Olympus summer promotion cashback 2018 problems

sphexx

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I submitted my claim and it was acknowledged and then accepted. Then it was marked as paid on 17.8.1i but never appeared in my bank a/c. I waited about 3 weeks but no good. Thought maybe I had mistyped the a/c number, though I know it well. I submitted a query from the promotions web site but got not even an acknowledgment despite ticking the box for emails.
Last week I started submitting queries under each of the drop down list categories, relevant or not. No acknowledgements.
Today I got an email saying it had been paid but might be slower than usual due to overseas payment (theirs not mine) but not accounting for 6 week delay or confirming the bank details. Then a second email saying they don’t have my full bank a/c details and to go and fill them in on the website! Also reminding me the offer closes on 1.10:mad:. I have got an immediate acknowledgement of that ... so fingers crossed.

Posting here in case someone else is having difficulty. They say the credit will be shown from “Interpay Sales Promotions”.

I thought there was a thread about this but cannot find it.
 
I got paid ok but it's a terrible time waiting weeks for it to come through, never knowing if there's been a hiccup or not. I wish they would just give you £50 off a lens at source or whatever instead of cashback.
 
yep I got mine but the keyword is EVENTUALLY
 
I’ve had cash-backs from Panasonic that went very smoothly :).
 
I had mine when they said I would, I just hadn’t remembered that I had given her the number of a different account from the one I was checking. Even so, it wasn’t quick. Bought July 15, paid August 26th-ish.
 
Mine took exactly the full 28 days, but my daughter got hers in just over a fortnight.

Currently waiting on 150 quid from Panasonic, had to wait 35 days before submitting the claim.
Been approved and now a a week in to the possible 28 day wait for the cash to appear
 
Well ... they paid me today about a month after I started chasing them. It seems they had an invalid bank a/c number for me — maybe I mistyped but it’s very unlikely and I’ve had that number for about 40 years so it’s ingrained in my brain. Their communications are pretty awful, still all’s well that ends well :)
 
I've also had a long wait for a cashback from Canon, it took them 6 weeks just to acknowledge I had a valid claim. Today, after over 10 weeks I chased it up, but discovered that Canon also use Interpay, so I didn't recognise a payment and Canon didn't send the anticipated email payment confirmation (in their terms and conditions). My previous Canon cashback experience was very good, so this was very disappointing. Overall, my cash back experiences have been poor. I'd actually sent Samsung a 'Letter before action' and was 24 hours from commencing Small Claims Court action before I finally received payment. Two years running saw long delays by Panasonic before I received two separate payments of £200.

These cashbacks tend to be subbed to third party companies who might deliberately slow things down or make life so difficult that many just give up on what was rightfully theirs. The Samsung case was shocking and the Company seemed to have no concerns whatsoever about the reputational damage their agents were causing.

The cashback schemes need better regulation and protection for the consumer, sooner rather than later.
 
Mine took exactly the full 28 days, but my daughter got hers in just over a fortnight.

Currently waiting on 150 quid from Panasonic, had to wait 35 days before submitting the claim.
Been approved and now a a week in to the possible 28 day wait for the cash to appear

Quick update, got paid at the start of the third week in, so about seven weeks in total, i'm ok with that
 
Most brands wait at least 30 days from the date of purchase before paying out to avoid people getting the cashback and then returning the item to the shop for a refund. Because of this six or seven weeks is about right for getting paid on a claim.
 
Most brands wait at least 30 days from the date of purchase before paying out to avoid people getting the cashback and then returning the item to the shop for a refund. Because of this six or seven weeks is about right for getting paid on a claim.
To be clear, I followed all their guidelines and when I chased them up it was a few days before the cut-off date. Although the payment was marked as made it was also marked as ‘returned’ but they did not notify me of any problem making the payment and I mostly got no auto acknowledgements to my web query submissions until after I queried in every category and then got 1 reply so I don’t know which query worked — none of the categories covered non-receipt of payment.
 
Frankly, these promotions (as evidenced here) actually put me off buying! If they can offer ‘X’ cashback then they can afford to reduce the price by a corresponding amount. I will readily buy kit at the right price but I will not jump through hoops and negotiate deliberately placed obstacles for any manufacturer however clever their ‘marketing cloud starers’ think they are!
 
Frankly, these promotions (as evidenced here) actually put me off buying! If they can offer ‘X’ cashback then they can afford to reduce the price by a corresponding amount. I will readily buy kit at the right price but I will not jump through hoops and negotiate deliberately placed obstacles for any manufacturer however clever their ‘marketing cloud starers’ think they are!

