christmas111

The average claim rate on the rebate fulfillment house's table was about 25 percent. <o =""></o>

  "Now, here's the interesting part," the reader wrote. "The rebate fulfillment house will GUARANTEE IN WRITING to the manufacturer that the percentage of rebates claimed as presented in this table will not be exceeded. They will eat the cost if it is." <o =""></o>

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  Small wonder then that the rebate house sometimes just can't see that receipt you're certain you included in the envelope. If they wind up paying the rebates out of their own pocket, it makes sense to just pay off those who scream the loudest. And small wonder the vendors are tempted to offer these magical discounts on their products. If one rebate fulfillment house won't guarantee to keep your costs low enough, just use a slightly sleazier one that will.
-- Ed Foste

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  How harmful are shady business practices? What can be done about them? Having just fallen for the mail-in rebate game, I am particularly sensitive to this issue. If nothing else, this article can help to expose a sleazy business practice, so that other consumers will not make the mistake that I did.<o =""></o>

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  In retrospect, it is difficult to see why I fell for the "mail-in rebate" that is used particularly heavily in computer sales. But until I was ripped off by this system, I naively assumed that the purpose of the documentation requirements for the rebates was to screen out fraudulent claims made by people who in fact had not purchased the products. It is now clear to me that instead their purpose is to deny legitimate claims of those who bought products and are attempting in good faith to collect their rebates.<o =""></o>

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  Mail-un-Rebates<o =""></o>

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  Last month, I bought a laptop at a CompUSA in <st1 ="">lace w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Rockville</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Maryland</st1:state></st1>lace>. I did not know nor care about any mail-in rebates. However, as I was standing at the cash register waiting for the stockboy to bring the box, I was accosted by two salesmen as well as the register clerk, who told me that I was entitled to a lot of free merchandise, because of a special sale that week. The catch was that I would have to pay for the merchandise and then wait for the rebate.<o =""></o>

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  I was wary about this arrangement, but they assured me that the rebate would be easy to get. One of them explained, "Since you're not buying it off the Internet, you don't need to send in all that paperwork. You can just send in the form that we print out from the register here." Eventually, I took the merchandise, which amounted to several hundred dollars in list price, although the value to me was very little (so far, I have only opened one of the boxes, and that was for software for which I already own a license that would have permitted me to make a copy from another computer). <o =""></o>

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  When I got home, I saw that the rebate forms were much more demanding than the sales staff had indicated. In fact, it seemed impossible to comply with the letter of the forms. Each product had two rebate forms, and each form requested the UPC code from the box containing the merchandise. The forms went to separate addresses. I did the best I could, sending the UPC codes to the addresses listed as "manufacturer's rebate" and not sending them to the addresses listed for the CompUSA rebates, figuring that CompUSA would not dispute my purchase of products at its own store.<o =""></o>

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  So far, I have received denial letters for every single rebate. Even where I enclosed the UPC codes that I painstakingly cut from the boxes, the denial letters allege that documents I enclosed were not in fact enclosed. Other denial letters state requirements for documents that I do not believe were listed on the original rebate form. In fact, when I have phoned the CompUSA rebate center (which apparently handles all of the rebates, even the so-called "manufacturer's" rebates), they have sometimes given me different reasons for denial than what I received in writing. Clearly, as far as the processing center is concerned, mail-in rebates are mail-un-rebates.<o =""></o>

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  I took the issue up with the customer service staff at the CompUSA, but we reached an impasse. My position is that I qualified for the rebate, and they know it. I mean, if I were to order my credit card company to stop payment, I am sure that CompUSA could come up with what it considers to be convincing documentation that I purchased the products in question. Nonetheless, their position is that I am not in compliance with the terms of the rebate form. <o =""></o>

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  At one point, the store manager "confided" that he does not like the rebate forms, and he blamed the manufacturers for using them. This seemed to me to be quite at variance with the behavior of his staff, who had gone to considerable effort to convince me to take the forms that their supervisor supposedly hated. By this point, I was not taking any statement from a CompUSA employee at face value.<o =""></o>
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  Viewed as a whole, what CompUSA appears to have is a well-oiled machine for foisting unwanted merchandise on consumers and then denying the rebates to which those consumers thought that they were entitled. Based on some brief Internet searches, my sense is that other computer retailers engage in similar practices. However, my impression is that CompUSA's sales force is the most tightly organized and carefully trained. This makes them more effective than their competitors at exploiting the mail-in rebate, as well as other shady business practices.<o =""></o>

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  My father needs help buying a new computer, and I plan to take him elsewhere. It is not just that I bear a grudge against CompUSA. I am, quite frankly, frightened of how slick they are. The way I look at it, if I go to Best Buy or Office Depot I may run into the occasional amateur sleazebag, and one has to be prepared to deal with that. But CompUSA has real pros. I don't want to mess with them.

complete article here http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=021005F

christmas111

Mail In Rebates benefit the retailer and none are in the best interests of the consumer.

Here are some points to ponder or debate:

Statistical dropouts - The sale is made but rebates are not realized because a percentage of consumers don't get around to filling out the forms, fill them out incorrectly or just don't get their rebate and forget all about it.

Information tracking - companies like on-rebate.com are similar to Sabre (airline industry). Their business is to track consumer information.

Reduction of returns - By removing the UPC label from the product, the consumer forfeits the right to return the product other than if it is defective.

Deferment of revenues - Companies can realize revenues now and the count the rebates later.

Technology flushing - Rebates are used to sell products that will be replaced by a new product or technology by the time the rebate is issued.


I agree with the person who said "just don't buy anything with a rebate attached to it"

If you don't like Mail in Rebates, tell the retailer. They will change!

helloman

I've purchased a DVD player with rebate offer from Canadian Tire.
After using the DVD player for a month without problem,
I am going to send in the rebate request.

I'll see what happens.

helloman

I got the rebate cheque.

nice2006

This is what has happened to me during the last 6 months, while I have finally struggled to get my rebate cheque....

My initial purchase was an external hard disk, see the link ,
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10063479&catid=

to be honest, I was overwhelmed to find out it was on sale at $120 instant discount PLUS $70 mail-in rebate, bringing the final price to $59 for a 160GB external hard disk, well, it was on a friday morning late August 2005. Without hesitation, I placed my order online at once, and received the order as usual within 3 business days. At early September, after using the product for a week or so, I decided to submit the form for my first ever mail in rebate process. Being very unfamiliar with this whole thing, I sent the origianl receipt and the barcode taken off from the outside of the package along with the copmpleted rebate form ( which I believed was the CORRECT stuff at the time), and waited for this so called 8 week process.

It would have been the end of the story should I had received the cheque by the designated date. In fact, I contacted them before last Christmas inquiring on the status of the rebate since it was long overdue( 12 weeks by that time). I was only so appalled to know that they were not aware of my application, meaning they don't have nothing kept on file regarding my rebate....

I wrote an angry email at once to express my deepest disappointment for their poor service and so on, ( to be continued ...)

christmas111

i bought 3 things in futureshop in november with rebates.
so far i got 2 cheques. the last one, i called the call center at least 5 times so far and they are still "processing" something. each time i called them, they just told me my address was missing, or they needed 3 weeks more to investigate what was going on. and this game went on and on.