Ibotta, Inc.

this is a follow-up to a complaint I just filed yesterday, in which ibotta terminated my account by stating I wasn't following their rules., specifically that I was uploading receipts they believed weren't mine. I asked ibotta to review their decision because I am certain it was a mistake or a...

mix-up. This is the email I received today: Account Review Team (Ibotta) Jun 15, 09:13 MDT Hi there, After a second review of your account, we are firm in our decision to permanently deactivate your account. We work with brands to deliver high-quality rebates to our users, who we pay cash to, for items being purchased and retained. When users operate outside our Terms of Use they are breaking this contract. If we allowed our users to continue this behavior we would jeopardize our reputation and relationship with our brand affiliates and other users. Account Review Team --- I wrote back, asking for specifics. so please do me the courtesy of explaining how two receipts, uploaded weeks apart, in which I bought [redacted] vodka, involve "this behavior" of breaking contract. Surely you agree that the specific behavior of accusing people of being dishonest and crooked should be discussed and proven. You are the company that is robbing me of the money I rightfully earned. You are the ones accusing me of awful things, yet you offer no specifics. This is an outrage, and your behavior is outright insulting and dishonest. You did not address my claims for prior receipts uploaded in which you owed me around $20.00. Do you think it is right to keep that money when no one had a problem with me earning it before this? --- I am basically being accused of being a fraud, which is absolutely awful. I don't want to do business with them again, but I had earned $30.25 up to that point--what is wrong with this company that they can take your earnings away from you when you've done nothing wrong?SPECIFIC explanation of what led them to terminate my account, an apology and the money due to me

Hello, Thank you for your message. Unfortunately as stated previously, we are firm in our decision to permanently deactivate your account. We do not make exceptions when tampered receipts have been submitted. We verified that receipts submitted to us, through your account, violate Ibotta’s Terms of Use. Per our Terms of Use, Section 10.1, users may not submit purchase information that is considered one of the following: false, inaccurate, fabricated, counterfeited, tampered with, adjusted, or otherwise artificial or inauthentic for the purpose of seeking to redeem offers with Ibotta. Additionally in Section 10.6, we state that users may not attempt to obscure the date on a receipt. For example, we do not accept submissions without any clearly legible date shown or without any date entirely. Due to the nature of our business, we reserve the right to suspend accounts either temporarily or permanently if users violate any section of our Terms of Use. At this time, we will be unable to reactivate your account. Thank you again for your cooperation and understanding.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/05) */
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We have reviewed this case with our Fraud Prevention team. It appears that the user's account has been reactivated, and they have successfully cashed out their earnings. If the user has any other...

questions or concerns, our Support Team can be reached at [redacted]@Ibotta.com.

Hello, Thank you for your reply regarding your account. Ibotta has a forgiveness policy for new and existing users that make singles mistakes with their account. As previously stated, out of the user's last 30 submitted receipts, 16 were in direct violation of Ibotta's Terms of Use. Therefore, we believe the user was intentionally completing this actions for the sole purpose of improperly earning Ibotta rebates. We are firm in our decision to maintain deactivation of this account. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. Have a nice day.

Hello, Thank you for the concern regarding your account. On 12/30/17, the user's account was deactivated for tampering receipts. Upon review of the user's account, the account showed submissions from a liquor store, in excess of ten purchases in a single day dating as far back October 2017....

Therefore, Ibotta does not believe that the user is actually purchasing these items and these purchases were made by other people, who unknowingly are having their receipts submitted by this user. Per Ibotta's Terms of Use, Section 10.2, users may not redeem, or attempt to redeem, Ibotta offers for products that have not actually been purchased and retained by that user. Upon review of the user's account, the user was editing and removing information from the receipts that she was submitting. We verified that receipts submitted to us, through your account, violate Ibotta’s Terms of Use. Per our Terms of Use, Section 10.1, users may not submit purchase information that is considered one of the following: false, inaccurate, fabricated, counterfeited, tampered with, adjusted, or otherwise artificial or inauthentic for the purpose of seeking to redeem offers with Ibotta. Additionally, in Section 10.6, we state that users may not attempt to obscure the date on a receipt. For example, we do not accept submissions without any clearly legible date shown or without any date entirely. Unfortunately, we are firm in our decision to maintain deactivation on this user's account. We appreciate the user's cooperation and understanding. Thank you.

