Rebates: Legal Con Artists
Anybody ever have trouble redeeming a rebate?? As a general rule, I've never really thought it was a very big deal: If a company wants to pay me X amount for buying their product, I'll gladly follow their little rules and wait a few weeks for my cash. My opinion is starting to change, and I think I'm gonna steer clear of these scams in a discount's clothing.
* First, it was Dell. I made a copy of the packing slip, circled the price, blah blah blah. Then I get a letter stating that my $50 would NOT be on the way because I didn't follow all of the rules. Hogwash. After discussing it at great length with Abdul Mohammed-Aziz at the Dell call center, he cried "uncle" and sent me my check. Now, wasn't that easy?
* Earlier this year, it was Cingular. We bought a phone for Leah, and the guy gives me 2 receipts--one standard one and another rebate one (essentially, a duplicate copy printed especially for the oft-promoted "FREE PHONE WITH REBATE!" offer. I cut out the bar code, circle the price, hop on one foot, and sign my name. And I make copies. Then I get something in the mail that says I've provided an invalid receipt or the receipt wasn't dated in the offer period. Ba-loney. I called and said, "For crying out loud, I sent the receipt in that YOU gave me." After faxing or mailing in my proof with very sarcastic hand-written footnotes, my money was on the way. Geez.
* This week, I get a similar from Lexar, who manufactures flash memory devices. "Sorry, dude, your $10 ain't coming because you didn't include the UPC." Funny, I cut it out, stapled it to the sheet, adjacent to the receipt which shows when it was bought." Of course, the guy at the 800-number says, "Well, your submission was marked incomplete--if you provide us proof, then we'll send it out. Did you save copies?" Heck, I don't know. I told him that if he'd call the person or department or whatever and actually pull out my form and look at it, they would see the UPC code. "For security, the entries are destroyed after they are processed." How freakin convenient.
I don't know what these companies' deal is. Is this some sort of conscious effort to increase the bottom line by NOT having to redeem the rebate? Are they betting me the amount of the rebate that I won't be able to prove my worthiness? Or is it the result of some $8/hour envelope-opener that's mad at his/her situation and picks random people to screw over?
Bottom line--make copies of the crap. Because sooner or later, you'll get burned if you don't. Has anybody else had any experiences like this, or have I just angered the rebate gods??
* First, it was Dell. I made a copy of the packing slip, circled the price, blah blah blah. Then I get a letter stating that my $50 would NOT be on the way because I didn't follow all of the rules. Hogwash. After discussing it at great length with Abdul Mohammed-Aziz at the Dell call center, he cried "uncle" and sent me my check. Now, wasn't that easy?
* Earlier this year, it was Cingular. We bought a phone for Leah, and the guy gives me 2 receipts--one standard one and another rebate one (essentially, a duplicate copy printed especially for the oft-promoted "FREE PHONE WITH REBATE!" offer. I cut out the bar code, circle the price, hop on one foot, and sign my name. And I make copies. Then I get something in the mail that says I've provided an invalid receipt or the receipt wasn't dated in the offer period. Ba-loney. I called and said, "For crying out loud, I sent the receipt in that YOU gave me." After faxing or mailing in my proof with very sarcastic hand-written footnotes, my money was on the way. Geez.
* This week, I get a similar from Lexar, who manufactures flash memory devices. "Sorry, dude, your $10 ain't coming because you didn't include the UPC." Funny, I cut it out, stapled it to the sheet, adjacent to the receipt which shows when it was bought." Of course, the guy at the 800-number says, "Well, your submission was marked incomplete--if you provide us proof, then we'll send it out. Did you save copies?" Heck, I don't know. I told him that if he'd call the person or department or whatever and actually pull out my form and look at it, they would see the UPC code. "For security, the entries are destroyed after they are processed." How freakin convenient.
I don't know what these companies' deal is. Is this some sort of conscious effort to increase the bottom line by NOT having to redeem the rebate? Are they betting me the amount of the rebate that I won't be able to prove my worthiness? Or is it the result of some $8/hour envelope-opener that's mad at his/her situation and picks random people to screw over?
Bottom line--make copies of the crap. Because sooner or later, you'll get burned if you don't. Has anybody else had any experiences like this, or have I just angered the rebate gods??
posted by Eric C at 3:19 PM
2 Comments:
It is indeed a scam. Companies know it looks cheaper when they can put in big bold print $50 for their price, then in itty bitty print, With a $25 rebate. Then, few people actually try to get the rebate, and then the company pretends the paperwork doesn't fit, and what do you think, maybe one out of 100 rebates are actually paid?
When I go to the store now, I don't even acknowledge the rebate. When I bought my computer, I told the salesman, "do NOT try to sell me a computer out of my price range by saying there's a rebate to make it affordable. I know I'll never get the rebate, and you know it." This always seems to hurt the salespeople's feelings.
I actually haven't had any bad experiences with rebates besides the actual hoop-jumping. I've received all of the rebates I've sent in, including the Dell rebate for my computer.
I hate it when they have a $5 or $10 rebate. You end up spending time on making copies, using an envelope, stamps, and spending time filling out the needless information, and then they pay people to process the said rebates. Does this sound profitable to ANYONE? No wonder they gave you a hard time about the $10 rebate. It probably costs them more than that to process the rebate. I am anti-rebate and won't purchase things anymore that say that they have a rebate, unless I'm willing to pay the full price.
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