Experiencing problems with Microsoft Live Search Cashback program

Thanks so much. I just emailed you. I already have a case number (and have provided it to you). Should I use the "I requested cashback and have not received it after 14 days" link anyway? Or would that be duplication of effort?

BTW I see you are Chief of Staff of the Windows Core Operating System Division (COSD). I am beta testing Windows 7 on my Asus 1000H and *LOVE IT*. I plan to upgrade every machine in my house (all running XP) once Win7 comes out.

Thanks for taking this on.

-kj-

thanks for the email. i will send this thrugh to the Cashback team for triagge. as you have already filed a case, no further effort on your part is required. for those lurkin or following the thread, pllease use the Cashback suport page for inquiries as i don't scale very well. ;)

and thanks for your comments on Windows 7 - glad to hear of your positive experience on your netbook! i have it running on all but one of our PCs now at home (a Media Center PC)... but plan to migrate that to Windows 7, too, as soon as I back up all the content.

Awesome. Thanks. Will update this thread when I have news. Appreciate the help. Meanwhile keep those Win7 developers happy & productive. Very excited about the release. Peace...

I too have much the same problem with the Live search scamback. They are over a month late on $313.18 payments to my Paypal acct. I have 5 separate failed deposits to my Paypal acct. I have sent over 50 emails to MS, all I get is "bla bla bla, from them no action at all. Keep me posted on your case as well

Same problem here, cannot connect to the cashback page at all!!! Should have had $400+ at the latest on February 2nd (60 days), but cannot even access my cashback account to get a "customer service case number". For 3 weeks now been getting "Page cannot be displayed". What is going on???

Here's the latest in my situation...boilerplate email that doesn't say anything other than "please be patient." Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice. :(

>>>
Hello,

Thank you for contacting us regarding your Live Search cashback payment.

We have encountered a technical issue while processing some payments for recent eBay cashback purchases. We are actively investigating the root of the issue, in close partnership with eBay and PayPal, and are working to resolve this as quickly as possible. We'd like to assure customers that all eligible cashback payments which meet the Live Search cashback and eBay terms and conditions will be rewarded. We apologize for any delays and thank you for your patience. As soon as we have more information on the resolution of this issue, we will be back in touch.

Sincerely,

Wyatt
Live Search cashback Support

i've escalated the report you (and others) sent here, and will follow up as we find more.

Count me in last of 10 support emails from MS># 1094016749
As of the Feb 17th 09 a note was sent to me after sending 10 emails for 2 weeks, wow you guys are so nice ...not to have at least replied to me Help Me ...Please Emails With something other than a run around wasting my Time . Microsoft and Pay Pal are using hundreds of thousands of cash back accounts to help finance there program.
figure the Percent% of Interests generated ........every day our money sits there collecting interest . Yep there all going about this very slowly for there own interests , ever so slowly I might add. Microsoft can fix any thing that comes up with there ability as well pay pal eBay . But there not liking to hash out money for a program that didn't generate millions for there own pockets. .....It- makes no sense to resolve this in a timely manor when the bank accounts of the cash back programs are up up higher and higher every day they drag there feet from fixing ther( little Money Maker) .
Were not alone were just one small part of a big group of people waiting....... Don't kid your self there are a lot of others in the same boat . I have talked to Pay Pal every day to there supervisors and to here there excuses, all there reasoning has lead up to a down right a pack of methods to have this money acquire interests more and more every day . Just the American way ! Interests bank accounts day by day thousands of dollars adding up for some day to have enough to fund us people with FAILED / FAILED /FAILED try again later ........ Cash Back Accounts !

John .

The top States 5 people have this problem . they forgot a few 0 ......5000 people have this problem !!!!!!! Is more like it.

John .

MS Live.com Cashback owes me over $1,000 for 7 failed transactions after they switched to the auto pay system from the "You must claim your rebate."

I have been through the support routine only to be told it is a software glich. Some of my payments are a month over due with thelast being about a week. My case number is SRX1091454917ID.

One CSR I was dealing with disappeared as my email came back the email address was an unmonitored alias. Funny he had replied a couple times before.

Help me get my money, please help me get my money!!

FEB 18,2009 $ 187.00
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> FAILED FAILED FAILED to cash back !
NO MORE RUN AROUND MICROSOFT I'm Tired of being treated this way .
Never again will I, and I will tell everyone possible not to use your products.
EVER....................
A total Misconduct on your part DAD DAD............Business .

