Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great MLK Jr. Weekend.  Back in December, Capital One Shopping increased their referral bonus and sign up bonus to $200 each (Doctor of Credit’s post).  I was an existing member, so I was not eligible for the $200 sign up bonus, but my wife (Laura) was not a member of Capital One Shopping.  I sent her my referral link on December 10 and she signed up for an account that same day.  We needed a few things for our home, so she placed an order from Walmart and received the “Success! We’ve received your order and are processing your rewards now” email.

Fast forward a month and neither of us had received the $200 referral or $200 sign up bonus.  I searched the Capital One Shopping portal for a contact button and finally found the customer service email (help@capitaloneshopping.com).  I sent them an email detailing the issue on January 11 at 6:58am…

3.5 hours later (10:34am on January 11), I received a response.  According to the email, “After looking into it, it looks like the referral did not meet the program requirements.  As a courtesy we have manually issued the $200.00 in Shopping Rewards to your account.”  That reason seems like baloney to me, but I will take a $200 courtesy credit any day.

I logged into my Capital One Shopping account and looked through the various eGC option.  I then decided to get a $200 Albertson’s eGC that can be used at many brands, including Safeway, Pavilions, and Vons in California.

I asked Laura is she received the $200 sign up bonus, but she said no.  I then told her to reach out to Capital One Shopping (help@capitaloneshopping.com) and ask about her $200 sign up bonus.  Less than 3 hours after sending the email, she received a response that said, “After looking into it, it looks like the referral did not meet the program requirements.  As a courtesy we have manually issued the $200.00 in Shopping Rewards to your account.”  That reason seems like baloney (again), but she confirmed that the $200 reward was in her account.

I’m not sure if Capital One Shopping stopped automatically posting referral and sign up bonuses (they did remove that program from the portal), but it seems like if you send them an email, they will manually add a $200 bonus to your account.  I wish the referral program worked better, but I can’t complain too much about sending a single email and getting a $200 bonus a few hours later.  If you have any questions about contacting Capital One Shopping, please leave a comment below.  Have a great day everyone.