Was my Bing rewards account really cancelled or server issues?

[tgp]

No update yet. In the meanwhile look like its back to Google or DuckDuckGo for me.

Can't you use Bing without the rewards?

Yes I know, "on principle", but there soon won't be anything left to use if you follow that through. That's probably why you didn't use Google, right?

Sent from whatever device I happen to be using today using Tapatalk

 

[hink3000]

I'll use Bing regardless. Use Google? Cold day in Hades.

 

[shelbygt5252]

I'll use Bing regardless. Use Google? Cold day in Hades.

I was banned from the Bing Rewards service as well. It makes me want to stop using Bing because after many years of using Bing Rewards as a legit user searching on both PC and Windows Phone they accuse me of cheating and lying and the best they can do is respond with copy and pasted emails.

I was only getting about $5 a month so that is not a big deal but to be treated like this is a bit worrisome.

 

[hink3000]

I just posted in the Ask a Question forum asking staff to look into this. Don't know if I put it in the right forum though.

 

[hink3000]

Received this response from a forum mod for anyone who wants to write.

"You'll need to use the form on this page to contact the writing staff. They don't have much to do with the forums. http://www.windowscentral.com/contact"

 

[Kadcidxa]

Can't you use Bing without the rewards?

Yes I know, "on principle", but there soon won't be anything left to use if you follow that through. That's probably why you didn't use Google, right?

Sent from whatever device I happen to be using today using Tapatalk

Got a reply today. Total waste of time.

Good day to you! This is Ryan from Bing Rewards Customer Support assisting you with Support Request #### regarding your Bing Rewards account that has been closed.

We've looked into the circumstances that resulted in us closing your account within our rights under the program's terms of use. We made the decision to do so after careful consideration and upon further investigation stand by that decision.

Sincerely,

Ryan

It seems to me Microsoft doesn't want me using their Bing service. Banning legit users! I will go elsewhere. Google it is!

 

[blzr409]

This is insane. Same thing happened to me. I've been using Bing pretty much exclusively for a couple years now. I do probably 100 legit searches per day. I've never had a need to do anything other than my normal search habits to get the points for that day. Suddenly about two weeks ago I started getting the prompt to verify my account almost every day and it would sometimes not count mobile searches from earlier in the day until I had done the verification on my computer. Since that was pretty annoying I sent a message through the support site. I got this response:

After further review, the account verification requirement is by design and working as expected. There are many reasons a Bing Rewards member may be prompted to verify their account, one of which may be due to search behavior and patterns. This is to ensure that searches are performed by an actual person and not a robot or other automated methods.
According to the Bing Rewards Terms of Use (https://www.bing.com/rewards/Tou), "A Search is the act of an individual user manually entering text for the good faith purpose of obtaining Bing search results for such user's own research purposes and does not include any query entered by a bot, macro, or other automated or fraudulent means of any kind ("Search"). Microsoft in its sole discretion determines what constitutes a Search that qualifies for credits".
If you still feel you are being unfairly prompted for account verification, please reply back with more detailed information on your daily search activities with Bing prior to each notice for account verification. The more information you provide, the better we'll be able to assist.
Thank you for your patience and for being a loyal Bing Rewards member!
Take care and have a great day!
Sincerely,
Sheryl

I then received an email asking if I was satisfied with the response, so I said no. I then got this message:

For now I will be submitting the details of your issue to our Product Group for further investigation. For the meantime, please remain patient while waiting for the update. Be assured that any updates made available will be communicated to you as soon as possible.

Please bear with us as we're going to work this issue for you.

Take care and have a nice day!

Sincerely,

Sheryl

Three days went by with no further responses from them and suddenly my account was banned. They did not provide me with any updates as they said they would in the email, just went ahead and banned my account. I sent another response kind of baffled this time as I thought they were trying to help me with the issue and would keep me informed. I got back another clearly canned response:

This is Lester from Bing Rewards Customer Support assisting you with Service Request number 1300775137.
It seems that you are wondering why your Bing Rewards account was closed.
Your Bing Rewards account has been closed because Microsoft has determined that it has been operated in a way that does not comply with the Bing Rewards Terms of Use (https://www.bing.com/rewards/TOU) that you accepted when you joined.
Per the Bing Rewards Terms of Use (https://www.bing.com/rewards/TOU) : "A Search is the act of an individual user manually entering text for the good faith purpose of obtaining Bing search results for such user's own research purposes and does not include any query entered by a bot, macro, or other automated or fraudulent means of any kind ("Search"). Microsoft in its sole discretion determines what constitutes a Search that qualifies for credits."
Our research indicates that your Bing Rewards account has engaged in one or more violations of our Terms of Use. As a result, you've been disqualified from participating in Bing Rewards.
Sincerely,

Lester

This time I was pretty frustrated since they clearly ignored the actual message I sent them and instead just sent me a copy and pasted email that they'd send to anyone. I wrote back again asking which terms had been violated and why they did not provide me with any information when I requested it while my account was still active. I got this response, again a canned reply that didn't address my actual questions at all:

We've considered your request to reactivate your suspended Bing Rewards account. Your suspension occurred as a result of multiple Terms of Use violations. Upon review, your account will remain suspended and no further appeals will be considered.
Regards,
Sheryl

That last line was kind of adding insult to injury. I'm not convinced they have actual humans working in their customer service department, as I do not believe they actually read any of my questions and everything just looked like a blatant copy and paste job.