If you are having problems with MICROSOFT -cash-back ( failed to fund ) to your cash back account . Please leave a message with a case number from your latest reply from the help center / Live search Cash Back .
The more of us the better Chance we have to get some action relating to a real answer as to the reason there being so absent when it comes to helping us .
I'm sure there are many of us ho have had enough regarding the -
lack of info and a total run around and your time and my time wasted. All on MICROSOFT"S part. jerking us around. No reply to Questions etc. etc.

Last Case # Little to no help just another put off .....wasting my time again.

Its no wonder there is no phone number for help .
Last compliant center as this one, filled up with so many complaint's they removed it ......... how long before this one is the same ..... removed?

>>>>>1094017684 as of Feb 18/09

Guys, thanks for chiming in. Sorry to hear you're affected as well but it's clear this is not a small problem. Our best action at this time? SPREAD THE WORD.

We've got a 'man on the inside' working for us here, and this site has been doing a great job resolving problems for people, so let's give 'the system' a chance to work. Meanwhile, the more people we bring into this conversation, the better!

-kj-

My actual latest support ticket number is 1094027162. This is after my prior CSR disappear and I re-filed a trouble report.

My ID is SRX1091976980ID.

Thanks, I've passed these on to the support team leads.

Add me to the mix:

01/14/09 - SRX1086510976ID, Hello, We have sent your information to eBay and are now waiting for them to credit the purchase to your account. The time this will take can vary so I can not give you an exact timeline on when this issue will be resolved. Please be patient, if you have followed all of the steps correctly there should be no problem with this purchase getting credited to your account. We do not need any other information from you at this point. Thank you, Wyatt

Live Search cashback Customer Support

01/23/09 - I have opened an incident with our team: 1091465200 on your behalf.

Sita M.

Customer Service Representative

Live Search cashback Support

01/27/09 - I apologize that your failed PayPal payment has not reflected in your account yet.

Sita M.

Customer Service Representative

Live Search cashback Support

01/31/09 - SRX1092285279ID
Thank you for contacting Live Search cashback Customer Support. The support form you filled out suggests that you want an update on an existing ticket. We are currently working through these issues and will contact you as soon as possible with more information. Please keep in mind that your original ticket will be your point of contact. If an agent asked you to provide additional information, we ask that you reply to that email with the requested information. Unfortunately, opening additional tickets will not further expedite the matter. Again, we are very sorry for any delay.

This is an automated response.

02/01/09 - We do apologize for the inconvenience. We have attempted numerous times to send the payment to the PayPal account used to pay for the eBay purchase. After working with PayPal to understand the failure, we think the account may need to be reviewed by PayPal Customer Service, or your cashback account may not reflect the payment has been posted correctly to your PayPal account.

Warmest regards,

Curtis T.

Customer Service Representative

Live Search cashback Support

02/02/09 - Hello my name is Gay, I am sorry to hear about the situation regarding
Mircosoft Live Cashback issue, and understand your frustration and
concern over this issue. I will be happy to assist you with your
questions.

Could you supply us with the following information:
Transaction ID (if applicable)
Purchase mad on eBay or off eBay?
Cash back amount:
Cash back date:
Email address cash back sent to:
Has customer verified status of cash back payout in Cash Back account?
Description of the issue:

We are aware of this issue and I sincerely regret the inconvenience it
has caused you. This is a temporary issue and we are working towards a
resolution as quickly as possible. I will escalate your account to one
of our specialists, please supply the above information. We will work
with Microsoft Live to ensure all needed payments are completed. At this
time, there is nothing specifically on your account preventing the
payment from completing.

I would like to let you know that you're business is valuable, and it's
important for us to resolve your concern when you contact us.

Sincerely,
Gay

PayPal Resolution Services

02/03/09 - My name is Curtis. I am a Customer Service Representative and I will be assisting you with your request regarding your recent payout failure. I have opened an incident with our team: 1091465200 on your behalf.

We have been made aware of a delay in processing payout requests, and have been informed that they will be resolved by the end of this week. Please check your PayPal account on Monday, February 9th. If you still don't see your cashback rewards, simply reply to this email and we'll investigate further. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Warmest regards,

Curtis T.

Customer Service Representative

Live Search cashback Support

02/04/09 - SRX1086510976ID, Lee,

Your issue has been forwarded to us by the Microsoft Response Management team, as a result of the claim you've filed with them. We will be using this new service request to track and resolve your issue.

