A rejected cashback claim usually has a mechanical cause. Understanding where the referral chain broke explains both the rejection and whether anything can be done about it.
The referral has to be the last one
Commission is normally paid on a last-click basis. Whichever referral was recorded most recently before the purchase is the one the retailer credits.
Any later click on any other affiliate link overwrites it. Opening a price comparison page, a review site or an emailed offer between clicking and buying is enough.
The shopper sees none of this happen. The overwrite is silent, and the basket looks identical either way, which is why the outcome appears arbitrary.
Vouchers that were never authorised
Retailers list which discount codes may be combined with affiliate commission. Codes from outside that list frequently void the commission entirely.
Employee codes, press codes and codes intended for a different market are the usual offenders. They work at checkout, which is what makes the conflict invisible.
Because the commission is what funds the reward, a voided commission means there is nothing for the portal to share, regardless of the tracking being intact.
Excluded products and excluded conditions
Nearly every merchant excludes some categories. Gift cards, marketplace items sold by third parties, delivery charges and taxes are commonly outside the qualifying amount.
Some exclusions apply to the customer rather than the goods, such as existing subscribers, repeat purchasers or orders placed through an app instead of a browser.
These terms appear on the merchant's page in the portal and change without notice, so the version in force is the one shown at the moment of the click.
Technical breaks in the chain
Tracking depends on a cookie or an identifier surviving from the click to the completed order. Blocking, private browsing and aggressive privacy settings can prevent that.
Switching devices mid-purchase has the same effect. A click on a phone and a checkout on a laptop are two separate sessions with no link between them.
Long gaps also matter, because tracking windows expire. A click followed by a purchase two weeks later may fall outside the window the merchant allows.
What makes a claim likely to succeed
Claims work best where the click was recorded but the sale was not, since the portal can show the referral and ask the network to investigate a missing transaction.
They rarely succeed where no click exists, because there is no evidence of referral to submit and the retailer has no reason to accept the assertion.
The practical consequence is that the click record, not the receipt, is the document that determines the outcome of a dispute.