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How’s Microsoft’s Live Search Cashback Doing? Pretty Darn Good Say The Deal Hunters
Update Wednesday 5:45pm – the deal is back – if you want 35% off on eBay, read below.
Back in May, Microsoft launched their "live search cashback" which basically helps you earn rewards (paid via PayPal) for items you buy when you enter the merchant’s site via Microsoft. While most believed that it would help Microsoft gain important search market share and also get people to convert from Google to Microsoft for general searching. I believed that while it might help with the market share, the bottom line is that deal hunters would be the only ones to really take advantage of the service and that it would generate more of a financial loss overall.
You see, us deal hunters are a special bunch. We will pick at that chicken bone until there’s nothing left, then sell the bone using a discount code. Over the years I’ve joked with friends about my "deal hunter levels" and have promoted friends to different levels depending on the deals they find. Not all of us can afford to pay market prices.
So what’s happened with Live Search Cashback recently? Well, the deal hunters have found a way to get 35% rewards on purchases on eBay. By doing certain searches on the Live Cashback search engine, there are links in the sponsored area for 35% off purchases at eBay. There’s even a step-by-step walkthrough of how to get the 35%. It gets even more interesting because now people are setting up auctions for cash, selling for over the face value of the cash, just to get the maximum 35% cashback.
The thread on Fatwallet has nearly 2,000 replies in the last 24 hours and SlickDeals’ thread has almost 3,000 replies and 250,000 pageviews.
The net result is I can pretty much guarantee the search numbers for June for Microsoft will be massive. Alone, I’ve completed over 150 searches over the past 24 hours alone looking for the goodies. Let’s see how Microsoft spins this boost in searches when the industry reports surface.
Here’s where it gets tricky – many of the forum posts are related to the terms and conditions related to the cashback search. I sure hope that Microsoft makes good on all of these rebates through this eBay deal. Trust me, you don’t want to piss off the deal hunters.
I have had the same problem. I purchased watches from Ashford.com and earned cash back of $2531.00, they approved my cashback. However while I cashed out my check through paypal, I sent it to my nephew’s paypal account. (Since I am uncomfortable using paypal) He already has a bing cash back account, so now they are denying it saying that it s a violation of Section 17. I dont see how it is a violation, its my money I can choose who gets the money, it is not their business what I do with it. This is just plain fraud. I am soo pissed with bing cashback, it has been a total pain in the butt. First they asked me to prove I am a us resident after I did that now this. Looks like this is a bait and screw by bing. This is ridiculous, I will defnitely complain about this to the BBB and I will go and every forum and talk about this if i have to.
I purchased watches from Ashford.com and earned cash back of $2531.00, they approved my cashback. However while I cashed out my check through paypal, I sent it to my nephew’s paypal account. (Since I am uncomfortable using paypal) He already has a bing cash back account, so now they are denying it saying that it s a violation of Section 17. I dont see how it is a violation, its my money I can choose who gets the money, it is not their business what I do with it. This is just plain fraud. I am soo pissed with bing cashback, it has been a total pain in the butt. First they asked me to prove I am a us resident after I did that now this. Looks like this is a bait and screw by bing. This is ridiculous, I will defnitely complain about this to the BBB and I will go and every forum and talk about this if i have to.
I bought a Visio HDTV from the “new” Circuit City website on Labor day which offered a Bing cashback. I went through the Bing website to purchase the product which I received a week later but when the cashback was not showing up as pending in my Bing cashback site after two days I became concerned since this was the first time I purchased anything with the Bing cashback. After weeks of standard form responses from Circuit City and Bing, each pointing fingers at the other I realized this was a big mistake to use Bing (or Circuit City). I should have going down the road to Walmart to purchase the same TV since I would not have had to pay for shipping seeinng as how I may not be getting the casback as promised by these companies. I am in the process of escalating with both companies and will post as to who and who does not follow through honoring my cashback obligations. I would think that there is someone in management in either or who realizes the $200 they are holding back from me is going to cost them much more in the online publicity I plan to generate. I work for a large MNC and find this behavior by both companies unacceptable. it appears to me that Bing / MS has failed in establishing expectations with its partnering customers. Right now my recommendation is to NOT use BING or purchase from the “new” Circuit City. I will update if I get a resolution or not.
-john
No, they won’t work it out for you. I had a cashback problem with them and supplied all the information for the transaction . After two months of different “escalation specialists” I received this email from them:
SRX1105412726ID – PayPal auto-pay failure (6/24)
Wednesday, August 5, 2009 7:46 PM
From:
“Microsoft Customer Support”
Add sender to Contacts
To:
REMOVED
Hello Kim,
We apologize for the difficulty you have experienced in receiving your cashback. Thank you for your patience as we have worked to resolve this issue for you. We have submitted the information you provided about your PayPal account to our payment team. They will be initiating payment shortly. Please note that it could take 12 – 14 business days for your payment to appear in your PayPal account. If you have not received your payments by Wednesday August 19th, please let us know and we will gladly continue to assist you.
Also, to proceed with your payment, it was necessary to cancel your original purchase in your cashback account. You may receive an email stating your cashback was cancelled and see this reflected in your cashback account. Simply ignore that email; while we have cancelled your original cashback payment, we did so to facilitate paying you out manually. You will see a direct payment in your PayPal account.
Thank you for your time,
Mat
Escalation Specialist
Bing cashback Customer Support
Looks like it was resolved, right? But wait! When I didn’t get my cashback and let them know, this is the email they finally sent me:
Flag this message
RE: SRX1105412726ID – PayPal auto-pay failure (6/24)
Tuesday, August 25, 2009 11:27 AM
From:
“Microsoft Customer Support”
Add sender to Contacts
To:
“Kim O’Neill”
Hello Kim,
Thank you for contacting Bing cashback Customer Support. We sincerely apologize for the delay in responding to your email. My name is Chris and I have been assigned your case to expedite a resolution.
We apologize for the delay in resolving this issue for you. After having this payment for $57.45 reviewed it was determined through information we received from PayPal that this transaction is ineligible for cashback and will not be paid.
We greatly apologize for the delay in responding to your email and I appreciate your understanding in this matter however the decision to not offer cashback on this purchase was based on information we received after working with PayPal and eBay.
Thank you, Kim, for contacting Bing cashback Customer Support.
Warmest regards,
Chris G.
Escalation Specialist
Bing cashback Customer Support
Great support, isn’t it? They put it in writing that you were right and then they decide they didn’t want to pay you. That is what I call a ripoff. Considering going to a lawyer on this for the principle of it.
Well I hate to break it to all the MS fans that seem to be supporting MS, but I can guarantee that I followed all of the rules, and I have had failed PayPal attempts from Bing Cashback. There is nothing wrong with my PayPal account, I’m trnsfering other funds to and from the account, MS does have a flaw in their system and it does affect some honest people who did follow all rules. They’ve owed me $250.00 for 60 + days and still shows transfer in process and transfer failed to my PayPal account. I have an open call with support and Haji or what ever his name is says they are working on it.
I am currently a Database administrator and db programmer and have been in IT for many years.
Here is the latest text I emailed Haji:
Alright look,
I don’t really care what you’re major malfunction is. Get the money that YOU OWE ME in my PayPal account. It should have been in there 60 days ago.
Here’s a thought, TRANSFER IT MANUALLY! Then use some other poor sucker for your system troubleshooting…
SINCERELY, JAY
——————————————————————————–
From: CSHBK.CSBK.00.00.EN.VMC.RMD.CS.T02.HLD.00.EM@css.one.microsoft.com
To:
CC:
Subject: SRX1106042617ID – PayPal auto-pay failure (7/2)
Date: Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:48:56 -0700
Hello Jay,
Thank you for working with us at Bing cashback Customer Support!
Again, I sincerely apologize for the confusion. Unfortunately, we are still researching your issue and need some more time for a proper resolution. We are hopeful to have this resolved soon. Once I have any new information I will contact you back directly. I know this can be a frustrating experience and greatly appreciate your understanding and patience while we continue to work on your case.
Thank you, Jay, for working with us at Bing cashback Customer Support. Have a nice day!
Warmest regards,
Tyler H.
Escalations Specialist
Bing cashback Customer Support–
I, too, have had issues with Bing Cashback. I just finished going through the escalation process for the 35% cashback on an iPhone purchase only to have two incompetent Microsoft reps deny it because they terminated the offer without notice. Beware of Bing Cashback. Go to one of the other proven sites such as ebates, MyPoints, Memolink, etc.
I never had the problems everyone else was having during the holidays. As long as my cashback amount was $15 or less, it hit my Paypal account without a hitch. In April (I think it was 13-14% for eBay then), I made a pruchase where the cashback was just over $40. They “tried” to deposit into Paypal after 60 days (never had a problem with the other Paypal transfers, and I haven’t changed anything), and suddenly it failed. Almost 1 month later, and they are still trying to figure it out with their Paypal team. I have been told that if I don’t see my money in my Paypal account by 7/2 to contact them again – that will be more than 90 days since the eBay purchase. I love dthis plan until I made a bigger purchase – now it stinks!!!
bing.com cashback is back at 8%. I thought it’s over when live.com became bing.com.
I am still waiting for it to go back to at least 25%. maybe thanksgiving time if history repeats itself(http://www.cashbackr.com/bing-com-ebay-cashback-trend-chart).
http://www.cashbackr.com/ cashback alert will let me know when that happens!.
I went through the hoops and my cashback showed up correctly on the summary page. I waited the 60 days and then got the money on my paypal account. Now a few weeks ago, I logged into my paypal account and find a fracking negative balance. It seems that after 5 freaking months since the purchase, they say that ebay didn’t contact them about the purchase. WHAT THE FRACK? I have contacted Microsoft and they say they’ll do research on the issue. Of course after a few weeks or running around the issue, they say the case is closed and give me the same fracking excuse that ebay didn’t contact them. POS. The transaction of course shows up as being successfully on my summary. GOD DAMN SCAM.
**********************************************************************************
For all you guys who got scammed, obviously it dosent work sometimes.
i got scammed the WORST:
Pending: $0.00
Available: $0.00
In process: $24642.30 (NEVER GOT THIS)
Rewarded: $7658.51
Total cashback: $32300.81
they close my account. i know the limit is 2500 per account, but its PER ebay account right? As you can see they already awarded me 7600+ so it works with multiple ebay accounts. Should negate the fact there is a 2500 limit per live account, its PER ebay account.
http://iphone3gsimunlock.com/contact.html contact me via my business email.
Anyone EXTREMLY serious about filing a class action lawsuit, contact me via my business email and ill get back to you asap.
Please Derrick from here: email me back. i think we can have a strong case. We can prob win this and help $ back in those people who need it. or anyone else who is seriously considering filing a class action lawsuit.
Derrick says:
October 8, 2008 at 5:36 am
********************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Who else has been having problem with live/bing cash back? I am in the process of a dispute with them and want to get a feel of how many other people are in my situation. Please post here if you haven’t been receiving your cash back.
Totally agree. It’s the greed factor; a cancerous personality trait.
Totally agree. It’s the greed factor; a cancerous personality trait.
No…you’re the idiot. Read the directions. Play by the rules. People like you are the reason this country is rotting at its foundation.
Most of us here did read the rules thoroughly before using Cashback. Here’s is my experience:
I created my account and everything was set up before I placed my order. I received confirmation emails. Then I placed my order using the “Buy it Now” (another stipulation). I received the confirmation email from ebay that I had earned Cashback. I checked my Live account, but nothing showed being pending.
I waited a month to check again because they said it takes 60 days to get the money. When I went back this time, my account supposedly did not exist. I tried “forgot password” and entered my email address. I received a message saying “no account exists under this email”. I knew that was bogus.
I attempted to re-register, but then I got a message “you have already registered for an account”, and showed the same email address I had been attempting to use that they claimed didn’t exist only minutes before!!!! When I looked for my cashback, it was not there.
