Econnex / Groupon / Alinta Offer - Poor Service

seanbaussie on 09/03/2019 - 21:18
Last edited 09/03/2019 - 21:18

22nd February after using my Groupon deal I get the SMS: Thanks for comparing your energy plan by uploading your bill via Groupn.

9th March I get a phone call from (02) 8066 6980 that went just like this one:

Me: Hello
Female: (No introduction of her name, the company - or anything) I am calling to tell you you're not eligible for your $25 Gift Card

Me: I'm sorry, can you clarify what you're talking about?
Female: I am calling to tell you you're not eligible for your $25 Gift Card

Me: What $25 Gift Card are you talking about?
Female: You would have signed up for something a few days ago on like Groupon or something

Me: OK, I remember. Can you tell me why I'm not eligible?
Female: You didn't meet the criteria

Me: Which criteria?
Female: Because you didn't meet the criteria of either uploading your bill or providing your electricity details.

Me: Which one was it? (Note to anyone listening - I did both and was even given a quote, received an SMS)
Female: Because you didn't meet the criteria of either uploading your bill or providing your electricity details.

Me: Can you tell me what I didn't do, and what I need to do about that?
Female: You didn't meet the criteria of either uploading your bill or providing your electricity details.

Me: OK, Can I redo the form?
Female: Yes, if you go to the website.
Me: Which website?
Female: The original website.
Me: So will I have to pay again?
Female: Yes. No.

Me: Do you have a supervisor I can speak to?

Supervisor: Hello, I believe you have a problem. You didn't meet the criteria of either uploading your bill or providing your electricity details.
Me: Which one didn't I meet?
Supervisor: I don't have the details of that. My report tells me you didn't meet the criteria of either uploading your bill or providing your electricity details.

Me: So you have no idea what I didn't do?
Supervisor: I will have to contact our provider and ask for those details. I will call you back in 5-10 minutes.

I haven't heard back nor have I received a WISH gift card.

1) I don't appreciate getting called out of the blue from an unknown number reading a script and not actually knowing what they are supposed to do
2) I have read the T&C's and can't see that I failed any requirements - infact the T&C's are so vague that the only thing you couldn't do is turn up
3) When will I hear back again? Who knows…

Archived

Related Stores

Econnex
Econnex
Third-Party
Groupon Australia
Groupon Australia
Marketplace

closed Comments

  • bloom on 09/03/2019 - 21:22

    Cheers for the reminder, never got my gift card either… or a weird phone call

    • bloom on 09/03/2019 - 21:29
      +1

      Actually found the gift card in my spam email, timely reminder cheers OP :)

  • dylo on 09/03/2019 - 21:25

    I got a text saying basically the same thing, couldn't be bothered following it up.

  • stirlo on 09/03/2019 - 22:05

    I did receive my gift card. Emailed on 5th of March so took much longer than I’d planned

  • SydneySwan on 12/03/2019 - 12:02

    GC took 2 weeks. The phone call trying to switch me to one of their plans arrived within a day. I won't be dealing with Econnex again.

  • [Deactivated] on 17/03/2019 - 09:44

    Yeah now it’s official that alinta is shit, stay away and remember to post negative reviews and comments everywhere on all internets

    • INFIDEL on 17/03/2019 - 12:50

      Along with others who met the conditions of this deal - I received the $25 eGift Card.

      A good deal for $5 or less - if you read the requirements of the offer.

      This was a Groupon deal, of a promoter Econnex for Alinta - not by Alinta.

      Contact the promoter first [email protected], rather than venting. There's no $25 eGift card for venting😉

  • INFIDEL on 17/03/2019 - 12:59

    As discussed in the Deal, you & other(s) uploaded a bill which was not yours (ie did not have your name on it).

    There is a requirement: entered your last quarterly electricity bill…. That was stated in the Deal & on Groupon.

    There could be a breach of privacy if the promoter could look at someone else's bill (that you submitted). They don't have the authority to do that.

    Legally they could not process your application.

    So your claim would have been rejected. Paying some one else's bill as you argue, does not make it 'your' bill for electricity account purposes. You should get your name added to the bill.

    Some entered bills from areas excluded from this deal, failed to upload their bill or not the complete / latest bill, or submitted multiple claims,… These were some of the reasons for rejection.

    Rep's reasons why claims were rejected & email contact for questions / complaints

    The offer should have been presented more clearly by the promoter. Complain to the promoter if your claim was rejected.
    But some simply failed to read the Deal😢

    Others complained about calls after this Deal. No calls - Alinta mustn't want me as a customer😀

  • SydneySwan on 19/03/2019 - 08:33

    Received a GC from WOW overnight for this offer. Tried to add to WOW Money but said it was invalid. Looks like WOW have realised their mistake as already received GC from Econnex on March 12.

  • AssociatedManyo @ Econnex on 19/03/2019 - 15:17

    Hello Everyone,

    Apologies for the inconvenience. As mentioned earlier, there was a glitch from Woolworth's system, and the Gift Cards were not delivered automatically; hence, we had to send them through manually.

    The glitch has been fixed; however, the system inadvertently sent those gift cards again.

