Kimberly T.

I am new to Rakuten and have tried to use it as much as possible to build up a cash-back balance. To earn referral bonuses, I helped my 75-year-old tech-naive stepdad and seriously dyslexic husband both sign up for accounts as referrals. I am helping each of them learn computer skills and practice online activities and we were using the Rakuten referral bonus as a practice exercise. After the referral, subsequent signups, and purchases from each account
We all received emails confirming our $30 referral bonuses but nothing ever posted to our accounts. After writing to customer service my issue was escalated to a "specialist" who told me all 3 accounts were in violation of Rakuten's T&Cs because I had created several fraudulent accounts under different names and all 3 accounts have now been locked. I responded explaining we are all in fact real people, even going so far as to send photos of each of our state licenses as proof that we all really exist and it's not just me signing up under 3 email addresses. Then the response from the specialist stated the violation was because I was managing other people's accounts. Then ensued a very long back-and-forth string of emails with the "specialist" explaining I was not managing all 3 accounts but rather assisting my stepdad and husband with their online transactions so they could use this as a learning experience to practice their online skills and that each of their purchases followed the guidelines and they made purchases for products for themselves using their own money. In the response from the specialist, the option given to me was to consolidate all 3 accounts (and forfeit all bonuses) or have all 3 accounts deactivated. My account already had over $150 in it which would have been lost if all accounts were deleted. (My balance amount has also been getting suspiciously smaller and smaller w/o any explanation but whatever). After explaining to the specialist that I felt coerced into a biased and discriminatory "resolution" he just continued to cut and paste the same response over and over that said: "These 3 accounts are in violation of our terms and conditions and will have to be consolidated or remain deactivated." I finally reluctantly agreed to have the accounts consolidated which voided the two $30 referral bonuses that would have been paid to me and the $30 bonus that would have been paid to each my stepdad and my husband.
Now, after checking my "consolidated" account my next Big Fat check which was at one point around $150 has now inexplicably diminished to a mere $78.12 for the next pay period which doesn't even include the loss of the $60 referral bonuses that should have been added to my account for referring my stepdad and husband.

Finally:
The terms and conditions that are accessible to read on both the app and the website are vague and refer you to their "Refer-A-Friend Program Terms" for the full details. Basically, Rakuten writes its terms in a way that allows them to "withhold, deny, or cancel any Refer-A-Friend Program Bonuses and/or terminate your account if the Company, in its sole discretion, deems any Refer-A-Friend Program Bonus as fraudulent, abusive, unethical, suspicious, or otherwise inconsistent with these Refer-A-Friend Program Terms". This gives Rakuten the advantage of stating you're in violation of their terms "because they said so".
Don't bother trying to contact Customer Service with any type of reasonable explanation. They will simply respond with messages repeating that you are in violation of their terms and threaten to suspend or delete your account without regard to your reasoning or explanation. Unfortunately, it all ends up being a futile and frustrating endeavor and a huge waste of time with no favorable resolution for the account holder.