I tried to give someone a buddy GA but it doesn't seem to have worked. I got the message saying "You've sent this person a buddy account!" and even the alter but their icon stayed blue. I had refreshed, waiting for a long time to see if the cashe caught up but there was no indication the person got it. This is the second time this has happened and I feel like I'm wasting them.

Perhaps file a ticket? Sorry it happened. :(

I noticed that when I sent my partner a buddy GA, it took a very long while for the blue icon to turn yellow, even with clearing my cache. When you hover over the user's name, does the icon look yellow? I know that despite it looking blue on forums, when I hovered on the username it showed otherwise.

Just gave a buddy GA to someone and their icon turned gold. The cache seems fickle.

It is gold now but they were talking about buying themselves a medal so I don't know if it's from me or the medal.

This happened when I gifted a Buddy GA as well. It took a little while, but it turned gold.