On the eBay Powerseller forums, quite a number of sellers are finding that mentioning "cashback" in their listings is backfiring badly.
Either the buyer is too stupid to figure out how to get the cashback, or it's not working that day, or the buyer doesn't comprehend what "cashback" is at all and assumes that the
SELLER will refund the 30%, or a host of other problems occur.
The seller is then left with negative feedback, cancelled sales, PayPal disputes, buyers demanding that the seller refund them 30% or chargebacks from buyers who are furious that the 30% isn't magically deducted from the price when they buy.
This is happening VERY often, and it's probably not a good idea to mention the cashback when one lists an item.
Everyone knows the buyers don't read anything in the descriptions, and mentioning "cashback" discounts only exacerbates the problem.
Mention "cashback" at your own risk. I tried putting some of my listings at a slightly higher "buy-it-now" prices to help "cashback" buyers, and the people who knew about cashback managed to figure it out by themselves.
If someone asks me about using cashback on my sales, I tell them I have no idea, and I am not responsible for any third party discount schemes.
* On the other hand, I have used "cashback" to buy, and have saved close to $1000 already.
I asked eBay over the weekend was it alright to explicitly mention the MS Cashback program in my descriptive text and they said it was, provided potential buyers understand that it is not always available and receiving the discount is not guaranteed. They (eBay) are also providing an incentive to offer free shipping so that in combination with Cashback has altered my eBay selling strategy a bit.
Cashback benefits both buyer and seller. I bought a Nikkor zoom a couple of weeks ago and got a fantastic price and the maximum reimbursement from MS and the seller got his BIN price. Everyone was happy.