It’s one thing to annoy sellers, but eBay is in no position to aggravate buyers, whose number are declining each quarter. That may be the reason eBay decided to run an eBay Bucks promotion the day after Christmas, but something went terribly wrong. (See update below.)
Some EcommerceBytes readers may be wondering, didn’t eBay discontinue the eBay Bucks program? For the most part, eBay eliminated the longtime loyalty program in April 2021 and launched a new program called Top Star the following month, but it still metes out Bucks rewards periodically.
As eBay explains on its website, it ended enrollment of new members and retired the 1% earnings reward on everyday purchases. “However we’ll still be running eBay Bucks special offers so you may still receive bonus offers by invite.”
On Monday, a buyer posted a thread on the eBay discussion boards saying they did not receive the Bucks after they activated a special offer they received. Another buyer replied:
“I’m having the same problem. I activated the 5% eBay bucks this morning, purchased 3 items and now it shows that I received $0.00 Earned for the 3 items on my eBay bucks page.
“All 3 listing pages clearly stated that I would receive eBay bucks on the purchases so I know they were included in the promotion. I’ve already contacted customer support about the issue but they weren’t any help at getting it resolved.”
A third buyer said they also failed to receive their eBay Bucks and shared a screenshot that read as follows:
eBay Bucks Offer activation status
Congratulations!
You’ve activated the eBay Bucks bonus offer.
Earn 5% in eBay Bucks on all qualifying items. No minimum spend.
Expires: Dec 28, 2022 11:59 PM PST
Shop Now
The second buyer returned to the thread on the eBay boards on Tuesday to say the promotion was working fine, but the purchases they made on Monday were still not showing the rewards.
Update 12/28/2022: A reader who saw the story wrote to us to report eBay credited his account today (the 28th) for the eBay Bucks that failed to show up on the 26th.
I haven’t heard about eBay bucks for a while! Funny how dogecoin was started as a joke but has value, while eBay bucks was not started as a joke but has no value!