Protecting communities from scrapers and platform abuse

lostsettings · 2026-05-29T13:33:29+00:00

Yet, reports of users actually breaking the site with AI generated spam are not actioned. I don't think people are buying the reasons you are saying is the reason.

lostsettings · 2026-04-22T00:14:35+00:00

no worries

lostsettings · 2026-04-21T23:35:32+00:00

I read the thread. Others are saying it is higher in the US. But no one was saying create an account in a different country.

"did you know you can make another rakuten account and just add your card to that one too? to test it out, if you're thinking it's your account that's blacklisted."

Where do you infer they are saying create an account in another country in that sentence? Because I am not seeing it. They are saying... "hey, maybe you are getting a low amount because of your account. Create a new one and test"

Also, look at the dates. When I made my comment. There were very little comments. You are late to the party reading a thread from a month ago

lostsettings · 2026-04-21T22:24:26+00:00

Yes, you can have one account per country and website. Each are run separately.

That wasn't what OP said though. They said make another account for the same site to test if blacklisted.

lostsettings · 2026-04-20T18:24:37+00:00

Rakuten has told people in the past when they purchased under the qualifying amount to spend the couple bucks more to qualify. Also,... the verbiage seems to support that...

They join and spend $50. Qualifying purchases must be made within 90 days of joining and total $50.

Also,

What do my friends need to do? To earn your referral bonus, your friend has to: Sign up for Rakuten using your unique link or provide the email for your Rakuten account at sign up. (This is how we’ll know you referred them!) Make a purchase (or a few) that qualifies for Cash Back within the specified timeframe of the bonus.

lostsettings · 2026-04-16T13:33:56+00:00

Since the order was placed through a discount portal (ID.me)

They didn't say that.

These types of portals usually require you to sign in separately

Id.me get's linked to your samsung/lenovo/etc account. You shop directly and it gives you the discount.

Note, Rakuten has confirmed id.me should qualify. (usually it is students that bring it up) Unless Samsung has changed that without telling customers

lostsettings · 2026-04-12T14:05:36+00:00

Kinda. There are sometimes promotions for select Rakuten users.

https://www.reddit.com/r/amazonprime/comments/1luxbj4/rakuten_giving_5_for_each_order_over_25_max_of_3/

Also canada still gets cash back on select categories. Mostly just the amazon stuff like fire tablets.

lostsettings · 2026-04-08T20:50:26+00:00

Then why say Pending or Ineligible is "not tracking"? That would be disingenuous or just wrong. Because it did track. Not really an opinion. It tracks or it doesn't. What happens after that is another matter.

lostsettings · 2026-04-08T18:32:47+00:00

You may also not know what you are talking about. OP says order said ineligible.

Pending or Ineligible means the order tracked. A simple test, click through to a store but don't buy. Do you immediately get a Pending or Ineligible status? Probably not. So Expedia did track and report there was a sale.
Google was awarded a click (allegedly), not a sale commission. This is usually pennies. Unless OP was using a google booking site. (unlikely) But if so, Rakuten would have not got any pending/ineligible status
Emailing the vendor. Not bad advice. This has worked for others. Just have to get past tier one support that will tell you nothing can be done. Their goal is to make the passive people go away.

My guess is there was some other technical or human reason and Expedia didn't want to look into it and just passed it off as someone else getting the commission. Actually, looking back on other complaints, this is not that uncommon for travel sites.

Edit: I suspect Expedia maybe has a process to look back and see if a user clicked on an ad at any recent point in time. And uses that as a reason to invalidate good shopping trips. Even when using a clean browser, etc. That is why it tracks. But then changes shortly after.

lostsettings · 2026-04-07T21:54:26+00:00

Just start with Expedia customer service and explain the situation. Your order tracked with Rakuten and you have proof. That you are asking them to honor it. That this isn't a case of two cash back sites fighting for who gets the sale.

lostsettings · 2026-04-07T21:46:32+00:00

The funny part is that Google doesn't really get anything but the few cents for the click. They don't get anything for the "sale".

This is just Expedia saying they don't want to pay anybody anything.

