If a payout sent through the Tremendous integration hasn't gone through, is showing as failed, or seems "stuck," this article walks through the most common causes and what to do about each one.
For background on how the integration works in the first place, see How to Set Up the Tremendous Integration and How Paying Rewards with Tremendous Works.
Common Reasons a Tremendous Payout Fails or Gets Held
1. Insufficient balance in your Tremendous account
Payouts sent via Tremendous draw from your Tremendous account balance, not directly from Buzzbassador. If your Tremendous balance is too low to cover a payout, the payout will fail.
Fix: Log in to Tremendous, go to Billing > Balance, and add funds. Once your balance is sufficient, you can retry the payout from the rewards section in Buzzbassador. It's worth turning on Tremendous's low balance email notifications (also under Billing > Balance) so this doesn't catch you off guard in the future.
2. A fraud-rule hold on Tremendous's end
Sometimes a payout will show as sent from Buzzbassador, but the member reports they can't redeem it, or the payout shows as held/under review in your Tremendous dashboard. This is usually the result of Tremendous's own automated fraud screening.
Tremendous, like any platform that moves money at scale, runs every payout through automated fraud rules to comply with banking and anti-fraud regulations. When a payout trips one of those rules, whether due to the amount, the recipient, account activity, or other factors Tremendous doesn't fully disclose, Tremendous will hold the reward until it's manually reviewed.
Important: This hold happens entirely on Tremendous's side. Neither Buzzbassador nor you (the merchant) can see the specific reason for a fraud hold or bypass it. It is not something we can override from the Buzzbassador platform. Only your Tremendous account can resolve it, by reviewing and releasing the held payout from your Tremendous dashboard, typically found under your Orders or Transactions/Activity view, or by contacting Tremendous support directly if you don't see a way to release it yourself.
This is a known, recurring issue that a number of merchants run into, especially as payout volume grows or when a payout goes to a recipient/email Tremendous hasn't seen before. If you're seeing this repeatedly, it's worth reaching out to [email protected] directly and asking them what's triggering the hold on your account specifically, since Tremendous support can see details that aren't visible to us or to you from the outside.
What to Check First
Before assuming something is broken, walk through this checklist:
Confirm your Tremendous account balance is sufficient to cover the payout (Billing > Balance).
Log in to Tremendous directly and check the status of the specific order/payout under your Orders or Activity page. This will usually tell you if it's simply pending fraud review versus failed for another reason.
Confirm your Tremendous account's production API access and business verification are still active and haven't lapsed (see the setup article for more on this).
Check that the payment method the member selected (PayPal, Venmo, gift card, etc.) is still active and approved on your Tremendous campaign, since a disabled or de-authorized method can also cause a failure.
If none of the above explains it, reach out to Tremendous support with the specific order ID in question. They have visibility into fraud-review status that isn't exposed to Buzzbassador or to you as the merchant.
If you're an ambassador: Buzzbassador and the brand's Tremendous account are two different things, and only the brand's Tremendous account can release a held payout or investigate a failed one. If your reward hasn't shown up, or you're getting an error trying to redeem it, please contact the brand you're an ambassador for directly rather than Buzzbassador support. They'll need to check their Tremendous dashboard on their end to see what's going on with your specific payout.
If you've worked through this and are still stuck, our support team is happy to help however we can, though keep in mind that anything related to a specific payout's fraud status or balance will ultimately need to be resolved directly with Tremendous.