I was pleasantly surprised to find a message in my inbox today from Ebates that said, “Ebates welcomes former members of Cashbaq.com! …We are offering you a one-time bonus equal to the amount owed to you by Cashbaq.com.” You’ll have to accept the terms and make a purchase through Ebates of $25 or more to receive your outstanding Cashbaq cashback. This offer is open to new or existing Ebates members.
Cashbaq shut down in January, leaving untold numbers of members unpaid.
Ebates’ FAQ about this stated that, “Cashbaq was a small company unable to survive the recent recession and has gone out of business. Fortunately, you will be in good hands if you decide to join Ebates.com. Ebates has been the pioneer in cash back shopping since 1999. We have over 10 million members and our business is profitable and growing.”
“Ebates.com is the leader in cash back shopping, and we are sorry you had a bad experience with a competitor. To prove that cash back shopping still works (and convince you to use Ebates), we are willing to pay you a new member bonus equal to the amount owed by Cashbaq.com.”
“Why does Ebates have my name and email address? …The owner of Cashbaq.com wants you to be paid and therefore shared your email address with us so we could make you this offer.”
I have a feeling that the owner of Cashbaq was given a sweet deal by Ebates in exchange for email access to the program’s membership. But regardless, I’m happy for the opportunity to get $100 I had completely written off.
If you don’t want to join Ebates, or you’re not already an Ebates member, you won’t receive your Cashbaq balance. “There is no obligation to become a member of Ebates.com and we will not contact you other than to make the offer to become a member and be paid a bonus.” And I love this snarky line: “We don’t want any members who do not want to join a free program that pays you to shop online.” LOL, who writes this stuff?! 
Thanks to Ebates and (grudgingly) to Cashbaq and its founder/CEO David Lewis for giving Cashbaq members an opportunity to collect the cashback they had earned but not received.
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