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Microsoft promises full 40% refund to HP customers hit by Cashback glitch

By Todd Bishop on December 1, 2008 at 2:21 PM PST
Comments (31)  |  Permalink

Internet search | Shopping | Hewlett-Packard | MSFT


Microsoft is vowing to make things right for the online shoppers who received refunds of 3 percent, rather than the promised 40 percent, when using its Live Search Cashback service to make purchases Friday through HP's online store. The company is asking people to contact customer support through this site to make sure their Cashback accounts are properly credited.

That still leaves in the cold anyone who had planned to take advantage of the discount but was unable to access the Live Search Cashback site because of its Black Friday outage. A Microsoft representative said in an e-mail that people who didn't make purchases through Live Search Cashback won't be eligible for the 40 percent discount.

Here's the company's full statement on the issue ...

“Microsoft Live Search cashback experienced an unexpected outage for several hours on Friday, November 28.  If you are interested in following up on a cashback rebate for a qualifying HP purchase that you completed Friday at HP's Home & Home Office web site, we kindly request that you contact Microsoft at https://support.search.live.com/ . To ensure the best possible support from Microsoft, please have available your order number and the email address you provided prior to transferring to the HP site. We apologize for any inconvenience that this issue caused.”

Some of the people who have e-mailed me about the glitches have reported less-than-smooth experiences with the Live Search customer support system. If you go through the process of trying to correct the cashback amount from your HP purchase, please report back on how it goes.


1
Doug said:

on December 1, 2008 at 3:45 PM

What about those of us who made a purchase on BF, but haven't received a cashback notification at all? I get the impression that there are a lot of us in that boat, by informal poll, way more than are in the 3% boat.
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2
Explain said:

on December 1, 2008 at 4:27 PM

What about people who clicked all day on the sponsored link and were never able to go past the live.com page. MS would have earned good on the sponsored link from HP.
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3
Shane said:

on December 1, 2008 at 4:57 PM

I managed to place my order, right before the deadline, at 9:55 EST. I too have received no cashback confirmation. I followed the steps listed here:
https://support.search.live.com/eform.aspx?productKey=cashbackeo&ct=eformcs

I doubt I get anywhere, but it doesn't hurt to try before canceling my order
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4
Nevil said:

on December 1, 2008 at 5:09 PM

I still have not yet recieved CB confirmation....
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5
Todd Bishop said:

on December 1, 2008 at 6:12 PM

Thanks for the comments, guys. A question for those of you who placed orders but haven't yet received the Cashback confirmation: Am I correct in assuming that your credit card was still charged the full price of the HP purchase?
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6
Baabette the Sheep said:

on December 1, 2008 at 6:46 PM

I spent over 10 hours clicking the HP cashback link at Live Search, and refreshing from the "Oops" page as directed, but finally got through to the "Cashback Activated" screen and its re-direct to HP. But still no cashback email or balance shown from my notebook purchase. MS support says wait 3-5 days for a reply, but the computer ships Friday - am I totally screwed?? MS, this is FRAUD!! (and please fix your crappy software too)
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7
Arvind said:

on December 1, 2008 at 6:53 PM

Why both MS and HP messed up the things on BF without offering the 40% cashback amount so far to the customer who ordered the products on BF day. I am one of the victim, yet to receive any e-mails for the cash back amount. This clearly damaged the reputation of the MS. Hereafter people won't trust the company, if they offer anything like this in the future. they will reject/ignore, if MS is not keep the commitment for this program by offering the 40% amount to all the buyers who orderd during the offer time.
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8
Doug said:

on December 1, 2008 at 7:08 PM

Todd: that's correct, they charged my credit card for the full amount. Any info?
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9
Robert Kq said:

on December 1, 2008 at 8:51 PM

I logged into Live in the mid afternoon and was forwarded to HP.com with the notice that my cashback had been activated and bought a laptop. I got an order confirmation from HP and my credit card has been charged, but I have no sign of my cashback. I have a screen capture of the login screen showing my username and the 40% part as well as the link from my history that shows the redirection to HP from live. I have sent a few emails to live support and even pointed them to this blog to say that Microsoft stated they will fix the problem... Still waiting.
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10
Dave said:

on December 1, 2008 at 9:10 PM

My credit card has been charged for the full amount. I only received 3% cashback in my account. I contacted Live.com support on Saturday. So far I have only received the automated response that says someone will get back to me within 3-5 working days. And I still only have 3% in my cashback account.
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11
3% boater said:

on December 2, 2008 at 7:04 AM

One of our 3% boat members got reply from Microsoft CSR.

