I signed up for ebates. They hooked me in with the $10 sign up bonus.
A party (for me) was coming up in a few months and my mother did not have any cash to buy me anything. This bothered her. I received an email stating if I referred friends I would get $5 per friend, plus $30 if I referred three.
There were other options, refer ten or fifty get more money, I just had three relatives who were buying gifts online...
I told my mom if she convinced my family to purchase my gifts through my referral I would earn $45 in bonuses, which we could set up to be sent to her, this way she would have money for the gift she wanted for me and have money left over (we usually spend $25).
This seemed great except my family had never bothered with ebates so they were hesitant. We eventually worked it out, I saw 3 eligible referrals on my ebates account eventually and my gifts arrived safely...
My mom only received fifteen dollars. No ten dollar gift card, no thirty dollar bonus. I gave it time, nothing. I contacted ebates. They sent a message which sounded like "tough luck" They claimed all my family members made the purchases through the same account and listed all the accounts they said I had? I responded telling them they were not made through the same account. How can I refer someone to my own account?
They included all the email addresses that made purchases, which was my family's email addresses. How does that help me? They told me I had to send them copies of every order confirmation email, with no editing or changing. How am I supposed to get copies of other people's emails? Hack? They bought my gifts online because they couldn't make it to the party and we rarely have contact, yet I have to get them to find the confirmations from months ago, hope they didn't delete it, get them to forward it to me (some of them don't know what forward means) and then send it in to ebates to get the money I already earned??? This is just stalling and jumping through hoops by ebates. I can not access other people's accounts to get the information, they know this, and it's why they are asking for it.
Worse, I told one member about this and now they are worried about ebates scamming them, or stealing their information, because now they want more from them. They aren't sure if they have the email, and they honestly have no desire to send more info to a company that has proven itself shady already, so I don't think I'll have better luck with the other two family members.
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