This is a scam, maybe not 100% of the time, but I’d say the majority of people are adhering to the rules and losing out on some serious money.
as will I
MS has been giving me the run around for a couple months and I’m due $400 bux from them.
Check out fatwallet.com for a resource of people.
Check most of the forums for the deal sites too – they all posted a link on this and I am sure its a great resource to track down people who have been screwed by MS here.
You’re an idiot! You making that last comment about if you cannot afford something at full price then don’t buy it is like telling someone that their item is on sale and then telling them after they pull out their money that it’s not. Most ppl here are buying these items because it’s like them being on sale. If you wanted a car but it was out of your price range and it suddenly was lowered into your price range, don’t tell me you wouldn’t jump all over it. These ppl have the right to get what was promised to them. They followed exactly what the procedure was and got screwed over. Yes you are right that MS Live doesn’t have to run cashback at all but since they do they should at least be legit or not at all.
Wow I see I am not the only one that is getting the run around from Microsoft and Ebay. If your attorney files law suit I will gladly join in.
I too am a victim of cashback fraud. I have several items that qualify for cashback. Even in my E-bay Messages it says “You have Cashback” click on the link to get your cash back. I can’t believe that a big corporation like Microsoft is screwing with people. I would love to join the class action lawsuit!!
Microsoft’s section 17 includes the term “sham”. Microsoft live chat has indicated that if you sell an item, such as a gift card, for more than the face value, it is a “sham”. Since it’s a “Sham”, it is ineligible for the cashback program. Lots of sites will selling card, such as an american express card, and charge fee’s for charging, mailing, etc. You can not buy it AND get it delivered to your house for face value.
Suggestion on Ebay auctions. Don’t sell just a gift card. Sell the gift card and some other items, like a “rare” pen (you might have a dozen in your deskdraw) that is worth $150. You combine the “rare” pen and giftcard ($500) and sell them together for $579, a savings of $71!!!
Gotta play their game, as they wrote the rules….
I’ve always thought something was fishy with this Microsoft deal. Is it a scam? Is it misguided ploy for Microsoft to gain marketshare? Or did someone goof either at Microsoft or eBay? I want to thank you for bringing up the topic for all to discuss.
Personally, I’m very skeptical about the whole thing because I have a lot of experience buying and selling on eBay (6157+ transactions). You see, eBay is a search engine and not a retailer. eBay does not collect 25-35% from the sellers (they collect much smaller fees for insertion, final value and listing upgrades).
So I want to repeat: eBay IS NOT A RETAILER! They can NOT give away rebates of 25-35% without losing money! On the other hand, if this offer came from Microsoft and Amazon I would think it to be legitmate. Amazon IS a retailer. Amazon buys wholesale and sells their own books, DVDs and other products retail. They also invite other sellers to sell under their platform. When they offer free shipping or a rebate, they are discounting off of the retail price — they don’t offer free shipping or discount off of their seller’s wares.
So you see why I’m skeptical about Microsoft’s CashBack program?
THERE ARE LEGITIMATE CASH BACK PROGRAMS OUT THERE:
I’m signed up with a back program where you can gain up to 36 percent of the seller’s fees in cash back when you shop eBay. Or you can earn 20 percent of the seller’s fees, PLUS 4 percent of the seller’s fee when your direct referrals shop and their referrals shop and their referrals shop (and so on to five generations). With my program, you earn referral commissions on the eBay seller’s fee, which includes the seller’s insertion fee, final value fee, and any listing upgrade fees. It’s clear. It’s free. And it is legitimate loyalty program.
Did Microsoft Goof? Or is Microsoft looking to buy eBay instead of Yahoo?
The fact is, someone is LOSING BIG MONEY on this cash back deal and there must be a reason why. Microsoft has lots of money to burn, but they don’t have market share in the search engine world. eBay does have market share, but has been losing ground.
Whatever the case, I think Microsoft made a big mistake. The cash back deal is generating lots of BAD WILL against Microsoft. Any market share they’d received so far will surely be short lived. Your blog describes bargain hunters brilliantly and the fact remains that there is controversy surrounding the cash back system.
Only time will tell if buyers will forgive Microsoft (and eBay for that matter).
Happy shopping,
M.C. Nygard
Former eBay Platinum Powerseller
Not sure on filing a lawsuit against ebay and microcrap. I’m in the same boat in waiting around. … I had another one that was SUPPOSED to qualify but never even showed up in my cashback account.
I am getting the same run-around from their email reps saying they are trying to find the transaction. They have been for 20 days…..
I used it 3 times and have gotten back 109.80.
I HAVE RECEIVED THE CASH!!! I had it delivered to my PayPal account.
ALL 3 purchases were made on EBAY.
I did have an issue with the biggest one, it would never show up in my cashback account, I got the email eBay sent to my eBay in box that said I had cashback coming. It never showed up in my cashback account…….however, after emails to LIVE …… I looked closely at the item page and it showed up as payment was being processed…..I wrote LIVE and sure as the world, that was the hold up. Eventually they got it figured out and my money did get sent to my cashback account.
To those of you thinking of a class action lawsuit I say………..read the rules.
How do we file class action lawsuit against Microsoft & Ebay? At first I thought I was the only one with bad luck, but after talking to the agents they said there had been a lot of problems. In fact, the long wait time for live chat is already an indication of problem.
This is a good way to make money: you promise customers a good rebate to allure them spend money (whereby Ebay profits from listing fee and closing fee, and Paypal profits from transaction fee), and then mark their transaction invalid after 3 months (so that they can no longer return or get refund) and void the rebate. In some other cases like mine here, they just keep customers (foolishly and hopelessly) wait indefinitely long, which is equivalent of no payment.
We must end this wrong-doing!
@Zhao – Yup…same problem here…this is ridiculous and has class action lawsuit written all over it…for ebay and microsoft. Ridiculous….
I have used my cashback 3 times. I received the cash back (109.80) via my PayPal account.
All you have to do is read the rules
1. use live search
2. Pay for something in LESS than an hour after you click that link
3. YOU MUST USE PAYPAL
I did take 2 days to show up in my live account after I made my last purchase.
I HAVE THE CASH AND HAVE SPENT IT ALREADY!!
A class action lawsuit??
GOOD GOD PEOPLE……….LIVE DONT HAVE TO DO CASHBACK AT ALL AND YOU WANT TO SUE THEM???????? IF YOU CANNOT AFFORD SOMETHING AT FULL PRICE……THEN DON’T BUY IT!!!!!!!!
How can we get cashback money? It’s been two months and I have talked to several agents but they just kept asking me to wait patiently. There are only two ways to contact cashback support: email and live chat. I have tried both but neither worked. The wait time for chat is over an hour, and then the agents just tell you that they are doing their best and you have to wait longer time… Email does the same thing.
Can we file a formal complaint to Microsoft or some authority?
Yup. SCAM!!! I went through the entire deal – they said I was going to get it…then mysteriously said what I bought was a “SHAM” and took back over $280 worth of cashback that I was due. Total rip off. MICROSOFT AND EBAY have put a NEGATIVE image (AGAIN) in my head. I’ll stick to Google…and maybe switch to a Mac. I’m tired of their dishonesty….
The person stating they HAVE received cashback, was it shopping on ebay? Also, everything I read said there was a limit of $200 cash back per purchase. You are the first I’ve read anywhere that has actually received cashback, but I’m curious if ANY of it was from purchases made on ebay.
1. I only have one account where I made my ebay purchase, but I have two paypal accounts — one for personal use and one for business use. I created both accounts more than 6 years ago and monthly transaction with both are just 1 or 2. I never exceeded the account limitation.
2. I didn’t use any discount or coupon when I made my cashback purchase.
3. I have all records with me and have sent cashteam all emails I received from ebay and paypal — but it’s just a black hole and nobody from cash team ever responded despite of more than 10 email requests. Even the manager Ron E. in cashback customer service has emailed cashteam 4-5 times but didn’t get any response. If he can’t get any response, how is it possible for me to any response?
Speaking about trust, how can I have any on Microsoft? I’ve wasted so much time (more than 2 months) emailing and chatting with them, yet I still haven’t received my money, not even an estimate.
Who’s benefit from it? Ebay and Paypal and possibly Microsoft as well! It’s a conspiracy. They made you spend money such that ebay can charge listing fees and closing fees, and then Paypal can charge transaction fees. The 25%-35% rebate entice people to buy expensive items, so it’s a hefty income for ebay and paypal!
I have purchased many items online. So far Live.com has paid me about $350… My total earnings have been right at $1500. My issue is that one cashback amount I requested was $840… I have YET to receive it and it has now been 3 1/2 weeks since I requested them to send it to my bank account. Its still showing as processing. I have been told by 2 reps that my account issue is escalated and they will send it soon… Still nothing. Is it a scam? I dont think it is since I have received $350 so far in my bank account, but there are definitely tweaks that need to be worked
It is not scam. You have to read the rule thoroughly. If you feel doubtful, spend time to chat with them before placing order. Mainly,
1. no multiple accounts, especially Ebay, Paypal accounts. The number of transaction is limited (12 currently) for each. If you use more than one account to exceed the limitation, all cashback in all acounts will be gone (they consider your cheated). You can ask your family member to open Ebay and Paypal account under their name and their credit card to help you buy more.
2. Dont try to apply discount or coupon. No bargain the shipping fee. Dont deal with sellers to get a partial refund. You wont get cashback. This described in section 17 clearly.
3. Keep your cashback record clean. If you cancel or return your order, let them know by email or chat. They keep that in record and you have their trust.
it turn out ebay is responsible for selecting people who receive coupon codes (10, 15, 20%, etc). these can be combined with live.com scam cash back offer… but not many get these coupons. sellers intentionally raised prices above retail because of these deals and some buyers won’t get their cashback. ebay paypal ms will find every little reason in fine print that will disqualify most buyers from getting cashback.
I’m starting to think it IS a scam. My timeline:
Early July: Bought the item on eBay.
September 4th: Money is finally available for payment so I click “Pay Me.” Apparently it’ll take up to14 days from now to process into Paypal. OK, fine.
October 2nd: The payment is still not processed (still says on my cashback page that it’ll be paid in 14 days), so I go to live chat with “Scott,” who seems apologetic and helpful: “I’m not even going to slow down, but go on and escalate this immediately to our research team to have them investigate for you. You should have had the cashback by now,” he says. He says the research team will be communicating with me privately via email and asks for a minimum of 72 hours’ time, but says “Luckily, they’re handling matters like these fairly quickly at present.” I believed him. HAHAHAHAHA!!! Bitter laughter.
October 5th: I notice an e-mail from the Live Search Cashback team dated Sept. 24th in my inbox that got jumbled up with all the junk mail. Apparently I had been DENIED cashback and that “Currently, this program is limited to the United States and our research indicates that you do not reside in the United States.” The following section was highlighted in yellow, indicating I did not meet requirements: “Are a U.S. citizen or legal resident, and at least 18 years of age.” Um, what?! I have been a U.S. citizen since birth; I am definitely over 18; I just graduated from a U.S. college and have a house in the U.S. I’ve been traveling since graduating, but does that negate my CITIZENSHIP? Who, I would like to know, is doing their research? I’m kind of creeped out, to be honest. Have they been following me onto planes and then taking their info from there?
I send an e-mail AND open up a live chat, where “Jennifer” tells me that there’s essentially nothing she can do: “Unfortunately, we cannot see any emails sent to you by the cashteam. So, I am sorry to say, you will have to wait for someone to contact you from there. If you have not heard from them in a week, please contact us again.”
October 9th: Still nothing. It hasn’t been a week yet, but somehow I am losing trust in Microsoft’s promises to get back to me, so decide to send another e-mail. (All these e-mails are essentially reiterations of the first, with an introductory note quickly explaining and saying I sent this on such and such date.) In addition to the usual automated blather, I get an extra reply from “Andy” at Live Search cashback customer support (which was probably automated too, come to think of it): “Thank you for contacting Live Search cashback Customer Support. I apologize for the long response time you are experiencing. We are currently still working on this issue and we will contact you as soon as more information is available. Have a nice day!”
