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Post by bluechip on Aug 12, 2015 13:14:22 GMT
Hi, a heads up and request for guidance - I just received £25 from the cash back offer, despite paying in £10k and investing that in the 5 year market, (I should have received £100). A few days after making the investment I had a loan repay early of around £5k, so I withdrew the £5k from Ratesetter as the rates had fallen dramatically, I understood this would not affect my cash back entitlement.
I phoned later to double check. I was told "they are treated separately, likewise any repayments made during this period that are re-invested by you do not qualify for the new investment figure, this offer is for new investments and your investment of £10k meets the criteria for the full £100 bonus, if you do have any problems please call us as we can make sure you get the full entitlement once we start paying out the cash back bonuses".
So I just phoned again today to ask why only £25 was paid in and was told that it is the "net investment during the period and I had made a withdrawal a few days later which pulled down my original investment", I explained that the only reason I withdrew the £5k was because somebody repaid a loan at a higher rate early and that money was just sitting in my holding account, this happened several days after my £10k had been invested. I explained that I fulfilled the terms of the offer as I had paid in £10k and invested it in the 5 year market, my auto-reinvestments don't count toward the figure so why should separate withdrawals come off the figure? I have since looked at the terms I could find and there is no mention of "net" investment from what I can see (I'm not a lawyer, maybe clause 8 is a red flag but I read it as "somebody repaying early means you can reinvest and that goes toward your figure" basically a good thing for us).
I was told emphatically that I do not qualify and when I threatened to close my account and my wife's it was met with "no problem, but your wife will have to contact us separately". I said "actually put me through to your boss, this isn't on", so I'm waiting to hear from somebody senior (they were in a meeting apparently). I will let you know how it goes, but I wanted to alert you guys to this problem in case anybody else hasn't checked the details of what they have/haven't been paid. Below are the T&C's I found online, if anybody does have the original and I have missed this clause about early repayments being withdrawn affecting the investment I would appreciate the heads up, or if it is below and I am being stupid please let me know.
Being lied to in my first conversation is bad enough, but this all leaves a very sour taste in my mouth, not to mention the blasé attitude toward my investment/custom, but that's a slightly different issue, worrying nonetheless:
1.Offer valid from 00:01 on 1st July 2015 and ends 18:00 on Tuesday 14th July 2015.
2.Lending orders not completed before the deadline will not be eligible for the offer.
3.In order to be eligible for cashback, the additional funds must be committed to a lending term of 1 year or longer.
4.Maximum cumulative cashback per customer is £100.
5.We will credit your account with the cashback bonus within 28 days from the end of the promotion.
6.Cashback can be used for lending or can be withdrawn.
7.Sell-out requests made during the promotional period cannot be reinvested in order to receive the promotional bonus.
8.Contracts repaid during the promotional period will still be valid for the promotion.
9.The member-get-member promotion can be used in conjunction with this cashback offer so feel free to introduce a friend to RateSetter and you can both benefit.
10.RateSetter reserve the right to retain the cashback earned in connection to a Sell-out request during this promotion.
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locutus
Member of DD Central
Posts: 1,059 
Likes: 1,622
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Post by locutus on Aug 12, 2015 13:28:31 GMT
If you complaint is not upheld internally and you feel you have been treated unfairly, then go here: www.fca.org.uk/consumers |
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Post by bluechip on Aug 12, 2015 13:36:16 GMT
Thanks Locutus.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2015 14:36:26 GMT
Knew that the promotion only related to net additional funds after calling Ratesetter before the promotion started. As I knew rates would drop significantly during this period my funds were not added but withdrawn.
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teddy
Posts: 214
Likes: 90
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Post by teddy on Aug 12, 2015 15:11:03 GMT
8.Contracts repaid during the promotional period will still be valid for the promotion.
is a load of cobblers. It's factually incorrect and should, in my humble opinion used to screw RS over. Term 8 goes directly against the explicit instruction that all cashback contributing orders have to be made with freshly deposited money. After reinvesting an early repayment on 1st July, I was concerned enough to phone RS who told me all orders had to be made with new deposits, and that my order wouldn't count.
It appears you can't even withdraw your early repayments and then redeposit as this will drag down your net figure.
I would go to the FCA. It's a clear case of false advertising. This is what happens when a company gets to big for its boots and starts to think it can treat its customers how it likes.
Quick add to this. What bluechip has been told, as I understand it, is utter rubbish. Between 1st and 14th July, I deposited £2500 and reinvested it across 3 and 1 yr markets, and withdrew over £1700 in repayments and money I'd deposited but decided was better off elsewhere. By what bluechip was told, I shouldn't have received any cashback, but I got my £25.
