BA Avios eStore – A scam? Every transaction declined!

[S879]

I seem to get every transaction declined in the last 2 years. Mainly I have used it for hotel bookings. Sometimes it doesn’t track so there is no click id and now, the ones that tracked and I completed stays for in July/August have been declined. We are talking tens of thousands of Avios points as some hotel stays were over a £1000 each. I am not happy about it as it has also taken me a lot of admin time to take screenshots, launch missing Avios claims. I don’t use other cashback sites other than the one not mentioned here and that doesn’t often offer cashback for most hotel bookings. In short, bookings were made directly with hotels and no other site was open at the time. I genuinely feel it’s a scam as I have not got approved anything since 2022. Have others faced this and found a way to claw them back? Is there some way to contact them or get this resolved as I can provide every evidence they need? Their standard Contact Us takes you through usual Missing Claim and that won’t work. I feel this should be reported as they just randomly decline on their whim when the transactions are legit!

[Alesio]

same here found majority of my last 2 years transactions on estore failed to register on their end. the missing claim form is annoying and in the end started to use other cashback websites as I found it a nuisance.

bought a large wardrobe and did a missing transaction and the person stated because the whole wardrobe was broken down with individual pieces of the wardrobe which amounted to some pieces being more than 3 in quantity on the receipt that it would be rejected. also waiting 7 days before you can put in a claim leads to me forgetting so I don’t tend to bother use discounted Giftcards to pay for items.

normally used it for John Lewis purchases but the points on offer is really poor now.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

The FutureLab sent a survey out this past week on shopping via the Avios app. I was glad to see others responded as scathingly I did about legitimate transactions being denied

[davefl]

I gave them one more chance in May, (4 years since my last estore transaction) and just got a cancalled notification this morning for Hilton.

This purchase no longer qualifies for one of the following reasons:
There has been a part or a full return all of your order.
An invalid voucher code was used on your purchase (only the ones displayed on Shopping.ba.com are valid).
The last click from your browser did not come from the Shopping.ba.com
Your purchase does not meet the merchant’s purchase conditions or Shopping.ba.com’s terms and conditions.
The item you purchased has a different Avios collection rate.

All reasons absolute bull. All I did was click through to Hilton and book a non-ref Hampton which I stayed at 3 weeks later

[S879]

Exact same response from Hilton today too for two separate hotel transactions! I’m sure others will chime in with similar experiences. Rob and team, can we escalate this to someone at BA? I have seen this reported before here and it’s a matter of principle. It’s very unfair and if they are doing it for most transactions for same hotels, like Hilton, then it’s a scam.

davefl wrote:

I gave them one more chance in May, (4 years since my last estore transaction) and just got a cancalled notification this morning for Hilton.

This purchase no longer qualifies for one of the following reasons:
There has been a part or a full return all of your order.
An invalid voucher code was used on your purchase (only the ones displayed on Shopping.ba.com are valid).
The last click from your browser did not come from the Shopping.ba.com
Your purchase does not meet the merchant’s purchase conditions or Shopping.ba.com’s terms and conditions.
The item you purchased has a different Avios collection rate.

All reasons absolute bull. All I did was click through to Hilton and book a non-ref Hampton which I stayed at 3 weeks later

[BBbetter]

When they offer much more than competition, even more than TCB or quidco, that’s a red flag.
They also know it’s close to impossible to raise a dispute and prove the cookies etc for a regular user.

In contrast, whenever I haven’t seen clicks tracking through TCB, the support team has been really responsive and chase the merchants on my behalf.

[davefl]

As I’ve said before on these threads, it’s nothing to do with the companies themselves, it’s the affiliate marketing companies. Hilton’s one has never paid through the estore.

I’ve got similar issues with TCB US, where Marriott never pays but IHG and BW do. I use exactly the same procedure each time, so it’s not my doing. Marriott on TCB UK pays out fine.

There needs to be some regulation for affiliate marketing, industry body, charter etc but it’ll never happen.

The better run companies such as TCB UK and Perksatwork do often follow up, but less successful with QC and the estore is a waste of time. Previous transaction with estore in 2020 was Hotel Chocolate which awarded 430 avios and then 9 months later took them back. Never had that with TCB or QC.

Estore is just symptomatic of BA’s race to the bottom of their brand.

[Maples]

davefl wrote:

I gave them one more chance in May, (4 years since my last estore transaction) and just got a cancalled notification this morning for Hilton.

Also received emails regarding two stays that took place recently. I looked on Hilton and it seems that they had the 2x points multiplier applied, so there was some promotion going on. I wonder if this is what’s made my bookings get declined from BA…

All of my previous ones have been credited by BA and they didn’t have the 2x multiplier or the 80% Gold bonus.