November 3rd: Still nothing. It’s been almost a month since Lil’ Andy’s promise. I sent four e-mails to various departments today (of increasingly hysterical nature – I’m not proud of them, but hey, calm rationality didn’t work) but have little to no expectation of ever hearing from them.
The cashback is still in my account, and STILL shows up as having 14 days to go. Hahahaha!! (This is not laughter of actual amusement, but rather the crazed cackling of the now insane.) What can we do about this? BBB? Where can we take this? I mean, I guess I’m relatively lucky in that I’m not waiting on hundreds of cashback, but even the small amount I’m waiting for ($50ish) would come in pretty handy right now, and it’s JUST. TAKING. SO. DAMN. LONG. I’m almost tempted to just give up, but c’mon, Microsoft, this is just terrible business. And, yes, reeks of a scam.
I just do not know what to do. I was not able to receive a rebate for purchase made in July ($120). I am really frustrated with microsoft custom support. It is the worst in world. After initial respond to investigate I did not hear form them in three weeks. Where can I complain else? Microsoft should set a hot line to speak with live representative like ebay has. Indeed I won’t use live search and this fraudulent cashback program.
If it is scam why we can not get them in the court. I would really support any class action against microsoft. Just let me know.
Has anybody succeeded in getting cash back after resolving a problem?
Has anyone received the cashback? I saw several auctions overcharging on gift cards and frankly if someone is advertising a gift card for $580 and selling it at that price because of the Cash back offer, then eBay, Paypal and Microsoft should cancel the cash back.
Sorry all for the opinion, Not! That is called fraud. Its like using a different name to collect a rebate that is one per customer or faking a receipt. Advertising an item way over cost just to get a rebate is scamming…so if your rebates were denied. Good for microsoft and paypal for picking out the scammers.
Its people like this who ruin these programs for everyone else.
So why is this still alive? Who is benefitting from the scam? Why hasn’t it been shut down? It’s false claims and making people buy, buy, buy. Someone is getting paid to advertise and lure people in. Who should we contact for internet fraud?
I made my purchase in June but never received the cash back. It’s a scam so be careful!
No matter what the percentage, has ANYONE actually received cash in their paypal account? This was launched when? This article appeared in June, well past the 60 days it takes to get the cash. I’ve searched the internet and can find NO ONE actually getting the cash.
25% is back. if doesn’t load, refresh or delete cookies and try again.
Hey! Thanks for all who posted with their experiences about the Cash-back program with Micro$od ,eBay and PayPal. As always it sounded to good to be true. I didn’t take part and now it looks like they have removed it altogether. I just wanted to send out a thanks for all the people who took the time to warn others. Greatly appreciated! Thank you very much!….
i get an error i’m not eligible for live.com rebate because i have to use my paypal account to make a payment. i do use my paypal accont with a credit card set up. i get 25% cashback amount bottom of ebay review page.
called paypal. they are incompetent morons!!! i was 30+ min on the phone with customer service. this idiot could barely speak english and had the worst case of ADD. i couldn’t take it anymore and hung up.
save every page (google chrome or firefox, IE 7 doesn’t allow me to save pages), backup files, take snapshots, if ebay or ms or paypal, either of those scammers refuse to pay they should be sued until they have no money left in the banks!!!
Do livesearch offer cashback for the UK? If not will they be introducing it if any know? Thanks.
What keeps two or more people from just scamming the system and not even selling anything. Say someone lists a $1000 camera. That would likely generate $200 in cashback. Then the buyer sends payment to his friend, via paypal. His friend pays the ebay and paypal fees ($80 or so). The friend then returns the money, outside of PayPal and they both pocket the $120 difference. No merchandise even has to be for sale, shipped or even exist.
Why isn’t that possible?
For instance I just sold a lens for $850. The buyer said he got if for $550, with his $200 cashback and a discount offered by ebay (about $300 discount). My fees were less than $70. Were he and I in on scamming ebay, I could have just returned his money, outside of paypal, and not even shipped the item. That would have been a $230 net profit with nothing changing hands, except microsoft and ebay money.
I completely agree that the Microsoft cashback thing is a scam! I made a purchase in June 2008 during the Microsoft 25% cashback promotion. Three weeks after I clicked the “pay me” button (when I’m supposed to receive my cashback money), on Sept 23, I got an email from cashteam@microsoft.com saying that there’s a violation:
We regret to inform you that Microsoft is unable to pay the cashback savings you requested due to a violation of the terms of service of eBay or PayPal. If you have any additional questions, please contact PayPal directly, 1-888-221-1161.
I called Paypal and spent over 3 hours with their customer service people, because they didn’t know about the cashback thing and I had to show them the policies on the web. Anyway, they were unable to find any violation of my transaction so they kicked me back to Microsoft.
From 9/23 till today (10/20), I have sent cashteam@microsoft.com more than 10 emails, but I never received a single reply! I also used the chat function at live.com and chatted with more than 15 agents. Every time I was promised to get a response from cash team in 48 hours, but after so many promised it still never happened..
Conclusion: isn’t this a scam?!
It appears that Paypal is deciding who gets the cashback and who don’t. My father purchased one of those $500 gift cards for $580 and the paypal police sent him an email stating he will NOT get the cashbck because this is called a sham. That you can NOT purchase something for the purpose of getting a rebate? WHAT? That is what rebates are for. Many thousands of auctions were bought and sold to get the “rebate”. Ebay and paypal made a killing on each transaction, and now are saying they are not eligible for cashback from MS live? If I deceide to buy something for more than it is worth, that is my choice! That is free enterprise. I would guss thousands of people are being screwed out of money big time. The seller who has to pay huge final value fees, then paypal reverses the payments back to the buyers and the seller is screwed even more. Many bidders are filing disputes with paypal after getting the email from paypal stating they will NOT get the cashback. The email comes from Paypal, NOT MS live. So is it a scam? Certainly, only ebay and paypal come out with the big bucks…..AGAIN.
I am not a powerseller and started selling GC just like the thousands of others. I was legit, I bought them and sold them, and have proof of every sale. Paypal and ebay suspended my accounts, is holding my money (for suspicious activity) for 6 months. Now bidders are getting the email from payapl and are all filing disputes for the ENTIRE amount.
I would love to join the class action suit! Please provide info on how to join.
I am on board with you and I still have all of my emails-including the live chat with ebay saying I earned $250 cashback reward from my July 20th purcahse of the fence for $1795.
Today is 10/8/08-over 2 1/2 months since my purchase and microsoft still hasn’t credited
my acct-they are still working on it per latest email from them—-what a crock
I am speaking with an attorney to organize a class action lawsuite against Microsoft. He feels that there is ample proof of organized fraudulent activiity. I, of course, was also a victim of Live Cashback fraud – only I intend to fight back. This type of behavior is at the very least dishonest and wrong, and if perpetrated long enough and with notorious disregard, it borders as fraudulent illegal activity.
Derrick, I’m on board for a class action lawsuit!
Although my problem with Bing Cashback is not with Ebay, but with every site I have made a purchase at via Bing Cashback – (95% of the purchases I have made in the last several months has been cancelled for the “cashback”, citing Microsoft rule 17 (a total of 29 purchases). Had I known, I would not have made the purchases.
Their introduction page is too vague, does not specify bing cashback applies to regular prices only, no sale prices, coupons or other discounts allowed. I have a feeling that the advertisers are to blame as well. If this problem fits the parameters of your class action, let me know & I what I can do.
Wow. Glad I didn’t take all the time you have in what sounds like an intentional run around
untill you give up scheme.
Yeah, unfortunately this seems to be dead. I was about to start buying parts for my new computer too :P and then boom, no more cashback popups for ebay.. and i just saw one yesterday too….
if anyone gets it to work or finds out whats really on contact me!
myspace.com/hidingfromthegallows
Looks as though it is dead as of November 14, 2008 for any search on Live for Ebay items. I hate when Microsoft tries to take market share from Google, better luck next time.
If you have ever contacted Microsoft cashback, you’ll know how many problems they’ve had with this. Several agents have told me that it took almost two months for themselves to get their own cashback. However, my wait time has been longer than that. In the past 2+ months I have been chatting and emailing different customer service agents, but to no avail. The wait time for chat had increases significantly to over an hour, and now they just removed the chat function from customer support!!
I wrote that last comment about it being a scam- i appologize, i don’t think it is. Some of their customer service reps are incompetant, but i can’t say it’s a scam at this point. After talking to a few more reps i found one that fixed my problems.
IT’S A SCAM!!! don’t do the cashback, it’s just a scam. I bought a wii fit on ebay, payed with paypal, and followed and met all the requirements. I signed up for cash back and started the 60 day wait to get paid. About 3 weeks in, my account with microsoft disappeared. I logged in to my account about 5 times, with no problems, my cash back was there, and linked to my paypal account, everything was golden, but then I tried to log in just 3 days later and my account is gone. Microsoft is telling me it never existed, despite the fact that I’ve logged in multiple times, the last being last week. Now my cash is gone, and it’s to late to return the product (which I only got because of the cash back offer), seems like it’s just a scam to get people to spend money during the recession.
You bought an Xbox 360 for $714?
lmao
got me an xbox yesterday for $250 off – cashback rocks!
i bought something from eastbay a large order
signed up for cash back
after 60 days i request the Check that will be proceed in 14 days
in the last day the 14 th
they denied the cashback payment because :
We wanted to remind you that Live Search cashback is available to those individuals meeting the requirements as laid out in Section 17 of our Microsoft Service Agreement and our Frequently Asked Questions FAQ. These terms and conditions took effect on the launch of Live Search cashback on May 21, 2008. Any qualifying purchases made before that date may be eligible for cashback under the terms and conditions in effect at that time. In particular, it appears that you have purchased items for resale from Eastbay reference Request ID: PC040******
so any cashback that you see 36% it`s really a scam they will get the money and will find any reason to deny your payment
use FATWALLET.COM
very serious and will be paid
They should just impose a spending limit and/or limit on the number of items purchased. Otherwise, it’s just speculative on their part to say “you’re going to resele these items.” I mean, microsoft should atleast publish the criteria for which they determine if someone is reselling so people dont get beat out of their money.
Indeed this is a scam. In my case I bought a laptop from HP web site and the cash back did not show up in my account and after enquiring they said I will not get as my purchase did not meet their section 17 in the agreement. They gave me a link to check that and it did not show me any agreement. Basically Microsoft made money at my cost and as always it sucks!!!! Big companies like Microsoft get bigger by cheating people and that goes unnoticed as they sell big things
Check
You all just need to really read the fine print BEFORE you make the purchase and then make sure you follow ALL of the rules. There are tricky things like you have to make your purchase within a few minutes of your search, and you have to pay for it also in a VERY short period of time. I bought a Wii bundle on Ebay back around Christmas for $600, and I just got my $150 back today. Sure it took almost 6 weeks, but it works pefectly if you follow the rules.
Beware…some people are directing people to sign up under bigcrumbs…which has nothing to do with microsoft or ebay..then a cookie is set on your computer which makes it appear that you are getting some rediculous high cashback 25% or 33%…the scammer gets 2% through bigcrumbs but you will never get anything…you were just tricked into buying something you didnt even want thinking you would get a big cashback.
Scam, I received a email saying that my rebate was denied. They said I diid not meet their section 17 “country of residence” in the agreement. I don’t understand. I am a US citizen, I have my US passport. Why did they deny my claim? I’ve tried to contact the cash team for over one week but no response at all. I’ve also chatted with their customer respresentative but they asked me to contact the cash team directly. However, it seems like there’s nobody working in that “cash team”……..Beware….. I won’t use microsoft live search anymore…….and I will pass this message to my friends, my family……etc
I bought a crib from CSN Baby…. my first cashback purchase. CashBack showed that I would receive $69.53 back. My account only shows that I will receive $46.35. I have talked to the live chat support numerous times, emailed them all the information that they request (over and over), and they say they can’t help me- only “Beverly” can help through email. “Beverly hasn’ t answered any of my emails in 3 weeks. I bought the crib based on the cashback. DO NOT TRUST the amount of cashback that they say you’ll get!!!!
