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    Rakuten

Rakuten

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Overview

Rakuten has a rating of 2.7 stars from 2,124 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Rakuten most frequently mention credit card, referral bonus, and family member problems. Rakuten ranks 5th among Cash Back sites.

  • Service
    187
  • Value
    151
  • Returns
    64
  • Quality
    121

This company does not typically respond to reviews

Positive reviews (last 12 months): 18.2%
Positive
2
Neutral
0
Negative
9
View ratings trends
61
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How would you rate Rakuten?
Top Positive Review

“Amazing Rakuten! Thanks so much Susan!”

Tetiana K.
5/7/24

Rakuten team are the best service I've come across in the US. We are refugees from Ukraine and we are very grateful to Rakuten for such joy as excellent service, impeccable work, patience, respect for the client and professionalism. I will be happy to buy everything only through the Rakuten service. This is a great savings and a great pleasure to know them! Thank you Susan!

Date of experience: 5/6/24
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Top Critical Review

“Thieves”

Cory C.
12/11/24

They never pay what you actually earned. I have yet to have a single transaction pay what was advertised. Even after purchases have been verified they just delete the payout for no reason. 100% scam!

Date of experience: 12/1/24
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Reviews (2,124)

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Reviews that mention popular keywords

customer service (796) customer care (55) shopping trip (51) customer support (36) response time (19) credit card (31) gift card (35)
Thumbnail of user danm772
Arizona
1 review
6 helpful votes
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July 22nd, 2020

Terrible customer service with Rakuten. Site will not direct me to any stores website and at first I thought it was my computer blocking it, however, tried on 4 different devices and does the same thing. Have contacted Rakuten customer service 3 times with no resolution. My account is also locked but after three days of trying to actually talk to a human I give up. They lost a loyal customer.

Date of experience: July 22, 2020

Thumbnail of user korreyl
California
7 reviews
39 helpful votes
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November 8th, 2015

I signed up after seeing their ads on t. V., and never saw the promotional cash being advertised added to my account. Also, I have tried to order products through their website only to find out at the end of a transaction that the store I am purchasing from either won't deliver, won't allow pick up or won't take my card.
As well, the rebates offered really don't add up to much unless you are spending exorbitant amounts of money!
Not a website I would recommend to anyone in the grand scheme of things!

Date of experience: November 8, 2015

Thumbnail of user marye55
Minnesota
1 review
0 helpful votes
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May 1st, 2015
Verified purchase

Excellent customer service. I sent in an email with a couple of questions and I had my answer in two days. I believe that customer service is one of the biggest problem when buying online. Everyone both on and off line talk about exceeding expectations but it just plain isn't there. So, THANKS Ebates.

Service
Value
Shipping
Returns
Quality

Date of experience: May 1, 2015

Thumbnail of user paulap24
North Carolina
1 review
2 helpful votes
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August 14th, 2015
Verified purchase

As a new user to Ebates I've messed up a few times trying to use the system to earn cash back on my purchases. Every time I have contacted customer service at Ebates I have received a fast response and a quick resolution to my problem. Each person has been very nice and helpful and has straightened out my mess-ups without making me feel so incompetent and dumb. I've earned cash back on several of my purchases now and it is great knowing that I am saving even more money whenever I use their site to shop. I'd recommend their site to anyone who shops online. I'm so glad I know about them myself. Thanks Ebates!

Date of experience: August 14, 2015

Thumbnail of user tonyh173
Michigan
1 review
0 helpful votes
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July 2nd, 2018

Ive been an ebates user for over a few years and have had 0 issues. I recently booked a hotel through them a few weeks ago. Upon arrival, we only were able to get into a standard double room even though we paid for a deluxe with kitchen. The room was still fine so I just figured id reach out when we got back in town. Ebates provided great customer service and made the situation much better. I was a bit surprised since it wasnt Ebates fault, the hotel made the error. Ebates took care of things and sent notice to the hotel management of the error. I have already booked another stay through Ebates Hotels.

Date of experience: July 2, 2018

Thumbnail of user marlenek
Canada
1 review
0 helpful votes
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February 27th, 2015
Verified purchase

Many thanks to Nicole at Customer Service who quickly resolved my payment issue and took the time to answer my questions promptly and politely. She made the whole experience a truly pleasant one. Good on Ebates for having such competent staff to help their customers.

Date of experience: February 27, 2015

Thumbnail of user dawnt12
Oregon
1 review
1 helpful vote
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December 16th, 2015
Verified purchase

I've only had a couple of issues with not getting my cash back and Ebates provided the best and fastest customer service! It's so nice in todays hectic world to have a company take the time to care. Thank You!

