Bad news for all Quidco users

[SiM]

Luckily I think I will only lose around £7 of expected cashback. I feel sorry for you guys who took out vodafone contracts!

16 Jul 10 Quidco DGM Cancellation Notice - Users General
Julie wrote 16 Jul 10 at 17:51

Dear member,

As you know we do our best to help you earn as much cashback as you can. The cashback you make is passed to us from the merchant you purchased from via an affiliate network provider, we then pass 100% of this on to you. It is therefore with great regret that I have to advise you the Deal Group Media UK Ltd affiliate network (DGM) has ceased trading with immediate effect and all payments made to the network by the retailer will now become a debt to the retailer.

What does this mean for me?
As you have recently purchased from one or more of the merchants below we will not be able to pass on the cashback as we ourselves have not received, nor are we likely to receive payment from the DGM network.

Were shocked and disappointed that this has happened to a network. We have only found this news out today and will do all we can to reclaim your cashback, unfortunately on this occasion we dont think well have much joy.

We are now working with the appointed administrators of the network to see what monies may be forthcoming and will keep you informed.

The retailers that are effected by this are:
192.com, Aabro, Accountz, AFA Systems, Ambrose Wilson, Babysecurity.co.uk, BE Broadband, Beauty Expert, Ben 10 Online, Bingo on the Box, Bluestone, Book Direct Rooms,
British Red Cross, Bump to 3, BuyMobilePhones, Car Audio Centre, Cho-Yung, Club Med, Condor Ferries, Costbiter, Decode Car Hire, Demon Internet, Dobbies, Eclipse Internet, Engage Mutual Assurance - Health Cash Plan, engage Mutual Assurance Child Trust,
Engage Mutual Assurance Easy Save, Engage Mutual Assurance Junior Easy Save, engage Mutual over 50's Life Insurance,Equifax,Equifax Free Credit Report,Fashion World,Fifty Plus,Forest Holidays, Forthill Home,Free Orange SIM,Fussie,Gaming Club, Garmin,GIZOO, Gray & Osbourn, Helpucover Income Protection, Helpucover Mortgage Payment Protection,
HelpuCover Pet Insurance, Home Shopping Direct,Hotter Shoes, House of Bath, ITV online shop, Jacamo, JackpotCity Casino, Jacobs Digital, JD Williams, Julipa, Jurys Inn, Lakeland Leather,Lebara Mobile, Machine Mart, Mankind, Marisota, Mazuma Mobile, Merchant 4577, Microwarehouse, MO-Call, National Trust, Naturally Close, New Now, Nickshop, Orange Home & Mobile Broadband, Orange Home Broadband, Orange Mobile Broadband, Parkdean Holidays, PC World Business, PDSA, Perfect Pizza,Petplan, Petplan Equine,
Please&thankyou, Pontins, Premier Man, Red5, RU Books, RU Craft, SeaFrance Ferries,
Siblu Holiday Parcs, Simply Be, Simply Yours, Sleeping Solutions, Snow+Rock, So Bathrooms,
Soletrader, Talkmobile ,Terrys Fabric,The Adventure Company, The Dog House, Toystore.co.uk, Tracesmart, Viking Airlines, Virgin Bingo, Virgin Poker,Viva La Diva,
Vodafone, Vonage, Warner Leisure Hotels, Washbag.com, Webfusion, Whatafind.com,
Whats About Town, WHSmith Mobiles, Wilkinson Plus, Winegifts4U.co.uk

We never like to hide behind terms and conditions but in circumstances like this, we do have to quote from our account holder agreement as follows:

The Quidco Service allows Account Holders to earn referral fees cashback on tracked purchases from Retailers. To qualify for cashback, the Retailer must confirm that the Account Holders purchase is tracked, genuine and successful (constituting a "Qualifying Transaction"), and your resulting referral fee must be received by us (becoming 'Cashback' as a result).

You may see the retailers above remaining on the Quidco site. This is because affected retailers may switch immediately to a new affiliate network and continue with their affiliate business. However, this will not be related in any way to existing transactions and enquiries.

I am very sorry to deliver such bad news to you, but we did want to make you aware of this situation as quickly as possible.