IT IS A SCAM!!!!!! I bought a fence July 20 using live search-it brought me to ebay-I purchased the fence for $1795 after setting up live cash back acct and at the end of the ebay transaction and using paypal it said I earned $250 cashback rewards. Well it still hasn’t showed up in my acct. I have weekly emailed cashback and had live chats and they keep blaming ebay-I have kept all emails and copied all live chats including live chats with ebay (whom by the way are blaming microsoft) to prove this is all a scam if they have to pay bigger bucks out. On July 21 I bought haircombs and received $3.50 cashback which showed in my acct right away has now passed the 60 day deadline and is in my ebay acct but you can not spend it unless you a $5 balance-It is going to expire and they actually paid me nothing-I think I need a public investigation of this program
Wow. Glad I didn’t take all the time you have in what sounds like an intentional run around
untill you give up scheme.
this is a SCAM….they advertise a quick and simple system but you get no guarantee. I did the search and followed all directions and they somehow lost the link and say it doesn’t qualify. They can’t point to a reason why. This is just a gimmick to try to take advantage of unsuspecting holiday shoppers.
I woud advise anyone to pay the extra money at a store and not take a chance on a big company that doesn’t care about the little people that keep them employed.
Cashback is a scam and will not pay
They don’t even have a feedback number or online support of any kind. What does that tell you. No customer service….only a email box that spits out a single form letter. Before try to buy, try to call and see how fast they drop your call when you mention the cashback promotion…..
As I understand it, they used to always take 60 days before they would officially say if they would send the money. I think that’s long enough to prevent a creditcard chargeback, in most cases. Now that they are giving some people instant credit, I can get a valuable piece of information instantly that may help me decide that I want to keep the item I just bought, based on the starting price minus the discount.
I just bought about 6 items after being told about the savings. Total purchases of about $3000, so I am expecting $900 cash back. They better pay me when the 60 days are up. So far it all looks fine (ebay msg saying I qualify, ms live says pending -60day wait). If they don’t pay I’m sure I can find a few out of work lawyers that wouldn’t mind helping us out!! I would imagine the numbers are big enough to create a lawsuit. 20/20 loves this stuff and so does the media!!
20/20.. good idea! if we dont get our money off legitimate transactions…
This deal is legit. As with any large scale program there will be issues to be ironed out in the beginning. Seriously, look at the guy crying because they said he was not a US citizen. Blah, blah, blah, own a home, blah, blah, blah, but I’ve been traveling out of the country. DING. You made your purchases from a foreign IP address. What did you expect? Live to assume you’re just a US citizen traveling outside the country? GMAFB
I also suspect many of the cry babies around here were scamming the system in one way or another. Now that they’re caught, the cry foul as if they were making legit purchases.
I’m sure some of the complaints are legit here. Legit purchases made in the US by US citizens for REAL merchandise. Those cases are unfortunate and I hope you all get your issues resolved but all this talk of it being a scam is just well, CRAP. People have been receiving their money after 60 days, people are now getting instant cashback on some transactions, the program has been active for 5 months now. If this was a widespread scam, where are the lawsuits all you idiots keep calling for?
I do feel for you guys getting ripped off – that sucks. But I have to say its worked great for me and many others I know. I myself have gotten over $500 in rebates on some GREAT purchases! $400 of which was INSTANT cashback. I dare them to try to get it back from me ;) The other $100 is “waiting” for me in my cashback account. Hopefuly nothing back happens, however given the fact I’ve seen others get over $2500 in rebates, I don’t see how they are scamming everyone….lame situation
even tho you arent supposed to be able to get more than 2500$ per year in cashback unless the last transaction makes the total break that amount… Man i wish that cashback was instant for me … i wanna pay the deposit on an apartment. grr.
even tho you arent supposed to be able to get more than 2500$ per year in cashback unless the last transaction makes the total break that amount… Man i wish that cashback was instant for me … i wanna pay the deposit on an apartment. grr.
The instant rebates is something Microsoft is doing to help out some of the people who might have been affected by their recent technical glitch. The program itself appears to be legit. See the following article:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10110422-56.html
People this is NOT a scam, REPEAT – NOT A SCAM. I have gotten hundreds of dollars back instantly and have a few pending amounts. ALL were done on eBay. It appears as though what determines whether or not it is an instant rebate or you have to wait is how established the seller is.
if thats true, then the people must have over 20k completed transactions or something… cause both of my purchases were from power sellers with 20k plus ratings, and they are still both 60 day wait. Same with my gf’s camera she just bought *shrug*
As of today, it looks like eBay is no longer one the stores that the CashBack availble from. Also, the website’s been redesigned & rerouted.
Anyone else experience this?
I noticed that cashback no longer works with EBAY. I made two store purchases, one yesterday and one today without problem through the cashback website. Neither purchases have shown up on my cashback account yet though.
I have received over $1500 cash back in the last 2 weeks!! Over $1100 was instant! I love live.com
The live.com link for cash back comes & goes. It may be back up in a day or sometimes two. We will just have to wait & see.
As long as it comes back by xmas, lol, cause i have so much stuff to buy around that time… or after that time that is… gotta finish up my computer :) and having cashback coming to me would just be awesome.
Well I was very skeptical reading all these posts, but I received over $300 in my paypal account today for purchases I made on ebay 2 months ago. Not sure why others are having problems, it worked great for me.
i made 2 purchases tonight at 15% Cashback. On one of the purchases I received the cashback INSTANTLY and it was deposited into my Paypal account IMMEDIATELY. the other purchase i have to wait the 60 days for.
Need 15% cashback!
I purchased a 40″ LCD TV on 11/30/08. Here is the information as below. My live id is lzhang2001@hotmail.com. This item should have 15% off through tigerdirect.com But I only get 5% off, I tried to send 15% to live.com but it didn’t work. Could you help me with this? The product price is $679.99. Shipping is $41.99. Then the total is $721.98
it will be interesting to see what google reply will be. Perhaps they will introduce cashback hehe.
Obviously it is time for a
CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT
Who is going to organize it, and were do we all sign up?
well, i dunno about that. some people are having trouble, and some are having it work perfectly fine. who’s to say that they cant use a countersuit or something and have all the people that had their shit work sign a petition to keep it going… cause if they lose a suit like that they’ll stop doing it probably.
Here is a copy of a note sent to LiveSearch this morning conerning an ongoing issue with receiving credit for viable purchases:
I have made multiple purchases through the LiveSearch forum, via Journeys. I have never received credit for any of them without forwarding proof (I haven’t had to do this with any other vendor). Despite the inconvenience, I have been willing to forward the data to recoup the 10% Cashback. However, LiveSearch has totally quit processing my requests (I have not had a credit since Nov 24, even though I have forwarded proof of purchases for literally dozens of purchases). I don’t even receive human initiated responses anymore! I am extremely disappointed with this program and feel like I have fallen victim to fraud. Not, at all, what I expected from a MicroSoft affiliated program. I seldom, if ever, participate in such, but because it was MicroSoft affiliated, I was lulled into a false sense of “trust & security”. First Vista and now this… I have been entirely too busy with Christmas to hassle this issue to the full extent of my ability, but after the first of the year, I intend to fight for satisfaction…whatever it takes. I WILL get satisfaction ie: 10% cash back on ALL of my purchases. Period. Lack of response to my previous requests is proof enough of your lack of legitimacy and intent to honor your claim of “cashback”. How disheartening…and illegal.
PLEASE POST THIS FOR OTHER UNSUSPECTING VICTIMS, IN THE HOPE THAT THEY WILL NOT BE SUCKERED IN LIKE I WAS! SHAME ON YOU MICROSOFT! SHAME ON YOU BILL GATES! :) I HOPE YOU GO BANKRUPT! I WILL NEVER PURCHASE ANOTHER MICROSOFT PRODUCT–EVER! MAC IS BEAUTIFUL!
OK-I DID THE PURCHASE OF THE FENCE IN JULY ON EBAY-I AM STILL TRYING TO GET MY $250 CASHBACK REWARD-WHAT A PAIN!!!!!!! THEY HAVE EMAILED ME SAYING I AM OWED THE MONEY. SINCE THEN I HAVE MADE PURCHASES ON EBAY AND RECEIVED MY MONEY AFTER 60 DAY-OVER $300 SO FAR AND IT WAS CREDITED TO MY PAYPAL ACCT. THEY STILL HAVE OVER $200 PENDING-WE WILL SEE.
THE PEOPLE GETTING INSTANT CREDIT IN THEIR PAYPAL ACCT FROM PURCHASES ARE PROBABLY USING PAYPAL’S INCENTIVE—DIRECTLY FROM THE PAYPAL SITE WITH STORES LIKE OVERSTOCK, WALMART AND AMERICAN EAGLE—EVEN OMAHA STEAKS. YOUR PAYPAL ACCT IS INSTANTLY CREDITED CASHBACK—I RECEIVED 20% INSTANTLY FROM PAYPAL——-NOT MICROSOFT.
ANYWAY I AM WAITING FOR A WYATT FROM MICROSOFT LIVE TO CREDIT ME MY $250 CASHBACK FOR A $1795 FENCE I PURCHASED IN JULY FOR GOD’S SAKE. HE HAS EMAILED ME TWICE-BUT I HAVE ABOUT 15 EMAILS FROM THEM REGARDING THE SAME ISSUE–DIFFERENT PEOPLE-I’M NOT SURE ANY OF THEM REALLY CARE.
youre actually not supposed to get more than 200$ cashback on any one item. so there’s a flaw in that logic.
FYI-
Live Search Cashback doesn’t make a profit by offering the consumer cashback. It’s their marketing strategy in order to compete with Google & Froogle.
How It Works:
Each retailer (Macys, Best Buy, etc.) in partnership with LiveSearch decides what percentage of their profit they are willing to give back to the consumer once they make a purchase.
Traditionally, “cashback” sites (Ebates, UPromise, etc.) deduct their share from the percentage and that’s their profit. However, LiveSearch gives the consumer
100%
.
Their logic is that the more of an incentive the consumer has to come and shop through their channel, the less likely they are to go to a competitor (Google, Yahoo).
Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet deal! You get cold hard cash after waiting through the 60-day approval process. The ONLY reason the 60-day approval is in place is so that retailers can have a chane to validate the order placed….
Which brings me to why I came to this site in the first place. No. I don’t work for LiveSearch; I work with them. And unfortunately, my company has been ROBBED for the past six months due to fradulent orders placed through LiveSearch.
There are CROOKS out there passing themselves off as “deal hunters”. Using stolen credit cards, or maxed out credit cards to place BIG ticket orders in order to recieve the cash back but canelling the orders before retailers have a chance to catch on. It’s really pretty bad….
Wondering if anyone else out there is experiencing the same thing?
Been waiting over a month now and haven’t received a damn thing. I haven’t tried to contact them yet. I purchased a laptop on ebay that was very pricey and would love to have my 189 dollars that they owe me.
Still kinda confused by that last comment there and how that applies to why they stopped doing cashback rewards on ebay…
Looks like you can’t use live chat anymore for help, not that any help was offered anyway. All I know is that I want my money back. They don’t reply to emails and live chat passes the buck and tells you that someone will be in touch. No one ever is though. I am pi$$ed and I do think a class action suit is in order.
I’m with you there Kristina. If something comes up everyone needs to jump on the band wagon cause They owe me money right now too… It wont clear till jan 2nd but im sure i”ll have some trouble when the time comes. I’m going to continue to try and use the cashback things tho since im already buying stuff anyway, and if for whatever reason i get the money back then hooray, if not… im sure in time there will be somewhere to put my name into the list of people who need to get there payments from MS, the hard way.
I’ve been having problems getting my money for 4 months. Got the “sham transaction” emails and everything, but I did NOT do anything fraudulent.
