Rakuten - Random Account Suspensions When Cashback Due, Scam?

[Deactivated] on 22/04/2020 - 10:16

So I had a cashback that was totally in compliance with the published terms of their cashback offers through Samsung (wasn't listed in their exclusions, I sent the invoice and they checked it and approved it). Now that the payment is due, "your account is inactive". Never had an issue with CR or Shopback, but these guys. If it was supposed to be an excluded purchase but they mucked up their terms I might be more forgiving if they reached out, but nope - just account disabled.

F— would not recommend. Rakuten is a big fail.

General Discussion

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Rakuten
Rakuten
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Comments

  • FireRunner on 22/04/2020 - 11:12

    Never heard of these guys, best stick with CashRewards and Shopback

  • Bonbi on 22/04/2020 - 12:57

    Is this even available for Australia?

    • [Deactivated] on 22/04/2020 - 13:31

      Their terms only say they're not available to people in the EU or countries embargoed by the US, and they've been posted on OzBargain numerous times before (namely in relation to the boosted cashback for Samsung during the S20 launch). Scotty has also attended events hosted by them, so obviously they know Australia is there.

  • Summoner on 22/04/2020 - 17:24

    Very interesting… Bought something from Samsung EPP as well and claimed cash back through Rakuten… The payout was due in May. I just tried logging in after seeing this post, then got this error message.

    Your account is currently unavailable. Please contact Member Services for assistance.

    Guess they are not intending to honor the cash back claim.

    • Summoner on 22/04/2020 - 17:42

      https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/522710
      Just realised that there are others who are not getting the cash back from Rakuten. I guess I will stay away from them from now on.

      • [Deactivated] on 24/04/2020 - 08:54

        When I asked their member services what the go was, they said my account had been terminated by their risk department due to the number of ineligible purchases. I sent them a fairly scathing reply regarding the fact their terms did not exclude my purchase, their cashback extension offered cashback on the purchase, and when I submitted the invoices their support team approved the purchases. At numerous stages, if they had made a mistake all they had to do was apologise and explain, but instead they prefer to go down the fraud and misleading conduct path. Pretty sure that's illegal in the US where they're from to.

        Stay far away from that pack of scammers.

        • Summoner on 24/04/2020 - 13:43

          Yeah, i contacted them as well. I receive this and didn't hear anything back yet.

          "In order to resolve your issue, I am transferring your email to a specialist in the appropriate department."

          I accepted that they are not going to honor it. I will move on and stay away from them!

        • Summoner on 25/04/2020 - 03:24

          Finally got the response.

          "Samsung only offers cash back purchased on their US sites. As your order was placed on the Australia site, your account was flagged as ineligible by the merchant. Therefore, the account has been deactivated, as we are obligated to abide by the merchant's reporting."

          Guess my purchase wasn't eligible after all.

          • [Deactivated] on 25/04/2020 - 18:01

            @Summoner: That's all well and good, but a less scammy company would have emailed and said "hey sorry, a system error occurred and we can't offer cashback on this purchase. We're making changes to our system to make sure that this doesn't happen again and we've reactivated your account - we'd love to keep you on board!"

            But no. "We made up some bollocks to explain why we cannot back down on our mistake!"

        • aussie222 on 30/04/2020 - 01:57
          +1

          I definitely agree with the fraud and misconduct statement. And the fact that their extension showed cashback (and is currently showing 6% cashback on Samsung Australia) is incongrous with their statement. Please consider writing complaints, if we raise this high enough, we may get our cashback.

          https://oag.ca.gov/contact/consumer-complaint-against-busine…
          https://www.dca.ca.gov/webapps/gencomplaint.php
          https://www.bbb.org/greater-san-francisco/consumer/qualify/2…

  • ThreeMetreFlatty on 14/05/2020 - 08:20

    I've had the same problem, can't log in now. They refuse to respond to emails other than saying they're transfering me to the correct department. Legit the most dodgy cashback site ever

  • jm7 on 29/05/2020 - 08:58

    I have experienced the exact same issue. Assume we have no avenues to dispute due to them being overseas based? So shonky! They even agreed via email to pay me the money.

  • TestIgnoreMe on 01/07/2020 - 19:57

    Got the same issue today, was expecting $120+ cashback and got the error message when logging into the account. I emailed them and they mentioned "In order to resolve your issue, I am transferring your email to a specialist in the appropriate department. They will contact you as soon as they have more information. Thank you for your patience."

    Is there any chance the ACCC will do anything?

    • [Deactivated] on 01/07/2020 - 21:20

      Depends if they actually operate in Australia. ACCC can't if they have no connection to the country.

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