Amazon gift voucher not received -trading standards?

[fossean]

Your affiliate, WeGift, say on the status page that the voucher has been emailed to me today. It has not. I have checked my spam folder as suggested.

There are several other threads here full of people with the same problem.

I have emailed uk-vodafonevouchers at awin dot com but not had a reply.

I have phoned both WeGift numbers given in the other thread -- both go to voicemail and I have not had a reply.

This is infuriating! Must I go to trading standards to have this resolved? 

Please don't tell me to contact WeGift, I've already tried and it's impossible. Your affiliate manager (Cai) is featured in a YouTube video by WeGift, talking at length about how great they are, and how Vodafone can access the WeGift portal and change the settings etc, so it is obvious Vodafone can sort this out.

I'd appreciate your help with this as the voucher was the only reason I joined vodafone.

[Tuco]

we had the same at our house, a week BEFORE it was available a group of asian men in suits and vodafone/uswitch calling cards were asking if we were signing up to gigafast. we was anyway and he said you can get a £100 amazon voucher, he just needed our order number so we could get it.

OBVIOUSLY now we can see they get the money ,as they get that for referring someone. (introduce a friend and get a gift type thing). 

so someone at vodafone needs to look into my account and see if, someone got paid for referring me and reverse the payment asap and tell me who it is so i can go break his legs.

[Sheepburn19]

I consider it a Vodafone scam and have been attempting to get this promised Amazon £100 voucher for several months since signing up .

[fossean]

I'm astonished how difficult it is to get a decent response from a huge multinational like Vodafone. I really expected better. As forewarned in another thread,  Vodafone Twitter support fobbed me off: 

"Hi there, thanks for getting in touch. This promotion is set and offered by a third party, in this case WeGift so it's something you'll need to chase up with them. It's not something we're able to escalate."

I reject this - Vodafone have a commercial relationship with WeGift, who act as an agent for Vodafone. As Vodafone instruct their agent, they will be ultimately legally responsible for consequential losses and errors. Vodafone's affiliate manager has his picture plastered all over the WeGift homepage, and there is a YouTube video  where he is interviewed at length about their business relationship. So it's galling to be told that Vodafone has no responsibility for this.

I emailed the affiliates manager but haven't had a reply.

The WeGift website has a big red button to press when you can't find your voucher. This doesn't actually do anything. It's completely non-functional; by design, maybe? It's almost funny. There is a WeGift email address email that doesn't reply. There are two 'customer service' (haha) telephone numbers that go to voicemail and do not return a call. 

As someone observed in another thread, it's as though the whole setup is engineered so that people will give up and forget about it.

It's still possible that someone will reply and resolve this for me before I escalate to the CEO and trading standards. But I won't hold my breath.

[BandOfBrothers]

Hello @fossean 

I've popped onto the thread just to advise that there is no account access available via the Vodafone Community Forum.

They wouldn't be able to help you from here.

If a person needs this type of assistance we direct them to the Vodafone Social MediaTeams. Contact-us-for-account-specific-queries. 

I appreciate you've tried this department already.

I would invite you to perform a forum search to see if any similar posts yield any further results.

The 3rd party company you've decided to deal through should have the tools available { and that work ! } to their customers to be able to resolve issues connected to offers they are offering.

I wish you all the best with this situation. 

🌈 Stay Safe  🌈 

[fossean · Accepted solution]

I just want to follow up on this to help others in the same boat.

I contacted both @UK_Awin and @WeGift on Twitter and both contacted me after a while. I also had a reply from Vodafone's affiliates manager. So ultimately the voucher was received and I'm satisfied that the offer was legitimate, and not a scam as I originally feared.

This could all be avoided if the WeGift website were improved. (I understand that's not within Vodafone's remit). Firstly, the site reports that a voucher has been sent to your email, though it clearly hasn't. Secondly, the site has a big red button to press if you can't find the voucher in your spam folder. This button is completely unresponsive, which immediately causes concern and suspicion. There is an on-site form to fill in if you have a problem, but I didn't receive a reply through that channel. I also didn't receive a callback from either of the customer service numbers I found on another thread here (both went to voicemail). 

I'm sure this wastes an awful lot of time for all involved, and potentially damages reputation when there was actually no deliberate deception.

[DavidHoffman]

It's good that you did eventually - after wasting an hour or two I expect - get your voucher. Most people will give up or just forget and the many unclaimed £100 vouchers will end up in Vodafone's or Wegift's pockets. Clearly deliberate maladministration is more profitable than honest trading and Vodafone is quite happy with this as its business model.

I've had no response from Wegift and have wasted more than enough time trying to get Vodafone to honour its protest. I'm sending a letter before action today and will start a claim with moneyclaimonline in two weeks.

[Tash]

Hi there @DavidHoffman, if it's been over 120 days since your original purchase date you should receive an email from WeGift who will have verified your purchase. If this hasn't been sent to any spam or junk folders, you can contact the WeGift team through the confirmation email or email Awin using uk-vodafonevouchers@awin.com.
@fossean Thanks for updating the thread and I'm glad to see they were able to get things sorted for you! 

[DavidHoffman]

Hi Natasha

It has been considerably more than 120 days.

I haven't received an email from WeGift and I have checked that it hasn't been sent to any spam or junk folders.

I'm not sure what leads you to write "I'm glad to see they were able to get things sorted for you! " Nothing has been sorted out, My email to Awin 8 days ago is unanswered as are other requests for the voucher.

I emailed Awin again today and this I got a reply saying that they had no record of my email. I replied but silence since then. 

It's curious that Vodafone is always so quick and efficient when it's billing its customers, yet so many things go wrong when it's being asked to pay out on its promises. A large majority of people would have given up by now. It appears that this is the business model and that's simply shameful.

David

[GemmaP]

Hey @DavidHoffman 

I can see that Natasha was responding to @fossean in her comment, apologies for the confusion!

Sorry to hear you've still not received your Voucher yet, even after the 120 days. Have you heard anything back from Awin at WeGift?

As this is a third party offer, it does need to be taken up with them directly as they're the ones who supply the voucher to you.