Paypal claims ignorance, Microsoft blames Paypal, and no one will help.
I’m doing my best to build documentation against Microsoft, Paypal, and eBay to send to the FTC, NC Attorney General, BBB and anyone else who will listen.
So feel free to send your story, and any documentation to microsoft.live.cashback.scam “at” gmail.com
Righteous, keep at it then, Hopefully I wont get screwed jan 2nd when my cashback should process.
Here is my deal. I set up a Hotmail account. Followed a link for the cashback into eBay and made a purchase. Did everything right. I went into my messages at eBay and clicked on the link that took me to the cashback site to finish registration. I enter all the information and clicked to go to the next page. It came back and said that my street does not exist in my zip code. It is a correct address and I do get my mail here along with the item I purchased from ebay. It is the same address used in my paypal account.
So, then I sent an email to to live search and the only response I got was an automated reply email saying they would get back to me in 24 hours. I never heard from them so I used the live chat. Live chat said they would let the technical people know and I should hear something in a week and that if I don’t, I should contact them again. I waited a week and nothing. I tried to get on the live chat again and it is no longer available. So yesterday I sent another email and I got another automated reply stating that I would hear something in 3-4 days.
I don’t know of any other way to contact livesearch. They have no phone number or address. I am only out about $16 but it’s the point of the matter that has me ticked. I will not use again because I don’t want to be jipped out of more money.
I’m building a new computer, I’m out lots of money, BUT i was going to spend the money either way, it would just be nice to get the 600$ back in january :) cause seriously thats like 2 months of my portion of the rent… and I’m a college student.
We have a different take on the cash back model. Check out Purchance.com where you can get a 100% cash back rebate on your online purchase for free. No obligations. We welcome your thoughts on the new service.
Live Search Cashback is a scam. I bought a HP PC and was promised 20% cashback. After 6 weeks, Live Search sent me an e-mail saying that HP informed them that my purchased was returned and hence cancelled my Cashback, however the PC was still sitting in my house. I did not return or exchange anything with PC. In fact I had not even contacted HP since the PC was delivered.
THIS IS A SCAM!!!!
Just got the following email from Microsoft cashback Team (cashteam@microsoft.com):
We regret to inform you that due to violations of Microsoft’s terms of service you are no longer eligible to participate in any Microsoft ecommerce program. Your account(s) will be closed and all purchases and rebates will not be honored.
I don’t know which rules I have violated when I made my purchase. This is ridiculous that after 3 months waiting, Microsoft just forfeit the rebate without telling the exact reason. Moreover, all my pending rebates will not be honored. Is it legal for Microsoft to do such things?
Complete scam if I’ve ever seen one. Just tried my Cashback account and it’s gone. Can’t log in, just pulls up a blank page. So now what, email support 400 times and waste my time?? Right.
Use Fatwallet or something else. These a-holes are just out to screw everyone. What an idiot I was to think they’d actually come through.
Does anyone actually know anyone that has received their cashback?
There are 2 posts in this blog where they say they actually got the cash.
Recently?
Recently?
Does anyone have any experience in successfully suing a large company in the small claims court?
Nov 8 and 11 responses above. I have about 2 weeks remaining to see if I get over $300 I should be eligible for and will definitley report back if I get it.
haha. good question.
I’m waiting on over $450 in cashback, its been almost a month. Three Home Depot giftcards and 3 amish fireplaces…sigh…sure puts a bad taste in my mouth.
I needed new appliances, so purchased the three giftcards to Home Depot. Prices on appliances were high, and I had hoped to get 25% off using cashback.
The amish fireplaces were bundled as 3 scratch and dent, and with the cashback it was like getting 3 for the price of two, I am giving two of them for gifts at christmas. Looks like I didn’t get the deal I thought I was going to get. I’m done buying on the internet, too many scams trying to save a few bucks. Time to support the B&B stores so I know what I’m getting.
i have amounts in the range of 125-150, due in about january, at least 4 different installments of cashback due to me, so we’ll see what happens.
I also think Microsoft’s cashback is a scam.
They are refusing a completely legit cashback and so far they haven’t responded to any of my requests.
I am very unhappy and will never use cashback again until this issue is resolved.
It looks like they are gearing up for the Holidays. This scam is back and in full swing on e-Bay. I just did a search for the Nintendo Wii and BAM!!!! 25% off here 35% off there, it’s everywhere. Don’t fall for it people no matter what item it’s shown on. E-Bay owns PayPal, PayPal is an e-Bay company. Throw Microsoft into the mix and voila, Scam City! I can only imagine how much $$$ they are making ripping off good, honest Americans. :^(
Just remember, “If it’s too good to be true, then it probably is.”
the only reason i buy stuff off ebay is because its still the cheapest place for me to get computer parts hands down, but if i get the 25% its just a bonus… but hopefully it comes through, some people are saying they DID get theirs… never know… im praying for it to come through tho, college students need $$$
I’am going to file open a claim under the “E-bay buyers protection” and see how that goes. It’s in my E-bay invoice from the item that sold that I should get $167.49 back. I will let everyone here know if this works or not. I want everyone here to get their money too.
another good idea! let us know how that goes, cause if that works, i think we’ll all make claims after that..
I am waiting mine $105 cashback in 23 days too. Ｉ ｍａｄｅ ｔｈｅ ｐｕｒｃｈａｓｅ ｆｒｏｍ ｅｂａｙ， ａｎｄ Ｉ ａｍ ｇｌａｄ Ｉ ｂｏｕｇｈｔ ｉｔ ｉｓ ｓｔｉｌｌ ｔｈｅ ｃｈｅａｐｅｓｔ ｐｒｉｃｅ ａｒｏｕｎｄ． Ｉ ｓａｖｅｄ ａｌｌ ｔｈｅ ｃｒｅｅｎｐｒｉｎｔｓ， ｅｍａｉｌｓ， ｒｅｃｅｉｐｔｓ， ａｎｄ ｓｅｅ ｗｈａｔ ｗｉｌｌ ｈａｐｐｅｎ．
Worked so far:
I won three auctions yesterday, 11/25/2008: two were for women’s cosmetics and another was for a logitech cordless mouse. I’m being told I’m “eligible” for 25% on the makeup – $6 on one, $7.50 on the other. The mouse auction said I “earned” and this morning I got an e-mail that there was $11.50 in my PayPal account – I checked and, much to my astonishment, it’s there. No 60 day waiting period?
I’m thinking the item up for bid and who is selling it might determine if and how quickly you get paid.
From reading on this site, I figured this was a scam for sure – and I’m still not convinced otherwise yet. Why would any company – even one as rich as Microsoft – undertake such an endeavor as this? It doesn’t make sense to give away millions of dollars to people for making a purchase they (Microsoft) will see no benefit from – other than the search portal traffic. It seems to me you could buy traffic to your site a lot cheaper.
I’m sure they have pull on a few more strings than just the search portal… nonetheless, the scam is getting them the traffic they want im sure.
An Update to my post above.
I did get Microsoft to finally achnowledge the cashback on one of my biggest purchases and they’ve positively responded to my trouble ticket. Cashback now appears in my items as pending. Several other purchases didn’t even show up after 4 days have passed. I may need to fill out trouble tickets for those too. It may not be a scam, but it sure looks as painful as some of some of the mail-in rebates.
The cashback deal IS REAL. I personally got $$ back after 60 days, waiting for more. I had no problem whatsoever (yet). They respond to claims, just be patient. Follow their rules and you’ll be fine!
These days cashback may be INSTANT!!! you get the cashback into your paypal account MINUTES after your purchase! But take care, they have the right to get it back if you don’t follow tthe rules!
I have a feeling they arent going to do instant rebates for ebay cause its still in their clauses on ebay itself… but we shall see. I still have a countdown going on my rebates, that would be effin sweet if they all of a sudden went into my paypal account :) i could buy more computer parts right away instead of waiting…
I hoping to make a few savings come christmas and hoping everything works ok for me using livesearch.
I am sorry to hear everyone’s problems. I have had the exact opposite experience. I bought two seperate items from Ebay today and have already received my cashback in my paypal account for each purchase. When I look under status in my live.com account it says “Rewarded” … “Your cashback reward was deposited right after your purchase into your PayPal account, which you used for your eBay purchase.” So i had a terrific experience. Good Luck to everyone
Hmm… instantly? wow i hope that holds out till i buy my other computer parts i really want the money back heh…
I think its over. its Nov 29. 1120 est.
WOHOO! I just bought a laptop and they gave me $190 cashback.. and it was instant. The cash was in my paypal account about 10 minutes ago and now it’s being wired to my bank account. I’m not sure why people are saying it’s a scam, but it sure as hell worked for me. Now ima see if I can get some more cheap stuff…
so are you guys getting instant cashback on ebay? or other sites?.. cause if its from ebay i dont understand why mine is still 60 days waiting period..
It says that the 60 day time frame is at the discretion of paypal, so I guess they pick and choose who gets instant and who doesn’t.
The purchases I made were on Ebay. I looked in the FAQ section on live.com and it says the instant credit as at the discretion of PayPal. Good Luck
Interesting. well i wish they’d pick me damnit lol.
thanks for the info. :) hopefully my future transactions come through instantly.
I made 7 purchases yesterday and today. Two were instantly rewarded to my Paypal account and 4 are pending. They were all Ebay purchases so I don’t know why some are instant and some are pending 60 days.
I’m definitely nervous though after reading some of the stories here.
I would stay away from the whole gift cards section though; sounds like a bad deal!
TO THOSE GETTING INSTANT CASHBACK IN THEIR PAYPAL ACCOUNT: What item(s) did you buy? And was the purchase made from a PowerSeller? And have you used Cashback before? I think everyone is trying to figure out what the determining factors might be for getting the INSTANT cashback, so detailed input would be appreciated by all.
the best thing to do is to get the items we want at reasonable prices wheter we get the cashback or not like everyone say here is up to either “this or that company” really if we buy the items the old fashion way without expecting anything, because its really a bargain as it is live.com does not have to give us cash back. but if they do is great. think of it this way it someone start filing a lawsuit then it will desapear. So, for some people works for others don’t, at least some people it getting the cashback, but if they decide to no longer offer the cashback, well then no one will get any cashback.
also lets no forget that some of us not always follow the rules and try to find a loop in everything we can, im not saying all of us, you know that “friend”, that “neigbor”.
you get the idea. follow the rules and is more likely youll get the cashback.
if your gonna buy something with the cashback promotion please think that it may not happen but either way u were gonna buy it. if you the cashback is great if not please do not point fingers at anyone. remember if there was not a cashback promotion there will be no complains, because u really did get what u pay for.
NOT TRUE !!
I GOT THE MONEY, AND THEY SEND U A MAIL FROM CASHBACK@MICROSOFT.COM EVERYTIME YOU MAKE A PURCHASE.
ITS GENUINE AND WORKING.
WELL WHEN I DID IT IN JULY IT SAID I WOULD GET $250 CASHBACK AND THAT WAS THE MAXIMUM. MAYBE IT’S CHANGED NOW BUT IF YOU READ THE RULES I DON’T THINK THEY HAVE CHANGED.
the rules for ebay are 200$ if you read their little deal on ebay itself. but the actual cashback max through the rest of the net, well i wouldnt know you’d have to go through the cashback site to look it up.
I can’t log on my cashback account to request a cashback today. Yesterday it told me I had one day left to request a refund. Anyone having the same problem?
I can’t log on my cashback account to request a cashback today. Yesterday it told me I had one day left to request a refund. Anyone having the same problem?
I have the same problem.
I am having a blast with this cashback. I only discovered it at the beginning of Dec.
Here is a cut/paste of my current standings:
Pending: $830.95
Available: $0.00
In process: $0.00
Rewarded: $576.02
Total cashback: $1406.97
Here are some details:
1) I am only buying gift cards (for a home remodel) Always $500.
2) I started when it was 30%, it dwindled down to nothing, then jumped back to 8% last week, and then went away again.
