Mail In Rebates: no thanks!

[elija]

I had an "incident" in a computer superstore with these mail in rebates.

They were offering a piece of kit that I wanted, it doesn't matter what but the price was extremely almost unbelievably good. So I went over and snagged myself what I thought was a bargain. Anyway when I got there, I saw the in store price was higher than advertised which I naively thought was an error on their part.

I took my prize to the checkout and the clerk rang it up and charged me the full in store rate. Naturally I queried this and by luck I had the advert which I brandished at the clerk. He told me that is was a mail in rebate offer, a claim countered by my it doesn't say that in the advert, this is tantamount to fraud and I want to speak to the manager; right here and right now. My volume had also gone up so despite the delay they were suffering at least the good folks in the queue were getting entertained while they waited.

At length after I refused to move, the manager condescended to make an appearance. Off I went again. I am immensely proud that despite the frustrated volume increases I didn't swear once during the very public discussion taking place in front of the increasingly long checkout queue.

The upshot is that after half an hour I got my prize at the advertised price, a not insignificant £75.00 off and a couple of cheers from the queue. Oh and when showing Mail In Rebate offers now they state what they are in the advert. I don't actually know if I can take credit for that but I like to think I can

I tend to avoid the mail in offers.

[Thrillhouse]

Honestly, I've never had much of a problem with mail-in rebates. Maybe I've just been lucky. Of course, I've probably only signed up for about 10 in my lifetime but they all came back eventually with the exception of one where a simple phone call to the company rectified the situation and got me my money back.

That one was just recently (maybe 6 months ago) when I was due for a new cell phone having had my old one for about 3 years. The cell phone provider I have gives you a certain dollar amount of credit for every year you have your phone and after three years, I had racked up a good amount of money for a new one. So, I decided to go for one of the fancy ones which, with all of the credit I had earned and the $100 mail-in rebate, came out to about $80. I bought it, filled out the necessary paperwork, sent it in and about a month later received a notice saying that my purchase somehow didn't qualify for the rebate (they didn't say why of course). However, I remember reading the fine print very carefully and knowing that my purchase did qualify. So, I called them up, explained the situation and they grudgingly capitulated. As has been said, I really think you just need to be persistent with them because they're counting on people to eventually give up and are just looking for any reason to disqualify you, but if you are sure you qualify and have the proof to back it up, they will give in.

[techieMoe]

That one was just recently (maybe 6 months ago) when I was due for a new cell phone having had my old one for about 3 years. The cell phone provider I have gives you a certain dollar amount of credit for every year you have your phone and after three years, I had racked up a good amount of money for a new one. So, I decided to go for one of the fancy ones which, with all of the credit I had earned and the $100 mail-in rebate, came out to about $80. I bought it, filled out the necessary paperwork, sent it in and about a month later received a notice saying that my purchase somehow didn't qualify for the rebate (they didn't say why of course). However, I remember reading the fine print very carefully and knowing that my purchase did qualify. So, I called them up, explained the situation and they grudgingly capitulated. As has been said, I really think you just need to be persistent with them because they're counting on people to eventually give up and are just looking for any reason to disqualify you, but if you are sure you qualify and have the proof to back it up, they will give in.

My most recent rebate experience was quite similar to yours. After we got married, my wife decided she wanted to be on my cellular phone plan, so we went into an AT&T store (take note, it comes up later) and added her on. She needed a new phone, so we picked one up that had a $50 mail-in rebate. The clerk gave us all the pertinent paperwork and filled most of the rebate for in for us, including a separate "rebate" copy of the receipt so we could mail it in and keep our original.

Roughly 3 months later we received a letter saying we didn't qualify. They did give a reason, and a number to call. Problem was, the reason made no sense. It said, "The location from which you purchased the item is not eligible for this rebate." Now remember, we bought the phone from the AT&T store itself, and the rebate was coming from AT&T, not the manufacturer of the phone (LG). I was confused.

I called the number and the lady on the other end was very pleasant. She said that according to the record someone thought we had bought the phone at Best Buy. I told her we hadn't. She looked at the scanned receipt in her computer and said, "Wow. That's obviously from one of our stores. No problem. We should have your rebate out to you soon."

A few weeks later we received an AT&T-branded Visa gift card, which we used to help restock our kitchen after Hurricane Ike. It all worked out, but my blood pressure did rise a bit when I got that post card.

[cousinlucky]

The Only store where I have trust in rebates is with Staples.

Best Buy and the others will give you premature gray hair.
It's like an Obstacle course. One " hitch " and your " rebate "
is denied!! It's called " Marketing " I'm told.

[bigvoo]

Waaaaaayyyyyy ahead of you Ozar, I stopped shopping at bestbuy 3 years ago because i got ripped off on a $ 100. mail in rebate...the scam is, you send it in, and they send you a letter saying they recieved an empty envelope, and if you send they stuff they will honor it;;;;;;which of course is impossible because you have already sent the stuff in :@... I went an raised hell at bestbuy and they said " we can't control our vendors" I said " BS"!!! if you know they are ripping people off and you use them, you are part of the problem"...I now shop at frys, and so far so good. when they mention a mail in rebate, I say "nope' and last time they actually just gave me the price any how.