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Why Are Software Rebates Being Rejected?
"A month earlier, I bought a 128MB Kingston DIMM from buy.com and once again submit the rebate as instructed. A few weeks later I receive a postcard saying that my request was denied as I didn't submit the original purchase receipt showing the price of the item. After sending an e-mail to the fulfillment company stating that I submitted the only receipt that I had from buy.com which is the print out of the Web page after you complete your order, I receive a response stating that my rebate has been approved. This particuliar rebate was an offer only valid through buy.com and Kingston which makes it difficult for me to believe that the fulfillment company wouldn't know what a receipt from buy.com looks like. I'm also still awaiting the rebate check.
I'm beginning to wonder if this is just a case of bad luck or whether these rebates are only a scam by companies to get people to buy the products due to the advertised after-rebate prices, and then they figure that most people won't submit the rebate requests to begin with and for those that do, they will make it as difficult as possible to receive the promised rebate money."
Happened to me a while back. I sent a complaint letter to the Consumer Fraud division of the Minnesota (where I live) Attorney General's office. I cc'd the rebate center, Intuit corparate Customer Support, and corporate Sam's Club Customer Support (I bought the software at Sam's). Within days I had received two rebate checks (I only cashed one). A few weeks later I received a call from the woman at Intuit who had created the rebate program. She apologized profusely about the mixup. She said she had received three faxes about my case from Sam's, and people in Intuit. A few days later I received a third rebate check too.
Here's what happened to me:
About a year ago, I had the opportunity to purchase from Best Buy (first big mistake) 16 MB SIMMs for $15 ($30 minus the $15 mail in rebate). After clearly asking the sales rep and clearly getting a response of being clearly showed on the rebate slip that there was no limit to how many I could buy with the rebate, I purchased four of them, figguring I'd get a $60 rebate.
After finding out that there were no more rebate slips in the store, I was told to call a phone number and one would be mailed out to me. I called the phone number, waited three weeks, and got nothing. Afraid that the offer was expired, I went back to Best Buy to find another rebate slip, only to discover that the offer was expired and no more were available. I gave my predicament to them, and basically got the, "We can't help you...you're screwed," shoulder shrug.
Finally, one more week passes and I get the mail-in rebate slip. After singing praises to myself, I found out that there was only one day left where I could mail in the rebate slip before the offer was invalid. After hurrying to try and find the original boxes and putting the envelope together and squeezing in time with everything else, I rushed to the Post Office at 11:55 PM and asked them to make sure it was postmarked for that night. I thought that was the end.
Another month and a half go by before I receive the rebate. Expecting a nice $60 deposit into my Bank Account, I discover that I got a lousy $15. Angry, I called up the company, only to receive what very much sounded like a secretary that was working out of a dead-end office in some corner-closet basement in the office building, telling me that, "Alright, I'll jot your complaint down here and will get back to you." After telling her that she had yet to even find out my name or my phone number, she gave a small sigh and grudgingly asked what my contact info was. Any hopes of seeing the other $45 dollars were shot to pieces at that point, but I waited an extra 60 days in grave hopes that I would get a call back or another check (before the original rebate check expired). After three and a half months passed from my original purchase of the RAM, I gave up.
All I see in mail-in rebates is an opportunity for a company to make a sale without having to fully explain their unwillingness to uphold their end of the bargain. I mean, it's kind of like holding a "parking-complex deal" where you and your dealer both stand in the shadows, one with the suitcase of money, the other with the goods. If you're dumb enough to pass the suitcase over to your partner without bothering to BE ABSOLUTELY SURE that he's not going to run with the money, you're going to lose the money.
They jip you, and unless you get some big-name consumer advocate to help you out, you're going to get the bum-rap.
Anyway, I found Cecil Adam's column, Why are rebate checks drawn on obscure banks in the middle of nowhere?, which is a really interesting read.
Paul
I experienced problems with a rebate program offered by Logitech that was called "Buy More...Save More" and was offered to consumers during the period of July 15,2000 to October 15,2000.The amount of rebate was based on how much product you purchased at one time.The form that you needed had to be downloaded off the net from Logitechs site and filled in accordingly with bar codes attached and copies of invoices,the normal requests.The form header clearly reads to the consumer as follows: "BuyMore...SaveMore!""$200 of product=$70.00 Rebate" Buy 2 or more Logitech products:Totaling $50.00 or more Get a $10.00 rebate by mail Totaling $100.00 or more Get a $25.00 rebate by mail Totaling $200.00 or more Get a $70.00 rebate by mail. I thought this was pretty simple so I bought $232.00 of Logitech product from Buy.com all on one invoice. I was looking for a $70.00 rebate check in the mail after submitting all the paperwork. Well here comes my check nine weeks later and it is for $25.00. I said, must be a mistake so I called 1-800-741-1365 (Rebate Express) a division of the express group,they are a rebate processing center.The woman I spoke to informed me that the reason that I was shorted on the rebate was that each item had to be sold over $50.00 each and since the four wireless track balls were only $44.94 each and the cordless I-Touch keyboard was only $46.87,that the only rebate due me was for the four trackballs with a combined value of $187.48 which gets the $100.00 or more status and a $25.00 rebate. I told her that that was not clear on the rebate form and we started the arguing process,but she was not going to see it my way. I write this because I am tired of seeing the mail in rebate programs sucking us all in. I also want Logitech to know that I have nine workstations with there wireless products at each one....but all we be replaced with new product and all Logitech donated to others that don't have any,and that will keep nine users from purchasing Logitech products. Very slippery Logitech,we are catching on to your under handed ways and the consumer will prevail. By the way...cordless trackballs aren't worth a flip. Logitech does not even supply an email address for customers to write email to.
