Feature

Birmingham crackdown on cashbacks?

Birmingham Trading Standards has gone public with warnings about cashback deals after receiving “hundreds” of complaints from unhappy customers. Within the last two months alone the council has been told of at least five retail businesses in the city that have ceased trading before honouring their cashback promises.

Councillor Neil Eustace, Chair of Birmingham’s Public Protection Committee, is quoted as having severe reservations about “the growing trend for cash back deals in the mobile phone industry ... These deals often look great on paper but can be fraught with problems over time.”

“This situation is made worse by the fact that, even though they subsidise the deals struck by independent retailers, the big network providers refuse to accept any responsibility for the actions of third party dealers.”