I am new to Rakuten and have tried to use it as much as possible to build up a cash-back balance. To earn referral bonuses, I helped my 75-year-old tech-naive stepdad and seriously dyslexic husband both sign up for accounts as referrals. I am helping each of them learn computer skills and practice online activities and we were using the Rakuten referral bonus as a practice exercise. After the referral, subsequent signups, and purchases from each account
We all received emails confirming our $30 referral bonuses but nothing ever posted to our accounts. After writing to customer service my issue was escalated to a "specialist" who told me all 3 accounts were in violation of Rakuten's T&Cs because I had created several fraudulent accounts under different names and all 3 accounts have now been locked. I responded explaining we are all in fact real people, even going so far as to send photos of each of our state licenses as proof that we all really exist and it's not just me signing up under 3 email addresses. Then the response from the specialist stated the violation was because I was managing other people's accounts. Then ensued a very long back-and-forth string of emails with the "specialist" explaining I was not managing all 3 accounts but rather assisting my stepdad and husband with their online transactions so they could use this as a learning experience to practice their online skills and that each of their purchases followed the guidelines and they made purchases for products for themselves using their own money. In the response from the specialist, the option given to me was to consolidate all 3 accounts (and forfeit all bonuses) or have all 3 accounts deactivated. My account already had over $150 in it which would have been lost if all accounts were deleted. (My balance amount has also been getting suspiciously smaller and smaller w/o any explanation but whatever). After explaining to the specialist that I felt coerced into a biased and discriminatory "resolution" he just continued to cut and paste the same response over and over that said: "These 3 accounts are in violation of our terms and conditions and will have to be consolidated or remain deactivated." I finally reluctantly agreed to have the accounts consolidated which voided the two $30 referral bonuses that would have been paid to me and the $30 bonus that would have been paid to each my stepdad and my husband.
Now, after checking my "consolidated" account my next Big Fat check which was at one point around $150 has now inexplicably diminished to a mere $78.12 for the next pay period which doesn't even include the loss of the $60 referral bonuses that should have been added to my account for referring my stepdad and husband.

Finally:
The terms and conditions that are accessible to read on both the app and the website are vague and refer you to their "Refer-A-Friend Program Terms" for the full details. Basically, Rakuten writes its terms in a way that allows them to "withhold, deny, or cancel any Refer-A-Friend Program Bonuses and/or terminate your account if the Company, in its sole discretion, deems any Refer-A-Friend Program Bonus as fraudulent, abusive, unethical, suspicious, or otherwise inconsistent with these Refer-A-Friend Program Terms". This gives Rakuten the advantage of stating you're in violation of their terms "because they said so".
Don't bother trying to contact Customer Service with any type of reasonable explanation. They will simply respond with messages repeating that you are in violation of their terms and threaten to suspend or delete your account without regard to your reasoning or explanation. Unfortunately, it all ends up being a futile and frustrating endeavor and a huge waste of time with no favorable resolution for the account holder.

RAKUTEN IS A SCAM! BUYER BEWARE!

I have been happy with Rakuten until this past month. I have been a loyal member for YEARS and not using any of the other apps due to loyalty. If there were issues in the past, communication was very easy and as long as you showed proof of your claim (ie order number from their page, confirmation email, etc.) they were very good about crediting your account. HOWEVER, lately I had been booking airline tickets and hotel stays through the website and had been very patient waiting the THREE MONTH AFTER TRIP COMPLETION requirement. You can imagine the amounts were no longer simple $0.93 or $1.18 credits... After the waiting period, I contacted CS to ask and they said they needed the complete confirmation emails as the hotel/airline hadn't acknowledged the transactions. No problem. Send everything in. They said it would take up to another 45 days. Fine. Waited. THEN I started getting emails that the hotel/airline wasn't acknowledging the transactions so I wouldn't be getting credit. I sent back the emails again WITH screenshots of the ORDER numbers generated on Rakuten and they then escalated the claims. After all this, they again informed me that I would NOT be getting any credit for ALL THREE transactions I had completed (which added up to about $2500. 00) because their partners would not credit them (Rakuten) for the transactions. Had I used other apps, I would have been able to get some cash back, but now I get NOTHING. Rakuten WILL NOT ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR OWN ORDER NUMBER OR THE CONFIRMATION EMAILS THAT THEY ASKED FOR AND HAVE ALWAYS USED BEFORE AS PROOF OF CLAIMS. It seems that their policy is only to give cash back for what THEY feel like is an acceptable amount and NOT WHAT THEY PROMISED ON THEIR WEBSITE. PERFECT WAY TO END A PERFECT YEAR! TIME TO MOVE ON AND USE ANY OTHER CASH BACK APP BUT THIS ONE! BUYER BEWARE!