 

[MMissionary]

This is insane. Same thing happened to me. I've been using Bing pretty much exclusively for a couple years now. I do probably 100 legit searches per day. I've never had a need to do anything other than my normal search habits to get the points for that day. Suddenly about two weeks ago I started getting the prompt to verify my account almost every day and it would sometimes not count mobile searches from earlier in the day until I had done the verification on my computer. Since that was pretty annoying I sent a message through the support site. I got this response:

I think received an email asking if I was satisfied with the response, so I said no. I then got this message:


Three days went by with no further responses from them and suddenly my account was banned. They did not provide me with any updates as they said they would in the email, just went ahead and banned my account. I sent another response kind of baffled this time as I thought they were trying to help me with the issue and would keep me informed. I got back another clearly canned response:

This time I was pretty frustrated since they clearly ignored the actual message I sent them and instead just sent me a copy and pasted email that they'd send to anyone. I wrote back again asking which terms had been violated and why they did not provide me with any information when I requested it while my account was still active. I got this response, again a canned reply that didn't address my actual questions at all:


That last line was kind of adding insult to injury. I'm not convinced they have actual humans working in their customer service department, as I do not believe they actually read any of my questions and everything just looked like a blatant copy and paste job.

The stuff they do is very angering.

 

[blzr409]

Can't you use Bing without the rewards?

Yes I know, "on principle", but there soon won't be anything left to use if you follow that through. That's probably why you didn't use Google, right?

Sent from whatever device I happen to be using today using Tapatalk

For me the problem is that the way Bing is set up I'm constantly reminded that they banned my account for no reason. It's infuriating. I can't go to their site without looking at the points up top and seeing that I don't have any. They also keep sending me emails about rewards I'm not getting.

 

[tgp]

For me the problem is that the way Bing is set up I'm constantly reminded that they banned my account for no reason. It's infuriating. I can't go to their site without looking at the points up top and seeing that I don't have any. They also keep sending me emails about rewards I'm not getting.

Yes I can see your point. I wonder what Bing/Microsoft is going by that causes legitimate users to be banned. Or maybe it's always been happening, but recently hit a few Windows Central users and we're hearing about it. :eck:

I'm sure they have monitoring software using algorithms in place to detect banned usage patterns, but what I do not understand is why there is no recourse. I would think that they would understand that the automatic monitoring isn't going to be perfect and that human intervention may be necessary.

But still... I'm not a sentimental or emotional person, and I view things like this with a 100% practical point of view. I have little loyalty to any company. I choose what works best for me at the moment. If this happened to me, I would continue to use Bing if it was working for me. They are taking a perk from me, but not otherwise hampering my experience. Now, if I was using Bing only for the Rewards, but Google or some other search worked better, I'd switch in a heartbeat.

 

[AlliGe]

When I questioned it, they sent me the same pre-written, scripted reply. Something is up for this to be happening to everyone.

 

[blzr409]

They've now just stopped responding to me. I also tried their Twitter and they said they'd try to help then also stopped responding

 

[swollen_ostrich]

Mine finally got reinstated, with no indication of why other than "we were able to verify your information" - unfortunately, as soon as my account was reinstated, I used my points for a month's worth of Hulu. When I tried to redeem it, It comes back and tells me "We're sorry, you are ineligible to redeem this promotion."

I opened another ticket with Microsoft. They said I would have to talk to the Hulu folks to get it fixed.

Customer Service, thy name is Microsoft....

 

[MMissionary]

Mine finally got reinstated, with no indication of why other than "we were able to verify your information" - unfortunately, as soon as my account was reinstated, I used my points for a month's worth of Hulu. When I tried to redeem it, It comes back and tells me "We're sorry, you are ineligible to redeem this promotion."

I opened another ticket with Microsoft. They said I would have to talk to the Hulu folks to get it fixed.

Customer Service, thy name is Microsoft....

Glad to hear you got reinstated!

 

[blzr409]

Mine finally got reinstated, with no indication of why other than "we were able to verify your information" - unfortunately, as soon as my account was reinstated, I used my points for a month's worth of Hulu. When I tried to redeem it, It comes back and tells me "We're sorry, you are ineligible to redeem this promotion."

I opened another ticket with Microsoft. They said I would have to talk to the Hulu folks to get it fixed.

Customer Service, thy name is Microsoft....

How did the process go for you? Were you on contact with them on a regular basis before being reinstated? They seem to just be ignoring me now

 

[Mark Kaplan]

I had the same thing happen to me today. I was banned today and got the same crappy response from support as everyone else did. I have been a Bing Rewards member since its inception. I only have one account and I WAS using Bing exclusively. I will now go back to Google Search. If Microsoft doesn't want users racking up points, it doesn't need to invoke a badly enforced TOS. All they are doing now is alienating users. Either promote the program or terminate it. You just lost another loyal Bing user.

 

[wayn1ak]

My Bing Rewards account was recently closed as well!!! At least the guy responded and said that my account has been reported to be used by a bot or macro or something....which is totally not possible. I have been a Bing Rewards user since 2011 so I am really upset that after so many years, I was recklessly disqualified for using the service. I am the only user of the account and the only one in my household. I am going to keep trying to contact their support but I feel like there is no hope. Now I feel like I can't use the Bing anymore because I am deemed a "black sheep" for no reason.

 

[MMissionary]

Idk why I still use Bing but I do.

 

[swollen_ostrich]

How did the process go for you? Were you on contact with them on a regular basis before being reinstated? They seem to just be ignoring me now

I just kept emailing them, and they kept bouncing it back and forth from team to team on their side until they found someone who "fixed" it. In other words, I have no idea what I did to get reinstated.

 

[wayn1ak]

About two weeks ago, I mailed an arbitration letter to Microsoft where I summarized my reasoning for dispute.

Two days ago, I go on Bing and see my reward points show up on the top right corner and yesterday I received an email stating that my account was reinstated along with 50 points added for the inconvenience I am a happy Bing Rewards user again.