So after waiting patiently for 3 months for cashback on a $2419.02USD transaction on Aliexpress, today I notice that the transaction has been declined.
Out of all my transactions, it had to be the dearest one and the one I made extra sure to not stuff up.
I call bullshit on Cashrewards guarantee. The transaction was there and pending for 3 months and now its a simple "oh better luck next time".
contact TA
yea it happens with aliexpress, mine wasn't even tracked.
Hi PissLUR,
Thanks for getting in touch and sending us your invoice.
As we unfortunately have not received any information from the store regarding your transaction, we will now follow this up for you. There are a number of reasons why tracking could be affected. For example, do you have AdBlocker or spyware software installed on your computer? Clicking on any other website, including Google, after clicking from Cashrewards to the store will also affect tracking. Additionally, if you are using our service from an office, a corporate firewall could affect tracking.
We have just submitted an enquiry with AliExpress in relation to your cashback and in the meantime we have added this transaction into your Cashrewards account as pending.
Any transaction we query with the store can take from 30-90 days to resolve, so please disregard the Estimated Approval time frame listed on the store's page as this does not apply when following up a transaction with a store. Typically stores review these queries monthly. The store needs to ensure the cooling off period has elapsed, that the item has not been returned, and that their analytics attribute the sale to Cashrewards. This is a fairly complex process which can vary significantly from store to store.
In the meantime, please continue shopping with Cashrewards and let us know if you encounter any more issues.
Sincerely,
Nerrisa
Customer Service Team
Hi Zotech. I have no idea why you take to forums with incorrect information. I've just seen your tickets (2) come in to Cashrewards.
What you failed to mention in your OP above is that your sale was untracked on March 5 so you raised an untracked query for us to follow up on. After doing all we could with comms to our affiliate partner & AliExpress, they have declined the ticket stating that your transaction was attributed to another channel. Your sale went to Google, OzBargain, or any other number of sites that you may have clicked to.
Cashrewards was not your last click. As much as I'd love to help, there is nothing more we can do. Without tracking information, we have no idea if you kept, returned, or even cancelled your purchase.
Further, you have a number of other sales over the $1000 mark that have tracked and been paid successfully, both from AliExpress and eBay. It's always so easy to lay the blame on Cashrewards without placing the facts out on the table. If you need further explanation or help, please PM me as everyone knows I do my best to help.
Thank you.
Waiting for zotech to explain his story now! I love it when customer bullsh*t gets called out.
For some reason I expect it to go like this. "It was my last click, CR lies".
9/10 they never tell their side of the story and go silent.
Not here to bash cashrewards, plenty of review sites I could do that on if that was my intention.
I posted here knowing I would get a response, since this is where I found out about them in the first place.
Nice work sharing the 'OPs' personal shopping habits their tightarse…… Privacy policies don't mean much to you guys it seems?
I'd hardly call that sharing personal shopping habits. Would be a completely different story if he shared the date/time of purchase, what exactly was purchased, Zotech's IP address, email and name.
TA puts a massive lot of effort into helping people here (compared to other offshored sites) and all you do is discourage him from even trying.
Yet another passive aggressive and entirely pointless comment from JimmyF!
So you think it's ok to share that the op also shops at eBay and also has had a transactions over $1000?
I think that's highly unprofessional of cash rewards to share this info about the op.
So spiff, what value did you add to this thread? Zero. Yeah thought so.
@JimmyF: The OP could have PM'd TA and instead decided to make a public forum post about it. They are well within their rights to post publicly, but could have gone about it in a different way. You put sht in and you get sht out. But you'd know all about that already.
Yes an untracked query was raised and the transaction then appeared on my account as pending. Which I assumed meant that it had been tracked and was just waiting for the pending period to end. Like with my other transactions (which you openly shared) the procedure I followed was no different and would not jeopardise cashback on such a large transaction by not following instructions.
My concern isn't that Aliexpress may be rejecting the the transaction as this is not your fault if they decide not to pay. It's the fact that you have a "CASHBACK GUARANTEE".
Line 3 on the "CASHBACK GUARANTEE" page under "How it works" states;
"In the unlikely event your purchase is not automatically tracked, simply Submit a Tracking Claim and you will get your cashback. Guaranteed."
Unless my definition of GUARANTEED is different to yours, this is nothing but misleading.
Also would love to know which part of my post had "incorrect information"?
Here's a break down from my post;
Did the transaction appear as pending? YES
Did I wait 3 months? YES
Was it the dearest out of all my transactions? YES
Was the transaction declined? YES
Hi Zotech. I'm not trying to be condescending. I just want you to understand the importance of the following:
Did my sale track? No
Was Cashrewards my last click? No
As for the other statements:
Did the transaction appear as pending? YES (We always add untracked claims as pending while investigating)
Did I wait 3 months? YES (The amount of time the merchant normally takes to respond)
Was it the dearest out of all my transactions? YES (Not sure why this matters as the sale wasn't attributed to CR)
Was the transaction declined? YES (Declined by the merchant as being attributed to another channel)
Since you cant point out what was incorrect in my original post and are giving reasons only, at least just give me a clear answer to the so called "CASHBACK GUARANTEE"
If not incorrect, at least misleading.
