NIKON FAILS TO HONOUR ITS CASH BACK OFFER

 

I bought a Nikon camera on the 27th of July 2007. I chose a Nikon D40 over a similar offering by Canon purely because Nikon’s £60 cashback offer made it cheaper than the Canon.

 

Nikon never paid me the £60. They have been dishonest to me, missed five deadlines, cost me over £5 in phonecalls, and wasted hours of my time. Writing this webpage is the final amount of my time I am going to spend on this issue.

 

This is what has happened:

 

27th July - I bought a Nikon D40 camera and registered online for my £60 cashback. I posted my proof of purchase to Nikon.

 

17 days later:

 

13th August – Nikon sent me an email confirming they received my application. They state :
”If you do not receive your Cash Back payment within 20 days please log on to check your request”.
So I should get my cashback by 2nd September.

 

15 days later:

 

28th August – Nikon sent me another email saying they received my application, but now state “We received your request on 08/28/2007 and your application is now being processed”

and also

“If you do not receive your cashback within 20 days please log on to check your request” .

So Nikon have extended their deadline by 15 days with no explanation or apology.

 

2nd September – Nikon told me I am due to receive my £60 by this date. But no, Nikon missed this date. No apology.

 

17th September – This is the second date by which Nikon said I will receive my £60. Nothing arrived, Nikon failed to send me my Cashback by this second date. No message or apology.

 

3rd October – I send this message to Nikon via their online form :

 “This has been going on far too long. Send me my £60. Cheque or into my bank account. If you won't do it phone me to tell me why.”

 

THREE WEEKS later they finally reply:

“Dear Richard, Thank you for your cashback inquiry.

 

I am showing you have a valid request in processing. Once it completes processing your cashback will be issued to you.

Regards,
Customer Service Team”

 

18th October – Nikon post an announcement on their website: “We sincerely apologise to all customers who may have experienced a delay in receiving cashback payment due to a technical problem with our system. We will process payment by October 31st 2007 for all customers who completed the registration process during the promotion period.”. Note that this important announcement regarding my £60 wasn’t emailed to me. Instead I found it by chance on a Google search.

 

31st October – This is the third date by which Nikon tell me I will receive my £60. I receive nothing from Nikon, no message or apology.

 

5th November – I send a message to Nikon reminding them:

“You haven’t sent me my cashback. You extended your processing date, but that too has passed”

 

I get a message three hours later from Mathew Dakins:

“ Dear Rich,

Your case is being dealt with through incident 071105-000xxx

You shall receive a reply via that incident shortly.

Kind Regards,

Mathew Dakins
Nikon Europe Support”

 

One week later:

 

12th November - I receive a third email stating my claim has been received, this time they say

“We received your request on 12/11/2007 and your application is now being processed.”

 They seem to have forgotten the similar emails they sent three months before. Again they say

“If you do not receive your cashback within 20 days please log on to check your request”

 

14th November - After a phonecall to Nikon I receive an email from Amandine G : “Thank you for making contact with Nikon technical support. Following your enquiry about your cash back status, this email to confirm you that your £60 cheque will be sent by the end of this month to the following address:
xxxxxxx xxxxxx

Kind regards

Amandine G.
Nikon Europe Support”

 

30th November (“the end of this month”) - This is the fourth date by which Nikon tell me I will receive my £60. I receive nothing from Nikon, no message or apology.

 

2nd December – This is 20 days since Nikon’s email of 12th November. It is also the fifth date by which Nikon tell me I will receive my £60. I receive nothing from Nikon, no message or apology.

 

3rd December – Today. It is 160 days since I applied for my Cashback. I now realise that I am unlikely to receive any money from Nikon. I wrote this webpage to let others know about Nikon’s failure to honour their Cashback offer. Nikon have been dishonest to me, they have missed FIVE deadlines, and they have given me no apologies or explanations. For these reasons I shall never buy a Nikon product again.

 

I will now send a link to this page to Mathew Dakins and Amandine G. If I ever receive my Cashback I might update this page, but to be honest I’ve spent too much time already on this matter so I probably won’t.

 

Richard Lewis

3rd December 2007