Hello,Thank you for providing proof of purchases via email. Unfortunately, we have now confirmed that you have submitted receipts from purchases that were not made by you into our system. After several reviews of your account in addition to the review of your bank statements, we are firm in our decision to permanently deactivate your account.We continue to believe that your account displays irregular shopping behavior and we have further reason to believe that these purchases were not made by you, but by other people. Per Ibotta's Terms of Use, Section 10.2, users may not redeem, or attempt to redeem, Ibotta offers for products that have not actually been purchased and retained by that user. We work with brands to deliver high-quality rebates to our users, who we pay cash to, for items being purchased and retained. When users operate outside our Terms of Use they are breaking this contract. If we allowed our users to continue this behavior we would jeopardize our reputation and relationship with our brand affiliates and other users. Due to the nature of our business, we reserve the right to suspend accounts either temporarily or permanently if users violate any section of our Terms of Use.Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

Hello, Thank you for the concern regarding your account. On 1/28/18, the user's account was locked from cashing out. The user was locked because more than two earning accounts were sharing one device. The user was also locked out for referring herself on two different accounts. On 1/31/18,...

the user was educated that only two earning accounts may share a single device. The user was also educated that referring oneself and creating more than one earning account is against Ibotta's Terms of Use. On the same date, full access was restored to the user's account and the user has continued to earn on her account. We appreciate the user's adherence to Ibotta's Terms of Use but are available for any further questions. Thank you for earning with Ibotta.

Hello, The name, the email, and the name and email combination that the individual provided does not yield any user accounts. Please adjust this review as we believe this user does not have an account with Ibotta. Thank you.

Hello, Thank you for the concern regarding your account. We have reviewed your account and all past correspondence with our Support Team. After review of your account, we have chosen to offer a one-time courtesy reactivation. Upon review of your account, our team verified that an item was...

selected for rebate credit, but the item was not present on the receipt. Per Ibotta's Terms of Use, Section 10.2, users may not redeem, or attempt to redeem, Ibotta offers for products that have not actually been purchased. Per your correspondence with our team, we do see that an incorrect receipt may have been submitted to Ibotta. We have now reinstated access to your Ibotta account with the understanding that future behavior that violates our Terms of Use may result in a permanent suspension of your account. We truly apologize for the inconvenience that this has caused and please let our team know if we can assist your further.Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me as they escalated it internally and resolved the issue when I got the Revdex.com involved. 
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Hi there,Thank you for bringing this to our attention. It seems as though this user's account was flagged by our system for us to review based on user data, shopping behavior, or account audits. Our team has completed their review and have fully restored access to this users account.Please contact...

[redacted] for further questions. Thank you and have a great day!

Hi there,Thank you for bringing this to our attention. It seems as though this users account has been deactivated due to creating multiple accounts and using them to receive referral credit. The emails associated with these accounts are:[redacted]Please...

note that in our Terms of Use, Section 10.3, exploit or attempt to exploit Ibotta’s referral bonus program by inviting yourself to join Ibotta using another account or invite others who share the same mobile device, in an effort to earn referral bonuses or credit(s).This user's account will remain suspended until further review by our Fraud Prevention Team. If the user has any questions, please have them contact [redacted] Thank you and have a great day!