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Post by bluechip on Aug 12, 2015 16:17:54 GMT
I have received an email explaining that they made an error and are now going to look through other accounts to ensure nobody else has fallen victim to this anomaly. They apologised and have paid the extra £75 into my account.
So it's worth double checking you got the correct cash back, as clearly something has gone wrong with the way they calculate things. I hate having to watch for these things, but at least they remedied their mistake.
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locutus
Member of DD Central
Posts: 1,059
Likes: 1,622
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Post by locutus on Aug 12, 2015 18:08:26 GMT
Good to hear they did the right thing.
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Post by westonkevRS on Aug 12, 2015 20:58:18 GMT
I have received an email explaining that they made an error and are now going to look through other accounts to ensure nobody else has fallen victim to this anomaly. They apologised and have paid the extra £75 into my account.
So it's worth double checking you got the correct cash back, as clearly something has gone wrong with the way they calculate things. I hate having to watch for these things, but at least they remedied their mistake. , I'm not in the office, but I'm sorry you had this experience. I mean this truly as I'm proud to work for a company that genuinely always tries to do the right thing. Glad they got there in the end. Perhaps we are just growing too fast, and keeping that "do the right thin" culture will be difficult but hopefully not impossible. I'm not making any excuse, but the cash back was subject to quite a lot of cynical manipulation by short-term lenders. Clearly this wasn't the case with you, but staff in Customer Services have become hardened as a result and perhaps you fell foul of this. Just for the record I personally don't like the cash back campaigns. They make us look cheap and "sale of the month", I'd rather offer a consistent quality product. I'd ban them, but they are used tactically in instances where Finance are concerned about a forecast miss-match of lender and borrower demand more than the markets can handle. It's seen as a short term necessity rather than some long term thought out marketing campaign. westonkevRSlink.ratesetter.com/8Ls46js www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=19236219
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jonbvn
Member of DD Central
Posts: 326
Likes: 95
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Post by jonbvn on Aug 12, 2015 23:45:41 GMT
I agree. It smacks of a certain company that advertises widely on TV. I don't recall any time when they didn't have a sale.......
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Post by bluechip on Aug 13, 2015 10:22:15 GMT
Thank you Kevin, and those of you that posted.
The first cash back offer really annoyed me as I had invested just a day before (just hard luck for me). This one annoyed me more because of the noticeable decline in rates and the amount of loans that "repaid early". Customer service is always a tricky one to get right, especially as a company is expanding - I was literally seconds away from closing both accounts (mine and wife's) so I definitely think it's worth looking at addressing this issue and especially the nonchalant attitude to peoples investments by some of the employees. The guy I spoke with was adamant I was in the wrong and I knew I wasn't, very frustrating and then his "whatever" approach to when I threatened to close the accounts was disconcerting to say the least.
Hopefully the customer service standards improve along with the growth of the company.
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Post by bobthebuilder on Aug 13, 2015 19:58:24 GMT
I too have been underpaid on my cashback, so I have the impression that the problem is a common one. Still waiting for a reply to the email query I sent them on Tuesday evening.
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Post by closetotheedge on Aug 14, 2015 6:44:42 GMT
In defence of RS on the cashback I managed through my own stupidity to mess up my additional investment so they did not have to pay me the cashback. However, short email to customer service and within 10 mins an answer back letting me off. They could see that I had intended to invest in the right way so would pay me the £100. Received the CB on time into my account without need for further follow up. So good customer service and a more than fair consideration of my mistake.
I could moan about other things but on the cashback and the customer service I received good service.
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Post by bobthebuilder on Aug 14, 2015 20:10:13 GMT
I too have been underpaid on my cashback, so I have the impression that the problem is a common one. Still waiting for a reply to the email query I sent them on Tuesday evening. As an update to the above, I received a phone call from RS this morning advising that due to an IT bug in the program generating the cashback, the amount credited was based on the difference between what was deposited during the cashback offer period and what was repaid on existing loans. This applied whether the amounts repaid were withdrawn or simply placed on offer by way of reinvestment. I imagine this must have affected hundreds of clients, so Customer Service must be well pleased with IT at the moment  Thankfully I have now received the balance of the cashback due to me.
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Post by GSV3MIaC on Aug 16, 2015 7:49:16 GMT
I'm pretty happy with the cash back offers, except for the effect on rates. Not sure the money was actually matched inside the window, since it was put on the market at a sensible rate, but the cash back arrived anyway. Maybe it just needed to be be offered, rather than matched? (In which case why the mad rush to the bottom on rates?).
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Thankfully I have now received the balance of the cashback due to me.