    We have notified Woolworths regarding this issue and the second gift card is inactive.

    • SydneySwan on 20/03/2019 - 14:39
      +1

      Any reason why the recipients of the second gift card have not been sent an email explaining that? I doubt they are all Ozbargain readers.

      • SydneySwan on 25/03/2019 - 09:42

        At 3pm on 21/03 I received this from Woolworths Gift Cards;

        'Hi,

        We apologise for our email that you received on 18th March, it was sent to you in error.

        We’re sorry for any confusion this may have caused.

        All the best,

        The Woolworths Gift Cards Team'.

        This offer has been a bit of a mess and neither Econnex nor Woollies have covered themselves in glory.

  • curtleyw on 25/03/2019 - 08:49

    My gift card never arrived. I received 2 Sms messages after filling out the details that I would receive my card in 7-10 business days.
    I have filled out the contact form from the T&C’s page twice but haven’t heard anything.
    Dodgy! If I get bored enough I’ll pursue a refund through Groupon.

  • AssociatedManyo @ Econnex on 25/03/2019 - 17:28
    -1

    Dear Sean, Thanks for sharing your concern. As per our discussion last we week we had advised that the bill you uploaded was just photos captured from within the bill without the name of the account holder. Thanks for letting us know that the bill was not in your name but of the house owner which automatically disqualifies you from the offer. Please note that we did try to follow up the same with you but the phone wasn't answered until late last week when we finally had a chat about the same. Hope your queries were answered.

  • BudgetBountyOz on 28/03/2019 - 06:45

    This company is a joke. I complained to Groupon.

  • shortgum on 31/03/2019 - 04:17

    Our sign up too did not receive the egift card. After looking thru this chat here could be something do with our bill upload…

    We could not upload the whole pdf because the econnex website not allow so. No clue why, tried so many times. we just uploaded a first page of our bill. Guess this trigger the problem… i think

    nonetheless, they have not notify us anything nor response to us why from our enquiry. Yes a untrustworthy company to dealt with and time waste

    • INFIDEL on 31/03/2019 - 11:47
      +1

      Considering we paid for this service - to have Alinta's products marketed to us…

      That's terrible service. And a waste of time in your & others case😠

      Should have had a better website, explanations, warnings, etc.

      I had no problems uploading bill as was already in small 243k 2 page PDF emailed from Origin. Received eGift card. So size of upload was likely problem. (Needed to be full bill, from State etc listed in promo, in same name as you.)

      Contact the promoter [email protected] (& Alinta).
      If they are a reasonable business, they should correct a problem with how their website handled your upload & process your claim!

  • jennkei on 08/04/2019 - 13:34

    This whole thing has been a mess. Would strongly recommend that no one bother with the headache of this 'deal'.

    If you choose to, read the fine print and make sure everything is in your name, AND that you submit everything correctly the first time around. Even then, it sounds like you have a chance of getting $0 gift cards. Check the balance when you receive them.

    • INFIDEL on 08/04/2019 - 15:15

      Duplicate cards were issued that were later made inactive. Sure that's not the problem with the gift card? Already replied same to your other comment.
      https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/7071121/redir

      Was a pretty easy deal for me.

    • Bargainbeth on 09/05/2019 - 01:27

      Hmm well, the whole deal was premised on the bill being in your name wasn't it? I thought they'd be dodgy as well, but it turned out fine for me.

      Thought I didn't get my voucher after 4 weeks so I emailed them. Didn't seem to have gotten a reply either. Then one day I check my spam mail, there's a reply from a friendly rep staying it might be in my spam email and that he's done the courtesy of resending the link to the voucher.

      The initial voucher was actually sent within 2 weeks of the comparison.

      They seem pretty solid to me.

      Latest bill was in my name. I uploaded and compared. End of process.

      Edit: zero dollar gift card and vague calls do sound suss But the reason for the latter may have been privacy (agents working on behalf of another company often don't have authority to divulge anything, Only pass on a message- annoying as that is, lots of companies do this)

      • jennkei on 23/05/2019 - 17:12

        It is, but you need to fulfill all the requirements of the fine print, the first time around. Someone with dodgy internet or who accidentally uploaded an incorrect bill would end up submitting an 'invalid response'. And they would not tell you about it unless you try to query maybe five times.

        It's great if it worked for you but for me, even after giving out all your info, the chance of getting a used gift card is the dealbreaker. I ended up getting a refund from Groupon so I didn't get one of those, but it sounds like other Ozbargainers did.

        • Bargainbeth on 23/05/2019 - 23:17

          Yeah, I guess the chance of the used Gift Card is pretty bad. As others mentioned above though, it sounds like that duplicate Gift Card thing, which they seem to have resurrected.

          On the customer service side it's all been good for me, when I emailed them about the apparent non receipt of Gift Card problem. But one of their energy company rep called me recently, the guy was quite pushy in getting me to hear his sales pitch and calling from a car whilst driving loll.

  • screensaver on 07/08/2019 - 00:17

    I got my gift card. Had to use it to get a new heater as my old one conked out. I stumbled upon this deal by accident, just typed in gift cards at groupon

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join