Kind regards,

Dom Butterell,
Head of QuidCare

[Rob_B]

Arses, £90 was 3 months line rental I was expecting! Too late to cancel and all

[ManniX]

Damn that's a long list :/

This is the problem I've found with cashback sites, nothing is guranteed or promised. There's no legal requirement for them to pay the money (that I know of), however most cashback users will make decisions based on the best cashback deals and not nessecarily the best retailer or pre-cashback price. So when something like this happens the users stand to lose more than if they'd of shopped around for the best non-cashback deal. I guess it's the risk vs reward story again.

[SiM]

I guess it's the risk vs reward story again.

Exactly. You can't complain. Even under normal circumstances there is the risk that it doesn't track and they deny your appeal.

[jim]

They could've at least spelt affected correctly.

[spoon_]

I'd be very surprised if they will be around in few months...

[killie99]

Exactly. You can't complain. Even under normal circumstances there is the risk that it doesn't track and they deny your appeal.

Eh, they don't pay up even when it's been validated. My wife has an outstanding payment for £70 for a purchase that occurred in Nov 2008 and was validated in March 2009. No amount of complaining to Quidco has made one jot of a difference. I now use Topcashback instead.

[muddyfox470]

They could've at least spelt affected correctly.

Was going to say the same, seems to have a few mistakes throughout well instead of we'll they definitely rushed this one out.

Poor show; I didn't realise there was an intermediary to tie the companies and quidco together; surely that contravenes the whole you get 100% of cashback...

I'm glad the majority of my payments had just been paid I may end up switching to another network now because of this...

[finlay666]

Arses, £90 was 3 months line rental I was expecting! Too late to cancel and all

Same, no details on the site or email either which is poor

[ManniX]

I now use Topcashback instead.

I've heard good things about Topcashback. The rates don't seem quite as good as Quidco from a quick look around but they don't keep the first fiver so that helps to offset it a bit. Worth checking out for sure.

[finlay666]

For those that used Quidco for ones like Vodafone apparently it's not going to affect everyone, as the affiliate scheme changed recently. So only some of them will be affected in their tracking

[mikerr]

I'd be very surprised if they will be around in few months...

Quidco and HotUKDeals are the same company (they keep the cashback on all those HUKD deals),
so I doubt they're going anywhere soon.

[finlay666]

Quidco and HotUKDeals are the same company (they keep the cashback on all those HUKD deals),
so I doubt they're going anywhere soon.

Considering their referrals pay for both sites comfortably, I think this is a sound opinion

[SiM]

Ouch

Hi,

The purpose of this statement is to give you an update on DGM in a way that is as open and transparent as possible. Our aim is to add clarity following some poor communication on our part and a lot of rumour and speculation.

On Friday 16th July Quidco was advised that DGM were going into receivership, leaving to the best of our knowledge, Quidco and thus 24,723 Quidco members owed nearly £400,000.

This follows several months during which we were constantly promised payment, which, based on a 5 year trading relationship we took in good faith. Over the last several months we have paid 11,946 Quidco members £194,000 of money owed to them by DGM.

This money came out of our own pockets as we have always tried to keep member payments going out in as timely manner as possible, even if the networks are slow in paying us. We have done this without fanfare, fuss or blogging over the last few months.

However, despite us paying £194,000 there is still over £200,000 owed to Quidco members by DGM.

So in short, we know it is a tough situation for our members. This situation is our ultimate nightmare, but please bear with us as there is still hope for a positive resolution for all.

Finally, know that we are fighting our corner for our members, trying everything possible to get this money back and putting in processes to help avoid this happening again. We will keep you updated as soon as we know more.

If you have any questions relating to this matter please contact our customer care team and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Michael Murphy,
Chief Executive
Quidco

[Rob_B]

I've still not had one official bit of contact about this from them...makes my £90 seem weak in comparison though eh?!

[SiM]

I've still not had one official bit of contact about this from them...makes my £90 seem weak in comparison though eh?!

Thread at MSE for more info.

It's funny that you haven't received these messages too... they come up as support messages when you log in to quidco.