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December 2008
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DABS Prize Winner |
| 23 December 2008 |
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Congratulations to Adrian Li from Reading who won the recent DABS competition to win a brand new Ipod Nano. For those of you who were unlucky this time...keep entering our Christmas Bonanza competition before it closes on New Years Eve for a chance to win one of over 50 great prizes!  View Comments on this article (or even add to them)? Click here.
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Top-Ups from Top Cashback |
| 22 October 2008 |
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We have some FANTASTIC news to bring you in this blog. We have now launched our long awaited ‘Top-Ups from Top Cashback’. What does this mean I hear you ask? Well, let me explain… We have now enabled all of our members to earn MORE THAN 100% cashback. We see this as our way of saying a BIG thank-you to everyone for their loyalty. This is unique to Top Cashback and the first time such an initiative has been seen in the UK (or anywhere in the world, come to that). This has been launched at a perfect time for everyone’s Christmas shopping – and should be just that little bit of extra help to beat the Credit Crunch. We have consistently broken the cashback rulebook since we launched over three years ago. We launched as the only site to offer 100% cashback with no admin fees. Many people felt this couldn’t be done – and some even poured scorn on the idea. By keeping our operation very efficient though, we have not only survived, but prospered under this model. Why are we Launching "Top-Ups from Top Cashback" ? We are absolutely determined to always maintain our position as the “UK’s Most Generous Cashback Website” and to continue to bring to our members the best value service in existence. As we have grown bigger over the last three years, our advertising revenue has increased (you might even have noticed some ‘Premium Positions’ popping up for some of our retailers on our website) – so true to form, we have been looking for the best way of passing some of that extra revenue back to you, our members. We finally hit on a means of rewarding our new and loyal members – and we call this ‘Top-Ups from Top Cashback’. “Top-Ups from Top Cashback” Explained For a full explanation, your best bet is to click through to our ‘Top-Ups from Top Cashback’ page. But here is a summary… Every time you earn cashback through Top Cashback, you have the potential to earn a ‘Top-Up’ on top of the cashback which is already passed on to you. In order to qualify for a ‘Top-Up’, you simply need to have earned at least £10 in cashback in the previous month. Even better, as the amount of cashback you have earned increases, so do the Top-Up rates. So, the Top-Up rate you are on for all new transactions in November (for instance) will depend on how much total cashback you earned in October. You won’t need to do anything differently to qualify – your Top-Up will be automatically added to your new transactions. Below, we show the different cashback rates you can now qualify for: 0 to £9.99 earned during the previous month … 100% cashback £10 to £19.99 earned during the previous month … 101% cashback £20 to £29.99 earned during the previous month … 102% cashback £30 to £49.99 earned during the previous month … 103% cashback £50 to £99.99 earned during the previous month … 104% cashback £100 to £199.99 earned during the previous month …107% cashback Over £200 earned during the previous month … 110% cashback For a more complete explanation, and to see which cashback Top-Up rate you qualify for, simply visit our ‘Top-Ups from Top Cashback’ page. We spent a lot of time devising these rates to make sure virtually everyone could be included and therefore benefit – whilst ensuring no-one can lose out. We hope you like it :-) View Comments on this article (or even add to them)? Click here.
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Ebookers Competition - £500 Cash Giveaway |
| 13 October 2008 |
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CONGRATULATIONS to our 5 Lucky winners in this competition... cashback2 kfisher Mattsan1 mattvaughan emmalou30 Better luck next time to everyone else. Courtesy of Ebookers, I’m delighted to say that we have £500 in cash to give away to our members. We are going to award 5 lucky members £100 cash each. You can enter the competition to win one of these prizes in two ways. You can enter by simply purchasing a flight, car-hire, a holiday, hotel accommodation, insurance or a “Package” from Ebookers – via Top Cashback. Anyone who has cashback track to their account from Ebookers before the closing date will be entered into the competition. Alternatively, you can enter by simply clicking through to Ebookers from Top Cashback. You must then come back to this blog and tell us what you thought was good about the Ebookers website (or about Ebookers as a company). The winner will be chosen at random (using the website random.org) and the competition is open ONLY until Monday 20th October – so hurry! Remember, you need to click through to the Ebookers website from the Top Cashback Ebookers page as well as posting a comment on this blog in order to enter. If you needed any more persuasion to use Ebookers – remember also that they have recently increased cashback available to Top Cashback members. You can now earn 1.8% cashback for flights, 10% for car-hire or hotel accommodation, 12% for insurance and 6% on packages. View Comments on this article (or even add to them)? Click here.
