Microsoft lined up some great deals for Live Cashback users today. But users are reporting that the site has been down much of the morning, and more than half of my attempts to connect are timing out. Given the high volume of ecommerce sales that take place today, that’s not good. The site joins others having tech problems on this Black Friday.
It’s also not so great for Microsoft’s expanding cloud computing efforts. If Microsoft can’t keep their own sites live on heavy traffic days, they can’t expect other companies to have faith in them as a platform either.
Live Cashback first launched in May 2008 to give users a refund on purchases.
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Windows Server having scalability issues? No…
Aniq,
The 2008 windows server will scale with near push button control. Its worth checking out.
I wouldn’t say everything is running on their cloud infrastructure.
Links show up fine when searching for products, i see the cashback and merchants and all of that, just that URL has issues.
If you really think that the same infrastructure is being used today for search, windows live, msn, and “cloud” you are sorely mistaken. Nothing is run on Azure at this point.
yeah but it’s Michael Arrington writing, so he’s ok he doesn’t know that
still down!
Request Timeout
The server timed out while waiting for the browser’s request.
Reference #2.ccbaf280.1227907363.49bc729
there were some hiccups, but I got my money for a great laptop that i bought on ebay. I got my 30% into my paypal account right away !!
this is the coolest I have seen so far … MSFT, ebay, and PayPal …
jerry, will u stop lying. What’s the item # you bought? I will see if you are telling the truth or you’re a microsoft shill.
actually, you don’t get paid straight away… takes 30 days for the transaction to credit you to avoid issues with chargebacks etc.
I’ve had no problems with the service… but the cashback isn’t instant
Our cashback program is up running at aafter.com
Tried from 9am-1pm and finally gave up. If they are going to bribe me to use their search the least they can do it to make it work. haha
Article soon to follow blaming Yahoo for this mess.
well that is funny blaming yahoo !
who else like the sandbottle of techcrunch i thought i will read about it here today ? its on flickr guys! no one catch techcrunch photos on flickr ..that is weird !
Just bought a survivor buff bandana and got 7.50 back via live cashback.
I’d make a screenshot but what is the point? I already know I am right
Maybe the search is down, but the backend is working.
I have been using live email id since Feb and it was really a great experience. But today, the cashback scheme had started at7:00AM and with 3 minutes, the site went down. If the product had been sold, they should atleast display message. But, they are deceiving people. Search engine is not going to get popular. Bad luck from Microsoft!
Still not working. Wanted a HP laptop with 4 GB RAM and 250 GB hard drive for $360 (40% off today only, with these two free upgrades) … hope this works soon, but I doubt it will.
Still down at 5:20pm …
Seems like Live Crashback is a more appropriate name…
They are also falsely advertising some deals. For example one ad says 20% off all purchases at Circuit City. After I ordered I received an email saying I was only awarded 5% of the sale.
Still down. This is unbelievable.
It is workin now. Too late though.
cool
I finally got through about 5 minutes before the promotion was scheduled to end, and I’ve been trying at various times all day long. I wasn’t able to customize a notebook in time because of the HP site having server issues, so I just didn’t order one. What a joke.
I’ll note that Amazon.com didn’t cover itself in glory today either.
Главное чтобы вся эта канитель нас незатронула…. А так, пофик.
That’s what I’m sayin Rolex.
Working now! Great deals!
hi Mike
Here is the cut and paste from the email I received from Microsoft. I bought a laptop, and some of the sellers are including steps on how to get discount from Microsoft.
===================================
Thanks for searching, shopping and saving with Microsoft Live Search cashback - The Search That Pays You Back!
From your recent purchases, you have earned cashback savings!
To view the details for this purchase or your other Live Search cashback transactions, sign into your Live Search cashback account. The rebate has been paid to the PayPal account that you used to make the purchase!
You received $100.00 from your eBay purchase on 11/28/2008:
========================================
I saw two transactions in PayPal - one for the item I paid to the seller, and the other $100 for the instant rebate.
I always thought the rebate was delayed, say after 60 days. But I was surprised to receive the money right away …..
I guess I was just lucky, I bought 3 items before the issues reported yesterday. I got one instant rebate (for a laptop) and the other 2 are pending (rebate expected after 60 days), overall I am happy with the results but looking at the comments it seems Microsoft lost an opportunity to reach more commercial search users…
Bought a $1200 HP Laptop at hpshopping. Got an email this morning informing me that I was credited 3% instead of 40%. It will be canceled unless customers service makes right. They promise a response in 3-5 business days.
Works like a charm with eBay though.
I got the 3% instead of the 40% also. We’ll see on Monday if they make this right. If not the order gets canceled.
Got 3% also instead of 40%. Canceling the order if I dont get 40% COB Tuesday.
Got 3% instead of 40%. Will be returning the notebook If I don’t get 40% cashback. I would say that for the extra pain that people like me going throught MS should credit more than 40% to compensate. Ofcourse their intention was correct but then if that caused problem for others they should take the heat!
cool cashback
You freaks…complaining about getting discounts? Nothing can work perfectly all the time. When you have an insane deal OF COURSE there will be problems. I have used cashback and its works awesome. No complaints at all. I used Live.com to search for tons of stuff and it wasn’t having any problems on Black Friday…strange…
Microsoft has made a smart move with the cashback, that’s for sure!
I sent live.com a very polite email telling them I spent 12 hours trying to get thru and that they should give me a 40% cashback coupon to HP to use at my leisure. They probably won’t reply but I encourage others to do the same.