Rakuten is a company with which its members have earned greater than $3.7 billion dollars in cash back, deals, and shopping rewards since it was founded in 1997 — and it is one of a number of services with which you can earn cash back on travel or other items at your favorite merchants…
Excellent Customer Service Recovery By Rakuten.
…and — even more importantly — Rakuten proved to me recently that it also has excellent customer service recovery.
I had a check with a small amount of cash back that I earned over the course of a few months which was sent out to me — but by the time I was able to deposit the check, greater than 90 days had elapsed — and clearly printed on the check was that it expires after 90 days — so I contacted Rakuten at this link which is specifically dedicated to lost, missing, expired, or damaged checks. to find out if attempting to deposit the check is still okay.
The response I received was as follows:
Hello Brian,
Rakuten offers a 90 day grace period from the initial 90 days, giving you 180 days to redeem a payment. You can verify this information at the following link: https://www.rakuten.com/
However, if you feel uncomfortable attempting to redeem the check, or if your bank won’t accept the check because of the 90-day statement on the front of the check, please reply with your mailing address so I can send you a replacement check.
Thank you.
Kathryn P.
Member Services
Rakuten.com
Satisfied with that response, I went to the bank while I was out running errands. I informed the teller behind the counter that the company which issued the check was okay with me depositing it. The teller said that the deposit of that check should be okay and that I should not be charged with a service fee.
Days later, I was charged a service fee of $12.00 by the bank for what was called a “return deposit item” — along with the check not being accepted.
I sent a message to Rakuten about this and that I was not happy. I asked for them to please send the check to me again.
Only 16 minutes later, I received the following response:
Hello Brian,
Thank you for your patience while we looked into this for you. We have requested that a new payment be issued to you. We will be sending your new payment via check on January 15th. We apologize for this inconvenience.
At this time, we have made an adjustment of $12 Cash Back for the bank fee you incurred. You can view this on your Cash Back Balance page, at the bottom under Adjustments, here: https://www.rakuten.com/
We apologize for the delay and appreciate your patience. Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance.
Brian P.
Member Services
Rakuten.com
I was stunned. Not only did they respond quickly; but they also apologized — what happened was not their fault — and requested that a new payment be issued to me…
…and $12.00 was instantly added to my cash back balance for the fee that was incurred by the bank.
Case closed.
Now For The Requisite Affiliate Link From Which We Can Both Benefit: $30 New Member Referral Bonus With Rakuten
When you sign up as a new member of Rakuten, you will receive a bonus of $30.00 via referral when you spend a minimum of $30.00 within the first 90 days of your new membership, which is one of the better referral offers from Rakuten…
…but the last day in which this promotion is in effect is Friday, March 31, 2023 at 11:59 in the evening Eastern Daylight Time.
If you are already a member of Rakuten, you can get the same bonus of $30.00 for referring other potential members.
A referee will not be a qualified referral if they cancel, return, or exchange their qualifying purchase, if their qualifying purchase has not earned cash back, or if their purchase is found to be fraudulent, abusive, unethical, suspicious, or otherwise inconsistent with the terms and conditions of the Refer-A-Friend Program.
Only new members are eligible for the referral sign up bonus. This offer cannot be combined with other offers — including the welcome bonus. One referral sign up bonus per eligible new member is the maximum limit. Referral sign up bonus will be added to the next cash back payment of the new member — provided that the new member is a qualified referral.
Other terms and conditions apply with the Refer-a-Friend Program from Rakuten.
Final Boarding Call
After this customer service recovery experience — which took very little time and effort; and was not the fault of Rakuten at all — I highly recommend Rakuten. They did not question my claim and surprised and delighted me with covering the service fee that was imposed by the bank, which they did not have to do. Customer service this exemplary is quite difficult to find, as not many companies practice it.
In fact, many companies engage in poor customer service recovery practices — such as from way.com as one egregious example or from Enterprise Rent-A-Car as another example — and I avoid them at all costs once I experience them.
If you use this link to become a new member and you spend $30.00 within the first 90 days of your new membership, both you and I will each receive $30.00…
…and if you do use that link, thank you — I appreciate it.
Photograph ©2016 by Brian Cohen.
