More than a week later, the dust has settled from Microsoft's Live Search Cashback Black Friday glitches. Many people who received 3 percent refunds on HP purchases, rather than the promised 40 percent, say their balances have now been corrected.

But what about those who tried, unsuccessfully, to access the Cashback service to take advantage of the promised promotion from the HP store? As we reported last week, Microsoft said the HP promotion wouldn't be rerun, despite an earlier statement that it would.

That leaves in the cold people such as Tallin Curran of Granite City, Illinois. With his permission, we're republishing the e-mails he sent to and received from Microsoft and HP, to shed more light on what online shoppers went through. Read on for the full text.

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From Tallin Curran:

Below is my initial complaint letter to Microsoft regarding the matter, which I sent on Black Friday:

To Whom It May Concern:

I attempted multiple times over the course of several hours, once for nearly an hour straight, to load the HP page that would've allowed me 40% cashback on purchases (I planned on buying a laptop).  I was never able to load the page properly.  The closest I came was the several times the HP page loaded in the background, but the foreground Live Search window asking for my e-mail never loaded properly.  Twice it loaded almost entirely, except for the part that asked me to type the captcha characters to verify that I'm a real person.  That part loaded a few times, but then just continued to try and load after I entered the characters, never doing anything.  Because of that I was never allowed to go any further and was denied access to the 40% cashback.

I am very unhappy with this situation because, as I said, I had planned on buying a laptop for somewhere around $1000.  And it isn't as if I can try again tomorrow, because this deal only lasts for 12 hours.

Since the HP page was able to load, and loads just fine by going to the site directly rather than through the link at Live search, it seems that this is Microsoft's fault and not HP's.  One would think Microsoft has the resources to provide the bandwidth to support something like this, Black Friday or not.

Thank you for your time, and I hope have this matter resolved soon.

Sincerely,

Tallin Curran


This was their response, e-mailed to me on December 3:

Hello Tallin,
 
Thank you for contacting Live Search cashback Customer Support. Due to the high volume experienced through our site there were problems for some people getting the deal on HP.  Unfortunately HP sets the percentage off of their sales, due to the sale being Friday we are unable to promise the 40% off in cashback. 
 
We don't have a schedule of promotions or events.  Each store determines the cashback percentages, and the cashback percentage can vary over time.  Please use Live Search for your online search and shopping needs to find offers available.
 
Thank You,
 
Chris G.
Live Search cashback Customer Support


I'm not very happy with that response, so I have since sent a letter to the CEO of HP through their website.  I realize he doesn't read these himself, but I still felt it would be better than nothing.  Below is what I sent to Mark Hurd on December 5:


Dear Mr. Hurd:

I am one of many disappointed people who attempted to purchase a computer from HP's online site last Friday, or "Black Friday."  I had heard about the 40% cashback through Microsoft Live's cashback service and was prepared to drop a good deal of money for someone in my position on one of your touchscreen laptops.

As I'm sure you know, there were problems with Microsoft's servers handling all of the cashback traffic.  I know this isn't your fault, but I'd like you to see Microsoft's response below, after I sent them an e-mail explaining the situation:

[Copy of Chris G. message from above]

I still believe it would benefit Microsoft to allow me the cashback, as I know this happened to many people, not to mention that Microsoft shouldn't have problems at all handling something like this.  I tried literally for hours to take advantage of such a great deal and was denied repeatedly.  People were bashing Microsoft all over Twitter and other social networking sites, and even Michael Arrington of TechCrunch reported on it.

Thank you for your time, and I hope to hear from you regarding this matter soon.

Sincerely,

Tallin Curran


I did receive a response from HP a few hours later, but it was very abrupt:

Thank you for writing to HP.  We apologize for the recent frustrations.  Your taking the time to share this information with us is greatly appreciated.  Your message has been forwarded to the appropriate group within HP for further review.

Thank you,
CEO Customer Relations

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As of this morning, that was the last Curran had heard.