From Tightarse’s response, it seems your answer to why it was rejected was answered.
You then posted here quite possible (I haven’t seen CR response) knowing it was the merchant that was declining it, but putting a subject line to suggest it was CR declining it.
Something similar happened to me. My Virgin flights actually did "track" though okay, then was "not confirmed" by Virgin, and reversed. Not sure if CR was at fault or virgin lied to CR. But then my hotel booking was rewarded fine. Does seem like a bit of a crapshoot though, no guarantee a reward will get paid. I think it is the end company at fault personally, lying to CR so they don't have to pay a commission. It would be interesting if TA could report on how many times different companies "reject" paying rewards. I have a feeling some companies may have a very high rejection rate.
Hi zathras. Thanks so much for the comment. Please allow me to explain as best I can.
Firstly, let me clear up a misconception about Cashrewards. We don't decline or reverse sales. We're held to the exact same accountability as any other business. If a sale is declined, it is done so by the merchant via their affiliate network. There are many reasons for this and I'll try to list some. What members forget at times is that we don't want ANY transactions declined or untracked. We want to be paid just as much as you do.
Coupon codes: the bane of my existence. These work in three different ways. (1) merchants are happy to pay rewards on top of any coupon use, (2) merchants will not track sales when an unlisted coupon is used, and (3) merchants will track sales when an unlisted coupon is used but decline sales down the track. Classic example is accommodation partners that will not track sales when using unlisted coupons, yet we sadly get smashed with tickets claiming untracked sales.
Cancellations: Any cancellation (hotels/flights etc) will result in rewards being reversed. Believe me, we've had numerous members make threats after having transactions declined and when we produce evidence showing they did in fact cancel, they go quiet.
Returns (full or partial): Most merchants will reverse all rewards if any part of a purchase is returned. Some will adjust to exclude the returned portion.
Changes (flights etc): Any changes to flights, flight details, flight extras, hotel stays etc may result in rewards being declined. Not saying this happened in your case, but just outlining a possible reason.
Fraud: This is unfortunately rife. I obviously can't go into specifics, but merchants do and will cancel rewards if they detect that the rewards were obtained fraudulently.
The above is just a sample of reasons the merchants may decline a 'tracked' purchase. There are many more for 'untracked'. These are a lot more difficult to obtain approval for, as the merchant, in most cases, has already shelled out an affiliate fee to some other partner for the sale (Google, OzB, Tripadvisor, TopBargains etc). As I say over and over again, last click wins the race.
Let me give you an example of a recent issue with Virgin Mobile. We had over 150 untracked transaction claims for three sales that happened late last year and early this year and were advertised on OzB. That means 150 members wrote in to us stating that their purchases didn't track. I can guarantee you that every single one of those had OzB as their last click, so OzB won the sale and the affiliate dollars.
To this day, we've received a total of $0 from Virgin Mobile for those untracked claims. With the recent announcement of their closure, we expect that to remain unchanged. Yet Andrew (my CEO) made the call to pay out on every one of those claims in good will as he didn't want to use the excuse of 'they're closing now, too bad'. Just shows you the sort of person he is. You do the maths and work out what it cost him.
Believe me, I'm not trying to blow any trumpets here, but a lot of the time people don't see (or refuse to see) the amount of work and effort that goes on behind the scenes to get you guys the best service (above all else) and rates that we can. So easy to post up stuff that makes you look like a crook no matter how hard you try, and this at times drives me close to depression.
Finally, please always know that I'm here to help. I don't think you'll find anyone as dedicated to the cause as me. I've never shied away from helping a single person that's reached out, as many hundreds can attest to. I'm not here to alienate anyone, I only want happy members. TA.
It's interesting as I never knew OzB were getting credited for clicks to companies via their site. And none of that goes back directly to members. I think this should be made clearer and, be good to see them return some of this back to members. Fairs fair.
Yep. All guests (or members logged out) are served affiliate links in most deals. If you actually browse OzBargain in incognito you will see a little grey textfield on the preview images that say Affiliate. If you click through it's going to take you through an affiliate link (just like CR would) and if you make a purchase… it'll be attributed to OzBargain.
It's one of the ways OzBargain makes money.
Another thing to be mindful of is that comparison websites also work the same. Want a new laptop? Googling Best Laptop 2018 is going to take you to websites that'll serve you affiliate links so they'll make some coin. This could be a problem if you're after a new Lenovo laptop and there just so happens to be a Lenovo deal on the front page. That's why TA always emphasises that CR is your last click.
@Clear: OK cheers thanks.
Not against them monetising the site, I suppose the story above shows there is some conflict at least with other affiliate credit sharing sites such as CR. Maybe in future with deals like this it needs to be made clear in the post the correct process to take to ensure only CR get the sale so you get the reward.
