(Solved) How to guard against Cashrewards changing rates after clickthrough, despite immediate purchase?

Janko on 04/08/2022 - 13:31
Last edited 05/08/2022 - 09:23 by 1 other user

I saw a 4% cashrewards rate for cameras on CR's Amazon page, around 7.45am on the 1st Aug. Made purchase within a minute clicking through from CR.

The transaction took a few hours to turn up on CR's site, worrying me for a while it wasn't tracked, but it eventually did. Declined with a 0% rate.

I re-check and indeed camera rate had changed to 0%.

So it must have happened sometime that morning after my purchase - maybe start of business?

I do screenrecord purchases via CR in case of tracking issues, but despite being wiser now, didn't expect rate changes like this to rescroll down to the Camera rate after starting the recording. But the video clearly shows rates on some of the categories shown were changed when I checked hours later.

Wish to ensure this doesn't happen again, as I paid more for this camera from Amazon relying on the 4% cashback.

Related Stores

Cashrewards

Third-Party

• 

  bobbified on 04/08/2022 - 13:35

  +15

  First rule of these cashback schemes is to not expect it or factor the cashback amount as part of the final price. Otherwise you can be easily disappointed. Take it as a bonus instead.

  • 

    Janko on 04/08/2022 - 13:45

    +1

    That's a bit sad as most of the time, it's only the cashback that makes the purchase overall cheaper than elsewhere. I don't pay extra for the hope of winning a bonus - that's just gambling. So it seems cashbacks only have merit if the item is already cheaper than anywhere else.

    • 

      bobbified on 04/08/2022 - 13:51

      +5

      The reason I said what I said is because it seems a lot of people factor in the cashback into the final price and then later on, they get told that their purchase didn't get tracked all the way through (seems to happen too often to just be called a 'coincidence', but I won't call it a 'scam' either!). In the end, because they don't get the bonus, some have actually paid more than if they got it from somewhere else.

      • 

        Janko on 04/08/2022 - 14:00

        I appreciate it is as practical advice - as I am indeed am one of these people.

        I actually started screenrecording CR transactions two months ago because a Roborock wasn't tracked despite me being meticulous with cookies/visiting other sites/adblockers. I can't recall any issues with CR for years tracking - could always rely on it, and am yet to have Shopback decline, so maybe something has changed recently with CR?

        • 

          bobbified on 04/08/2022 - 14:12

          @Janko:

          because a Roborock wasn't tracked

          Oh, it's funny too because it only seems to happen on more expensive items! haha

          • 

            Janko on 04/08/2022 - 14:24

            +1

            @bobbified: Hmmm, looking back now to 2015 when I started with CR, it is only my two most expensive purchases that got unexpectedly rejected - the Roborock and this camera. Now you have me concerned.

            • 

              Store Reptightarse @ Cashrewards on 04/08/2022 - 14:43

              @Janko: I have no idea about your Roborock claim, but your Amazon Camera purchase was declined as it was never eligible to begin with. See my comment here.

              • 

                Janko on 04/08/2022 - 16:14

                @tightarse: The Roborock I just declared I must have made a mistake even though I'm meticulous with cookies/adblockers/empty carts/revisits/… when doing cashbacks.

                I purchased a second unit the week, same store, same price and it gave cashback fine. I do recall noticing that the declined one showed the inc-GST price instead of ex-GST, but just assumed ex-GST price is only known when approved.

          • 

            eug on 04/08/2022 - 15:10

            @bobbified:

            Oh, it's funny too because it only seems to happen on more expensive items! haha

            How expensive does it have to be?

            Dell Australia 09-06-2022 AUD $1,770.91 $61.98
            Approved

            Dell Australia 09-06-2022 AUD $1,744.06 $174.41
            Approved

            Amazon Australia 25-07-2022 AUD $344.12 $13.76
            Approved

            Lenovo 21-06-2022 AUD $1,272.60 $127.26
            Approved

            Going further back…

            Lenovo 17-09-2016 AUD $8,599.04 $687.92
            Approved

            Lenovo 17-09-2016 AUD $6,699.57 $535.97
            Approved

            DigiDirect 10-12-2021 AUD $4,740.45 $132.73
            Approved

            eBay Australia 08-03-2018 AUD $3,988.00 $39.88
            Approved

            eBay Australia 14-10-2018 AUD $3,297.00 $32.97
            Approved

            eBay Australia 05-04-2018 AUD $3,118.99 $31.19
            Approved

            etc

            • 

              bobbified on 04/08/2022 - 15:31

              +1

              @eug:

              How expensive does it have to be?

              I should've said "when it happens…….".

              I don't use these cashback schemes myself, but every time I've seen someone comment or create a thread about purchases not tracking, it seems to be the more expensive items (or noone can be bothered complaining about the cheaper ones).

              • 

                eug on 04/08/2022 - 15:47

                +1

                @bobbified:

                I don't use these cashback schemes myself, but every time I've seen someone comment or create a thread about purchases not tracking, it seems to be the more expensive items (or noone can be bothered complaining about the cheaper ones).

                I think what's more important is the percentage of sales that don't track. I don't expect every system to be 100% foolproof, there's probably always going to be a small percentage that fails for whatever reason.