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Win Football Tickets |
| 11 August 2008 |
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I’m pleased to say that courtesy of Emirates, we have a pair of football tickets to give away to an Arsenal home game. Even if you’re not an Arsenal fan, don’t worry because, thanks to Emirates, you might well be able to choose which match you go to see – meaning that you might still be able to watch your team in action. You can enter this competition in one of two ways. If you make a booking with Emirates (via Top Cashback), then you will receive automatic entry into the competition. No purchase is necessary however, and you can also enter simply by clicking through to Emirates from Top Cashback. You will then need to come back to this blog and tell us what you liked about the Emirates website, or why you like Emirates as a company – or, in fact, anything you like at all about Emirates. The winning entry will be chosen at random and the competition is open for two weeks – ending at Midnight on Tuesday 26th August. Remember, you need to click through to the Emirates website from the Top Cashback Emirates Page as well as posting a comment on this blog in order to enter. View Comments on this article (or even add to them)? Click here.
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Fair Play |
| 25 July 2008 |
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The last time I checked, Google had a great mission statement. It was simply ‘Don’t be evil’. We’d love to use that statement ourselves – but it’s taken :-(. Fortunately, we realised that at Top Cashback we follow a simple strategy – and even better we realised this strategy could be summed up very simply with the words ‘Fair Play’. Now we fully realise that it is very, very easy to come up with nice sounding slogans and pretty words with the aim of fooling most of the people most of the time – but we are deadly serious in following our “Fair Play” philosophy. Many of the retailers and affiliate networks we deal with will have heard us talking about this idea for a while. In fact many of you, our members, will have heard us mention it to you through our enquiry system – especially if we have managed to reach a resolution on a particularly difficult enquiry. We thought, however, that it was time we made a public statement about our ideals and gave you all a little more information. That way, you can see where we’re coming from and what we’re really about. Dare I say, even more importantly than telling our members, we have been talking about this concept to our staff too. It has generally been one of the first things we have discussed with applicants during their interview process. We did this because we are determined to build a company of like-minded individuals who will all value the ‘Fair Play’ concept. What is more – we know this means that our staff will hold us to account if they feel we aren’t ‘Playing Fair’ with anyone else. Fair Play is a very simple concept for us – because all it involves is putting ourselves in other people’s shoes and determining what we would expect in any given situation. So in fact, another way of stating our philosophy is: ‘Do as you would be done by’. Now, please note, this doesn’t necessarily mean that we will always be able to resolve every problem and pay for every untracked sale. It does mean, however, that if we feel there has been a deliberate avoidance of paying cashback by a retailer – then we’ll do our utmost to chase. If however we feel we have made clear warnings of possible issues – then whilst we would certainly chase up claims, we wouldn’t feel quite so duty bound to come up with a resolution when all else had failed. Our “Fair Play” philosophy however, doesn’t just extend to our members – but also to our suppliers and retailers (not to mention the most important people, our staff). We always wish to make sure our retailers understand the cashback concept. The last thing we want is for any retailer to be unhappy about any aspect of their listing. Furthermore, if a small minority of members are abusing an offer – then that isn’t being fair to anyone. It goes without saying that we would always seek to halt such behaviour and we have many systems in place to help us to identify fraudulent activity. We may not always get everything spot-on – being human, we are bound to make mistakes at times. But by following our philosophy and always seeking a Fair Play solution, we will have done our best! If you really want to know more, you can read our actual company Mission Statement (which is essentially our company philosophy). Our Mission Statement A mission statement might sound like something that a company with nothing better to do would come up with. Or does it just sound very American? Either way, it wasn’t something we thought we would need. As Top Cashback grew and grew, decisions tumbled by more frequently. Not only that, but they were getting bigger and sometimes scarier too! And do you know what – we found that we needed to know what exactly we were aiming at in order to make those decisions…..oh, we needed a Mission Statement. Something else about Mission Statements. In theory, they are what underline everything a company does. This is why most company Mission Statements are deathly boring and talk about things like maximising profits in order to satisfy shareholders .. blah... blah… blah…. To get back to the point, what I am trying to say is that the words you read below in our Mission Statement really tell you what we are ‘really’ about. Mission Statement In every interaction with our staff, with our members, with our retailers or with anyone else who we come into contact with, we aim to follow our own company philosophy, which becomes our promise of how people can expect us to act. We aim to grow our company by building a reputation of being ethical and honest and by treating our staff, members, customers and suppliers with the respect they all deserve. Wherever possible, we intend to offer the most generous deals for our members, which in turn means aiming to create the most efficient and streamlined organization in its sector, wherever possible through employing technology to its best effect. We are not aiming for short term profits – but rather, in a financially sustainable manner, to grow a popular website with a great reputation. We believe this is the best way to benefit all in the long term. In short, the principle which should define our interactions with our staff, members, customers and suppliers can be summarized with the popular saying: ‘Do as you would be done by’ – or as we prefer to say: ‘Fair Play’. View Comments on this article (or even add to them)? Click here.
