I purchased five $200 Five Back gift card at Office depot with my Chase Ink Plus last week, partly to meet the $5K minimum spending as it is a new credit card.


I made a purchase Sunday night with one of the Five Back on 10/9 at 10:17pm at CVS for about $100. This was all legit spend - I did not buy another gift card, so there would be no possible exclusion of purchases for cash back. CVS is one of the merchants that is eligible for 5% cash back with the Five Back card.


Today, Wednesday afternoon, more than 65 hours later, the 5% had not posted on the Five Back card.


Fivebackgift.com claims the cash back is supposed to go within 48 hours of the purchase, and to call their customer service if it did not.


So, I called ... First, there is not even a menu option for this issue of missing cash back. The closest one is "dispute a transaction", which I used. The CSR tried to tell me the transaction had posted one day later, on 10/10 and it wasn't 48 hours yet, and to call back later. I had a long argument about the time of the transaction, but got nowhere. First, he told me the transaction posted on 10/10 at 5:27am. Then, he changed his story and said it posted on 10/10 at 5:27pm. When I asked him what time zone he was referring to, he said UTC. At the time of my call, it was already past 10pm in the UTC time zone. Then, he tried to tell me it wasn't UTC, but central time. He told me it wasn't 5:27pm in Central time yet. Never mind it was actually 5:35pm Central time. He claimed it was 4:35pm central time. We just couldn't agree on what central time was ! I asked him where he was calling from, and he El Salvador. He said the credit should post within one hour, and if not, I should call again.



Of course, the 5% back did not post within one hour. I'm on the phone with them again. The second CSR was able to see that the original transaction date was indeed on 10/9 and not 10/10, and that it was indeed well over 48 hours. I provided my contact info, and he gave me a reference number and I was told they would get back to me within 2 business days.



I have spent well over 30 min on the phone just to try to get $5 . This is of course much more effort than most people will go through for that amount.


Has the same thing happened to others with Five Back, ie. not getting their cash back within the promised 48 hours, or at all without having to get in touch ?


This smells like a scam to me. I'm thinking of filing a report with the CFPB. Would like to know what the experience of others has been with Five Back.