[executiveclubber]

Transaction in January with “maximum 6 months to post”. Chased now 7 months in with receipt on live chat. “It’ll take anywhere between a month and three months for us to review”. They’re basically stealing commission from us and doing anything but what they advertise, it’s a joke.

PS — it’s not BA, I believe it’s IAG Loyalty who run this. And they make massive profits of course.

[JDB]

Whenever this topic comes up, there are a number people who say the BA eStore is a useful source of Avios and, at the other extreme, those who claim it’s a ‘scam’. I don’t know what makes the difference save that maybe I keep things simple – no ad blockers, VPNs etc.

I have admittedly never used the eStore to book a hotel as doesn’t seem like a good route, but we use it with a big variety of retailers and it seems to work reliably if you follow the rules. I don’t bother challenging small clawbacks but haven’t failed to get a bigger one restored after sending the evidence. For us, it’s a fairly minimal effort to earn around 30k Avios p.a.

The scheme hasn’t got anything to do with any alleged ‘race to the bottom’!

[davefl]

JDB wrote:

Whenever this topic comes up, there are a number people who say the BA eStore is a useful source of Avios and, at the other extreme, those who claim it’s a ‘scam’. I don’t know what makes the difference save that maybe I keep things simple – no ad blockers, VPNs etc.

No add blocker, no VPN, I’ve been in IT for 37 years, I know what I’m doing and I know what it takes to get a cookie to track.

I have admittedly never used the eStore to book a hotel as doesn’t seem like a good route, but we use it with a big variety of retailers and it seems to work reliably if you follow the rules. I don’t bother challenging small clawbacks but haven’t failed to get a bigger one restored after sending the evidence.

When you’re told you didn’t stay at the property in question (Hilton San Fran) and you provide the paid folio to the estore plus a screenshot of your Hilton account and then are still told you didn’t stay there, it’s fraud to not pay the several thousand Avios that were due.

[TJ]

Interesting…also received an email today with a legit Hilton stay being declined. Given that quite a few of us on this forum are very experienced with using eStore successfully with other merchants, it appears that there’s a bit of a common theme here with Hilton.

[HSV]

Every Hilton booking I have done as been rejected. All others, eg booking.com, Viator, John Lewis, Agoda, ebookers and list goes on, no issues. But Hilton refuse every time.

[S879]

What email to you send the evidence etc once it has been declined? I have noticed the CS email I reply to just generates another case number!

JDB wrote:

Whenever this topic comes up, there are a number people who say the BA eStore is a useful source of Avios and, at the other extreme, those who claim it’s a ‘scam’. I don’t know what makes the difference save that maybe I keep things simple – no ad blockers, VPNs etc.

I have admittedly never used the eStore to book a hotel as doesn’t seem like a good route, but we use it with a big variety of retailers and it seems to work reliably if you follow the rules. I don’t bother challenging small clawbacks but haven’t failed to get a bigger one restored after sending the evidence. For us, it’s a fairly minimal effort to earn around 30k Avios p.a.

The scheme hasn’t got anything to do with any alleged ‘race to the bottom’!

[S879]

100% agree with what you have written. Ofcourse, we will get 2x promo offers etc. with hotels AFTER the booking was made and we will register for them. The fact that no OTA or cash back site was used or any promo code should entitle use to what the cash back promises. I really wish this can be taken further and escalated since there are so many of us.

davefl wrote:

JDB wrote:

Whenever this topic comes up, there are a number people who say the BA eStore is a useful source of Avios and, at the other extreme, those who claim it’s a ‘scam’. I don’t know what makes the difference save that maybe I keep things simple – no ad blockers, VPNs etc.

No add blocker, no VPN, I’ve been in IT for 37 years, I know what I’m doing and I know what it takes to get a cookie to track.

I have admittedly never used the eStore to book a hotel as doesn’t seem like a good route, but we use it with a big variety of retailers and it seems to work reliably if you follow the rules. I don’t bother challenging small clawbacks but haven’t failed to get a bigger one restored after sending the evidence.

When you’re told you didn’t stay at the property in question (Hilton San Fran) and you provide the paid folio to the estore plus a screenshot of your Hilton account and then are still told you didn’t stay there, it’s fraud to not pay the several thousand Avios that were due.

[JDB]

@davefl – does this not suggest there is a specific problem with Hilton and maybe some other merchants rather than the “fraud” you allege at the eStore which relies on the merchant (or company that handles its affiliate marketing) to accept or deny claims. The bottom line is that for whatever reason Hilton isn’t paying the affiliate commission to the BA eStore, so they in turn don’t pay you. It’s Hilton that should be castigated here rather than people referring to ‘scams’ or ‘fraud’ at the eStore.