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Premium Deal and 100% Cashback |
| 24 July 2008 |
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We have a small new feature on our site to talk about. You might notice on the homepage that we just have added a Premium Deal section. Here we intend to feature cashback retailers – just as we feature some already lower down on the homepage. So "What’s the big deal?" you might be asking. As you know, we have always been very upfront that this site has sponsored advertisements (which are clearly labelled and generally don’t pay cashback). Well, for the first time we have a retailer who is willing to sponsor us to feature them on the homepage whilst still paying the normal cashback rate. We wanted to post this blog just to say “hey, you know what, we are receiving a sponsorship fee to show this retailer”. Any fee we receive will be a flat (monthly) fee so we’d not be able to track it to individual members. In effect – this is a small extension to our Sponsored Links and general advertising – but we just wanted to run it past you guys. This is probably a good point at which to remind all our members that we don’t make any "extras" or other "incentives" ontop of your cashback. All of your cashback gets passed on to you. When we say we pass on 100% of your cashback – that is what we do. Oh – and of course we’re the only 100% cashback site not to charge any admin fees (but I think you know that by now :-) ). Getting a little bit more technical now – but just a further point we’d like to make. Our retailers are all managed and transactions tracked via third party "affiliate networks". We have always chosen to work with as many different networks as resources allow in order to offer as wide a range of retailers as possible. Furthermore, if we have a choice between two different networks for one retailer – then we make the decision of which network purely based on best interest for our members (i.e. primarily by determining which pays the highest cashback rate). We don’t have any deals with any of our networks to pay us anything "ontop" of the cashback offered to our members. OK, I’m starting to go on a bit now… I was on a bit of roll. To summarise, all of this really comes down to our basic principle of "Fair Play", which guides all of our decisions. But more on that another time … View Comments on this article (or even add to them)? Click here.
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Our Online Diary |
| 13 June 2008 |
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In true Weblog fashion, we have decided here at Top CashBack to present a DIARY. The purpose of the diary is to show you what we have been up to on your behalf. Some of the entries will be of a more serious and formal nature and some not so. The reason for starting this diary is a serious one. We want to improve upon our communications with you to ensure that the quality of our relationship with you is established and maintained. We also want our transactions and issues to be transparent so that you can have trust in what we are doing. When we answer your enquiries it is apparent that a number of themes emerge, for example’ why have ‘so and so’ not paid me yet?’ or ‘why has this untracked claim not paid out yet?’. Understandably of course, we are then requested to chase up that retailer on your behalf – whilst in fact, we are probably already aware of an ongoing (larger scale) issue which we have been trying to sort out. Whilst the vast majority of our retailers process our claims within strict timescales – issues can arise occasionally with some. We spend a great deal of our time chasing up issues that seem to be getting beyond the norm. We are aware however, that whilst WE know about all of the effort we put into chasing these issues, you may not - so we want to keep you posted. Through this diary therefore, we will provide a list of the issues which we have been chasing and update you of any progress we make. Whilst we welcome any comments you may have, we are not intending this to become an area for members to request that their individual cases are progressed – we have an enquiry / ticketing system, which serves that purpose much better as it allows us to follow through the history of each claim. Equally, we are fully intending this area to remain VERY professional as far as the retailers are concerned. Any comments, which are at all abusive, will have to be removed by us as it is vital for everyone that good relationships are maintained all round. We therefore should mention that we reserve the right to remove any posts which we feel aren’t suitable. Even our own comments from our own diary may be removed, particularly if a retailer requests that we do so. As I say, this is to help maintain the best possible working relationships all round – which helps everyone at the end of the day. In summary, I guess this is our way of communicating better