3) After about 5 purchases saying “pending 60 days”, I started getting instant PayPal Payments (“Rewarded” above) sometimes. I do not know the criteria, only that sometimes it would say “your moneu is waiting in your paupal acct”, other times it went to “Pending”
4) I maxed out one ebay account at 12 purchases for about 1k in rebates. The message was simply “you’ve reached your limit”
5) Following the rules, I started the next “12 purchaces/$1250 max” on another eBay account that I have. Same PayPal account. Again, some are pending, some are instant. The rules state that “each eBay account may have a max of $1250, and a max of $2500 per individual” (paraphrasing that).
6) Have not reached 60 days on any rebate yet, buthave no reason to believe that I will not get it
7) In some instances, I have had to pay over $500 for a $500 gift Cert. I owuld just wait until someone did it for $520 or less.
8) I wish I had moved faster when it was at 30%!!! Most were bought between 20 and 30%. I would average it at 25% rebate overall….
I really hope all the other posters (that followed the rules) get their rebates. I easily found many frauds by searching completed listings ($750 for $500 cards, sold 4 times in one day to the same person). Sihthaeds like that ruin it for everyone.
For about $2 each (or wating for a couple weeks by email) I buy lowes/Home Depot 10% off coupons. For the 6k in gift cards bought for about $4500… +10% coupon (-$600), I’ll get $6600 in kitchen cabinets for that $4500.
Sweet deal! Perhaps they worked the bugs out before this last offering. I hope so for everyone here
Here is a cut/paste of my current standings:
Pending: $830.95
Available: $0.00
In process: $0.00
Rewarded: $576.02
Total cashback: $1406.97
Here are some details:
1) I am only buying gift cards (for a home remodel) Always $500.
2) I started when it was 30%, it dwindled down to nothing, then jumped back to 8% last week, and then went away again.
3) After about 5 purchases saying “pending 60 days”, I started getting instant PayPal Payments (“Rewarded” above) sometimes. I do not know the criteria, only that sometimes it would say “your moneu is waiting in your paupal acct”, other times it went to “Pending”
4) I maxed out one ebay account at 12 purchases for about 1k in rebates. The message was simply “you’ve reached your limit”
5) Following the rules, I started the next “12 purchaces/$1250 max” on another eBay account that I have. Same PayPal account. Again, some are pending, some are instant. The rules state that “each eBay account may have a max of $1250, and a max of $2500 per individual” (paraphrasing that).
6) Have not reached 60 days on any rebate yet, buthave no reason to believe that I will not get it
7) In some instances, I have had to pay over $500 for a $500 gift Cert. I owuld just wait until someone did it for $520 or less.
8) I wish I had moved faster when it was at 30%!!! Most were bought between 20 and 30%. I would average it at 25% rebate overall….
I really hope all the other posters (that followed the rules) get their rebates. I easily found many frauds by searching completed listings ($750 for $500 cards, sold 4 times in one day to the same person). Sihthaeds like that ruin it for everyone.
For about $2 each (or wating for a couple weeks by email) I buy lowes/Home Depot 10% off coupons. For the 6k in gift cards bought for about $4500… +10% coupon (-$600), I’ll get $6600 in kitchen cabinets for that $4500.
Sweet deal! Perhaps they worked the bugs out before this last offering. I hope so for everyone here
Jon
Dec 24, 2008
—————————————————————————————-
Here is a followup to my email above.
I have started to get my “pending” paymnets sent to my PayPal account. It is also automatic. For the few things I bought off eBay (ie Deep Discount), I had to click on the “get cashback” button.
I folow my “pending” pamyents closely. They have a countdown attached. When it get down to “1 day to go”, the next day it processes (perhpas they look close at this time for one of the 1000s of scams against them), and then the next day it is in my PayPal account.
With all the negative posts here, I was a bit worried. But this only proves that this system works. I’ve collected over $1000 of the $1400 coming to me. Some of it was instant, and the rest will trickle in over the next 22 days.
While I am sure that a few are suffereing from honest mistakes, it is a good bet that the majority of the whiners had tried to cheat the system, and got caught. Hell, *I* caught at least a dozen cheaters on eBay. Listing 4 $500 gift cards at a time, being bought “But It Now” fro $750 each, all at the same time, all be the same buyer. WOW what a scam – they will NEVER figure that out! Time for a “class action lawsuit”!!!
The rules were clear. No out of country sales. One guy complained because he was a citizen, buying from OUT OF THE COUNTRY. Join the class action, pal!
I even used both my eBay accounts to make my purchases – the rules said $1500 per account, up to 2 accounts”.
I only wish the crooks and cheaters would not haverunied it for everyone else…. I could have gone even further with it. But these aholes runied a good thing. They are SO STUPID that they missed out on up to $2500 free cash by playing games.
I got $400.00$ Back! Im happy with (LIVE CASHBACK!!)
Thank You MICROSOFT
What are you guys talking about?
This is NOT a scam!!!
I received almost $1000 from Microsoft Live Cashback and almost HALF of that was instant credit.
Reading all these complains, I really think some of you guys didnt use the program right. This may have been your fault, and it may have been Microsoft’s for not accounting for many user errors.
Remember, this program is really really new. And I’M SURE it’s still full of bugs. Those that don’t believe there’s such thing as internet bugs have obviously never used Windows before :)
In any case, I’ve used this program since it started and there hasnt been ONE time where I didnt receive the cashback like advertised.
60 days on the dot everytime. And when they had the Thanksgiving day 30% promo, I got brand new sony camcorder and digital camera with INSTANT rebate and an Ebay Coupon. They ended up so cheap that I felt someone got robbed!
wow ive received $600 so far in my paypal account sorry for all you guys that got jipped but it worked for me
Anyone know if microsoft is going to keep doing this? If so, anyone know what keywords to search for? thanks
With as many scams people ran to take advantage of the program and all these class action lawsuits people (with nothing better to do) jumped in on; I highly doubt it.
I honestly think that Microsoft offered by far THE BEST cashback program (with Ebay) that I have ever seen…and I’ve been shopping online for over a decade.
It sucks that there are those few that ruin it for the many.
If done correctly, microsoft cashback definitely works. I have received over $350 to my paypal account. You have to purchase an item with buy it now and the seller must only accept paypal. If not it will say item as not eligible when you go to pay for it. I have received some instant cash back rewards but most I have had to wait 60 days. Is any other search engine offering this?
To those wondering if it is a scam. The answer is
“sort of”. I got some of my cashback rewards without any problems. Then the last 3 have been permanently held up “in process”. After countless emails back and forth with their people, i’m told to wait and be patient. After searching the internet, I find that this is a common complaint from people who bought at the tail end of the program. Nobody is getting their cash back.
At least I got some of my money back. I feel sorry for the folks who bought a lot of stuff at the end of the program with the belief they were getting cash back.
I read the terms and conditions presented by eBay and Microsoft. The eBay terms state “In the event of a conflict between the Program Terms and the eBay Terms, the eBay Terms shall apply. ” and further down it states “Purchases on eBay.com of gift certificates, gift cards and items acquired for resale will be eligible for Cashback Rewards.” so the purchase of a gift card on eBay is NOT excluded from eligibility. That is not to say they can’t find some other loophole but a gift card can’t be excluded based on the sole factor of being a gift card.
I have made several purchases and had a balance waiting in my Live Cashback account that on 12/18/2008 I requested to be deposited to my PayPal account. It is 18 days later and no deposit to PayPal and my Live Cashback account still reflects the payment as in process. I emailed Live several times and was told it is being escalated to the Accounting Dept, that I should receive a reply in 72 hours. It has been 5 days and no reply. I emailed again, still no reply.
If anyone with a legal background can get a Class Action case started, I would participate and assist.
I do think that eBay│PayPal & Microsoft won’t learn anything unless sued.
http://pages.ebay.com/cashbackoffer/terms.html
http://tou.live.com/help.aspx?project=tou&market=en-us
Ya – so…after *3* months of waiting on Live to get back to me because my cashback didnt take here is what I get. THEY WONT HONOR IT!!!!! I respond telling them I have evidence (I took screenshots because I didnt trust these guys in the first place) and they reply with the same exact canned message each and every time…
Hi Andrew,
Thank you for contacting Live Search cashback with your eBay purchase claim for Item 270284034344. As previously stated, we have completed research and are unable to apply cashback savings for this eBay purchase. In working with eBay and PayPal, we have determined that this purchase is not eligible for Live Search cashback savings. We have taken extra steps to confirm with eBay and PayPal that program terms have not been met. This entailed submitting your item number to eBay for review which confirmed you will not earn cashback for this purchase.
Your purchase claim will remain closed, and we will not be applying cashback for your order. We apologize for any inconvenience or disappointment this may have caused you.
Sincerely,
Scott M.
Live Search cashback Customer Support
Yeah, they hosed me for $230.
I’ve waited almost 90 days. I’ve sent emails back and forth to their reps. They’ve quit emailing me altogether now. It’s not worth the headache and stress to me to save a few dollars.
They burnt me once, they won’t do it again, cause I won’t fall for their rebate scam.
If it seems to good to be true………..it always is.
DOES ANYBODY HAVE AN ACTUAL WORKING PHONE NUMBER THAT GETS YOU TO A LIVE HUMAN THAT CAN TELL YOU WHAT’S GOING ON WITH YOUR CASHBACK TRANSACTIONS? NOT one at Ebay or Paypal. ONE AT MICROSOFT?
SO FAR it appears to be a scam… Purchased item on Ebay on 12/6/08. Paid immediately with Paypal. Got the Ebay email that I’m eligible for Cashback. Followed the link to MS and it never showed up as pending or any other status. Checked at Live, which said if I didn’t get confirmation within 48 hours to send a trouble ticket. Did so….. Got the idiotic “We’re really busy, we’ll do something someday” automated response.
Continued trying. After 3 weeks I contacted Ebay. “Not our problem”. Contacted Paypal “Not our problem”…
Contacted Microsoft and spent 2 hours being passed from department to department trying to get a phone number to talk TO AN ACTUAL, LIVE HUMAN in Cashback. Unsuccessful.
5 weeks. No cashback, NO CONFIRMATION OF ACTIVITY.
It appears to be a scam… Think Bernie Madoff – some folks got paid to keep the scam going while he siphoned off money from others…..
Sorry to those having trouble, but after my 60 day waiting period ended on the 3rd of january i waited the 7 days for them to make the transfer, 125$ showed up in my paypal account. So it’s still working for some people. Bought a 500$ 2408wfp monitor off ebay, got my 25%. schweet deal.
Same story for me. Microsoft says eBay must have determined that the purchase is not eligible. Ebay says it is eligible, take it up with Microsoft. I can’t get a straight answer. I did notice that the eBay page for the item I bought says payment was made by Paypal on 12-3. On the Paypal transaction detail page it says payment was made on 12-1. What actually happened was that the seller had a different email address for Paypal than the one the “Pay Now” button on the auction page was assciated with. It took two days for him to add the email address to his Paypal account. I’m wondering if the date discrepancy is the reason my transaction doesn’t show up but I can’t get a human to answer my questions.
Correction: “up to $1250.00 per account, $2500 max”
Well 3x MS cancelled my transfer of Cashback $$$ to PayPal claiming I had incorrect account information yet according to PayPal, no such errors exist plus PayPal was able to confirm that no attempts were made to deposit money into my account by MS. Here is the MS reply to my 88th email:
Hello *****,
Thank you for contacting Live Search cashback Customer Support! My name is Alexis. I am a Customer Service Representative and I will be assisting you with your request regarding your failed cashback payments. I have opened an incident with our team on your behalf.
I apologize for the long wait to have your issue addressed!
*****, I checked our system and what I’m seeing is that the payments to your PayPal account were rejected on our end because the account information we have is either missing or needs to be updated. Did you receive an email from us instructing you to visit: https://cashbackaccount.search.live.com/CashBack/Profile.aspx? If not, please follow that link and update your information. If everything seems to be correct, please reply to this email and I’ll have a member of our Technical Team investigate your issue.