I am researching your failed auto-pay payments on 1/21/2009 through 2/3/2009. Many customers have reported similar problems, and we are working with eBay and PayPal to determine the root cause of this issue. We will be submitting your information to eBay and PayPal for their review. I've pulled most of the information we need from our system; however, the following information will also assist eBay and PayPal in their investigations:
--eBay user name
--eBay item numbers for each item missing cashback
--PayPal unique transaction ID for each item missing cashback

Please respond to this email with the above information. As soon as we have that information, we will submit it to eBay for their review. Thank you for your patience and cooperation.

Thanks,
Elizabeth B
Live Search cashback Customer Support

02/06/09 - This is just a check-in concerning your issue with your Cashback. According to our records, it appears that you have been contacted by Elizabeth from the Cashback Escalation Team and she is working with you on your issue. No reply to this message is necessary.

If you have any questions about the status of this issue or have additional information I should be aware of, please reply to this e-mail.

Respectfully,

Francisco
Escalation Specialist
NACS Response Management Team
Volt at Microsoft

and on, and on, and on....................................................

Hey folks I got paid this morning all except a 5.00 and change one which was not due until tomorrow. Thanks for the help!

I also got paid this morning - THANK YOU, M3 Sweatt, for your help and THANK YOU, GetSatisfaction.com for giving us this venue! I am going to leave this problem OPEN until EVERYONE gets their money! Now THIS is an example of technology making a positive difference in people's lives!

Got paid. Still waiting on one final payment though. Much, much, thanks to whoever got this done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I received my $1,000+ last night. I have been paid in full.

This guy states he got paid yesterday hmmmm for some reason I feel it is not true . its to easy for Microsoft to use this message board to make us believe it will happen soon .... there waiting tell the accounts are covered by our money making interest on our money, enough to pay us ! drag it out as long as possible...... Its all to clear they hold the money they make the time frame . Also if you look at there new programs the percentage's cash back offered is way less that of our program around December . Scam that is what this is . BAD BAD BUSNESS ... glitch .......Not.
They screwed up and we have to waist or time waiting for our cash-back

. There is no honesty here that is way it makes me mad............ with others now giving there info, now clear were being jerked around FOR_SURE_ and so are the people at the help desk at Microsoft one lie after another ....Reason they stopped replying to our questions ...their bosses keep them in the same position as us . Full of stories one after the other ......That is the reason they call it a ....... SCAM......

Please leave your info ....Be one of us fighting to cause !!!!

we need all of you to help bring this CASH-BACK to our own pockets.....

Please lets work together - let them know were not going to take it anymore!

I've got my money, want me to post a screenshot of my PayPal history screen?

I did get my money and I have been fighting this problem for over a month. I went as far as file a consumer complaint with the WA State AG office, which I called today to cancel as I have been paid.

I feel the reason I got paid is I called PayPal and again explained my situation. I was very cordial but told them I stopped accepting all payment through PayPal because Live.com claims (which they did in one email) that it was PayPal's fault - they would not accept the payment.

Anyway, the CSR asked for the following info:

PayPal payment date, payment amt, rebate amt.

She said they had a lot of complaints about this process and how MS live.com blamed them. She put me on hold for a minute or two and came back and told me she gave the info to someone who was working directly with Live.com to get these payments processed.

I thanked her for her time and hung up thinking, well, here we go again. That was at noon (PST). By 9:30pm PST, I had received all the payments I was due.

If you don't believe me, I really don't care because I received my money ($1,000+). Will I ever use Live.com again, that is debatable. Not to the tune of the $7,000+ spent to get the rebate unless they can prove the $$ are going to be deposited in a timely manner.

I did have to laugh when MS Live.com claimed it was a software glitch that kept them from paying. Haven’t they heard of testing software to see if it works prior to going main stream with it! :-)

OK .....real deal ...today FEB-19-2009 after calling pay pal asking for a supervisor this now 20 time ............

.......>>>>>>>>>>>>>>PLA PAL ......has made an (exception) for me to have the 187.00 owed from MICROSOFT . Deposited .
A..special one time offer......I was told.

>>>>>>>>>To Be funded in my pay-pal account no later than 24 hours

Reason .....given for this EXCEPTION was I have had so much trouble and made 20 attempts to resolve the failed funds............

There going to make this one time exception . O...brother.

I told the girl at pay-pal I was going to post this and she stated please -
don't......

Supervisor girl stated ...... I can-not .........do this for everyone !

No Joking ........ 24hrs pay-pal stated they will fund ! ME....

(Special Circumstance's) O-man ...

I will believe it when I see it . Perhaps there's hope for us all !

Start calling PAY PAL 1-888 221 1161
ask for an Supervisor ..
Good luck .

To the guy thay offered the coppy ... thanks ...!
John .

