Microsoft’s Live Search Cashback Goes Dark On Black Friday

Microsoft’s Live Search Cashback program was reportedly down much of the day on Black Friday. This caused major concerns for customers who were excited to get large discounts on the day. In addition, TechFlash reports many customers purchased items from HP, expecting to receive 40% cash back rewards from Microsoft, only to see 3% show up after purchasing.

Between Microsoft’s Cashback having major uptime issue and not giving the rewards expected, Black Friday turned out to be a big bust for the program.

Microsoft’s Cashback program is honestly a great way to save money this holiday season, but if consumers hear these stories, they simply won’t trust it. If they don’t trust it, then Microsoft will have a hard time using this program as a way to incentivize people to use Live Search, in order to get this discount.

I personally gave it a try and documented the step by step process on how to save 25% at eBay. I personally got confirmation that I will be receiving my 25% cash back rewards in about 60 days. But for those who feel burned by the HP and Live Search Cashback deal, it will take a lot for them to trust this program again.

Postscript: Microsoft has given us a statement on this matter:

Microsoft Live Search cashback experienced an unexpected outage for several hours on Friday, November 28. If you are interested in following up on a cashback rebate for a qualifying HP purchase that you completed Friday at HP’s Home & Home Office web site, we kindly request that you contact Microsoft at https://support.search.live.com/. To ensure the best possible support from Microsoft, please have available your order number and the email address you provided prior to transferring to the HP site. We apologize for any inconvenience that this issue caused.

Postscript #2: The Live Search team has posted a blog post on the issue.