with you all. In some ways, we are laying ourselves bare – saying, yes there are ongoing issues. Here they are and this is what we are doing about them So lets get the ball rolling, what have we been up to this week (9th-13th June)…… Elephant, Admiral and Diamond – The Admiral Group There have been issues here getting our transactions and claims processed. The Admiral Group feel that our transactions originated elsewhere. We have disputed this. They have been kind enough however to agree to come up with a level of compensation for the missing transactions. We should hear officially and get this sorted out during the next week. Golden Palace This retailer no longer runs an affiliate scheme and for a long time it didn't look like we'd be getting any payments. Some of you may remember however that we had stated that no one would lose out totally – and that we would make sure some kind of compensation was paid. I’m pleased to report that their affiliate agency has stepped forward and kindly agreed to offer compensation – hopefully somewhere in the region of £50. We will only know the exact figure once we receive the compensation and divide it between the numbers of people affected. This week we have been chasing the actual compensation payment – and we have just heard that it should come through in this month’s payment. Orange We have heard that the compensation will be paid for all of the April and May commissions which changed. This should be resolved this month – so your transactions may be put back to their correct level at any time. Post Office We are happy to announce that the Post Office will be making a payment sometime in June, so for those of you who have been waiting a long time, this should hopefully be resolved for you very soon. Esure We’re happy also to announce that Esure are fully up to date with their payments to their affiliate network. This means that all of their transactions up until the end of March should become payable soon. Again, we know that some of you have been waiting patiently for quite some time. PruHealth There are several things to report with PruHealth. Having had a very good relationship in the past, we are very aware that some things have slipped lately. We think this is largely down to communication problems via the agency which PruHealth switched to around the start of this year. We have therefore managed to switch back to their original agency once again and we’re hoping that this will make processes run more smoothly. Meanwhile, we are chasing up some of our older claims with the affiliate network – and also chasing up payments for those transactions which have tracked – but which haven’t come through on our invoices lately. Some seem to have gone well beyond the expected time limit. Cyberslotz For some reason, in mid-May we had a sudden splurge of transactions for this retailer over one or two days. The transactions were all reported for a day or two and then disappeared from the reports which we get from their affiliate network. We have been chasing ever since to find out the story – but have now been told that those sales should never have been reported to us. We will therefore be removing the sales affected in the next few days. Members are welcome to put in Missing Cashback claims if they feel they should have genuinely received that cashback and the affiliate network will look into the claims for us. Ebay We are very pleased to continue to list eBay and I know many of you really appreciate using this service. Ebay now work via their own tracking system, which doesn’t allow us to submit missing cashback claims (as far as I’m aware). Unfortunately, this does cause us to receive many complaints from members. We feel that surely it is better to list Ebay just as we always have done – with a clear warning stating that we can’t chase up claims. (The alternative is not to list Ebay at all). This way everyone is forewarned and it is their own personal decision whether to link through via our site or not. We have to say, however, that it may reach the point where we would be forced to remove Ebay from our listings. Charities We would like to welcome an additional four new charities to our list these are; Actions for Kids, Child Victims of Crime, Multiple Sclerosis Society and St Anne’s Hospice – all have been added at the request of our members. We hope that they manage to raise some funds through us, from you. New to the Website The One Stop Phone Shop Offer. This is such a good offer, we had to feature it in our recent newsletter to you. The offer may not be around for too long – so we thought it best to send out a newsletter to you all. We have also added a Deal of the Week area on our e2Save page. We are hoping that those who aren’t massively mobile phone savvy might find this area useful - at least to start to guide them through the myriad of mobile phone deals out there. View Comments on this article (or even add to them)? Click here.