@singingwolf: If you click through the store on CR and go and make your purchase without opening new tabs or clicking onto other sites you should be fine. It hasn't failed me yet.
I don't understand the sense of entitlement. Why should OzBargain "give back" to it's members? It provides a free platform for it's members to use to find bargains, which they have 100% choice in using or not. They give back to charity, and they have monthly competitive awards for the power users. Those that run the site should be rewarded for it's growing popularity, not have an indefinite obligation to all members. I get enough "reward" from the bargains and entertainment from this site.
I was one of those Virgin Mobile customers and was very appreciative of the payout TA, thanks to you and your CEO.
Great feedback ensanguined, thank you. I will pass this onto Andrew :)
I recently did about 8 Woolworths orders over a couple of weeks. The first 2 never showed up but the rest did. The click through for those 2 also showed up on CR site.
It is VERY frustrating when this stuff doesn't work. Again I don't blame CR but as the face of the "offer", they cop all the abuse about non-paying stores.
Surely they must be able to hold the stores accountable. How can 6 work flawlessly, showing up in my accout in 20 mins after sale, and the other 2 never come through. I raised cases but now it's the whole wait for weeks / months game.
I think it's time CR start deep integrations like eBay did with Flybuys - this is clearly a more superior model for ALL parties. Sometimes i wonder about the effort vs reward and this is a big problem for CR in the long term. Some stores I don't even bother iusing CR anymore as the reward is too small to muck about trying to get paid for it.
As CR often take the hit and pay anyway, I would rather not raise a case and have them out of pocket as it affects future cashback % and viability of the company, which we all should care about.
I've never had an issue with cashrewards tracking - has tracked for me every single time, including large value >$2k purchases as well. Heres what I do:
1) Open Incognito mode (Ctrl+Shift+N in chrome). By opening incognito mode, what I am doing in my non-incognito tabs will not affect the incognito tabs, and adblock and other extensions that may affect cookies are off by default.
2) In Incognito, Login to CR and find the store using the CR search bar. Click through to the store
3) Search for products using site search bar, add them to cart, make the purchase, and close incognito mode.
General rules
Only Two tabs in incognito mode - CR and merchant. No google, no ozbargain, no review sites. Any other sites may affect tracking and may receive the commission instead of CR
Do not use adblock or any other extensions as they may block the cookies used for tracking. Not a problem if you are in incognito mode as all extensions are off by default in incognito mode.
Make the purchase as smooth as possible. Do not use the back and forward buttons on the browser, and avoid excessive refreshing on the merchant site. If it looks like there are issues with the server of the merchant site as its taking ages to respond, I'll just close everything and try again later. Some error from the payment system? Close everything and restart. Got interrupted by your mate halfway through the purchase and had to do something else for an hour? Close everything and restart.
Maybe I'm just paranoid with the last point, but being extra cautious hasn't failed me so far, with all my transactions tracking fine. The biggest issue for me is still the occasional time where i completely forget to use CR.
They're good general rules, thanks for sharing.
While I don't go to as much trouble and care as you, I still get rewarded — but doing it your way should ensure the highest % chance of cashback success.
Hey TA can you explain the "CASHBACK GUARANTEE" claim then?
Ok, seems the guarantee is capped at $30 with lots of clauses……. Darn :/
I have to say I had a different experience with Cashrewards and an untracked Virgin Mobile plan signup. Lodged the claim, weeks later they came back to pay it out in full, and from my understanding that was even though they couldn't get total confirmation from Virgin Mobile that I did proceed with the sale (but of course I did prove it during my claim). Cashrewards gets a 10/10 from me as of right now. Was a fan before but if they keep this up you can call me a braindead fan!
This is all a two-way street right?
Cash rewards are going to follow up any enquiry that is untracked or tracked and not paid. CR make a % of each sale. Each untracked/unpaid commission is money out of their pocket. It's in CR best interests to follow it up.
Point in case: LITB not tracking orders. There was a period of about 2 weeks when LITB werent tracking affiliate sales correctly. It affected all companion or affiliate websites.
During that short period of time, I had over 125 (i think around 150 in the end) untracked payments to LITB.
Reached out to customer service and it was resolved. It wasnt going to happen overnight, but they did everything they could to get the rewards processed. For me its small scale, a couple of hundred dollars, but in the scheme of things, they went WELL above and beyond what is required to get the orders paid out.
When you are dealing with a large number of transactions, quite a few low value as well, it's a lot of work - they kept at it until it was ready to submit to LITB.
Long story short, a few weeks later, I have my transactions processed.
In this instance, it was not CR fault, but rather LITB. CR however, dealt with the issue and got everything sorted.
In all honesty, I think that CR are doing a great job, their customer service is spot on and they do a lot to assist their customers.
During that short period of time, I had over 125 (i think around 150 in the end) untracked payments to LITB.
Lol, guessing you are a reseller, otherwise that is crazy :)
Contact them and ask why, every time I have had an issue they have been really helpful and have paid out. Don't just complain on here, go and contact them.