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Hi all,
After years of having my cashback on Amazon randomly rejected by Shopback and Cashrewards and not bothering to look into it too much, I’ve just been “enlightened” by a (rather condescending) Cashrewards staffer who told me the section of the app I’ve been using to gauge the product categories, is not actually the one that Amazon uses. And that the one Amazon uses is only visible if you use the desktop website, not the app or mobile site (although they never specified this in the email, I just learned it from doing a search and not seeing a category where they said it was meant to be on the app and mobile site).
Here’s part of the email, for reference:
“Please note that the product category appears on the top left of the product image, written in bold.
While looking up items in Amazon Australia, please make sure that the Category part of the Search Bar says "All" before you enter the product you want to search. Only then will you get the correct category for your item and it will be easier for you to check the cashback rate. I have added an image of my Search Bar when I looked up the item you purchased below.
** Image of Search bar with exact product name copied and pasted from product page**
Since the item you purchased is classified under the "Toys" category which had a 0% cashback rate on the date of purchase, your transaction has been declined for cashback by Amazon Australia.
I understand this can be confusing, and I apologise for the inconvenience. Please note that product categorisation and cashback rates are decided by Amazon Australia and not Cashrewards, and are subject to change at any time. It is always a good idea to check the cashback rates on the Amazon Australia store page before shopping. You can view the current store terms and cashback rates here.”
First of all, after rereading the end of the email I got extra angry, because I found what this person wrote quite condescending, considering the emails I had written prior were specifically regarding the category - the whole ARGUMENT is about the category. So for them to explain how categories work with cashback was particularly rude.
Secondly, NOWHERE that I can find on the Cashrewards or Shopback apps does it explain how to find the product categories, which is fundamental to correctly receiving cashback from Amazon, as the amounts are specific to the categories.
The only place on the Amazon app that I’ve ever seen reference to a category is at the bottom of the description in the ‘Additional information’ section, where it states where the product ranks in a category. Which in itself is even more perplexing, because it is stating this product is rated under a specific category (Kitchen and Dining, in this claim), but, in this case, is not classified under that category for cashback, at the same time 😑
There’s a lot going on here, a lot of faff and, to me, deliberate deception in ambiguity, leaving the door open for Amazon to reject a bunch of claims, unless you happen to know this very specific information.
I think the fact that they change up the cashback for categories is part of Amazon’s scheme, so once your cashback has been rejected, you can’t go back and check whether you claimed on a category that was 0% at the time. Prior to this claim, I even started taking screenshots of the cashback rates, but because the dates don’t always match-up (lots of orders, cashback approved/rejected days after the transaction, etc.) it hasn’t always been easy to track.
I’m sure there will be Ozbargainers who say “Of course that’s where you find the category, how can you not know this?” But I also have no doubt that other people are like me, the casual user who didn’t know because they weren’t told of this very specific way of finding an Amazon category (which I’m still not 100% convinced is completely legitimate, anyway, due to the ratings in other categories).
I suggested in my response email that Cashrewards put this information in their “Cashback tips” section, so there is no confusion (even admitted to in the email, as you would have read) with correctly identifying your product’s category. No reply, as yet. It’s probably Amazon’s decision to make, anyway. I doubt they would, though, as that would make it easier for successful, pain-free claims 😐
I did a search on Ozbargain to see if this topic had already been posted about, and was surprised nothing had been posted, yet. I figured using “Amazon cashback” as my search phrase would bring anything up if it had been previously posted about.
Anyway, sorry for the massive post, it has just really pissed me off!
Has anyone else had issues with this, or not known this information and wondered why their cashback kept randomly being rejected by Shopback and/or Cashrewards, despite believing you had all your ducks in a row for a successful claim? Has anyone been given conflicting information, or even magically been able to speak to someone at Amazon about this (a massive stretch, I know 😁).
Cheers for making it through this post 👍😊
Tldr.