In reference to my previous article, I wanted to give an update about my Brave issues and what I've discovered along the way.
First a Recap
Back in December, I noticed that my BAT tokens weren't posting to my Gemini account. I tried to troubleshoot on my own first, scouring reddit as well as Brave Browser Support where I uncovered that not only were there tons of people that had the same issue, but also people who had issues much worse, with missing payouts for multiple (some several) months. Long story short, I am now able to get my BAT to post, and even got missing BAT retroactively posted at that. I'm still not sure what the "issue" was with my account, but I did learn some really helpful tips along the way which will hopefully help you if you are having similar problems.
Turn off your VPN
I noticed this primarily with my mobile browser, but I wasn't able to see my BAT post to my account (I kept getting a spinning wheel of death) until I had my VPN off and noticed the issue and the visibility of my BAT immediately posted. I know that Brave's ads are location sensitive and this is probably a primary issue for most people, and one easily not thought about if you use your VPN 99% of the time (like me). I've also noticed that if I haven't been getting ads in a while, if I turn off my VPN (or turn it back on if it's been off), many times ads will start popping up again. On a side-related note, if you're really into collecting BAT, I would highly suggest downloading and utilizing the beta version (denoted by a blue icon, instead of orange) AND the regular version of the app because they will both give you Brave ads.
Even if you never use it, setup a Brave Wallet
Even though I would still recommend connecting your Gemini wallet to avoid transaction/deposit fees and minimum requirements, I would also still recommend setting up your Brave wallet as well. Why? Well I could be wrong about this, but because the wallet is native to your actual browser, I believe that part of the reason why my BAT didn't track was because I had a dummy Wallet ID--an identifier that Brave Support needed in order to help me resolve my payment issue.
Post your issue on Brave Browser Support, but not only that, make sure you follow-up....again and again.
So this is my timeline with the Brave Browser Support team:
21DEC - Initially Posted my issue, immediately received a response informing me to:
- Copy/paste your Wallet ID (found on
brave://rewards-internals) - Your OS and Brave version (first three lines in
brave://version) - A screenshot of your Rewards panel in
Settings --> Brave Rewards.
I immediately responded with the requested information.
4JAN - Sent a follow-up message to Brave Support asking for a status update
6JAN - Received a response asking for me to resend the information that was requested on 21DEC
7JAN - Resent the information requested on 21DEC
11JAN - Brave Support asked if I had received payment, I responded the same day saying that I had not.
18JAN - Not having heard anything, I requested another status update.
25JAN - Brave Support asked for my Gemini ERC-20 Deposit Address.
26JAN - I responded with my address.
28JAN - Brave Support confirmed that they had just sent my past accrued BAT.
TLDR:
Basically after several responses, the BAT was posted to my account about 5 weeks after I raised the issue, and I am pretty certain if I didn't follow-up then this would have gone absolutely nowhere. And I suspect that for most people, this is exactly what has happened. Now you may be reading all of this, and thinking, who the hell has the time to track and follow-up with all this? Well it actually wasn't that hard, I just set myself a weekly reminder to check the status of this, and also what motivated me to keep tracking is because regardless of the BAT-payout issues, I intend to be using the Brave Browser for a VERY long time. Thus, for me, all the time taken for these follow-ups in my mind were a long term investment. If you're sitting on the same issue and its been months since you reached out to the Brave Support team, we're talking about months (and future months) of no BAT tokens that you should have and would have been earning.
Conclusion
Will this work for you? In the world of customer service who the hell knows, and I can only really talk about what's worked for me. But what I can say is that after all these steps, not only did I receive my December BAT payouts, but my January payouts posted on time without a hitch as well.
Do you still have problems with the Brave Browser? How long have you been without your BAT payments? Any other tips/tricks that I might have missed?