Customer satisfaction is our top priority. We welcome your comments and suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please reply to this e-mail with any feedback or visit: https://feedback.search.live.com/default.aspx?productkey=cashbackso
Thank you, David, for contacting Live Search cashback Customer Support.
Sincerely,
Alexis S.
SCAM***SCAM***SCAM***SCAM***SCAM***SCAM***
Here is a cut/paste of my current standings:
Pending: $830.95
Available: $0.00
In process: $0.00
Rewarded: $576.02
Total cashback: $1406.97
Here are some details:
1) I am only buying gift cards (for a home remodel) Always $500.
2) I started when it was 30%, it dwindled down to nothing, then jumped back to 8% last week, and then went away again.
3) After about 5 purchases saying “pending 60 days”, I started getting instant PayPal Payments (“Rewarded” above) sometimes. I do not know the criteria, only that sometimes it would say “your moneu is waiting in your paupal acct”, other times it went to “Pending”
4) I maxed out one ebay account at 12 purchases for about 1k in rebates. The message was simply “you’ve reached your limit”
5) Following the rules, I started the next “12 purchaces/$1250 max” on another eBay account that I have. Same PayPal account. Again, some are pending, some are instant. The rules state that “each eBay account may have a max of $1250, and a max of $2500 per individual” (paraphrasing that).
6) Have not reached 60 days on any rebate yet, buthave no reason to believe that I will not get it
7) In some instances, I have had to pay over $500 for a $500 gift Cert. I owuld just wait until someone did it for $520 or less.
8) I wish I had moved faster when it was at 30%!!! Most were bought between 20 and 30%. I would average it at 25% rebate overall….
I really hope all the other posters (that followed the rules) get their rebates. I easily found many frauds by searching completed listings ($750 for $500 cards, sold 4 times in one day to the same person). Sihthaeds like that ruin it for everyone.
For about $2 each (or wating for a couple weeks by email) I buy lowes/Home Depot 10% off coupons. For the 6k in gift cards bought for about $4500… +10% coupon (-$600), I’ll get $6600 in kitchen cabinets for that $4500.
Sweet deal! Perhaps they worked the bugs out before this last offering. I hope so for everyone here
Jon
Dec 24, 2008
—————————————————————————————-
Here is a followup to my email above.
I have started to get my “pending” paymnets sent to my PayPal account. It is also automatic. For the few things I bought off eBay (ie Deep Discount), I had to click on the “get cashback” button.
I folow my “pending” pamyents closely. They have a countdown attached. When it get down to “1 day to go”, the next day it processes (perhpas they look close at this time for one of the 1000s of scams against them), and then the next day it is in my PayPal account.
With all the negative posts here, I was a bit worried. But this only proves that this system works. I’ve collected over $1000 of the $1400 coming to me. Some of it was instant, and the rest will trickle in over the next 22 days.
While I am sure that a few are suffereing from honest mistakes, it is a good bet that the majority of the whiners had tried to cheat the system, and got caught. Hell, *I* caught at least a dozen cheaters on eBay. Listing 4 $500 gift cards at a time, being bought “But It Now” fro $750 each, all at the same time, all be the same buyer. WOW what a scam – they will NEVER figure that out! Time for a “class action lawsuit”!!!
The rules were clear. No out of country sales. One guy complained because he was a citizen, buying from OUT OF THE COUNTRY. Join the class action, pal!
I even used both my eBay accounts to make my purchases – the rules said $1500 per account, up to 2 accounts”.
I only wish the crooks and cheaters would not haverunied it for everyone else…. I could have gone even further with it. But these aholes runied a good thing. They are SO STUPID that they missed out on up to $2500 free cash by playing games.
LETS HEAR FROM THE HONEST PROPLE WHO ARE GETTING THEIR FUNDS!
Jon
I got my cashback its already in my checking account($62.50). In november i bought a navi unit (garmin 770) for 250. Ebay was giving out coupons at a time that allowed for 10% off tech certain tech items. I used that coupon and M$ cashback for an additional 35%. In the end, I got the unit for roughly 160 which is a ridiculous price for it being new.
For any new comers who are debating whether or not to take a chance. Why not buy something that you already feel is justified in price and allows for cashback? If it doesn’t work not so bad; however, if it works then consider it a bonus. I think too many ppl here depended on it to work. I had my doubts but I am glad it worked.
Garmin 760****
I’ve received more than 300$ already through live search, and I’m waiting on 150 more to come through in the next two weeks. I just got 68$ back today, although paypal took fees out so it was 64.50. I’ve made all of my purchases on ebay, even though I usually use different search terms in the search box, then follow the link to ebay and change the search to what I want, then purchase it. You have to make sure the cashback logo shows up both on ebay and on paypal when you are checking out. I can check on the exact date my money will go in to my paypal account on my cashback account (under pending rewards), and it has always been on time. I’ve gotten two 25% discounts and 2 30% discounts. I bought a sony ereader, a stroller, a laptop, and gps navigation system.
The only bad part about it is I can’t get any more ebay discounts to show up on live search. Hope they bring it back, I’m not near my 2000$ cashback limit yet!
purchased on 12/1…no cashback…it’s a shell game..microsoft says go to ebay..which says to go to paypal ….which goes back to ….microsoft. The wheel keeps spinning.
12/1 and still waiting. I have met a lot of customer support people but most are just trying to cut/paste a standard replay and don’t actually do anything of substance. The next day another “new” customer support person does the same. Must have a hight turnover rate..
purchased on 12/1…no cashback…it’s a shell game..microsoft says go to ebay..which says to go to paypal ….which goes back to ….microsoft. The wheel keeps spinning.
12/1 and still waiting. I have met a lot of customer support people but most are just trying to cut/paste a standard replay and don’t actually do anything of substance. The next day another “new” customer support person does the same. Must have a hight turnover rate..
Perhaps you should read the rules? If you purchased on 12/1, then you would not get your cashback until around 2/1. Is it that hard to figure out?
What “Shell Game”?? People who did it right, got thier money. People are getting their “60-day wait” monies, too.
It’s like complaining that you did not get a paycheck 3 days before payday.
But I do understand that some people just have to complain!
Jon
JUST GOT MY$435 DOLLARS BACK TODAY! NOT A SCAM JUST FOLLOW THE RULES!
right there with you, got another 82 $ today. too bad ebay isnt hooking it up anymore or i’d be saving even more.
Well I got my money today, the issue was the address on file with Microsoft from way back when I started paying for my hotmail account. That address didn;t match PayPal or the address listed with Live.com so they kept denying payment. I updated the address with hotmail billing and presto, money received.
It isn’t a scam but it sure isn’t easy or friendly.
UNLESS YOU JUST DO IT RIGHT, then it is easy & trouble free.
Once again, someone complaining and blaming Microsoft/eBay/PayPal when it is their fault.
Got another $138 today! $350 to go on the $1400 owed!
Jon
UNLESS YOU JUST DO IT RIGHT, then it is easy & trouble free.
Once again, someone complaining and blaming Microsoft/eBay/PayPal when it is their fault.
Got another $138 today! $350 to go on the $1400 coming back!
Jon
This service is a farce. It is telling me that my cashback failed. It worked great when I was purchasing the product . But now that they are supposed to deposit money it has mysteriously failed. Fishy if you ask me. I will not use this service again.
The fake webform for issues is totally unreliable. Its been two weeks now and nothing.
I should have known. My bad. I knew I shouldn’t have gone through with it when I read the last bit in the terms. They do not offer customer support.
I bought a Canon camera in Dec. through Live Search. I got a email today telling me to go to my ebay account and click accept to get my cashback reward. I had totally forgotten about it, but they did come through for me.
That people still call this a farce is just stupidity – or dishonesty – on their part.
I am down to only being owed $300 on the $1400 I’ve earned. 2 Payments of the 16 payments have shown as “failed” just recently. But I’ll figure it out.
If you were honest in getting these rewards, nad FOLLOWED THE RULES AND DIRECTIONS, you’ll get your funds. So far, not one legit buyer has shown that they did not get a reward they were properly entitled to. It’s just “Let’s sue”; “Microsoft are crooks” and all that crap.
Let’s hear from more people who are getting their funds back – is is just about another few days that will make 60 days since they shut the rebates down (most likely becasue of the scammers).
Jon
I followed all of the rules. I even read the tou. I made sure I did everything to the T.
yet it failed.
Before you start calling names you might want to rethink the maturity level you are putting out.
I did nothing dishonest or stupid. I did exactly as instructed.
im looking to buy a PS3 from livesearch cashback i just hope it all works.
many people had failed cashbacks and you who managed to have no problems want to call those with problems scammers who tried to screw Microsoft. Well many of those failed cashback scammers who tried to screw Microsoft did eventually get their cashbacks. Did they unscrew Microsoft? Quit blamming the customers and place the blame where it belongs, with Microsoft. They are the 800 lb. Gorilla and will do what they want.
I totally agree…
Recently, I had 3 of my 14 payments “Failed”. I started to worry, as people were saying that the customer service was non-existant, and that the help request forms were “fake”.
I sent a “help form” out and while I did not hear back within 24 hours as promised, it was more like within 36 hours. TWO MS reps replied in a 72 hour period,and they pointed out that the “failed”s were re-processed and available in my PayPal account already. I looked it up on Live Cashback, and sure enough it was done.
I have $108 left to come of the $1400-ish in rewards I’ve earned.
This is proven 3 things:
Microsoft Cashback is a legit program
Microsoft is paying rewards to people who follow the rules
Microsoft Cashback’s Help Forms are monitored, answered, and they work.
With 10s 1000s (no doubt) of people getting legit rewards, there are sure to be a few mistakes;. I had 2 mistakes on my account (the “Failed”s). They were fixed with a polite “please help” note sent through a Help Form.
Good luck to all on here who have legit claims. To those scammers, thanks for ruining a good thing for everyone else.
Jon
who are we to point fingers, we dont know their intent, but you cant call them innocent.
a lot of them probably just got lazy and didnt read ALL the fine print, and follow the instructions carefully enough. all they can blame is themselves in those cases.
this is a place to explain your situation in detail, to make sure people dont have the same problems, not to accuse others of anything. theres no point in arguing…
‘winning a fight on the internet is like winning the special olympics, even if you win youre still retarded.’
who are we to point fingers, we dont know their intent, but you cant call them innocent.
a lot of them probably just got lazy and didnt read ALL the fine print, and follow the instructions carefully enough. all they can blame is themselves in those cases.
this is a place to explain your situation in detail, to make sure people dont have the same problems, not to accuse others of anything. theres no point in arguing…
‘winning a fight on the internet is like winning the special olympics, even if you win youre still retarded.’
It worked for me. I spent around $700 in october and last month I got my $200 back from using live.com.
I also have $255 in a cashback account that says FAILED Microsoft has not responded to an email of mine for over a week now. At first they said it was a problem with Paypal and wanted me to contact them. I did and found that NOTHING was wrong with my papal account. They keep saying customer satisfaction is their top priority I say B.S. I have done everything correct, but still no funds.
YEAH!
I just got the last 2 payments. 16 of 16 payments were all rewarded:
cashback summary
Pending: $0.00
Available: $0.00
In process: $0.00
Rewarded: $1406.97
Total cashback: $1406.97
3-4 of them came up “failed” at first. Some corrected themselves. Others, I had to fill out the help form.
What an awesome deal this was!
Jon
Been reading all of your posts. Congrats to those that received the money. Let me put in my two cents worth.
Found out about ML cashback in mid October. Signed up for Cashback account, followed ALL of the rules, reading and re-reading everyone of them. Purchased a Lowe’s gift card, a Tom Tom, a printer, etc. (Did not pay more t han value on any, but only purchased them because of the great 25% – 30% savings promised on each.). Followed procedures to claim my cashback, and waited the 60 days.
