I purchased gift cards and stamps and maxed out my CB to $2500. At one point near the middle of all this I got an email from paypal saying that they invalidated my CashBack and took an action to contact MS about invalidating it due to "sham transactions"...which isn't true. Purchased from all different sellers, and broke none of the TOSs. However, that was more than a month ago and I was beginning to think that my CB was all OK. Now I'm wondering if they will let me wait until I request CashBack and then they will deny me. I would lose about $950 if I don't receive any of my rebates. Still have about 30 days to go.

I'm quite sure it was discontinued as well...not as though it was any help though. I was told that a manager would contact me within a couple days of talking to them the second time...haven't heard anything after 3 weeks. I am simply trying to get 250 from one purchase that I made legit back in late June, and it is sick how big of a deal they make out of it. The most common response I got was that my messages were going to be forwarded to the "technical team" and that I would hear back within 48-72 hours...never heard back anything from 3-4 responses such as that. After waiting the whole 60 days to cash out, I then was able to make a request for the cash out, waited 14 more days (their stated max), and then received an email stating I wasn't getting my Cash Back due to violation of the TOS. However, it seems like everyone I talk to can't give me a specific reason and "they don't have access to that knowledge". It really is a huge scam they are trying to pull. I think I am just about to contact the BBB about this whole thing, seems that is the only way to truly make them care.

dealforme said:comprx said:dealforme said:My payment requests (actual “pay me” requests after the 60 day wait) date back to September 6th. I received the first one for $221, and have been denied all of the following:

September 17, 2008 $1062.75
October 4, 2008 $3660.99
October 10, 2008 $944.75
November 4, 2008 $4890.75
November 5, 2008 $1200.00 Are those are the CashBack amounts or the purchase amounts for which you should have received a percentage in Cash Back? If the latter, what were the Cash Back amounts claimed?


Those actually my CashBack amounts. Yes, I'm aware that I spent a LOT of money. I don't need to hear it about the amounts - I behaved according to all the rules, just on a bigger scale than most. Remember, in the beginning there were no limits.So all the purchases for which you were denied came before they imposed account limits? That doesn't sound right. The final two requests would cover purchase around the end of August/early September, no? Weren't the account limits in place by then or no? Were they split across multiple MS Live accounts?

Note that I am not criticizing -- just wondering if there is any legitimate reason for them to deny the CB, which seems to be in the spirit of this thread.

comprx said:So all the purchases for which you were denied came before they imposed account limits? That doesn't sound right. The final two requests would cover purchase around the end of August/early September, no? Weren't the account limits in place by then or no? Were they split across multiple MS Live accounts?

Note that I am not criticizing -- just wondering if there is any legitimate reason for them to deny the CB, which seems to be in the spirit of this thread.

(edited)
Okay, I was finally able to access the live webpage. My last purchase was on Sept. 5th. Which would coincide with the 60 days to November 5th "pay me" date. But if you look at the other thread, you'll see that there was no mention of a $2500 limit in the terms until Sept. 19th.

So they modified the terms I would think somewhere around the 19th. As an absolute worst case, I would say no earlier than Sept. 1 because I don't think it would have gone unnoticed for 3 weeks. So as you can see most all of my purchases were made before the limits were imposed.

Crazykole5 said:I'm quite sure it was discontinued as well...not as though it was any help though......It really is a huge scam they are trying to pull.

Exactly, they were no help at all. Canned answers and empty promises. And things were getting worse. In the beginning you could talk to someone in 15 minutes, then longer, then longer, next an hour, and finally nothing.

We have to try everything we can think of to prevent MS from scamming us. I know contacting the BBB has been discussed, so I think that's the first place we should all start. I'm going to be contacting them by this weekend.