                I have no idea what their numbers are, but if they do 5,000 transactions a day and 1% fail, that's 50 failed tracks a day or over 1,500 failed tracks a month. That's quite a large (made-up) number so I wouldn't be surprised to hear about it on a forum every now and then.

                But it's still just 1%. We don't hear from the 99% of users whose transactions tracked perfectly because everything worked and people wouldn't start a forum post just to say "Bought an expensive item last month and it tracked fine."

                The bigger the cashback site is, the larger the numbers will be, and the more complaints we will probably see online. But the actual percentage of failed tracks could still be low.

                Once again I have no idea what their actual numbers are, just thought I'd point out that you can't conclude that expensive items are more likely to fail tracking just because people post about it.

  • 

    pharkurnell on 04/08/2022 - 16:03

    Great Advice…

• 

  spackbace on 04/08/2022 - 14:06

  +4

  Be careful with Amazon listings that the item isn't in the wrong category, as 99% of the time that's why it stuffs up

  • 

    Janko on 04/08/2022 - 14:12

    I did an enquire about the decline and CR customer support did completely miss the point, just stating what you have (probably because 99% of the time that's the reason). But they did at least confirm Camera was indeed the category Amazon identified it as.

• 

  MS Paint on 04/08/2022 - 14:46

  as I paid more for this camera from Amazon relying on the 4% cashback.

  Rookie mistake.

  • 

    Janko on 04/08/2022 - 14:53

    Except I've been with CR since 2015 and had a 100% success rate until the Roborock two months ago and now the camera. So I wouldn't say rookie. Maybe things have changed.

• 

  outlander on 04/08/2022 - 16:51

  +1

  I do screenrecord purchases via CR in case of tracking issues,

  Thats a good idea. Fraud committed by business is on the rise, and while having proof may not get you the outcome you deserve it does improve your chances.

  Although I hate it when a cashback doesn't track (currently have $150 that is in question with cashrewards, and the first Rep I talked to was beyond inept) I do sympathize with their position. They rely on other companies to truthfully report the sale. If the company doesn't, I don't know theres much they can do. At the same time, they can't really point the finger at the company when a problem does happen because it's not good business sense to criticize the source of your money.

  How do you do it? I was thinking it might be good to live stream stuff to youtube under a private account. That way the video would be timestamped for proof

  • 

    avoidfullprice on 04/08/2022 - 17:09

    Both android and iphone has screen record functionality, if you use CR mobile app. iOS has it built in, and my oppo phone can do it via drop down menu. You just start the record from https://www.timeanddate.com/ and go from there

  • 

    Janko on 04/08/2022 - 17:13

    +1

    You bring up a good point - that it's reliant on the other companies and MobileCiti where I got the declined Roborock from has been hit and miss over the years, whereas CR hadn't let me down.

    Plenty of screen recorder options - I personally record offline and upload if required (I use ShareX but nVidia has ShadowPlay if you have one of their cards and Geforce Experience installed.). For streaming, something like the free OBS does the job.

• 

  harshbdmmaster718 on 04/08/2022 - 17:16

  Cashback rates are changing all the time. It just so happened you purchased something close to that moment the rates changed.

  I guess you can try clawing it back by spending time chatting to support, who knows they might give you it just this once in good faith.

  Cashback at the rate you see is not always guaranteed.
  I always click through no matter what I am buying or what the rates are because there are times I have gotten cashback on categories that showed as 0% when clicking, most likely because the rates changed. Especially on Amazon where there are so many categories.
  So it works both ways.

• 

  avoidfullprice on 04/08/2022 - 17:20

  +1

  I sometimes have Amazon tracking issues with CR during a blitz promo, even using their mobile app clear cart not use promo code. I am greatful CR honour the cashback most of the times but not without repeated long emails suggesting i have done one of the “don’ts” and then a final email goes something like

  Amazon Australia has told us their tracking system is extremely accurate and unrecorded reward transactions are generally due to one of the following issues;

  …

  On this occasion, Cashrewards has elected to dip into our own pocket and honour the expected rewards amount for your purchase.

  I don’t even get a chance to step through with a tech on why there is any issue with tracking. It is an one way email suggesting the fault is not with Amazon or CR but someone else is (you). Don’t cry, here is your cashback from our charitable gesture. Like, great, i must be the entitled a-hole here. This is why I loathe going through any missing cashback claim process.

• 

  Janko on 04/08/2022 - 23:01

  +2

  Kudos for tightarse for going way beyond the call of duty and investigating this deeply for me.

  I can not explain how I saw 4%, but the effort TA spent in PM'ing me logs showed me that if this was something like a data entry person momentarily entering a wrong value during rate update, it wasn't a routine changeover of rates thing that I wanted to protect against happening in the future.

  TA even honored my previously declined Roborock claim out of his own pocket, which I had long written off on the basis that I must have stuffed up somehow. Totally not needed and it showed that CR does mean well as TA wouldn't persist there otherwise - it'd make him broke.

  A mod may mark this thread resolved if that's procedure.

  • 

    MS Paint on 05/08/2022 - 09:34

    out of his own pocket

    I doubt. CR would have a slush fund or even their marketing budget.

    Great result overall. Good job TA.

    • 

      Janko on 05/08/2022 - 15:42

      Correct, TA messaged me after reading my comment above that by out of pocket, he meant CR's pocket.