Upside: Cash Back - Gas & Food 4+

Poor Customer Service

There were 2 offers at the same station. However, the LOWER offer (4 cents) was visible ONLY if I zoomed in on the map while the HIGHER offer (8 cents) was visible in a plain search. This is a deceptive practice. I only realized this because when I saw the payout it was much lower than the offer. So I went back to the app to make sure and the 8 cent offer was still there. However, there was also a hidden offer at the same station only visible if you zoomed in as far as possible on the map. If that’s not clear then imagine if I put up a large sign that says “8 cents back on every gallon!” Then you fill your tank only to realize the next day that you only received 4 cents back. You come back to check the sign and indeed it says 8 cents. However, when you closely inspect it you see a tiny little sign that says 4 cents back—two offers at the same station, one plainly visible and another hidden from view. This is EXACTLY what happened with the app and it’s deceptive. However, I wasn’t even paid 4 cents, it was 3 cents. This is extremely deceptive. When I contacted customer service about it they blew me off and told me that the payment (of 3 cents) was made and if I had additional questions go to the FAQ page. Nice.

Developer Response ,

Hi, Thank you for letting us know. We're sorry for the trouble here. We'd like to take a look into this one more time, can you send us another email with ATTN as the subject line, so we can take a look at this personally? Thanks for your patience! 💌

Pay attention to $ back amounts and hold your receipt until payout.

First and foremost I really like this app. I literally use it every time I gas up. Initially when I first started using I always went to my favorite gas stations. It took me a while to realize that my favorite places to gas up didn’t always offer the most $ back. Asked my friend a question about it and he tipped me off that when you open the app to look at all the stations in your area to see which is actually offering the most. Also there have been 3 times that I’ve used it and done everything correctly, claim offer, and select correct debit card I’m using for transaction. Processing shows up in the history, but for what ever reason some type of glitch occurs and you get an email saying “It’s taking longer to process this transaction than expected.” Then 3 to 4 days later an email stating for whatever reason it can’t be processed. On the good side there’s a link on the email to question or dispute the failure to process. If you still have the receipt for that particular purchase from my experience emailing it usually completes the process and your cash back is available a few days later. Which is why I said save your receipts until the transaction is complete and you get confirmation of your cash back. Not sure what causes it but emailing customer service with the receipt solves it quite easily and they’re very friendly about it.

Saves You Money, But Very Frustrating App

It does what it says it does. I’ve saved $40 on gas so far, and this app is free. So that’s very nice. But it’s a very frustrating app to use. The app works fine until it’s time to actually prove to it that you filled up at the gas station with the offer you “claimed”. The app instructs you to tap a button that doesn’t exist on the screen in order to “arrive” at the gas station. So I looked it up online and people say you have to log out and log back in. Then it prompts you with the option to “upload receipt” which is what I do. But now the scanning technology which scans your receipt on the app doesn’t work anymore! So I have to upload a pic instead.
Logging out and logging back in after you’ve claimed your offer is what makes it eventually work, but not every time. Sometimes I have to wait a few hours after I’ve completed the transaction before logging out and logging back in will prompt the option to “upload receipt”, which appears to be the only way I can prove to Upside I completed the transaction.
It always works eventually, and I’ve saved $40 so far so that really is nice, but the app is buggy and has these issues. I really hope they fix it, it would be a dream to have this app finally just be smooth throughout the whole experience. But as of now it is a chore, they do make you work a bit for the savings.