Stacking cashback sites, the quest for massive cashback...

kjgco said: scripta said: has anyone ever filed a dispute for an item paid for in full or in part by eBay giftcards?I have, on a least a couple of occasions when the seller failed to deliver. The value of the card(s) gets credited back to the PayPal acct you used to make payment once the dispute is resolved in your favor.
Just a warning: eBay does track your dispute amount/frequency, and if you reach thier flag threshold, they will suspend all your eBay accounts. Only dispute something if you absolutely have to.

if there was such a limit they probably wouldn't disclose it.

are you just buying a lot of stuff, or is there a trend for your disputes? Most of my disputes were fake listings for gift cards (used phished accounts with lots of good feedback).

kjgco said: scripta said: if there was such a limit they probably wouldn't disclose it.

are you just buying a lot of stuff, or is there a trend for your disputes? Most of my disputes were fake listings for gift cards (used phished accounts with lots of good feedback).Yeah, probably true. I came across a number of references to "excessive disputes" in their T&C, but they sound like they're concerned with buyers who return stuff "significantly not as described" frequently. Like you, all of mine were gift card transactions from sellers who on the surface had a good track record.The instance I know of was exactly that, the item was "significantly not as described," rather than seller simply not delivering and then not responding (like all my disputes have been). I will say that I buy a lot of gift cards and have had to dispute about 6 $500 gift cards over the past 18 months from non-delivery/no response sellers, many of which were kicked off eBay before I opened my disputes anyway. Personally, I have not had any problem with them.

Its just with eBay/Paypal, any high volume activity that could be considered risky, they are a wild card. Lots of great buyers (and especially sellers) get kicked off eBay on a whim, despite the massive revenue those buyer's and sellers are generating eBay. Anyway, the point is, don't do anything that could be considered "excessive" with eBay. A ban there is often a lifetime ban. Not good.

What I'm intersted in with eBay is how many eBay accounts you can have? I know they technically have no limit (just one Paypal account personally, and one business though), but it would be nice to have multiple given thier $500 Ebucks limitation per 3 months if you are buying large ticket items. Sure, everything works fine with multiple eBay accounts earning Ebucks for awhile, but then if one of your accounts gets flagged for review, they find your other accounts and determine you are "fradulently circumventing the Ebucks limitation" and bam, lifetime ban. Anyone have any thoughts in this regard? (sorry for slight OT here)

BMWLVR82 said: djspray said: Crazytree said: I can barely get FW to honor its clickthroughs... the idea of multiple clickthroughs sounds like crazytalk!
Yeah, they screwed me out of CB from Priceline on 3 flights I booked because they said I had clicked through Kayak to book the flight. I had clicked through Kayak....12 hours prior. Their suggestion was to clear all cookies before clicking through their links. Yeah, OK.

If that's what they said, that's what happened.

It's a very simple bottom line when it comes to paying out for CashBack. If we get paid, you get paid.

More times than not FW recieves referral credit when not earned and doesn't push it back to it's users. For example, the Amazon cookie which stays hidden in your browser for a couple of days.

I admit, your business model is genius and are reaping the benefits of being a first mover. But poor CS will hurt your earnings & customer retention. It's already quite noticeable that the content of deals is not as other sites and your CashBack model can be easily duped.

I think if you pushed back some of that revenue stream to the OPs who post actually find/post the deals, you guys might be able to stay in the game for a little longer.

Don't be evil remember: Sharing is caring

MVP9596 said: Amazon is a poor example to use. Our merchant agreement with Amazon prevents us from paying Cash Back for purchases.

I can confirm this too because I know someone who looked into setting up an Amazon CashBack site of his own (figuring that 1-2% beats everyone else's 0%) and found that he wasn't allowed to do that. This is also why nobody in the CB business offers anything for Amazon.

FWIW, with regard to registering AMEX gift cards, I just got this email from PayPal support:

For security reasons, you can’t add gift cards, prepaid cards, virtual
cards, or one-time use cards to your PayPal account.
You can use Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express debit cards
and credit cards with a U.S. billing address.

I've successfully registered and used many of these in the past, so maybe this represents a change in policy?

If it's the virtual address you need, some of these cards will let you log in prior to using them to "register" them and add a name/address. I did that with a Wells Fargo VISA gift card recently.

Some will let you do this over the phone as well (call the # on the back of the card).

I think you're looking at history through some rose colored glasses.

Bing WAS the big deal. Getting extra 1%+1%+1% on top of Bing's 35% off doesn't make that much practical difference. Now if there were 3 sites all giving 10% back, then you would be onto something. But currently the reality is different.

Do you get eBay bucks when using eBay gift cards?

Witold said: I think you're looking at history through some rose colored glasses.

Bing WAS the big deal. Getting extra 1%+1%+1% on top of Bing's 35% off doesn't make that much practical difference. Now if there were 3 sites all giving 10% back, then you would be onto something. But currently the reality is different.Agreed that Bing was the big deal, and that the current environment is much less favorable. On the other hand, I believe in taking what the market gives, assuming it's worth one's time and effort. In this case, the 1.6% from BC and 2-3% equivalent in points/miles/$ makes it worthwhile for me at times.

Bumping , since tis the season. Anyone know of an aggregator that includes shopdiscover and bank of america add it up. In my opinion, with the amount of decision lock I run into on even the most menial purchases now, I usually restrict my searchs to 3 sites (ebates, FW, and big crumbs... sometimes mr rebates), and I like to throw some business to FW if they are "close", since I believe in paying back for hosting FWF... but after making a few purchases today, I found a few 10% that I missed on discover in boa.

EDIT, NEVERMIND I see the first link posted here (cashbackaholics) has shop discover... still don't see anything for add it up... but also not seeing any places where they are winners (though they seem much improved lately) For instance, they have 5% off at CVS... that a new one.

Do you guys have a way around the AMEX shipping fee for the cards? Seems to be an extra $8.95

kjgco said:   Agreed that Bing was the big deal, and that the current environment is much less favorable. On the other hand, I believe in taking what the market gives, assuming it's worth one's time and effort. In this case, the 1.6% from BC and 2-3% equivalent in points/miles/$ makes it worthwhile for me at times.
Agreed. RIP Bing. However, I am starting to get back into my old ways on eBay. Even an extra 1% CB would be $14/transaction - very much worthwhile.

This is very much TBD. Some people have 10+ eBay accounts to maximize eBucks. Who knows when eBay will start enforcing the eBucks rules.

Venturion said:   This is very much TBD. Some people have 10+ eBay accounts to maximize eBucks. Who knows when eBay will start enforcing the eBucks rules.
I had 10+ accounts at one time and about half of them have been suspended. Amazingly, even though all of them have the same info, they left some open. Can't tell you why. Been on eBay since 1997 (and PayPal from opening day) though so big YMMV. It's risky...