eBayBucks: eBay moves from buyer coupons to rebate program

Phishing or buyer loyalty program?
Buyers are reporting what they first thought was a phishing scheme (note to ebay: you guys have to get better at this type of communication), but appears to be a real test for buyers.

Here's a sample of the text:

Earn eBay Bucks for your purchases*
-- then get 30 days to splurge!
Dear XXXXX, (NOTE: this would be USERID, but I blanked out to protect identity)
 
You're one of a select few invited to try out a new program we're testing to reward loyal eBay shoppers.
 
What do you have to do? Just sign up. It's fast, easy and absolutely free. We'll track your qualifying purchases* from May 15 to August 14 and rack up your eBay Bucks. Then you get 30 days to spend* them on eBay on something you love.
 
Hurry, participation in this test program is limited so sign up soon!
 
 
* Some restrictions apply, see terms & conditions for details.

Some of the emails offer a $3-5 spiff just for joining and some seem to have higher percentages cash back.  The note then points to this Terms page that points to : "www.rewards.ebay.com" which 404's, but rewards.ebay.com works and seems to be how you link your eBay account to the program.

I did the linking (even though I didn't get an invite) and was admitted into the program (note to sellers, why not send this information to your buyers as an FYI?). Note to buyers: sign up today before eBay realizes this program is wide open!

I was then presented with this offer of 4% back (that's almost half eBay's take rate!)

There are some exceptions I didn't capture in the screen shot:

What's excluded?
Qualifying purchases exclude: all eBay Motors categories except Parts & Accessories, Classifieds, Giving Works, LiveAuction, Business & Industrial Capital Equipment, Real Estate and all items listed in foreign currency.

How do I redeem eBay Bucks?
You may only redeem your eBay Bucks voucher using PayPal and eBay checkout on eBay.com or motors.eBay.com, not Express.
Your eBay Bucks voucher will be valid from Aug 22 - Sep 21.
The voucher is valid one time for a single transaction with a single seller. If your voucher value is not completely used up in that one transaction, the balance will be forfeited.

There's also a list to a FAQ here. With more content. My personal favorite is:

May anyone participate?
eBay Bucks is currently invitation-only while the program is tested and refined.

This funny because I was able to sign up with out any invite so this isn't being verified at all.

eBayBucks proves eBay's communication problems aren't fixed.

So here we have what looks like a pretty interesting program.  ChannelAdvisor is one of eBay's largest partners and I learned about it from a buyer emailing asking if it is phishing or not.

I guarantee eBay hasn't talked to any sellers about this as well.

I'm also willing to bet the redemption of this isn't thought out at all and probably won't work with third party checkout systems, I'm working to figure that out.

eBay rewards dashboard
Once you sign in, you are presented with a pretty nice dashboard that you see here:

I imagine it will keep track of purchases and anything under $1k will be a 2% reward and anything over will be 4%.

Who is Kondra Systems?
In the Ts+Cs a company, Kondra Systems, is mentioned.  I checked their site and they appear to be an embedded C virtual machine company so I don't get how they could possibly be involved here.  Any readers have any ideas here?

Bottom line
The bottom line is:

• If you buy on eBay sign up for this program and save money - do so before they close the bug that doesn't check to see if you have an invite.
• This could be a viable program if...
• eBay worked with their customers and partners to make it so.
• If eBay continues to work randomly in a vacuum with things like this program, these types of programs will continue to fail and eBay will continue to lose share in ecommerce as they constantly overlook and ignore their most valued assets (sellers and partners).

SeekingAlpha disclosure: I am long Google.

Comments

[User X]

eBay sucks. they stole money from me. oh, this program states i have $4.82 in ebay bucks. i doubt it will work. eBay is just a bad website that has 10000 chefs in a dysfunctional kitchen.

[M.C. Nygard]

We got eBay's "special invitation" on all our eBay accounts, but did not accept the invitation, because there's an easier way to get cash back! Here are the problems we see in eBay bucks:

1. There's a limited time to spend the funds - use it or lose it.
2. You don't get any affiliate / referral commissions.
3. It only works at eBay, but there are hundreds of other sites offering cash back.
4. Invitation is not open to everyone.

WANT CASH BACK FROM YOUR EBAY PURCHASES NOW? We've discovered a site that gives cash back for all your eBay purchases up to 36% of the sellers fees TODAY (and is open to everyone). Plus this site gives you an opportunity to earn commissions from sales of people you refer, which is an excellent source of residual income. They pay you to your PayPal account monthly!

This site works for eBay and hundreds of online retailers like 1.800.Flowers, Petco, StubHub, Oriental Trading Company and more.

To learn more, visit http://www.cashbackatebay.com/

[Henrietta]

This is pitiful on eBay's part. I give bigger returning customer discounts on my website and so do many sellers on eBay and elsewhere through MyStoreRewards. I am certainly not going to go buy up a storm on eBay for 3% back.

[Henrietta]

This is pitiful on eBay's part. I give bigger returning customer discounts on my website and so do many sellers on eBay and elsewhere through MyStoreRewards. I am certainly not going to go buy up a storm on eBay for 3% back.

[Samuel Aaron]

Your absolutley right, ebay will continue to mess up its program and will continue to fail despite a temporary rise in revenue due to rate hikes.

see:

http://consumerist.com/5007790/its-now-completely-impossible-to-sell-a-laptop-on-ebay

[I Was just able to sign up]

I was just able to sign up with no problem, and heard that its not a bug, what it is is ebay has a list of people that were invited to participate, if your on the list you will go through, if your not, you wont, so it depends, anotherwords if you didnt get the invite you may still be on the list and it will you through, without getting the email first...peace..

[eBay Habit]

It seems that they've locked it down already. That was quick! Interesting find though, should be interesting what they do with it and how hard they push it. Could be interesting, also, to see how they integrate it (if at all) with their affiliate network.

[Steve]

Seems like they've already stopped the open enrollment, or that you were lucky and had been pre-invited to sign up. When I try to sign up it says I was not invited, but I can be added to the list.

[Norman Sherfield]

Well I was able to link without an invite as well but I only got 3%

[Mario santoyo]

Scott thank you for your notes on this. I've just went to rewards.ebay.com and have checked they've already cleared the "not invited" bug, and they've earned a new point on "bogus communication":

"Please sign up to join in future.
Thanks for your interest! Sorry, but during this testing period only invited members may join.

Put me on the list "

[As Was]

I remember their points programme years ago, and I remember that not working. Do we know how this is any different than a previous programme that was unsuccessful?

[Bart Dubble]

I tried to sign up my buying ID 5/7/08 9:52AM EDT and got -

Please sign up to join in future.
Thanks for your interest! Sorry, but during this testing period only invited members may join.

Followed by a link to put my name on the "list".

[John]

I tried to sign up last night and was not able to. You must have been invited and not even known it. Maybe the email went to your spam folder.