There is no way to speak to these people!

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I've been using Ebates/Rakuten for years and have been very happy with it.

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OFTEN MY PURCHASES ARE NOT RECEIVING THE DISCOUNT THAT I EXPECTED. I AM NOT GETTING MY CUT, BUT RACUTAN IS PROBABLY GETTING MY SHARE AND THEIRS ALSO.

Who doesn't love getting money back?.

I referred family and they never gave bonuses. Nor cash back for purchases. They're BOGUS AND SCAM!

Disclaimer: I HATE shopping. If there's a possibility that I can get what I need online without physically going in a store, then I'm all over it. It saves me time and usually a pretty decent amount of money, too.

A little over 10 years ago my sister-in-law told me about this site called ebates that automatically checks for all discount codes and coupons on the sites you already shop. On top of that, for many (most) of these sites they also send you an additional rebate in the form of a quarterly check.
I thought the "check" sounded a little too good to be true, but I figured I'd use them, if for nothing else, just to simplify finding the best promo codes.
As it turned out, the rebate checks are very real - I've received $843 and some change since I joined ebates in November of 2007.
What I really like is having one easy, reliable site that finds the best coupons, discount codes, free shipping offers, etc. and automatically applies them for me. When I say reliable I mean the click of a button. Some websites you come to by googling "promo codes for xyz" will give you plenty of possible codes with different % chance of working, telling you how many people have had success with it over the last how many days. Those never work for me! It takes so much time, they want you to sign up and jump through hoops and then just to find out it's not a valid code or has expired. UGGHHH!

Not so with ebates, they consistently offer verified codes and automatically track and apply them for you. (By the way, I saw a review from someone who claimed ebates cheated them. I don't know about their situation, but if I've ever noticed some rebate didn't post I've simply emailed them and they have had excellent customer service. They've always made it good for me.)

(Oh, by the way, they do have shop-in-store feature which I don't even use. Just thought that may be relevant for some readers.)

I used to take my rebate checks and buy myself a cup of coffee or a nice lunch or something (of course, some of my checks have been large enough to buy something much nicer, like a new purse or a pair of sneakers or something ;) But this last check I got I thought: "here is money I am not expecting, I want to use it to give back in a fun way". I took it and made little fun donations around town: I gave $20 to a local church community outreach program, the same to a local school for the disabled, I bought & donated girl scout cookies to a youth group, dropped off some money at a coffee shop to start a "pay it forward" thing for the day, AND I bought myself breakfast too;-)... etc. Not sharing this to brag. Just saying that even if you're not into saving money, it's still fun to get a little random check in the mail every so often and do something different with it.

I do want to mention one thing about a "learning curve." Ebates offers a referral program where you can make additional money. I don't really share that as I should because I don't want people to think I'm just trying to make money off of them. Though I do wholeheartedly recommend them in general to people. My mom and sister both tried signing up for ebates years ago when I first told them about it and I think they were skeptical and never went to the trouble to "set it up." One or both of them told me at the time that they never got their "big fat check" DESPITE me explaining to them both - that, as the instructions clearly say when you sign up, you have to set up your mailing address so that they know where to send a check. LOL. Anyway, the system works, but you do need to work the system. They aren't trying to "cheat" anyone, but good grief, you do have to read and follow directions. I've been using them so long now I literally don't do anything. But when I first joined, I do remember having to check some boxes and read some instructions, etc. If all else fails, email their excellent customer support team. They are very responsive and even have (what I think is rare nowadays) a reply line on their emails. In other words, it's not some automated "do not reply to this email" but a real person inviting you to communicate.

I love ebates. I like their website usability. I like their customer service. I just think they are a neat company, with lots of integrity. I highly recommend.

Great customer service...