Can the Live Search Cashback mess get any messier? We're about to find out.

Microsoft's Live Search team has just published a follow-up blog post offering "answers" for consumers affected by the Black Friday outage that hit the Cashback service. Among other things, the post assures people who used the service to make purchases through HP's online store that they "are eligible" to receive the promised 40 percent refund, not the 3 percent that many of them got instead.

But the post is vague when it comes to the question of when -- and even whether -- the big HP promotion will run again.

"We're working actively to determine next steps for any specific HP promotions," writes Rajat Taneja, Microsoft's general manager of Worldwide Commercial Search, in the post. "We regret that we don't have more specific details at this time, but we can point customers to other Live Search cashback merchants with great deals on HP products, including eBay, which is currently offering 20% cashback."

That won't go over well with the consumers who have been relying on statement Microsoft issued earlier this week to CNet News.com. That statement said, among other things, that the promotion would "restart in the next day or so."

After that report came out, I tried to confirm that the promotion would be restarted, but I wasn't able to. Now I know why. I'm hearing that the Microsoft person who issued the statement to CNet was mistaken. It's not clear why the company hasn't publicly corrected the statement -- especially after people reposted it and asked for more details in the comments on a previous Live Search blog post.

In summary, here's how events have unfolded in the past week ...

1) Cash-strapped consumers get excited over the prospect of 40 percent cashback from HP.

2) Microsoft's Live Search Cashback service goes down for much of Black Friday; many people can't take advantage of the offer.

3) Many of those who do get through get 3 percent cashback, rather than the promised 40 percent.

4) In a published report, Microsoft is quoted saying that the HP promotion will be restarted soon.

5) Microsoft makes it clear that HP promotion actually won't be restarted in the promised time frame.

Gee, why does Microsoft have such a hard time making money online?

The company is continuing to direct people to https://support.search.live.com/ to resolve their problems with the service. I've heard from several readers that they haven't been getting helpful responses from inquiries submitted via that site. The first comment on the latest Live Search blog post echoes that sentiment. Others say they still haven't gotten Cashback confirmation messages.

If you've been through the process, please let us know the outcome in the comments below.

Earlier: 'Cashback' glitch nixes big HP promo