Date of experience: December 15, 2015

Thumbnail of user adriennec3
New York
2 reviews
1 helpful vote
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September 30th, 2014
Verified purchase

Ebates is the best site for cash back on purchases made at participating online shopping sites, most of which I already buy from. I recently had a problem with a purchase not being credited, but Ebates customer care was right there to help me. So easy to acquire cash back on my purchases and it definitely adds up. Love getting those cash back checks every quarter. Have recommended Ebates to several people already. Thanks for all the help I've gotten.

Date of experience: September 30, 2014

Thumbnail of user ik226
New York
1 review
0 helpful votes
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May 6th, 2015
Verified purchase

Have used ebates.com for many years. Have earned something like $1,250 back (yep, too much shopping). Have used their CS several times in past for very few missing rebates. Used to take a couple of weeks to resolve but today the whole thing took a few hours and I got my credit before ebates even receiving store verification. Very impressed!

Date of experience: May 6, 2015

Thumbnail of user wyattb20
Japan
4 reviews
18 helpful votes
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June 16th, 2015

Ebates is not a scam. But they do receive money to advertise items, which often results in higher prices for users. They also take a portion of the affiliate kickback. So there is incentive to promote items with high affiliate kickbacks. Items with high kickback to item price ratios most often did not sell well on the primary sellers site. (Normally because they were overpriced). Using Ebates you can get 3% as a rebate in a few months or you could save up to 40% right now using an e-commerce search engine like http://www.ayedeals.com

Date of experience: June 16, 2015

Thumbnail of user lisat160
Illinois
1 review
1 helpful vote
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March 18th, 2017

I've had to contact them on 2 separate occasions and they have responded the same day. They are great at solving issues and would recommend the service to anyone that is looking for a good rewards program with no hassle.

Date of experience: March 18, 2017

Thumbnail of user patb374
Ohio
1 review
0 helpful votes
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June 6th, 2019
Verified purchase

I have been looking at least 3 months for a dress for my son's upcoming wedding. I finally found something that would work and found it on several of your sites, but Macy's had the best prices, free shipping and delivery was quick. It fits perfect and looks nice.

Date of experience: June 6, 2019

Thumbnail of user kellyh343
Colorado
1 review
8 helpful votes
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November 18th, 2018

When I first signed up, I noticed I would regularly get ebates. Then after a few months, they stopped or were very infrequent. I would have to email with my order info and jump through hoops to get my ebate. Their automatic response would be, that item was not valid for an ebate. So my shopping pattern is pretty much the same, and yet now the items that I'm buying don't earn ebates as often.

Date of experience: November 18, 2018

Thumbnail of user davidd286
Ohio
1 review
3 helpful votes
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December 11th, 2016

I signed up because a family member told me about it. We've made 3 purchases (2 on amazon and 1 on best buy) but nothing we bought seems to qualify. Why make the extra clicks to go through this if you are still at 0. I'm sure there is a benefit to them to track stuff but there doesn't seem to be any benefit to me.

Date of experience: December 11, 2016

Thumbnail of user lynnc88
Florida
1 review
8 helpful votes
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February 21st, 2017

I've had an Ebates account for quite sometime and have always activated the cash back button and confirmed that the Shopping Trip was "Active" before I made my purchases. I finally go into the account to see what's going on and initially it gives me a balance of $30 dollars or so. Then within a few minutes, that amount disappears and it tells me my account only consists of $7.38. When I go into my shopping history, it shows nothing! That is totally impossible! This doesn't sit well with me at all and I don't have a good feeling about this site. I think the stores listed on their "Double Cash Back" list need to be made aware of the issue.

Date of experience: February 21, 2017

Thumbnail of user mariep69
Massachusetts
2 reviews
3 helpful votes
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August 3rd, 2017

I have nothing but good things to say. The site is so easy to use and you even get reminders to enable your cash back. I've had times when either an order didn't register for whatever reason (or just not rite away) and even when I just forgot to click my "ebates button" during a check out and customer service was awesome about making sure i received my cash back amount. The response time is super fast and the representatives are always friendly. I tell everyone about ebates and I will continue to do so.

Date of experience: August 3, 2017

Thumbnail of user emie1
California
1 review
8 helpful votes
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October 25th, 2019

Since e-bates got bought out by Rakuten, the payment has stopped. I had a definite$1400(August)&$700(September) and a $7500+ potential growth, but they froze my account, eventually terminating it without sending any payment I had acquired.
Rakuten does not have phone number confirmation, so anyone can get the $10 by creating a new email address many times. This is wrong.
I contacted customer services, they did not check my account and who are referred. But they terminated my account one-sidedly. It is clear that Rakuten is committing a fraud by using users especially if you have high amount cash back.

