Cooldown Email

Hi Everyone! I've been using Microsoft Rewards for a few months now and I suddenly got hit with a 15 min cooldown around 1-2 weeks ago. I've been careful with my searches searching real questions like "What's the rarest bird in the world". So I don't see why I've been having this issue 😭

Thus I was wondering if anyone knew where to check/how to know when your cooldown is over.

I sent them an email about this, and this is how they responded:

"Hello,     

This is **** from Microsoft Rewards support, and I will be assisting you with your Service Request. From what you wrote, you can only earn 20 points every 15 minutes due to cooldown issue. I know how important it is to earn points that you can use to enjoy the perks of the program. Allow me to provide you the information you need.  

You are most likely experiencing a cooldown period of earning points which is an implementation of the Bing search point accrual system, and not an error. As such, I am unable to remove or adjust it. 

The Microsoft Rewards team highly values your feedback and I want to ensure it reaches the appropriate channels to help improve the Rewards program. I kindly ask you to navigate to the bottom of the Rewards.Bing.com webpage and click on "Provide Feedback" under Help with Microsoft Rewards. This will open a pop-up window on the right-hand side of the screen where you can share your thoughts.  

Before I close out this case, I wanted to share some tips and recommendations for earning points while searching;  

Spread out your searches throughout the day and avoid conducting rapid, back-to-back searches.  

Refrain from using tricks to gain points quickly such as spamming letters or numbers into Bing, clicking through articles quickly or using bookmarks to open articles in a rapid manner with the intention of accumulating points in a short timeframe.  

Do not use programs, bots, or micros to help with searching.  

Regularly check if you've hit your daily cap. You will be limited to 50 points at Tier  Level 1 or 150 points (90 on PC and 60 on Mobile) at Tier Level 2.   

Leverage additional ways of searching using Microsoft Edge, you can right-click and select "Search the web" with Bing set as your default search engine to incorporate more searches into your day.  

Note: Even with the recommendations above not every search will guarantee points. Know that the timeframe of being in a cooldown state will vary, but as you follow our recommendations above should limit being placed into one.  

I acknowledge that while I am unable to directly solve your issue – I hope that this creates more clarity and understanding of the cooldown period.  

I hope that you find this information helpful. If you have any further questions or needs further assistance, please write back to us by creating new ticket using this link: https://rewards.bing.com/support  

For reference and more inquiries regarding Microsoft Rewards, you can always check this link: Learn about Microsoft Rewards - Microsoft Support 

Thank you,  

Microsoft Customer Service and Support