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How to Earn Cashback – from Start to Finish |
| 20 March 2008 |
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Here at Top Cashback, we have been thinking that we might put together an occasional series of ‘How To …’ articles. These would aim to cover all aspects of the use of Top Cashback – starting from the very basic. We hope that by putting these articles into this blog, members who have “been there and done that” can add their thoughts and comments. In particular, members could perhaps mention anything that confused them initially. So, where better to start, than at the very first stage – joining Top Cashback and earning your first ever cashback – Woo Hoo!!! As I write this, I am trying to imagine that I have landed on Top Cashback, perhaps after having heard it being mentioned, but not really understanding what it is all about. Joining Top Cashback has tried to make joining ridiculously simple. To join, all I have to do is to click one of the ‘Join Here’ buttons (for instance from the homepage). Then I simply provide my email address (which, from now on, will become my username) and think up a password. Simple. Job done. In future, I can sign-in using these details – or I can click the ‘Keep me logged in’ option, in which case I will be signed-in automatically whenever I use the same computer. Earning Cashback Now I can earn cashback whenever I do any online shopping. We will suppose that I already know I want to buy, say, a computer from Dell for instance. So now, I simply sign-in and find Dell within the site. I can either browse the categories until I find ‘Computing’ and then find ‘Dell’ in the list – or I can search (using the text-box at the top left of each page). For instance, I personally would search for ‘Dell’ and then look down the list for the correct retailer. Having found Dell, I then click through to the retailer page. Here I can read up a little on the retailer, and view some of its click and tracking statistics if I wish to. Then I click the ‘Continue’ button to be taken to Dell’s own website. From now on, and irrespective of which retailer I have chosen, I simply have to purchase exactly as I would do normally. But importantly, I should complete my transaction immediately and wholly online. If I end up having to telephone the retailer, then the chances are that my cashback won’t track. What happens now, ‘behind the scenes’, is perhaps the essence of the whole cashback ideal. The retailer reports to Top Cashback that I purchased from their site, having clicked through from Top Cashback. Therefore, the retailer agrees to pay commission to Top Cashback for providing them with my business. At Top Cashback, we pass ALL of that commission back to you – and we call it ‘Cashback’. Simple. (Oh, and in case you are wondering, Top Cashback makes its living from the clearly marked adverts around the site – so remember that none of these adverts will earn you cashback). It really is that simple – but there is just a little more to tell. The retailer will now tell us that this commission, or cashback, will be on its way – so we report this fact to you in your Account View area. We haven’t yet received the commission however, so the cashback is marked in your account as ‘Pending’ – meaning you can’t actually claim the cashback yet. It generally takes 2 or 3 months for the commission to become fully confirmed and passed over from the retailer to us. After this time, your commission will show up as ‘Payable’ in your account view – and you will then be able to click the ‘Payments’ button and choose how you wish to be paid. You can be paid either by BACS (the payment will be sent straight to your bank account), by Paypal or by cheque. So there it is - how to earn cashback from start to finish. You will notice that ‘all’ Top Cashback really does is to report (and pay) your cashback to you – as reported to us by the retailers (in the form of commission). Cheers Olly p.s. Do let us know what you think of this article and the whole process of earning cashback – and let others know if you have any experiences which you think might benefit them. View Comments on this article (or even add to them)? Click here.
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£150 cashback when you subscribe to Sky Digital and Free Draw entries |
| 01 March 2008 |
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SORRY, THIS OFFER HAS NOW FINISHED - olly 18mar08 During March we're offering you and your friends a massive £150 cashback on all new sky packages. What's more, we're giving free entries to our own TopCashBack draw. The prize consists of a Brilliant Hamper provided to us by FragranceDirect and includes a wealth of cosmetic products, aftershave and perfume, including top brand ceramic hair straighteners for you, your girlfriend or your mum! 2nd and 3rd place prizes will also be awarded. To be in with a chance, we've the following ways to get an entry: - Simply visit Sky.com via TopCashBack (gives you 1 Entry) - Tell your friends using the button from our Sky Digital details Page (gives you 10 Entries per person) - Subscribe to Sky Digital (gives you 100 Entries plus your £150 cashback) Remember we also pay cashback on upgrades for existing customers, should you already have Sky or wish to upgrade your new package later. VIEW THE SKY DIGITAL DETAILS HERE Remember, we don't charge you or your friends ANY admin fees. So your friends will also get the full £150 cashback if they subscribe, and are also eligible to enter the competition themselves! You can of course get an extra 50p referral fee in addition for inviting them. View Comments on this article (or even add to them)? Click here.
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Press Coverage – Your help is needed |
| 19 February 2008 |
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Hi everyone, lately we’ve started getting some press coverage and we’d love to get our members involved. If you’ve used TopCashBack to some extent and are interested in helping us out by talking to the press about how TopCashBack has benefited you, then we’d love it if you’d get in touch by sending us an enquiry (click here). Please can you provide your address and contact telephone number(s) and suitable times to be contacted. We’re particularly interested in getting members from all areas of the UK in order to suit the location of the journalists. Thanks a lot, your help is greatly appreciated. View Comments on this article (or even add to them)? Click here.
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