebates and some of the phone cashback you WILL need to chase around even if you sent them off in accordance with their terms and conditions.

One bad thing is that the suppler loves moving addresses but you don't know about it, and the delay in re-directing (by Royal Mail) means that your claim is LATE! and invalid!

[Bazzlad]

Yes, they've gone into administration (backing your view), but the reason they've done so is because they have paid so many cashback payments (backing my view).

Agreed mate, but Dial a Mobile was huge - you have to have seen there adverts everywhere and a LOT of people have been ripped off by it, and offtel are looking at making it completely illegal (which they should in my view).

You can still find a decent cashback deal on a phone - but you have to ask yourself is it worth it, knowing how the business works, they're just paying you out of their commission - which is lower than the actual commission anyway because they normally go through a massive distributor like avenier or dextra, who get the full commission. In my opinion, it's not worth it - I'd prefer a decent tariff and handset to any pie in the sky cashback. (Or at least give me my charlie boy up front )


See?

During Mobile's coverage of the collapse of Dialamobile we highlighted Phonebox Direct's offer of £420 cashback on a 12-month Vodafone contract as one of the many offers on the web that seemed too good to be true. Offers currently on its website include 12-months free line rental on 12 month contracts with 3, Vodafone, T-Mobile and O2.

Some got it. The rest haven't. They're in administration now.

I hate rebates. They give them knowing only about 50% of people claim them. I'd prefer cash off up front mister.

[Bazzlad]

Bloody hell - talk about a timely warning to people

Another gone under

PhoneboxDirect

If I were your friend with the 2 "free" mobiles on the go, I'd start to be worried!