Date of experience: October 25, 2019

Thumbnail of user debc460
Missouri
1 review
0 helpful votes
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December 2nd, 2021

A Rakuten agent recently went above and beyond normal duties to help me with a problem that I caused myself. My mistake could have cost me a lot of money. The matter was taken care of quickly, and my rebate check will be much bigger than I thought. Thank you, Rakuten, for your great customer service.

Products used:
Rebate

Service
Value

Date of experience: December 2, 2021

Thumbnail of user michelleh191
Pennsylvania
1 review
8 helpful votes
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January 9th, 2017

I hate ebates. I have tried over 10 times in the last year to click thru their website when shopping. Every time that I do, it records that I visited but does not list the amount spent on the order... therefore no cash back! They have been a nightmare to deal with. Also, before anyone says it didn't qualify... yes these did! I done with them. I thought I would give. Them one last shot and they failed again! Ebates sucks! So not use!

Date of experience: January 9, 2017

Thumbnail of user annr68
Alabama
2 reviews
11 helpful votes
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August 24th, 2017

Ebates is such an easy way to "make" money. I've received two payouts since I first joined a few months ago. Granted, I don't shop online a great deal, but still there's nothing better than making a little money on the money you spend.

Date of experience: August 24, 2017

Thumbnail of user anneo5
Massachusetts
1 review
0 helpful votes
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March 21st, 2015
Verified purchase

I was pleasantly suprised when I received an email from ebates within 5 minutes regarding my question. Rachel was more than professional, answered all my questions and was a delight to work with. She should be commended. Thank you for such a great company!

Date of experience: March 21, 2015

Thumbnail of user sharonn10
Arizona
1 review
0 helpful votes
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July 3rd, 2015
Verified purchase

Ebates is the best place to start for every shopping experience. A cash-back percentage on every purchase, plus exclusive coupon offers for each site visited--will save you even more. It's just smart shopping at every turn. Plus, the Ebates customer service team is stellar -- offering prompt and very friendly responses to any question a customer might have following an online-shopping trip. Don't shop online without starting with Ebates!

Date of experience: July 3, 2015

Thumbnail of user sherryw23
Maryland
1 review
4 helpful votes
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March 18th, 2016

Placed an order with Rakuten on 3/10/16 expected delivery by 3/18/16 since I spent the money to expedite my order. I e-mailed them with no response. Found out the reason it never shipped but no one got in touch with me about the problem which could have been fixed immediately. I called and they were not concerned at all, didn't even try to help. I will never deal with Rakuten again.

Date of experience: March 18, 2016

Thumbnail of user laceyb5
Washington
1 review
0 helpful votes
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September 23rd, 2015
Verified purchase

I have had an excellent experience ever since I've joined Ebates. Every shopping trip has been great! The few times that my account did not reflect cash back that I had earned, the customer service team was friendly, fast, and helpful. Nothing but good things to say about Ebates and their team.

Date of experience: September 23, 2015

Thumbnail of user ronb36
North Carolina
1 review
1 helpful vote
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September 5th, 2014
Verified purchase

I emailed customer care for the very first time on 08/31/2014. I had evidently set up two accounts on two different emails and was unsure as to how to proceed. The agents I dealt with(John U and Marlene) were extremely professional and very helpful. They got my issue corrected in four days! In most cases with other sites, I'm lucky if I get the first response in four days. Imagine--a web site that has great customer care and pays me for shopping. What a concept. People--including me--appreciate being treated with respect and as a valued customer. You certainly do that.

Date of experience: September 5, 2014

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From the business

Rakuten is the new Ebates! Rakuten is the premier Cash Back shopping site that pays you. Join today and start earning Cash Back at your favorite stores. How does it work? We pay members Cash Back when they shop at over 2,500 stores, plus find them the best deals and coupons. With over 12 million members and $1 billion in Cash Back paid out, Rakuten is the easiest and most rewarding way to shop. Become a member today and start shopping smarter. Follow us for the latest sales, member-exclusive offers and more.

Business History

Ebates is the pioneer and leader of online Cash Back Shopping. The company was founded in 1998 by two Deputy District Attorneys in Silicon Valley who used to prosecute online fraud & identity theft before starting Ebates (so you can be sure we are very into secure online transactions!). So go ahead, sign up and start shopping now. Joining Ebates is always free - you'll never pay us anything. And four times a year or more, we'll mail you a Big Fat Check, or transfer the money to your PayPal account if you'd prefer. We can even send the money to your favorite charity. All 100% free.

Company Representative

Thumbnail of user ebatess
Ebates S.
Typically does not respond to reviews

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