Hello, As stated previously, we reviewed the receipt in question and have given you credit for the missing rebates (totaling $1.25) as a one-time courtesy credit for a duplicate receipt submission. You can now view your Ibotta earnings in the "Withdraw Cash" page. At this time, we will be unable to give you additional credit. In the future, be sure to only submit original in-store printed receipts for credit. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

Hello, Thank you for the concern regarding your account. Upon review of your account, we are firm in our decision to keep your account deactivated. Upon review of the user's account, the user's account shows multiple purchases at the liquor store. However, in conflict with what the user is...

stating, the items that are being purchased would not need to be on separate receipts for any reason that would prevent the user from obtaining a bonus. The shopping behavior is also not consistent throughout the user's account with the other retailers that the user is purchasing at. Therefore, we believe that these purchases were not made by this user, but by other people or not being purchased at all. Per Ibotta's Terms of Use, Section 10.2, users may not redeem, or attempt to redeem, Ibotta offers for products that have not actually been purchased and retained by that user. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate the user's cooperation and understanding. Thank you.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 9, 2015/10/22) */
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. It appears that this user's account was reviewed for fraudulent activity by our Fraud Prevention Team. After completing their review, they unblocked the account and the user has resumed using their...

account.
If the user has any other question or concerns, our Support Team can be reached by email at [redacted]

Hello, Thank you for providing your additional information. This information was previously supplied to our Mobile Shopping Care Team who has escalated the user's purchase. Unfortunately, we are still awaiting more information from third parties, including but not limited to [redacted]. As stated, we will be happy to keep the user's inquiry open until we receive more information from the other parties. We can guarantee that we will hear back but cannot guarantee when. We truly apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate the user's understanding and cooperation. Thank you.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Hello, Thank you for the concern regarding your account. Our automated system flagged your account for review based on one of the following reasons: user data, shopping behavior, or account audits. We have completed the review and have restored full access to your account (on 10/28/17). The...

user has also cashed out earnings on 10/28/17.Thank you for your patience and have a great day!

Hello, Thank you for your reply. As stated in our previous response, the accounts created are sharing various points of information which signal that these are not actual accounts of new users to Ibotta. We have verified that you have attempted to refer at least one account that uses the same account or purchase information. Per Ibotta's Terms of Use, Section 10.11, users may not exploit or attempt to exploit Ibotta’s referral bonus program in an effort to earn illegitimate referral bonuses or credit(s). This includes the following: inviting oneself on an additional account or inviting others who share the same mobile device.Users shall not be eligible to earn referral bonuses if they invite other users who share the same mobile device, create multiple accounts, or attempt to exploit our referral program in any way. Such actions violate our Terms of Use and provide clear evidence for Ibotta to terminate a user’s account, rescind any referral bonuses, or take any other actions as appropriate. We appreciate your cooperation and understanding. Thank you.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2016/01/05) */
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We apologize for the confusion with this particular situation. It seem as though this user tried to redeem a rebate that was meant to be redeemed only once. The offer should disappear from the...

gallery after the initial purchasing through the online link.
However, for this offer did stay active in their gallery, which made the user believe that the offer was available for another redemption, which in fact, their first purchase had not been processed yet. The user ended up making an extra purchase.
For this confusion, we have gone ahead and credited their account. We have also reached through their initial case that we have on file.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 8, 2016/01/06) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
Finally, after a month of back and forth and a Revdex.com complaint, they honored what they offer!!!
The offer in question, was in fact used using their referral link, accepted, and showed under "pending" credits.
The next day, the offer became available for redemption again (Notification pop up: "THE SPEND $50 AT (RETAIL) REBATE IS BACK IN YOUR GALLERY")
and because of this, I was able to redeem it as a new offer. (Screenshot of this exact notification page provided to the company 4x).
For the record, this is not user error and would be a technical glitch as it should not become available until the pending time frame (59days) is up. Since "redeemable only once" is supposedly a policy, the company should fix their app to correspond with their policy. That alone would prevent this sort of issue from occurring for any users. Please note, the app store is full of reviews of users having the same issue.
IF the company continues to allow the offer to pop back up right after it's been redeemed, users will definitely take advantage of the offer, especially for retailers they shop with frequently.
Lastly, it really shouldn't take this much time and energy for any current users as well as prospect users to actually get some sort of support from the company who created the product.