The worst temp job I ever worked was for a company (Company "T") handling a rebate program for a major PC manufacturer (Company "M"). If software/hardware companies are still farming this work out, no wonder the rebate programs are so bad!
There were about 16 of us were in the cubicle farm doing data entry and taking calls from irate people wondering why their rebates were late. I estimated the temp churn at 25% per week. It's very likely that the person handling your rebate was on his/her first day.
This company was handling about 12 different rebate programs, using a slower-than-molasses database that could be crashed by pressing a single wrong key and required 4 hours to rebuild.
Since we were answering the phone as "Company M", we were not allowed to say "our computers are down" and thus had to B.S. our way through the call.
As most of our callers were salespeople, they smelt the B.S. instantly and jumped into either sarcasm ("yeah, the check's in the mail, right?") or hostility ("let me speak to the manager, NOW!") The "manager" job rotated among the team.
This hell was not entirely Company T's fault. Company T had to cut and mail the checks, but Company M hadn't sent us the money to pay the rebates! We were sitting on thousands of checks we couldn't send out because they wouldn't have cleared the bank.
I lasted three weeks.
The purpose of a rebate is to gather marketing information so the company can spam you and sell your data to other companies. You got mad because they didn't fulfill their end of the deal. But, you are probably one of the few. Most people would just forget about it and chalk it up as a loss. I hate rebates. I'd rather spend the extra $10 up front than sell my soul to the marketing department. So you saved a measly $10! Big fucking deal! Your personal info alone must be worth at least $50 to them! Here's a tip: if you *must* claim a rebate, purposely mispell your name and see how much junk mail you start getting addressed incorrectly. Rebates are a carrot on a stick - trying to get to do what they want you to. Those little-old ladies who clip coupons out of the Sunday paper are in the same category. They spend 4 hours clipping coupons, and save a total of $5 in the grocery store - but the company now knows what types of ad they respond to, and what newspaper they read. If this is used in association with the "preffered shopper" card that most stores use - they also know the little-old ladies name, address, phone number and age too.
Apparently, rebate fraud is a real problem in the industry. It's not the fact that you did or did not purchase quicken. It's the fact that you may be one of those people who are making a rebate by scamming software companies.
It used to work like this. Buy a piece of hardware which was offering a rebate, cut out the UPC code, and send the rebate in with upc code from box. Return product to store, complaining that it doesn't work. Get refund, and wait for rebate check. That was until Best Buy and others refused to take back returns if the UPC was not attached.
Basically people started to figure out how to make a few hundred bucks by just cutting and sending UPC symbols. And that's why you have to go through the rebate center who's job is to make sure every rebate request follows the explicit rules of that particular rebate. And yes, they will just reject you if you didn't do everything exactly as they ask, like not highlighting the purchase on the receipt.
And that's also why I don't like rebates, and stores that aggressively market rebates (like Best Buy) unless the instant rebates are given to you instantly, and at the register.
It just furthers the Law of Rebates, that's why.
Why do manufacturers decide to give rebates instead of sale prices? Simple: Because nearly the same number of people will buy the product (with full intentions of sending in the rebate), then promptly forget or decide it isn't worth the hassle when they get home. I believe I recently read that only 30% of people ever fill out rebate forms and actually send them in, but maybe I'm wrong.
I send in a LOT of rebates, mostly because I check out deal websites and buy stuff that way. I've been keeping an Excel spreadsheet of them for about a year now, and I'd say that around 25% of my rebates arrive quickly, 50% arrive after several months, and 25% never arrive.
So why would they send them back to you with a lame excuse? Because I'm sure about 50% of the people out there would just get fed up and decide it isn't worth the effort and the hassle of calling customer service and bitching them out. Sure, they'll complain to their friends about how they got screwed, but they'll give up or set the envelope aside for too long or let it get lost in the shuffle.
Case in point: Western Digital had a 45gig HD for $190 with two rebates totalling $90. I bought two (one for the PC, one to upgrade my TIVO) and send in all four rebates. It took them 3 months to send my rebate form back with some minor note about how I had a UPC problem. I had to call, sit on hold for 30 minutes, and confirm that my UPC was good. Then it took them nearly another 3 months to send my checks. I got them yesterday, actually.
Moral of story: Keep a chart, always photocopy before you send em in, and complain a lot if they never come. I don't know about you guys, but $90 + $90 is not cash I don't worry about getting back...
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