Yesterday, I e-mail to them, to describe the problem, after a long time to receive their replies, the following is the message content:
My question:
Thank you fou your e-mail reply ,but I still do not quite understand. The fact is, I have recommended these addresses, but these addresses do not receive an invitation email for registration, as well as £ 20 voucher.
1, I was invited by my friend, received a invited email and voucher 20 pounds, than registrated the site, booked the hotel successfully
2, Then I invited my friends, but they have not received email invitation until now.
3, The issue has from yesterday to today, please check what are the reasons .
4, please help me to check, the following e-mail address has been recommended?
5, if the above address has been recommended, was I recommended it? My email is *****
6, if these addresses have been successful recommended, that means establish the relationship,between then and me already. It is likely that you missed the invitation letter issued and £ 20 voucher
7, Your web site does not allow me to invite the people who have not received letters once again ,said "the following person has already been refered"
8,Could you send a registered letter of recommendation and £ 20 voucher to the address above?
Their answers:
We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Please be informed tha the refer a friend programme has been temporarily stalled due to technical reasons . You will receive an e-mail once it is reinstated.
Can anyone confirm that they've successfully made new referrals yesterday or today?
I sent a couple of referral requests this morning before I knew the T & C had changed, and I know the emails were received. They haven't tried to book yet, though (I don't know if they still will).
Quote:
Thanks for letting us know, Vincent.Mars, and please do post here if you receive an e-mail once it is reinstated.
I'm not Vincent Mars, but did anyone else get an email this morning promoting the refer-a-friend promotion? I did, but it was just a generic ad, with no mention of the terms changes nor any hint that the promotion was resuming after a period of suspension.
Finally, while we're all considering how the changes affect our travel plans, has anyone considered what this does to Expedia's promotion? Before, they had a tremendous incentive for people to go out and try to recruit new customers for them (practically begging our coworkers...); Now, with $60 or so off a $490+ purchase, it not such an incredible deal and people are not likely to put forth much (if any) effort to recruit for Expedia anymore.
My purpose here is not to whine - I am grateful for the rooms I reserved while it lasted - and fully appreciate the need to control abuse. But it would have been better for everyone if a solution could have been found which gave Expedia and ourselves both what we wanted; New customers for Expedia and more (unrestricted) vouchers for us, respectively. Instead, we both lost - less lucrative vouchers, and much less new business for Expedia. That's a shame.
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I did 2 bookings using 2 older (40 pound) vochers.
I used two 40 pound vouchers. (one was from June 21 & the other was from early this week). Both went through under the old T & C's.
I only obtained five 40 pound vouchers from this promo. I got 2 from booking 2 friends this past Sunday that needed hotel and I save them 20 pounds each. They were elated. Even the 20 pound voucher beat priceline bidding and that was in the NYC metro area. Both sides won .
I am surprised that the promo lasted this long. I used 4 up so far & I have 1 left.
I tried adding 2 more e-mails to my list and the T & C's were updated to reflect the 200/300 pound minimum purchases.
It was a nice run while it lasted. On to the next promo.
Last edited by chemist661; Jul 17, 09 at 8:03 pm.
Reason: correct 100/200 to 200/300 pound minimum
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Well, durn, I go away for 2 days (staying on the vouchers) and the place falls apart.
I figured that, short of pulling the plug outright, some minimum-spend requirement effectively would do the deed. Still, they're relegating it to oblivion if it becomes effectively a 10% or even 16% discount. Would agree they went way too far the other way if that's the case.
Will have to try to be proactive with some booking on old vouchers tonight. Hope it's still possible.
I just used 3 of my 5 old £40 vouchers. They still work with old T&C but I don't know how much it'll last. I'm going to use my remaining two as soon as my travel plan is more solid.
Anyone know if a friend use an old £20 voucher, will I be getting a new or old £40 voucher? I think I still have one friend who with an unused voucher.
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If you do a search on eBay you see a few people trying to sell GBP20 vouchers, typically for 99 cents + free shipping (presumably to recoup the listing fee). I don't think the sellers had codes in hand and were just using the platform to generate referrals with e-mail to get the GBP40 credit. The number of listings is down, and tha main seller still left had to update with the GBP200-minimum bit.
" This purchase does not meet the price restrictions of the selected voucher. For more information, please refer to the voucher rules."
when I tried to book a cheapo.
Oh, well. It was worth a shot.
I'm impressed that they've managed to differentiate between old vouchers and new vouchers. Perhaps they're not as incompetent as they sometimes appeared.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by iahphx
Oh, well. It was worth a shot.
I'm impressed that they've managed to differentiate between old vouchers and new vouchers. Perhaps they're not as incompetent as they sometimes appeared.
Maybe they farmed out the programming initially or tried to do it on the cheap, and are having to take it a lot more seriously now.
Having "no minimum purchase" mentioned in the e-mails that went out before the change might have been helpful as motivation. If you refer a friend and that person takes a week or so to book and they thought they would be able to do with no minimum purchase (based on e-mail text), and Expedia gives the "minimum purchase not met" error, it makes both Expedia and the referring friend look very bad.
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Has anyone received a voucher recently? I've now had two referrals book rooms (and one has completed their stay a week ago) and I still haven't gotten my 40 pound vouchers.
I know the emails match (one was my wife, if you know what I mean). I was very careful to refer her, used a different email address and browser, etc. So we got the 20 pounds, but we're not getting the 40. The other was my dad - he used the 20, but I haven't gotten the 40. And I need to make some more reservations for an upcoming trip!
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I had one friend left that didn't use her voucher. Yesterday, she used her 20 pound voucher and was able to use it under the old terms. (no minimum purchase ). Nice for the friend to save 20 pounds ($32+). I just got the 40 pound voucher a little while ago. Nice.
My experience may vary but to answer a recent poster's question, it is likely that old referrals would keep the old (no minimum) T & C.
Both sides won
. 
