Thursday, April 6, 2006
Dealing With Rebates: Ever Get Burned?
Posted by Jason Dunn in "OFF-TOPIC" @ 01:30 PM
"When I knew what I wanted, I went straight to Amazon.com. I knew the shopping giant offered super-duper rebates for buying a cell phone with new wireless service (that's how I bought my last phone). Plus, I didn't have to deal with salespeople. The phone cost about $150. But Amazon offered a full rebate with the purchase of a new, one-year wireless contract for $39.99 or more. Choosing a carrier plan was fairly simple, given that only Cingular carried the Razr at the time, apart from my then-carrier TMobile. Staying with TMobile would have precluded the rebate. I bought the package on Nov. 28, 2005, and immediately applied for the rebate on Amazon's site. Then all I had to do was wait for that surprise check in my mailbox. I'm still waiting."
Does that story sound familiar to you? It's probably happened to all of us at one point or another: being trapped in rebate hell. The reason why rebates are so common in North America is that the vast majority of rebates never get submitted - people buy the $99 with a $30 rebate and they forget to submit it, and the company with the $99 product laughs all the way to the bank. Sometimes though, as this article points out, even when you follow all the rules and jump through all the hoops, you're still stuck waiting for a long time.
I've just recently had my first bad rebate experience: I'm meticulous about filing rebates, and have always gotten my money, until this incident: I purchased a Fujitsu N6620 (17" wide screen laptop) and there was a $100 USD rebate on it. I filled out the paperwork, cut out the UPC code from the box, and sent everything in a few days after getting the laptop. Some three months later, I received an email from the rebate center telling me that rebate could not be honoured because the UPC code was not submitted! I know for a fact it was - I went up and checked the original box, and there's a bit gaping hole where it used to be. I phoned the rebate center to tell them they had made an error, but it was to no avail: they informed me that it was a different company that received the physical rebate from me, and that my only solution was to go back to Fujitsu and get another UPC code from them and re-submit the rebate. I explained that I had ordered this laptop online, and that Fujitsu had discontinued this version of the notebook some 90 days after releasing it, replacing it with a Dual Core version. The rebate center could offer me no solution, so for the first time ever, I'm giving up on a rebate and admitting defeat. :? Have any rebate hell stories to share?
Does that story sound familiar to you? It's probably happened to all of us at one point or another: being trapped in rebate hell. The reason why rebates are so common in North America is that the vast majority of rebates never get submitted - people buy the $99 with a $30 rebate and they forget to submit it, and the company with the $99 product laughs all the way to the bank. Sometimes though, as this article points out, even when you follow all the rules and jump through all the hoops, you're still stuck waiting for a long time.
I've just recently had my first bad rebate experience: I'm meticulous about filing rebates, and have always gotten my money, until this incident: I purchased a Fujitsu N6620 (17" wide screen laptop) and there was a $100 USD rebate on it. I filled out the paperwork, cut out the UPC code from the box, and sent everything in a few days after getting the laptop. Some three months later, I received an email from the rebate center telling me that rebate could not be honoured because the UPC code was not submitted! I know for a fact it was - I went up and checked the original box, and there's a bit gaping hole where it used to be. I phoned the rebate center to tell them they had made an error, but it was to no avail: they informed me that it was a different company that received the physical rebate from me, and that my only solution was to go back to Fujitsu and get another UPC code from them and re-submit the rebate. I explained that I had ordered this laptop online, and that Fujitsu had discontinued this version of the notebook some 90 days after releasing it, replacing it with a Dual Core version. The rebate center could offer me no solution, so for the first time ever, I'm giving up on a rebate and admitting defeat. :? Have any rebate hell stories to share?