Everyone with legitimate complains needs to file complaints with the BBB.

klozoff said:rzyzzy said:The million dollar question is can they prove that you knew the seller, or had some agreement to "create" an auction for the express purpose of getting the rebate. In my mind, in a "sham transaction", I wouldn't expect to see you actually pay for an item, and I wouldn't expect a seller to ship an item. If you bought something from someone you didn't know, paid for and received the item, the seller paid the fees, etc - it doesn't seem like a "sham transaction" and the burden would be on Paypal to prove that the transaction was a sham. Which I think might take some real effort on Paypal's part, effort I wouldn't expect them to actually expend, since Microsoft is the one paying the bills anyway.

Unfortunately Paypal doesn't feel they need to prove anything, they take action then claim the reasons for it are proprietary and can't be discussed. It seems from your BBB response that that's the runaround they even give MSFT when they ask about denied transactions, if their response is to be believed.

Have you had any change in status of the CashBack you successfully complained about? You seem to be the only one on these boards with an apparently successful appeal against a denial, so please keep us posted.

Yeah, coming from a customer-service background the canned answers are REALLY tortured.
"Proprietary" = "I don't know why and don't care to FIND OUT why",
"Nothing more we can do" = "We don't wanna"

Bottom line is it's the same as any other business transaction with a large corporation, they'll let the drones try to blow off as many as possible, but when you go to the BBB, your state's attorney general/consumer affairs board, or hire an attorney, then the grown-ups all stand around going "Whocoodanode?", and "it was all just a misunderstanding"....

Just checked now and still no' money...

comprx said:nautique said:ShaneM: So did you buy $10,000 of cards and stamps to resell? Did you know that eBay's TOS say you can only sell one gift card per week with a max of $500 per card?Outdated information. See here.

Hmm, you are correct. The funny thing is that I read that last week on eBay site when I was looking at listing a gift card and they told me to read the gift card TOS... Thanks for the new info.

nautique said:I am a little freaked out now because as of last night, my CashBack acount hit $2400!
I hit this amount with 13 transactions between two eBay accounts.So you and your wife were selling each other stuff ... good luck getting your CashBack

I went back to check my live account. My single eBay transaction (<$5 CB) has disappeared from the pending category! I'm now very leary of using this thing. I've had no problems using FW's CashBack system. I'm waiting for a reply. If the response isn't satisfactory, I won't be using them again. This is ridiculous!

glockophile said:comprx said:nautique said:ShaneM: So did you buy $10,000 of cards and stamps to resell? Did you know that eBay's TOS say you can only sell one gift card per week with a max of $500 per card?Outdated information. See here.
Actually, not outdated, just conflicting information. I posted a gift card transaction last night using eBay's web site (not turbolister), and received a warning that only one gift card was allowed per week. This was after I had already seen the site you linked to. I will post the exact language the next time I list another gift card...
Yeah it is conflicting information. However, as posted and discussed in the other thread, it is one per week and the listing script that you see when listing a gift card simply hasn't been updated yet.
I spoke to a Platinum Level Powerseller representative who confirmed it is one at a time NOT one per week. As others have stated, their script that appears when you list a gift card simply hasn't been updated. The policy was changed sometime in Aug. or Sept. I agree that they really need to get this updated in their listing scripts as it has caused some confusion and is misleading.

email from eBay confirming this:

"Dear XXXXX,

It was a pleasure speaking with you this afternoon. As provided over the
phone regarding the Gift Card Policy. Checking with my Trust and Safety
team you are able to list a gift card on the site one at a time. Example
if you list a gift card on the site and it sells, you are able to at
that point list another gift card.

If you have further questions or concerns at any time. Please let us
know. I will be happy to assist you with any further questions you may
have.

Thank you for being a valuable member of the eBay community. Have a
wonderful time shopping and selling on eBay!

Sincerely,
XXXXX

eBay Customer Support"

Also, has anyone received any CashBack payouts to paypal within the last week or so? Have some payout requests that have been pending for almost 2 weeks now, although I have not received any denial emails and have received all other cashbacks just fine so far from the past 4 months.