Many people have reported this and similar experiences in the comments sections of other posts, but I wanted to share my experience as well to let others know that they're not alone if they're experiencing this issue.

For context: I've been browsing community ebike forums including this one, /r/Ebikes, and several non-reddit forums for the last 3 years. Whenever I saw someone interested in buying a Rad bike and looking for suggestions, I'd offer my 2 cents on my experience, and then offer to share them a referral link for a $50 credit. Most were interested, some weren't and that's fine. I managed to get quite a few referral credits over the years and became pretty familiar with how the system worked. Everything seemed to be working well up until October of 2022. During this time Rad put the Rad Mission on sale for $500 (a great deal) and was continuing to honor referral codes on even this sale, resulting in a $450 base price. Of course thousands of people jumped on this and Rad quickly sold out leading to them stringing along hundreds of customers and eventually canceling their orders (but that's a different story) This is when the referral system changed. I have no received a single code since the beginning of October, despite several new "pending" referrals popping up on the website confirming that people had used my code. I figured it was just a glitch and didn't think anything of it, assuming that those credits would come in eventually. Now its been more than 2 months and I still haven't received any of those codes. I messaged Rad support today explaining my situation and they gave me this response.. I followed up with that I obviously couldn't provide that information since I didn't know the people I referred personally, (and anyway its been well past 14 days since they purchased their bikes) and they basically told me I was SOL. Needless to say this is frustrating but honestly not un-expected. With all the issues Rad has been having over the past couple years I have no doubt that they're kicking themselves over the referral system that has been cutting into their margins. But it still doesn't excuse the fact that they haven't clearly communicated that they're changing how the system works, instead of just silently changing the rules to no longer function as they have for the past 4-5 years.

I've been a part of the Rad community since early 2020 (probably a time when many of you joined as well) and have really enjoyed my time with my Rad bikes. I loved their competitive pricing, good customer service, relatively simple assembly, and stylish looks. Over the past 2 years I've seen the Rad community go from evangelists who spread the word of rad, to having a non-trivial population of jaded and cynical owners with buyers remorse. Many controversies and missteps have lead to a gradual eroding of trust between the company and its community. Some of you probably haven't reached the breaking point yet, as I hadn't until just recently; but with the continual issues Rad has been facing, I don't know if that will be true for long.

TL;DR: Rad no longer seems to be honoring referrals unless you personally know the person. This is a recent change and was not announced, but I've seen a few others experience this issue as well and I wanted to let them know they're not alone. If you have or haven't had this same issue please leave a comment here sharing your experience.

Update: I have received this response from Rad's Lead community ambassador and quickly responded with this the response from Rad does not appear to be accurate and I don't know if its because they themselves don't understand their own referral system, or if they're being intentionally dishonest. I find it especially humorous because on the front page of the link he provided me is this saying "Share your unique referral link with whoever you wish via email, social media, or text message." which directly contradicts his response that their referral system is not set up for forum posts.

Update 2: I have received another response basically confirming that Rad has cracked down on referral link sharing and the system we have enjoyed on reddit will likely no longer work. This is in line with my suspicions that Rad got sick of people using the system so freely and finally locked it down.