Troubleshooting referrals and rewards

Most reward complaints are not bugs — they are a hold doing its job, or a referral that never reached Bloop in the first place. Work down this page in order: confirm the order was tracked, then confirm the reward’s status, then look at the referrer.

A referral was not tracked at all

The order exists in Shopify but does not appear under Referral program → Orders.

Likely cause	How to confirm	What to do
The friend never used the link or code	The order has no referral attached anywhere in Bloop	Credit the referrer by hand with Add order
The purchase happened off-platform — phone order, a code mentioned but not entered	The customer says they were referred but nothing was entered at checkout	Add order, pick the referrer and campaign
The purchaser is already tied to another referrer	Add order refuses the order	Bloop blocks this on purpose — a customer belongs to one referrer
The referrer is not in the campaign you picked	Add order refuses the order	Pick the campaign the referrer actually belongs to
The buyer was not eligible to be referred	Check the campaign’s target audience	Widen the audience if the exclusion was not intended
The buyer used a referrer’s shared code but had ordered from you before	The purchaser has earlier orders in Shopify	Nothing to fix. A shared code only creates a referral for a first-time customer
The buyer was already referred by someone else	The purchaser is listed as another referrer’s referee in Contacts	Nothing to fix. Nobody is credited, so two referrers never compete for one customer

Add order takes the Shopify order number (#1001) or its ID, and shows you the order value and purchaser before you commit, so you can check you have the right one.

The referral was tracked but the reward has not arrived

Open the order under Referral program → Orders and read its reward status.

Status	What is actually happening	Your move
Pending - N hours/days left	Your review period is still running	Nothing. It approves itself when the clock runs out
Suspicious	Fraud checks flagged it and put the reward on a 14-day hold	Review it in the fraud center and approve or reject
Reward declined	It was rejected, by someone on your team or automatically: a self-referral email match, a banned referrer, or an order cancelled or refunded before the reward went out	It cannot be undone. Issue a replacement by hand if it was a mistake
Payout pending	An approved cash reward waiting in the payout queue	Pay the referrer and mark it paid
Cash sent	You marked the cash payout as paid	Nothing. The referrer has been paid
Reward sent	The reward exists	Move to the discount-code checks in coupon troubleshooting

Two things worth knowing before you intervene:

A hold that expires approves the reward. Neither the review period nor the 14-day fraud hold blocks a reward permanently — they are a window for you to act, not a wall.
Two exceptions. A banned referrer’s held rewards are rejected rather than approved, and so is an order that was cancelled or refunded while it was held.

The reward arrived and then disappeared

Bloop revokes a reward when the order behind it is cancelled or refunded, depending on your revoke setting. A refund of 90% or more of the item value counts as a full refund. This is intended, see reward revocation. If less than that was refunded and the reward still vanished, check whether someone rejected the order by hand instead.

The referrer says they earned more than they received

Cause	Where to check
A referee-count minimum is not met yet	The campaign’s minimum requirements in rewards
They are on a lower tier than they think	FlexiTiers — tiers only change the referrer reward
Some of their referrals are still pending, or were rejected and no longer count toward their tier	Filter Orders by that referrer
They qualify for several campaigns and are sharing from a different one	The campaign selector on their referral hub

To see exactly what the referrer sees, open them from Referral → Contacts and choose Login as referrer.

A cash reward cannot be paid

The payout shows Referrer hasn’t added payment details yet. The referrer fills these in through the Reward payment method block in their customer account, and the methods on offer come from Referral → Settings → Payment method. If that block is not on your storefront, the payout queue will fill with referrers you cannot pay — add it via the customer account extension.

Customers see a message on your storefront instead of joining

The texts below are the default wording. You can reword most of them in your branding; if you did, look for your own version.

What the customer sees	What it means	What to do
“The referral program is temporarily unavailable.”	Bloop has lost its connection to your store, usually because the app needs to be opened again in your Shopify admin. Until then, customers can’t join or claim a friend reward	Open Bloop from Apps in your Shopify admin. The program comes back on its own within about a minute. See also if Bloop loses its connection to your store
“Too many sign-ups right now. Please try again in a few minutes.”	Your store reached a short-term limit on how many new referrers or friends can sign up at once. It stops bots from creating codes in bulk	Nothing. It clears itself within 10 minutes
“You can’t refer yourself”	The friend entered the referrer’s own email	Working as intended
“You’re not eligible to receive the gift” or “…the reward”	The friend has already ordered from you, or is already a referrer. Friend rewards are for first-time customers only	Working as intended. See who can be referred
“You’re unable to claim discount”	A Fraud Prevention check matched the referrer’s IP address or browser	See block abuse before it reaches the queue
“You’re not eligible to join referral program”	The customer is outside the campaign’s target audience	Check the campaign’s target audience

The first two messages are built in: you can’t reword them, and they follow your popup’s language settings.

How to review and manage referral orders — the screen most of this page refers to.
How to detect referral fraud with the Fraud center — why an order was flagged.
Troubleshooting discount codes — the reward exists but the code will not work.