You can read full reply at http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=1050364
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12
TR said:

on December 2, 2008 at 7:50 AM

There are many, many people who thought they were getting the full 40% cashback that haven't received any notification of a refund. I have spoken to MS, HP, and a third party that handles the refunds for MS...nobody can give me an answer! The only thing I've received from MS is an automated reply to wait 3-5 days more...this is a complete debacle on the part of Microsoft, and consumers and HP is going to suffer (with an inordinate amount of returns.) For more postings and info, check out slickdeals.net and search HP cashback.
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13
blogger said:

on December 2, 2008 at 8:02 AM

Official blog entry - http://blogs.msdn.com/livesearch/archive/2008/12/01/black-friday-cashback-blackout.aspx
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14
Rocco Passarette said:

on December 2, 2008 at 11:11 AM

I too placed an order through the Live.com HP Cashback site after 6+ constant hours of trying to get it to work. Now HP has my full price order and hit my Credit card yet I have no word on the cashback by Microsoft. I have follwed their rules and written to them but all they sent me is a note to wait 3-5 days. My time is up so I'm writing back to them again today. What I don't understand is if they know they had a problem, why don't they just ask people for a copy of the order with a timestamp from HP and just make this right. As someone said HP is in for a lot of returns if this is not fixed pronto, never mind some disapointed and angry customers.
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15
Mike said:

on December 2, 2008 at 11:14 AM

I sure wish Microsoft would do more than say "sorry" for those of us that wasted an entire day hitting F5 with the hope of getting through to the HP site with no luck. Not only did we end up empty handed, but it left us unable to take advantage of any other BF offers. If Microsoft had any integrity whatsoever, they would either have a do-over offer with HP, or at a minimum come up with a way for those of us who ended up with nothing to place orders now with the proper discount.
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16
Robert Kq said:

on December 2, 2008 at 11:55 AM

Well I was just credited 25% after sending an email explaining how I had not received anything... I promptly wrote back requesting the amount be switched to 40%. We will see what happens.
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17
Kenneth said:

on December 2, 2008 at 3:46 PM

I also spent 8 hours refreshing... I went through the whole process and placed a order. Still have not received my cash back. I emailed them explaining what happened and how I did not receive my cash back with proof of my order. They emailed me the next day saying:

"Thank you for contacting Live Search cashback Customer Support. We will research this issue and will respond as soon as we have more information.
If there is any change in the status of your issue or if you want to check on the progress of your inquiry, please reply to this message.
The investigation process can take up to 3 weeks to complete.
If you have a new question or concern, please send a new e-mail message in order to open a separate Service Request."
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18
Lionfish said:

on December 2, 2008 at 3:47 PM

Here is the response I received from Microsoft today (Dec 2). I am still out around $500.

Thank you for that information. As previously stated, due to the Thanksgiving holiday purchases may take extra time to show in your account. We expect many purchases should show in your account by December 2, 2008, but it may take longer for some purchases to show We are researching technical issues as to why. If your purchase does not show in three business days, reply to this email and we will research your situation further.
You may receive a survey asking if your issue was appropriately resolved. Please disregard this survey until we've fully resolved your issue.
Thanks,
Robert I
LiveSearch cashback Customer Support
Report Abuse
19
Diana said:

on December 2, 2008 at 6:16 PM

I got into the site but they cancelled my black friday order because they were out of stock on warrantys...
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20
Phillip Dampier said:

on December 2, 2008 at 6:37 PM

The nightmare continues. Microsoft has now sent me at least three different e-mails regarding this debacle, each one stalling me further and telling me to wait just awhile longer.