Midway through the wait, I receive an email from Paypal refusing my cashback and canceling my current auctions. I immediately contact paypal, who, in two separate phone calls, assures me that this email is a spoof email, and my accounts are in good standing. ( and ebay did not cancel any of my auctions, nor had any record of the email) So I continue to purchase additional items. I even received an instant rebate of $127.50 on one auction.
Fast forward 60 days… The rebates are all showing available in my ML account so I request payment (over $700.00) to my paypal account. Receive confirmation that it will arrive in 7 days. Great!! Two weeks later, no money. Contact ML Live, “account looks fine, call ebay”, contact ebay, they tell me “everything is fine, the problem must be paypal”. So the fun begins….
I have now made over 30 phone calls to paypal. Each time a CSR has assured me that my account is in good standing and that there is nothing blocking the money. I escalate the call to a supervisor, with the same responses. I have numerous emails telling me that my account is in good standing, and any emails regarding a cashback denial are fraudulent!. (I can provide them if you’d like to see them) I have had a supervisor hang up on me when I asked to speak to someone higher up. Through sheer determination on my part, I was able to get a back door phone number that almost always bypasses their customer support line. I finally reached several people in the Marketing Department and they each told be the final decision was up to a mysterious “Paypal cashback review team”. I ask to speak to someone directly in that team, but am denied. Per paypal employees: NO ONE is allowed to contact them AT ALL. They cannot be reached by any outside customer via any means. No email, phone, etc. Once they have determined that you (for ANY reason) are not eligible, they will refuse payment, and do not have to provide any explanations as to why.
Each of the people that I actually spoke to at eBay, ML Live and Paypal all assured me that I followed the guidelines to the letter. But because some backroom “cashback team” has the power (and I’m sure, the incentive) to deny rebates, I have no recourse. Since I was stressing out over all of these phone calls, I gave up. Two weeks later I get another form-letter email from paypal, saying that they are wanting to help, telling me to contact ebay!! And then, in my ML account, they show all of my auction purchases as being refunded, and no longer eligible for a rebate. Of couse, ebay has no idea what they are talking about, and cannot help.
I am thoroughly disgusted with all three companies and will limit any future transactions with them.
P.S. Throughout all of this, a co-worker received a similar email denial from paypal, yet received all of his rebates on time.
So to those of you that received your rebates, good for you, I harbor no ill will. But please dont assume that we screwed up, or cheated, or scammed ML, ebay or paypal. Because we didn’t. We purchased items in good faith, believing that we would recieve our refunds if we followed all of the rules. I can only surmise that the “Cashback team” let your rebates slip through their tight fists. If they refused them all, they would most certainly have had numerous class action lawsuits filed, but by only denying a few here and there, the wave of angry customers is not strong enough to intimidate such a large corporation.
Been reading all of your posts. Congrats to those that received the money. Let me put in my two cents worth.
Found out about ML cashback in mid October. Signed up for Cashback account, followed ALL of the rules, reading and re-reading everyone of them. Purchased a Lowe’s gift card, a Tom Tom, a printer, etc. (Did not pay more t han value on any, but only purchased them because of the great 25% – 30% savings promised on each.). Followed procedures to claim my cashback, and waited the 60 days.
Midway through the wait, I receive an email from Paypal refusing my cashback and canceling my current auctions. I immediately contact paypal, who, in two separate phone calls, assures me that this email is a spoof email, and my accounts are in good standing. ( and ebay did not cancel any of my auctions, nor had any record of the email) So I continue to purchase additional items. I even received an instant rebate of $127.50 on one auction.
Fast forward 60 days… The rebates are all showing available in my ML account so I request payment (over $700.00) to my paypal account. Receive confirmation that it will arrive in 7 days. Great!! Two weeks later, no money. Contact ML Live, “account looks fine, call ebay”, contact ebay, they tell me “everything is fine, the problem must be paypal”. So the fun begins….
I have now made over 30 phone calls to paypal. Each time a CSR has assured me that my account is in good standing and that there is nothing blocking the money. I escalate the call to a supervisor, with the same responses. I have numerous emails telling me that my account is in good standing, and any emails regarding a cashback denial are fraudulent!. (I can provide them if you’d like to see them) I have had a supervisor hang up on me when I asked to speak to someone higher up. Through sheer determination on my part, I was able to get a back door phone number that almost always bypasses their customer support line. I finally reached several people in the Marketing Department and they each told be the final decision was up to a mysterious “Paypal cashback review team”. I ask to speak to someone directly in that team, but am denied. Per paypal employees: NO ONE is allowed to contact them AT ALL. They cannot be reached by any outside customer via any means. No email, phone, etc. Once they have determined that you (for ANY reason) are not eligible, they will refuse payment, and do not have to provide any explanations as to why.
Each of the people that I actually spoke to at eBay, ML Live and Paypal all assured me that I followed the guidelines to the letter. But because some backroom “cashback team” has the power (and I’m sure, the incentive) to deny rebates, I have no recourse. Since I was stressing out over all of these phone calls, I gave up. Two weeks later I get another form-letter email from paypal, saying that they are wanting to help, telling me to contact ebay!! And then, in my ML account, they show all of my auction purchases as being refunded, and no longer eligible for a rebate. Of couse, ebay has no idea what they are talking about, and cannot help.
I am thoroughly disgusted with all three companies and will limit any future transactions with them.
P.S. Throughout all of this, a co-worker received a similar email denial from paypal, yet received all of his rebates on time.
So to those of you that received your rebates, good for you, I harbor no ill will. But please dont assume that we screwed up, or cheated, or scammed ML, ebay or paypal. Because we didn’t. We purchased items in good faith, believing that we would recieve our refunds if we followed all of the rules. I can only surmise that the “Cashback team” let your rebates slip through their tight fists. If they refused them all, they would most certainly have had numerous class action lawsuits filed, but by only denying a few here and there, the wave of angry customers is not strong enough to intimidate such a large corporation.
I apologize for the duplicated posting. Got a little antsy with the “send” button!
That is crazy hearing how badly you got screwed.
I cant believe that happened to you although, I did read similar stories on this thread.
It sounds like you followed everything to the T so maybe it’s because of this recession or the timing when you started pulling the rebates that one by one they were all denied…
So far I have not missed a single rebate…So it’s very odd to hear cases like this.
In either case MS pulled their whole Ebay program so it doesnt look like they’re interested in Ebay’s clients anymore. I bought some memory and other things through LS with other stores like Tiger Direct and still no issues.
Every rebate came as promised.
There more than one way to get at them. I may not get my money but I will email my siory and all the links I can find to every major newspaper I can find. Someone will run with this and make Microsuck look very very bad.
I will also email my story to all their advertisers and tell them I will never buy anything from and I will tell them I am telling everyone I know not to buy and to spread the word to everyone they know – Don’t buy from this businesses. Remeber, do something good and a couple people hear about it. Do something bad and hundreds will hear about it. If everyone who lost money with this scam would do the same, Live.com just might die!!!!!
They have started a PR nightmare for MicroSoft.
I like your idea, and I suggest we take it one step farther. Almost every TV station has a investigative reporter that specializes in revealing scams and fighting for the little guy. Forwarding the link to this site might be the first step in revealing their dirty little secrets.
I made 12 purchases using the Live.com Cashback/eBay/PayPal scam during November and first couple days in December, 2008.
I received my first 4 rebates when I had to claim them by going to my Live.com account. Then Live.com switched to an automated deposit program and every transaction since (8 with several retrys) have failed. All their emails about the situation sre automated canned responses. Currently, they owe me over $1,000.
All purchases were made the same way and in all cases I received a message from eBay saying I earned a cash back and I also got an email from Live.com saying I had earned a rebate on each and everyone of the transactions.
Microscam is alive and well at taking your money. If they can get it by selling crap software, they will think of another way. Hey, lets offer rebates we will never pay and blame it on our software. after all, everyone know our software belongs in the toilet.
I bought something on eBay because of the 35% cashback, it wasn’t worth it otherwise. After waiting 60 days MS has failed a few times to pay me. They ask me to check with PayPal. PP Says everything is fine except no payment from MS. Meanwhile other people are able to pay me. I can call PayPal but not MS. They have these weird email addresses that I can’t reply to. I press reply (using MS Outlook) and the To field is empty. I feel I’ve been ripped off for $114. If I don’t get it soon I will file with the Better Business Bureau and see how much hassle it is to open a small claims court case….
It would cost more than you would get.
either way tho, they owed me money that was automatic in january and i got it… so here it is 2-3 weeks later and people are having trouble. I dunno i got my 250$ so i dunno what to tell anyone. Sorry it didn’t work for you.
There more than one way to get at them. I may not get my money but I will email my siory and all the links I can find to every major newspaper I can find. Someone will run with this and make Microsuck look very very bad.
I will also email my story to all their advertisers and tell them I will never buy anything from and I will tell them I am telling everyone I know not to buy and to spread the word to everyone they know – Don’t buy from this businesses. Remeber, do something good and a couple people hear about it. Do something bad and hundreds will hear about it. If everyone who lost money with this scam would do the same, Live.com just might die!!!!!
They have started a PR nightmare for MicroSoft.
I’ve done quite a bit of research on the whole cashback “scam” and from everything I’ve read and been told, the problem isn’t Microsoft, but PayPal. eBay (and the other retailers) entered into a agreement to offer the rebates (which are funded by both the retailer and Microsoft.). But from everything that I can find, it seems that PayPal is the determining factor whether you get paid or not. Even their own supervisors in their Marketing Department informed me that the decision to pay rested solely on their “cashback review team”. The one “beef” that I have with ML Live, is that they no longer have any means of contacting anyone directly regarding non-payment issues. My guess is that they were innundated with complaints by people who were denied payment by PayPal, and chose to remove a direct form of contact to slow down the complaints.
An ironic note: I received ANOTHER email from PayPal informing me that I need to take my complaint back to eBay, which I did. One rep at email actually investigated the problem, (or at least I believe he did) and responded that “PayPal did deny all payments, no explanation available, and this was their final decision.” Within a hour or receiving that email…..PayPal sent me a customer satisfaction survey!! Oooh, I enjoyed completing that one! LOL
I hope that someone takes takes the initiative to start a class action suit, I’ll be in line to join. Not for the very slim chance to receive any compensation, but to bring to light the unethical and probably illegal actions of such a large corporation.
Doreen,
If it was PayPal’s fault, why would Live.com claim it was a software glitch right after they started the automatic deposit method. Worked fine before that. Hum, software company claiming it’s a software glitch. Not very smart in my book.
By the way, I again talked with PP and I now have all my rebates ($1,000+). They even called me today to see if I noticed my rebates came through. Live.com also shows them as rewarded and emailed to see if everything was correct.
Wow! That’s great! We obviously had different issues. Yours does sound like a software glitch where mine is something else. My rebates were flat-out denied, with no reason given. Then, in my Live account, all of my auctions were then listed as “returned” canceling any rebates due. Now my Cashback account is completely closed. I don’t believe I could get any rebates from other vendors if I tried. I guess I didn’t go away quietly, so I pis*ed ‘em off. It was a very expensive lesson but I’ve now learned never to rely on a “promised rebate” when purchasing items.
I finally got my cash back!
It could be a software problem. I believe that. Other people were able to pay me using PP. Microsoft probably set up a program to handle it for them. As many of us noticed Microsoft often takes a few tries to get their new software working properly. :)
I wanted to follow up on the Microsoft Cashback.
Microsoft completely ignored my last 3 purchases on eBay.
My trouble tickets went anaswered for about 3-4 months now.
MICROSOFT CASHBACK IS A SCAM, DON’T USE THEM!!!!!!!
9% cash back is back!!! I’ve already received over $2500 cash back from 2008.
Guess it went away again.
FYI: It is not a scam. It is amazing that with all the proof here that most are getting their rebates, some still cry SCAM. Whatever.
If it ever comes back, JUMP ON IT! Once you run up the max on one PayPal account, start another one and max that out. All according to the rules, too!
Good luck all, and be sure to post here if you see it come back again
Jon