14 DAY TRIAL // For Black Friday Microsoft and HP partnered in order to offer customers discounts of up to 40% of all HP products acquired via the Live Search Cashback program. However, on November 28, the Cashback service was hit by a range of problems, from sluggishness to a complete blackout generated by the high volume of traffic. Users indicated that they could not take advantage of the special offer because of Live Search Cashback's outage, with some of the customers receiving 3% discounts instead of 40%, and others reporting that they received no cashback at all.
“All orders placed on HP Shopping through Live Search cashback on November 28, 2008 are eligible for a 40% cashback rebate,” revealed Rajat Taneja, general manager, Worldwide Commercial Search.
“If your account is showing a 3% rebate or not displaying any rebate for an eligible order, please contact customer support with your Live Search cashback ID, and order number to receive your full rebate: Live Search Support. You can also contact customer support for assistance with your cashback rebate for orders placed through cashback on Friday with our other partners. We'll do everything we can to credit your account as quickly as possible.”
At the same time, Microsoft indicated that customers who bought HP products directly from the computer manufacturer's online store and not through Live Search Cashback were not eligible for any sort of cashback. The software giant explained that it would not award cashback amounts for any orders placed outside the Live Search Cashback program.
“We're working actively to determine next steps for any specific HP promotions. We regret that we don't have more specific details at this time, but we can point customers to other Live Search cashback merchants with great deals on HP products.”