BA eStore frequently failing to provide cashback

[mkyni]

Anyone else experiencing this? Could it be happening to a significant % of people?…

I’d say over half of my transactions via the BA eStore have gone untracked, been negatively adjusted or removed completely. There is NEVER any explanation from the Customer Service team, simply a generic response that the retailer decided the purchase wasn’t eligible. I’ve had much better experiences with TopCashback and Quidco, but sometimes the BA eStore cashback is so much better that it makes sense to avail of the better rate, however when it fails to track/pay-out, it’s always regrettable.

My problematic transactions did not use promo codes/vouchers, I did not click via another cashback platform, did not use a VPN etc., so there seems no logical explanation, especially when some transactions do track and eventually pay out. Customer Service can only be bothered to send a generic response, so they are of no help whatsoever.

Not that I believe this is happening BUT….. As far as I can see, there is nothing stopping the BA eStore getting a referral fee from the retailer and then not passing the cashback onto the customer. This wouldn’t be illegal, so it could be happening on a massive scale. Personally I feel that the cashback websites should be asked to provide PROOF that the purchase is not eligible, as often my purchases have been incentivised by the cashback, so when they don’t pay-out, you feel like you’ve been cheated out of a promised discount.

[davefl]

There are many threads on this forum complaining about exactly the same thing. Same happens with TCB, QC etc. I had a Hilton stay via the estore fail to pay out several thousand avios and the reason givem was that I did not stay there. The fact that it showed in my Hilton account and I provided the folio didn’t make any difference.

Affiliate marketing is the wild west, completely unregulated and as you allude widely open to fraud. I’ve had recent negative experiences with TCB US where TCB UK has tracked and paid perfectly for the same brand. The whole thing is a s***show.

[supergraeme]

Apologies for hijacking – I’m looking at booking a holiday home on booking.com at 8 Avios to the £. The T&Cs on the eStore say “Rewards are only given on hotel bookings and when they have been completed” – does anyone know whether that really means ONLY hotels?

[Maples]

I don’t use these websites much anymore but the only retailer I’ve got issues with is Deliveroo where it’s never tracks reliably, even by following all of the steps that usually works for me. You can’t even open a claim to get it sorted because they literally say you can’t. Based on what TCB have told me regarding some issues in the past, it seems to be an issue with the retailer themselves, as the retailers are the ones handing over the money and the people that they need to chase. No idea how much BA hand over to us or if they’re indeed telling the truth.

I now use Edge to make purchases with no adblockers, always accept all the cookies, and I make sure that I only click the links from BA when I’m ready to make the purchase. This method has worked for me quite nicely for TCB, Quidco, and BA as well.

For your issues, I feel like the websites are sometimes not storing information correctly because I’ve noticed with eBay (TCB only) that you don’t even need to use the links for a couple of hours. There have been many times where I’ve bought some items on eBay using TCB’s link, and then a few yours later, I bought another item without using the link – both were tracked the next day and I got paid. In fact, I think there’ve been times when I’ve bought a second time on eBay on the same day through my phone, without any links from these websites, and still got paid.

[davefl]

@Maples This is because cookies have a defined lifetime, which is sometimes set to be indefinite. That’s why the rejection reason is often that another channel claimed the transaction. It’s not the organisations storing information it’s the info held in those cookies on your local device.

Cashback is almost nothing to do with the retailer, it’s all about the affiliate marketing companies reporting back. If you clear your cookies and then examine what gets generated it’s named organisations such as doubleclick (google), tradedoubler etc.

For example clicking through to IHG from TCB is tracked by 4 companies, bttn.io, dotomi.com, emjcd.com and localizer.co

[Perkypat]

supergraeme wrote:

Apologies for hijacking – I’m looking at booking a holiday home on booking.com at 8 Avios to the £. The T&Cs on the eStore say “Rewards are only given on hotel bookings and when they have been completed” – does anyone know whether that really means ONLY hotels?

Have had payments for a number of apartment bookings on Booking.com. Can take a while for Avios to be credited, but you usually get them in the end.

[mkyni]

Summarised best by @davefl saying: “Affiliate marketing is the wild west, completely unregulated and as you allude widely open to fraud“.

I do think that there should be a legal obligation for cashback platforms to provide a clear reason to the customer why the cashback has been declined rather than a generic response. Only then can the customer challenge the claim, otherwise the system is wide open to fraud on the part of the cashback platform and/or the retailer.