Transaction Details

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PayPal Balance Adjustment (Unique Transaction ID #39G6210976781643K)

Business Name:
PayPal Balance Adjustment

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Business Contact Information

Customer Service Email: ppi_courtesycredit@paypal.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total Amount:
$189.00 USD
Fee:
$0.00 USD
Total:
$189.00 USD

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:
Feb. 20, 2009
Time:
13:48:19 PST
Status:
Completed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Better than nothing I'm not sure ...........

Note ..... pay pal calls is a courtesy credit !

I just had the CSR from PayPal call me to make sure I noticed the rebates had been credited to my account.

I said, "Yes, and thanks for all your help!"

By the way, Live.com Cashback shows them as being rewarded. :-)

It sure dose help to ring there ears as much as possible for ensures and funds .
I can't believe my $ 189.00 cash back is called a credit from pay pal .

And your getting phone calls Wow ....... Lucky you ...

I get Credit how about that .

Cash Back Account still in Failed Mode. I Guss so if I only have credit,
next I'll haft to pay it back with interest . do I sound Positive ?

As a follow up to this thread, you can file a support incident at http://support.search.live.com/defaul... - be sure to include our recent support case number (usually SRX##########ID) or use the Cashback support page for inquiries after you sign into your account.

And please use the "Tell us how we are doing and give us your feedback"
at https://feedback.search.live.com/defa... to provide feedback on the service.

Hello Mr. M3, thanks so much for helping everyone out. I just bought an item using cashback on overstock.com, and now I cannot access the contact page. I can get to the main page but under "live search cashback related" I cannot open those pages. It keeps going to "this page cannot be displayed". Is there another way to contact live cashback?

Thank You

Thanks for the note, and I was happy to follow up via email over the weekend. As noted, the team is looking into this report. I just checked the access at https://support.search.live.com/ and (once logged in with your cashback Live ID) the feedback system appears to be working.

Mr. M3 - Please help!
I have two unresolved issues with Live.com/cash back. A missing credit and the inability to receive the money that I already have (3 unsuccessful attempts to transfer to my PayPal account )
I contacted the customer service department numerous times - no help at all. Same standard e-mails and nothing. This is been going for 4 months!!!
Case # SRX1091785167ID

Thanks in advance

I have this problem too! I am equally as frustated. After going thru the exact things that everyone here went thru, I finally got 2 emails from cashback stating that the money is in my PayPal acct. I figured-Finally! HA! I logged into my account and NOTHING! I have emailed cashback and have not heard anything! My Case # is SRX1095609785ID. Errrrrr.....Please help...Thanks!

Hi M3,

I also have the live.com cashback FAILED issue for over 2 months.
I have sent so many emails to the customer support and it hasn't been resolved till date.

I would greatly appreciate if you could escalate the issue in the customer support department handling the live.com cashback. I am really frustrated and would really want your help.
Here is my case number : SRX1091388811ID

Please let me know if you need anything else and keep me updated.

Thanks a ton !!!!!!!!!!!

I have been trying to resolve an unpaid cashback rebate since Novermber 28. I have obtained two phone numbers which may help --the super secret Ebay customer service number which several eBay reps told me didn't exist and a PayPal number.

PayPal 1-402-935-2050

eBay 1 (866) 934-9647

M3,
Please add me to your list of frustrated customers.My issue has gone on since November 29th.There have been MANY emails back and forth with lots of promises from Microsoft,but no progress.The incident number is SRX1092259274ID.Thanks!!!!!!

Hello M3:
I've posted before. It's been over a week since I've heard anything from cashback. This has been the most frustrating online experience I have ever had. My number is SRX1095609785ID. This has been going on for months now, like many of the other people before me. I feel like a ping pong ball between PayPal and CashBack. I have gotten nowhere. Can you please help. Thanks.
Karen

I have had the same issue, with no human response. Here are some of my support ticket numbers: 1095102918, 1095567694,1095826366. I opened new support tickets because there is no known way to add to an open ticket. I'm owed $996. The transactions were in pending status for a while, then showed that they were credited to paypal which they weren't. Now they say "failed please try again", but there is no way to do that. It's all very frustrating.

Please help.

As a follow up to this thread, you can file a support incident at http://support.search.live.com/defaul... - be sure to include our recent support case number (usually SRX##########ID) or use the Cashback support page for inquiries after you sign into your account.

And please use the "Tell us how we are doing and give us your feedback"
at https://feedback.search.live.com/defa... to provide feedback on the service.

