The Pepper App, which is an app that sells gift cards to various merchants (and has no relation to our own Stephen Pepper) has either been down or not working properly for days (H/T: Doctor of Credit). Some users get a pop-up indicating that the app is currently not working, though others (including me) see no such messaging. Coin redemption is not available at all. I was able to pay for a gift card last night, but the app did not produce the gift card despite taking payment. It would be prudent to avoid Pepper until this is resolved.
Some users are getting the pop-up shown above indicating that Pepper is experiencing an unexpected outage that has made purchases and point redemptions “temporarily” unavailable.
However, I don’t see any such pop-up in my Pepper account. At first glance, the app appears to look and function as per normal with no pop-up messaging. However, there is no option to redeem coins to purchase a gift card, only the option to pay with a credit card.
I tested that last night by purchasing a $5 Walmart gift card. After checking out, the screen greyed and spun forever without producing a gift card. When I go to my transaction history, I can see the $5 transaction for a Walmart gift card, but there is no button to view the gift card or check the gift card balance (as there is for other past transactions). I did receive a receipt from Pepper via email:
And Pepper successfully charged my credit card:
However, Pepper has not produced a gift card.
That’s obviously very highly concerning. When Tim wrote late last year about the Pepper app instituting a 60-day inactivity expiration rule, he included his concerns about the long-term viability of the app:
The size of the daily discounts offered (14x on Amazon, 15x on Nike, 14x on Lowes) combined with the two-tiered timing of the payouts have made many folks nervous about how long it will stay solvent.
Stephen shared similar sentiments in his post about the Pepper Amex Offer a couple of months ago. I think anyone who has followed the huge discounts Pepper has offered on rarely-discounted or never-discounted gift cards has questioned how the business model could possibly be sustainable. The outage on the app is obviously hugely concerning, particularly for those who attempted to make gift card purchases in recent days, but it isn’t shocking.
It’s worth noting that I bought a gift card using coins a week ago and that purchase went through and the gift card still has its full balance. I’ve seen a couple of reports of more recent gift card purchases being zeroed out, though it is impossible to confirm those reports. Obviously, if you pay for a gift card and it never gets fulfilled, you could file a chargeback on your credit card. However, I’d probably give this a week to see how it shakes out before filing chargebacks in case this is just a case of the app being down for maintenance of some sort. Still, one would have expected to have seen a mass email by now from Pepper indicating what’s going on and when they expect to be back if there was an end in sight to the outage.
Update: Some users have reported receiving an email around the same time that this post published from Pepper. My wife and I both have Pepper accounts and neither of us have received the email, but at least one Frequent Miler team member received it. It reads as follows:
Hi [Name],
We know the recent outages have been frustrating, and we’re very sorry.
Our app is currently undergoing a planned upgrade as we transition to the new 2.0 version of Pepper.
During this time, the app may be temporarily down or have intermittent outages over the next couple of weeks.
Rest assured — your points are 100% safe, fully recorded, and will be redeemable in full once the system stabilizes.
Nothing is lost, and no action is needed on your end.
We’re doing everything we can to keep the downtime to a minimum and expect to have the app back online shortly.
Thanks for bearing with us as we make these improvements.
We’re excited to share the new and improved Pepper with you very soon.
Thanks again for being part of the Pepper community.
— The Pepper Team
Take that as you may. I’m glad to see some sort of recognition that there is a problem, but at the same time the ideal time to let people know of a planned outage is sometime before you plan for it to happen. If you have unused gift cards that you have purchased from Pepper, I would highly recommend going into your Transaction History and recording or taking screen shots of any outstanding gift cards and balances just in case you are later unable to access that information.
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Hey if the company says this outage which has been lasting a few days is just planning for their big 2.0 launch who are we to question it? Certainly, all well-run companies that aren’t planning a rug pull often go down for extended periods of times for each update, good businesses love it when you’re no longer able to purchase things from them and certainly wouldn’t immediately revert any pending changes until things are stable again.
Well, it was good while it lasted, I made out well and immediately redeemed any points I got right away. Losing Amazon was when I assumed the good times were ending and stopped using the app.
I have been unable to log in for 5 weeks. pop up says call for verification. called emailed even filed bbb complaint for 5 weeks with zero reply. The only email I got is automated email saying my 800k points expire on 05/02/2025. so my $400 worth points expire with no support. absolute scam. same complaints by 700 other people on pepper’s facebook.
I think this is one of those things that folks will look back on fondly that they got in while they could. I was able to get 10x back every time I bought stuff at Sam’s/WalMart for nearly the last year. Plus the biz gold 4x and sign up bonuses on biz gold no lifetime offers and it’s been a really great one to get in.
But because I’ve felt it’s verging on too good to be true, I’ve personally only ever bought right when I place an order (I.e., I shop on Sam’s, buy a GC from Pepper for exactly the order amount and call it a day).
It’s usually a good idea not to over leverage on things that feel too good to be true.
Allegedly they are working on upgrades that will roll out over the next 1-2 weeks. They have notoriously bad customer service and so the lack of transparent communication is not surprising in the slightest. 15x on walmart/amazon is child’s play, they ran discounts of 30x sams/amazon for over a month that all paid out the coins. Some people have made a killing reselling those cards as they have decreased boosts over the course of the last month. Reselling rates have increased over that time with limited supply.
they sent out an email on the “upgrade” an hour ago. here you go:
Hi David,
We know the recent outages have been frustrating, and we’re very sorry.
Our app is currently undergoing a planned upgrade as we transition to the new 2.0 version of Pepper.
During this time, the app may be temporarily down or have intermittent outages over the next couple of weeks.
Rest assured — your points are 100% safe, fully recorded, and will be redeemable in full once the system stabilizes.
Nothing is lost, and no action is needed on your end.
We’re doing everything we can to keep the downtime to a minimum and expect to have the app back online shortly.
Thanks for bearing with us as we make these improvements.
We’re excited to share the new and improved Pepper with you very soon.
Thanks again for being part of the Pepper community.
— The Pepper Team
Just like Nick, I bought a gift card on Saturday and never received it. I experienced the exact same issue described above. I tried calling them but the customer service number in the app goes straight to a voicemail asking you to leave a message – very strange for an 800 number asking you to leave a voicemail. I also emailed them Saturday with the details but haven’t heard back. I’ll give it another day or two, then I’m contacting my bank to clawback the charge. It really seems like Pepper might be defunct.
Pepper in the last 30 days eliminated rewards on Amazon and Home Depot and now the app is “not working”. Bub bye Pepper! Think the end is near.
Boycott Stephen Pepper!