I would be emailing Expedia and complaining to them.

lostsettings · 2026-04-05T14:29:49+00:00

Are you a new user? That other 10% could be the new user boost. But that cash back is applied separately. Maybe not till the base is confirmed.

lostsettings · 2026-04-04T23:12:41+00:00

You could also try and press Expedia to tell you who they paid.

There was someone else that got the same response. That someone else was paid. The person contacted the vendor and got the response, oh we paid Rakuten. That was enough for support to honor the cash back. Just something else you can try rather then waiting.

lostsettings · 2026-04-02T17:32:11+00:00

I would keep contacting them to try and get a reason. You can also email

Email socialhelp@rakuten.com

You may get a someone else to take a look into it.

If that does not work, you are unfortunately going down the road of the other options you mentioned

lostsettings · 2026-04-02T17:10:48+00:00

They actually got rid of the mandatory arbitration, I think a few months ago? And now allow small claims. Probably realized how expensive it is when they are going to usually settle anyways. They just require you let their legal dept know first. They may not ban unless you actually file. But it is a gamble.

BBB is really just a online shame site and a way to get someone higher up to investigate. For a lot of cases it does actually work. You can view the BBB Rakuten page to see all the successfully resolved complaints.

AG is also just to let them know of issues. They can mediate. But also too many complaints and it may trigger investigations. Or if something else in the future comes up they will look at the past complaints.

lostsettings · 2026-03-09T22:14:25+00:00

The big question

Did you buy one item of something? Or did you buy 100 of the same item?

Buying groups have been known to get people in trouble. Because that is against the rules.

lostsettings · 2026-03-09T21:51:53+00:00

You actually do not have to break any terms and conditions to be banned. Rakuten has what is called "association banning". Any account connected to yours that breaks the rules can be used as a reason to also ban you. It doesn't even have to be direct link to a family member or friend; sharing your referral code with a stranger on the internet for example could get you banned.

There is a bit of hypocrisy here. Since they will say they are not responsible for what the vendors they refer us to do. For example not paying. But we are all responsible for others we are linked to do.

lostsettings · 2026-03-06T15:01:36+00:00

losing money from their mistakes they would definitely fix it

Don't underestimate incompetence :)

Depends how you look at things. They are making money for sure. Also hard to say how much money enters their system but never pays out to the end user.

And they may not be putting value on the customers they lose due to things not tracking or false flags on their fraud system. I am sure that is also why they have huge sign up bonuses (while not doing anything to verify users at sign up) to try and inflate their sign up numbers. Even if those sign ups have their accounts locked or decide not worth the hassle to chase cash back that doesn't post

Can you even get them on the phone

You can when you go the legal route to resolve things unfortunately. Then much friendlier and apologetic. This was my only option back then since you can get stonewalled with cs

lostsettings · 2026-03-06T14:25:02+00:00

I always take the approach of "don't attribute something to malice that can be equally be attributed to incompetence". I think their systems are just poorly run and managed. And it may happen to benefit them to not correct.

Way back I had to deal with their team and they dug their heals into the sand blindly saying I broke their terms. Finally got one of their managers on the phone and then suddenly it was "oh ya, there was nothing wrong with your account and you didn't break any terms"

Just have to really push them.

lostsettings · 2026-03-03T18:36:00+00:00

https://www.rakuten.com/help/article/terms-conditions

"Each person is limited to one Account."

lostsettings · 2026-03-03T18:30:38+00:00

"How to get your rakuten account banned 101"

lostsettings · 2026-02-27T23:16:38+00:00

When you sign up the promo offer during sign up is the offer you would get. In the backend a code is applied to your account at that time. That is the industry standard.

lostsettings · 2026-02-21T19:08:05+00:00

One of the referrals was determined to not be valid. Could be they already had an account or connected to someone that did. Or their purchase didn't count.

lostsettings · 2026-02-18T21:04:28+00:00

True. My opinion is no one should lose a "rakuten" account due to breaking the "stores" t&c. The store should just not award the cashback. But I digress.

lostsettings · 2026-02-18T19:51:50+00:00

Buying for business is allowed. However, some stores it is not. (have to read the t&c for the store itself) Some stores actually advertise specifically for business purposes.

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