Cashback Saga

[WDeAth]

Back in November 2018 I purchased a RX100 III kit online from John Lewis. It was offered with a £50 cashback. It has been a saga claiming this £50 and it does no credit to either John Lewis or Sony.

What I have learnt (the hard way!) is do submit a "VAT receipt" with your claim.

This isn't evident from Sony's t&cs and I attempted to claim using a copy of the "Your order and returns details" which was enclosed with the camera. That gave, I thought, everything that Sony required (i.e. date of purchase, seller, customer & product). Oh no it didn't!

After chasing my claim, I got a demand from Sony for a document containing the following:

- Word "invoice" or "sales receipt".
- Company details: Name of the company selling the product(s), address, VAT number, (bank account details), (headquarter details).

- Your details.

- Receipt number.

- Product: product description, quantity.
- Purchase date.
- Pricing information: product price excluding VAT, (VAT %), VAT amount, total price.

- VAT registration number.

Wow! I turned to John Lewis who said "the company [Sony] will always request a VAT receipt... Please be assured the information they have requested is common practice for cashback claims". I made the obvious riposte to John Lewis that if they knew this why didn't they automatically supply "VAT receipts" with goods sold subject to cashback promotions? After some pressing I got a "Japanese no" (sic) from them with the following response (this is as written by John Lewis, the grammar is theirs): "I understand that you are asking if John Lewis would revise the website and processes to assist customers with their cashback claims. I cannot confirm on that for now since this type of concern is still up for further review. However, we do appreciate your feedback as this will help us in making the possibility in the future."

All this aggravation for £50!

[jumpsuit]

Hi @WDeAth and welcome to the Community

Yeah - unfortunately the VAT receipt issue has been reported on the

forum on several occasions previously.

I do agree it would be alot easier if the retailer, as you say, would automatically provide VAT receipts

especially if they knew about the t&c's!

[ronca123]

I have the same issue and not getting an email response from campaign.administration.EN@eu.sony.com 

Poor customer service.... I think the issue I have is similar to yours in that I didn't send a vat receipt. Fingers crossed I now have the correct receipt and they will pay the cashback..... Another email sent (7 in total).

Cheers!

[WDeAth]

Hi,

Thanks for your comments. It would be generous to say that it was clear in the t&cs. Sony gave me a link to the terms and clause 8 states: "To complete your claim you will be required to include electronically... a copy of your original printed sales receipt...showing the name of the retailer, the product name and date of purchase.”  All that information was in what I supplied. There is no explicit mention of what Sony eventually demanded (and refer to as a VAT receipt). So it was a matter of knowing the custom & practice of Sony rather than the terms & conditions. Hence I felt that John Lewis, with their "insider knowledge", should help their customers. Equally, it could be argued that Sony should adhere to their terms & conditions and not pull demands out of their hat after the sale has been made.

Cheers,

Walter

[GillianAnnie]

John Lewis provide a VAT link. Log into your account, click on the order and you will see the VAT link on the top left. That’s what Sony want. It’s really not that difficult to find.

[WDeAth]

Hi GillianAnnie,

Yes, a VAT receipt can be obtained from John Lewis once you know that you need one. I didn't know until my claim was rejected by Sony (I initally used the sales receipt that was packed with the product). So, my point was that John Lewis (who know that such VAT receipts are required) should provide one without asking to purchasers of Sony products that are part of a cashback promotion. That would be reasonable customer service.