Live Cashback buyers: If you're thinking of returning an item....

If you're a Live Cashback buyer and are thinking of returning a big ticket item for an exchange, DON'T! Or else, you can just kiss your cashback dollars for that item good-bye. What you should do, instead, is just return it for a refund and then buy the item again via Cashback if you really want the cashback dollars. If you return the item for an exchange, whatever cashback amount you earned for that item will be negated and you'll end up with $0.00 cashback for that item. In effect, you basically end up paying full price for that item you though you had a good deal on.

So, is there a story behind this?

dan

dan j wrote in post #7544358
So, is there a story behind this?

dan

Well, sort of. I bought a $715.00 strobe head, via Live Cashback, from a well-known vendor which shall rename nameless (I'll never buy from them again but that's another story). When it arrived, it seemed to be defective (it was making a rattling noise inside) so I asked for an exchange. I returned the head and got a replacement. This was several weeks ago. Yesterday, I got an email from Live.com Cashback program informing that I had lost the $21 cashback amount because I had returned/exchanged/can​celled my order and no longer qualified for the cashback. A reply email explaining that I had done an even exchange, and NOT a return with a refund, and objecting to the cashback being revoked proved to be fruitless and a waste of time.

Yeah, $21 isn't much but when you add up all the pennies over time, they do make a large chunk of change.

So, I thought I would warn other people who make use of the Live.com cashback program so they that don't get burned the same way I was.

contact Microsoft they should solve the problem

It's crazy that they'd report it to Live. I don't get that decision at all.

dan

patrick835 wrote in post #7544571
contact Microsoft they should solve the problem

I already did. Basically what they said was "c'est la vie". They were kind enough, though, to ask if there was anything else they could help me with.

BTW, they were the one's who sent me that email about my cashback money being revoked in the first place.

Hmm, doesn't seem logical. I doubt their actions were correct with the terms of the cashback program.

I had a few items I bought that I didn't want and I just sold them back on ebay. With the current cashback around 9-10% it might not make sense to sell it back on ebay though, so someone should crunch the numbers really quick before going that route.
I bought a Nikon D200 and Canon 40D with live cashback back when the 25-30% was going on. Changed my mind about both and got a 50D instead, so I just put the others back on ebay for $50 less than I paid (before cashback), after all fees I still made out with about $75 profit each and the buyers got a nice deal.