The camera I bought is now 150 quid dearer because the cashback offer has finished, glad I got it when I did.
Not exactly hard to send a form off with a photo of a receipt, still we all have different views on these things
 
The camera I bought is now 150 quid dearer because the cashback offer has finished, glad I got it when I did.
Not exactly hard to send a form off with a photo of a receipt, still we all have different views on these things

Nobody is suggesting it is hard to apply, what I do not like is the subtle obstacles put in your way and delays in processing valid applications once the return window has passed. Manufacturers outsourcing the cashback process does not exactly make it user friendly and as I said before, if they can do £150 cashback then they can reduce the price by a similar amount which in itself should increase sales because the price is lower. Each to their own opinion obviously but I steer clear of cashback promotions.
 
Frankly, these promotions (as evidenced here) actually put me off buying! If they can offer ‘X’ cashback then they can afford to reduce the price by a corresponding amount. I will readily buy kit at the right price but I will not jump through hoops and negotiate deliberately placed obstacles for any manufacturer however clever their ‘marketing cloud starers’ think they are!
But my post wasn’t about the hurdles and hoops you have to go over/under, I’m happy with those and it benefits those of us who can remember to comply.
As I understand them, cashbacks are a way to benefit ‘official’ retailers and helps them shift items they already have in stock and so are worth supporting.
 
Well I had to wait for my olympus one too but it makes sense that they wait to make sure the buyer isn't go to try and get money and return the camera as well. I had a very good deal on the 60mm macro lens at the Fotospeed / LCE fest in Nottingham in July; it resulted in a combined reduction of around a 1/3. It's a bit of a fiddle but, if I can get my hard earned cash back - notes in diary to check / eye on the bank statements etc - I will do it.
 
Nobody is suggesting it is hard to apply, what I do not like is the subtle obstacles put in your way and delays in processing valid applications once the return window has passed. Manufacturers outsourcing the cashback process does not exactly make it user friendly and as I said before, if they can do £150 cashback then they can reduce the price by a similar amount which in itself should increase sales because the price is lower. Each to their own opinion obviously but I steer clear of cashback promotions.

There's a couple of reasons why they do it this way .

One is to not kill the price in the market. So dropping it by £150 then raising it isn't an easy thing to do. The shops would all take an incredibly long time to get back up to the normal RRP as they all take their sweet time to maximise sales .

Also by law they can't really dictate to shops what price to sell at. So they'd deduct the price from the sales value and some shops may actually deduct it by £200. Thus killing that products market value for even longer.

Cashback is a good mechanism for an even playing field.

All of the shops you guys purchase from should have a good contact at the manufacturers - so if the claim is taking too long, ask the retailer for some help.

Oh, and the other reason for cashback being a popular vehicle for manufacturers is that not everybody claims it all of the time. Drop a lens by £150, everybody gets it. Do a cashback, then not everybody claims and the company has spent less money than they would have by deducting. (Nobody advertises it as a plus, technically the manufacturer would be fine paying out 100% of cashbacks but they won't mind only doing 75% either).
 
There's a couple of reasons why they do it this way .

One is to not kill the price in the market. So dropping it by £150 then raising it isn't an easy thing to do. The shops would all take an incredibly long time to get back up to the normal RRP as they all take their sweet time to maximise sales .

Also by law they can't really dictate to shops what price to sell at. So they'd deduct the price from the sales value and some shops may actually deduct it by £200. Thus killing that products market value for even longer.

Cashback is a good mechanism for an even playing field.

All of the shops you guys purchase from should have a good contact at the manufacturers - so if the claim is taking too long, ask the retailer for some help.

Oh, and the other reason for cashback being a popular vehicle for manufacturers is that not everybody claims it all of the time. Drop a lens by £150, everybody gets it. Do a cashback, then not everybody claims and the company has spent less money than they would have by deducting. (Nobody advertises it as a plus, technically the manufacturer would be fine paying out 100% of cashbacks but they won't mind only doing 75% either).

Ok, fair comment, particularly the ‘not everybody claims’ which I am sure their beanies rely on percentagewise.
 
Ok, fair comment, particularly the ‘not everybody claims’ which I am sure their beanies rely on percentagewise.

Exactly! I wasn't calling you out on it, I just know the mechanics of them - I don't think manufacturers intentionally put barriers in the way, but involving a third party probably adds all sorts of issues straight away!
 
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