If you're *still* having difficulty or it's been more than the 14 days noted, please DO NOT post any PII on this site and contact me via http://blogs.msdn.com/mthree/contact.... and fill out the resulting form with your contact info (including the customer service case number, your name, email and address). It's the contact link from http://blogs.msdn.com/mthree, under the "This Blog" heading on the left hand nav, "Email".

MS's cash back program is a bait and switch program plain and simple. I'm getting the run around about a cash back from both Ebay and MS saying my account must have timed out. I sent them the copy of the BUY NOW showing the CASH BACK LOGO at the of the page. It's a shame a company like MS and Ebay cheat the little guy.........they will not get me again....

I sent emails but just got the run around by MS and Ebay. Soon I predict Ebay will go the same route as GM and other banks because of poor service. Another website has people reporting that MS has issued bounced checks. I think this program is giving MS a hugh black eye. My next step is take my complaint to my state AG. Most AG will challenge practice like this.

RMONK, Did you file a support incident at http://support.search.live.com/defaul... ?

As noted in a previsou post: If you're *still* having difficulty or it's been more than the 14 days noted, contact me via http://blogs.msdn.com/mthree/contact.... and fill out the resulting form with your contact info (including the customer service case number, your name, email and address). It's the contact link from http://blogs.msdn.com/mthree, under the "This Blog" heading on the left hand nav, "Email". Be sure to include your recent support case number (usually SRX##########ID) in your mail.

Please DO NOT post any PII on this site!

I have not waited the full 14 days but MS has said my case is closed and Ebay just sends out those boilerplate replys. I am not sure waiting 14 day is going to change anything (not trying to be hardhead) but I will wait to file my case with my state AG. My state has been very lucky collecting from MS-Palpal-and Ebay so I have nothing but time to lose.
I just don't understand why MS-Ebay don't try to correct these problems in hopes of keeping there customer base. Both companies could follow the wonderful service that LLBean has built there business on.
Thank you for getting back with me.

Also what the deal with the quick cash ? 60 day to get my rebate...that's not quick ..

The same thing happened to me! I sent numerous emails regarding missing cashback checks and now they canceled my account entirely due to reselling violations!! I didn't resell anything!!
What an enormous waste of time and a complete scam!!!

I cant believe it! Its been more than 4 months and its been a very negative experience for my first transaction with bing.com cashback service. My case had been escalated to the payment team a long time ago but i have yet to hear from them regarding the cashback. I am very disappointed that a large corporation like Microsoft is running a scam service like BING . I had only purchased the item because of the cashback and now im out more than a $150! I dont have any violations that others have been slapped with, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

My account has also been cancelled and I lost more than $300. MS claims I'm a reseller, and I kept explaining that I bought a new house and really bought those things for me. Also, I was logged in at work and bought stuff for work (found through bing.com). Those were CORRECTLY marked as non-personal items (e.g. 100 network cables), and I was perfectly fine with that because I thought Bing was very smart to figure out that those were for my work. A

ll was well, the purchases were labeled correctly as either qualifying or non-qualifying purchases... And then I tried to cash out $300+ and MS immediately closed my account.

No recourse, no debates, no warnings, just a straight close. I emailed Customer service and one guy said he believes me and wants to get this working and gives me what I'm owed, but he said his "committee" didn't approve it so I won't get my money. What a load of crap...

Here I am, sold on the concept of Bing and was actually using it daily for Work and Personal searches, and meanwhile I get punished for actually using it to find products. I didn't know that I was supposed to "log out" first, then use Bing before I make any work purchases.

Perhaps a simple question prior to sending users to the vendor website to make purchases, asking "is this for personal or work/business use?" would be better? Then I can explicitly designate that a particular purchase should not be considered for cash back. I would be perfectly fine with that, instead of being hit with such a hefty penalty.

MS / Bing cash back folks really didn't think this through... "Let's encourage folks to use our service - but kick their asses if they tried to use this for work also!".

I think this bing cashback thing s a scam. I bought a computer from Tigerdirect. I got the e-mail that I had $50 in my cashback account. I cannot log in to see it I keep getting error code 40017. I've changed password, cleared out cookies, etc. Nothing works. I doubt if I will ever see the $50.
Joe Turic

Anybody had any success resolving this?

Kevin ... WAS purchasing a $500 computer that the seller advertised with the 'cashback program". So I signed up for the MS Cashback and attendant "live" account, but something felt fishy, so i searched and see all these comments. I am currently on the 'Buy it Now' screen showing the nominal $40 green box BUT seeing all the above frustration, I will cancel the purchase. I do not need nor care to experience the scam like frustration MS is imposing on folks. Thanks for letting us all know.
Why would MS do something so unprofessional?