One thing I don’t know re a hotel booking is whether, if you use a ‘member’ rate on booking, that invalidates any cashback on the eStore? Logically it should.

[JDB]

@S879 – I don’t think your analysis is correct. A merchant is entitled to and expects only to pay one ‘finders fee’ and I believe that if you participate in a promotion, even if that is after the initial booking, the merchant is entitled not to pay the eStore any affiliate fee because that would mean them paying twice. A lot of merchants are quite savvy in how they handle these things. These transactions mostly pay after ‘completion’ and that’s the point at which the merchant checks the transaction. The same post event checks can reveal that while you thought a transaction tracked on the eStore and it all looks normal, the merchant can still say that wasn’t the first click, so affiliate commission denied. In this case, a merchant’s own ‘cashback’ directly to you in some form is going to override the eStore.

[Aston100]

Both of my last two purchases were declined (furniture and something else can’t remember – not hotels).
So I now use the BA estore as a last resort when TCB etc don’t have an offer.

Booked a couple of airbnb stays the other day (as no one else seems to have an offer for them) – lets see what happens next year.

Anyone defending BA estore is having a laugh. I don’t care if the issue is a middleman – BA eStore need to proactively manage this.

[JDB]

@Aston100 – I think the problem is that many don’t understand how these affiliate schemes work, so I’m not defending anyone but trying to explain genuine reasons why it may not be working for them, when there is no major underlying issue. The eStore does basically work, but obviously not for every transaction.

I don’t believe the BA eStore isn’t paying out to the customer when it gets paid by the merchant. It’s the merchant not paying and there’s frankly little BA can do about that unless you can pin down the person or team within the merchant who deals with these issues. BA gets a rejection and passes it on to you. There’s a retailer my wife uses a lot and she used to have a lot of tracking issues so I got in touch with the merchant and while it now works more smoothly because my escalation made them understand some unintentional blocks, if there is a problem I email or call her and it’s fixed within a couple of days.

[Alex G]

19 reviews on https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/shopping.ba.com

17 of them are one star

Unfortunately, no from IAG responds.

[JDB]

@AlexG – apart from the fact that 19 reviews in almost three years is totally immaterial, that site is best known for people venting their annoyance rather than providing any useful gauge. If you worked for the eStore, would you bother engaging with those types of reviews?

[davefl]

JDB wrote:

@davefl – does this not suggest there is a specific problem with Hilton and maybe some other merchants rather than the “fraud” you allege at the eStore which relies on the merchant (or company that handles its affiliate marketing) to accept or deny claims. The bottom line is that for whatever reason Hilton isn’t paying the affiliate commission to the BA eStore, so they in turn don’t pay you. It’s Hilton that should be castigated here rather than people referring to ‘scams’ or ‘fraud’ at the eStore.

I’m clearly laying my criticism at the affiliate’s door in my post above. Don’t twist things. And don’t defend the indefensible as you always do. BA/IHG need to take responsibility for this as it’s fraudlent behaviour. Contract offer/accept by the estore.

One thing I don’t know re a hotel booking is whether, if you use a ‘member’ rate on booking, that invalidates any cashback on the eStore? Logically it should.

The Ts&Cs in the estore quite clearly state that different levels of Hhonours members get different multipliers. For Gold it’s 4x.
In my case above there was no current promotion for Hilton at that time either. As for this “last click” business, they rely on that as it’s impossible to prove unless you video the entire transation.

[Alex G]

JDB wrote:

@AlexG – apart from the fact that 19 reviews in almost three years is totally immaterial, that site is best known for people venting their annoyance rather than providing any useful gauge. If you worked for the eStore, would you bother engaging with those types of reviews?

I disagree. Many retailers ask verified customers to post on the site. Most of my reviews are positive, and I have had feedback from both positive and negative reviews. Good companies monitor the feedback on TrustPilot, and try to resolve any problems raised.

[Lady London]

Hilton- longstanding – has been reported over and over again to just not pay out as promised on cashback and affiliate sites. I had cases going way back and stopped staying at Hilton for a long while because it’s simply dishnourable and clearly systematic deliberate policy by Hilton.

With IHG for instance, over a few years, I found UK cashback aites wouldn’t pay out – don’t listen to the excuses tbey are alwaus rubbish – but US cashback and affiliate sites paid out on the identical booking types promptly and without issue. So I was using my US cashback and affiliate membershipd to book IHG hotels in UK and Europe. Often % payback was better on the US sites too. Never made any differrnce with Hilton though : Hilton always failed to pay out.

The fraudulent denials and clawbacks by the BA eshopping operator are a different issue. If uou google who’s actualky running it for them and look around a bit on the net you’ll take eztrene measures to prove everything and chase things promptly and aggressivrly.

[Jamz]

Isn’t it the same company that owns priority pass? Collins or something