Microsoft search bribery machine refuses to pay up
Microsoft's search bribery machine is on the fritz. Again.
Last May, in a desperate bid to catch the uncatchable Google, Redmond began bribing people to use its third-rate search engine, Live Search. If you use Live Search ads to find and buy certain stuff, Microsoft will return a portion of the purchase price. They call it cashback.
Some of that stuff is sold through eBay. And when eBayers use the bribery machine, Microsoft promises the cashback will appear in their PayPal accounts within 60 days. But according to reports from across the web, the company isn't always keeping that promise.
Typically, when a Live Search-fueled eBay purchase is made, a record of the cashback will immediately appear in the user's PayPal account. But the user is told that the cash can't be accessed until those 60 days have passed. Presumably, this is a means of preventing people from returning items after pocketing the cash. But even after the 60 days roll by, some uses still can't access the funds. When they try, they receive the following message:
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