The minor part of this mess is the 3% vs. 40% rebate. There are substantially more people who eventually made it through the entry point for the Cashback deal who placed orders and got absolutely zero Cashback. It's obvious their servers discarded thousands of Cashback tracking cookies. Just read the forums at Slickdeals and Fatwallet.

Microsoft stopped responding to emails about this as of today, beyond canned messages which extend the waiting from 24 hours, then 12/2, then three days, and as of today, they're telling people to wait another week. It's completely unacceptable and there is absolutely zero evidence of any effort towards a make-good on Microsoft's part. Writing them to report a problem does not mean Microsoft is taking care of it. It just means they get to stall customers longer.
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21
Dave said:

on December 2, 2008 at 7:02 PM

@Diana - Are you serious? They actually told you they are out of warranties? Is this a joke? You are the second person that I've seen post this. If HP is really canceling orders and claiming this is the reason, we should all cancel our orders. That is unbelievable.
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22
Dave said:

on December 3, 2008 at 6:05 AM

Todd, this nonsense about HP being out of stock on warranties isn't getting enough attention. How can they expect people to be that stupid? They need to be held to the fire on this one.
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23
Rocco Passarette said:

on December 3, 2008 at 6:51 AM

I wish someone would come up with a phone number where we could actually speak to a person responsible for this mess. I'm tired sending e-mails being told to wait to 12-2-08 then when I write back.... no reply. I sent them a copy of my order and nothing. No cash back, no pending, no reply from Microsoft. I can not believe a company as large as Microsoft can not get enogh people assigned to this problem to address this issue in 1 day. At least write back to me and say I have the order you e-mailed us and we will be getting you your 40% cashback but we need 30 days to straighten this out. But don't just do nothing. I don't know if I should be cancelling my order at this point. Microsoft...What should I do?
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24
Rocco Passarette said:

on December 3, 2008 at 8:27 AM

I just received a note from Microsoft Live Cashback. Despite everything I sent them they just gave me 25% cashback not 40% as was promised in the deal. This is very frustrating. Now I have to start the complaints again. I wish there was someone I could speak with on the phone to get this straightened out.
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25
matt said:

on December 4, 2008 at 6:49 AM

i havent received any confirmation for cashback yet from MSN....I' scared if they would pay me back
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26
Rocco Passarette said:

on December 4, 2008 at 7:45 AM

Well it gets worse. Received a new E-mail from LIVE cashback saying that they have cancelled my cashback because I cancelled my order with HP (NOT TRUE). So I have not idea what is going on. I tried to write back to them but I received an e-mail message that said that the recipients mailbox is full and can't accept messages now.
Ugh!

--Rocco--
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27
Dave said:

on December 4, 2008 at 9:42 AM

Rocco, just cancel your HP order and buy a Mac.
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28
Shane said:

on December 8, 2008 at 12:00 PM

This morning, I got a response to my email, and was given 40% cashback! They said they sent another welcome email, which I had to sign up through to open a new account, but other than that, it looks good.
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29
Shane said:

on December 8, 2008 at 1:45 PM

Email has been found.

Anyone else get unscrewed?
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30
KIRAN said:

on December 10, 2008 at 5:46 PM

yesterday i called HP 1 (888) 999-4747 to know about the BF msn CASHBACK... he connected me to live cashback rep.....i got my cash back within 5 min.
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31
dean smith said:

on February 25, 2009 at 8:48 AM

Shame they don't offer the service to the UK. I use http://www.cashbackbay.com which are very good but do you think livesearch will expand the cashback service to the UK some time soon? Thanks
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Todd Bishop is co-founder and managing editor of TechFlash. He has covered Microsoft and the technology industry for more than five years, most recently as a daily newspaper reporter and blogger based in Seattle. READ FULL BIOGRAPHY
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