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1300 Unopened Fry's Rebate Forms Found In Dumpster
blackmonday writes "The Consumerist is reporting a find of 1,300 unopened rebate submissions in a dumpster belonging to Vastech, a rebate processor hired by Fry's Electronics. Vastech's management blames it on a bad employee."
Bottom of the barrel wage earners working an admittedly unglamorous job tosses a few out. Where's the crime? Who's going to prosecute? Which State regs apply?
Rebates are a racket, always have been. I know from experience because I admin'd them years ago for a peripherals manufacturer.
Back to work!
Got Trader Joe's? friendwich.com RSS feeds work now!
lol, that's exactly what I thought when I read that. What the hell does "bad" employee mean anyway?
Personally, I keep an Excel (well, oocalc) spreadsheet of all my rebates, what, where, how much, when sent in, when to check, when received, etc. It's quite helpful. (Wow! I just added up my `how much' field -- $1723.)
No offense, but what really amazes me are people like yourself who actually believe that the CEO didn't do this himself. Honesstly, just because he calls himself the CEO doesn't mean a thing; and yet people get snowed over by titles.
We're talking about a small shop here. If you've ever worked in one, everybody knows what everyone else is doing. The so-called CEO could well have done it himself in order to spare himself from potential blackmail in court with a witness.
You could try contesting the charge on your credit card... (If you used one..)
I got the run-around on a $100 rebate on a $2000 fujitsu laptop, and my CC company happily took back the entire $2k until I finally got it.
Strangely enough, just days after the chargeback they seemed very interested in fulfilling the rebate.
Where I live, the US Post Office doesn't send a uniformed employee to my house with the mail. I have to drive down 2 miles of dirt road and dial into my box at the local Post Office.
Needless to say, this cuts out a LOT of rebates, which demand sending the check by US Mail to your street address. Which in my case will just get bounced.
Occasionally, the form will accept the 9 digit zip code, so I can sneak that in and hope for the best.
I've offered to write a small database to match the PO boxes with the actual street addresses, but they (the PO), couldn't care less.
Always wondered if it's legal to force US mail to a non-deliverable address, but I haven't found out anything which describes this situation.
You'll find items on Newegg or Zipzoomfly often have rebates. However you'll notice it's never a rebate from them, it's from the manufacturer. Manufacturers like to run promos sometimes to try and get people to buy their brand. Well, you can't fault the providers for helping you know about this and how to take advantage of it. You'll also notice, at least in the case of Newegg, they list the primary price as the actual price you pay.
Just don't go getting mad at the wrong party.
I've posted this story before so I won't go into a lot of detail, but my brother (the anal retentive one in the family) against my advice bought one of those too good to be true CD-R spindle deals where the rebate is just about as much as the purchase price of the spindle pack.
Months later and after much friendly teasing from me without even the hint of a rebate, my brother got angry and filed a small claims suit against them that was ultimately successful. After maybe an hour or two of research and an afternoon at the courthouse he received his rebate along with all of the expenses incurred in pursuing his claim. I was actually surprised at how simple the process was and effective the outcome.
My point is, there are ways you can get that rebate without incurring any cost to you.
This crap should be illegal.
In my country, Denmark, it is indeed illegal. From what I understand, I am glad it is so.
Did I mention that we have never had your problem with telemarketing either? Or that email and SMS spam is strictly illegal and swiftly and harshly prosecuted?
Or that we actually have an efficient and respected state department which looks after consumer rights in cases like deceptive marketing and defective products? For example they recently went after Apple when Apple refused to repair faulty macBooks.
Sometimes, more and more frequently lately, I am glad I don't live in the US.
There are other reasons. Can't return the product after cutting out the original UPC. Sometimes products break down after a few days, or are not as advertised. And time is money, so the longer they can use your money, the better for them.
If the rebate system can't be tightened up, it should be outlawed. Bad for the honest merchants, but the system is just too easy to abuse. All this nonsense of sending "proof" of purchase is, as you said, a cover for getting your info, and also a hope that the hassle will discourage some, and generation of excuses for not honoring the rebate. Plus, the inordinate delay is just that much longer they get the use of your money. It's so easy to have much more efficient ways to verify and honor rebates. Like, why not have a nice credit card service that handles the proof of purchase and the rebate, posting the rebate amount to your account the instant you've had the product for 30 days?
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
3.5 Float the extra $100 x 20,000 buyers x 2 months and collect the interest.
I bought an HP laptop from Fry's a bit over a year ago for $900, and was told there was a $100 rebate.
At the register, I was told that they didn't have the rebate form, and that I'd receive one in the mail.
3 copies in separate envelopes showed up in my mail several *weeks* later. Weeks after the rebate period had expired.
Actually, I bought a computer for my wife from Fry's in Fremont, but then she got one from her Dad for her bday. So we called and they said we could return the computer to the Fry's in Menlo Park. After waiting for a long time, we were given a refund for all but 6$. They said that this was due to the fact the tax in Fremont and Menlo Park is different. I questioned this, as it doesn't make sense. I can buy a shirt at Gap in CA and return it to Gap in UT and get the same refund. Anyway, the manager there, was very rude to my wife and I. My wife was shaken up, so I took her to the car, then came back and went to go talk to the Manager again. He blew up and threatened me the moment he saw me; he kept asking if I wanted to fight. It was like somebody in Jr. High, he did the whole head bob thing and kept saying: wanna fight? wanna fight? I said no,(and he said "sure you do!") and left discouraged while he egged me on. I was unable to beleive what I just endured. He then followed me out of the store and said his name and said not to forget it; which just added to my disbeleif. The manager followed me out of the store and called me out in the parking lot? Anyway, I discovered tigerdirect.com and microcenter and all sorts of other online shops and haven't shopped at a Fry's in 2 years. I suggest the same to everyone else. Oh, the manager's name was Joel Byers; he's the fighter from the Menlo Park Fry's. ("Joel Byers, don't forget the name" he said out front) I wrote a complaint (the first time I ever did to anyone) to Fry's corporate and never received a reply. That's just how they are.
CEO is RESPONSIBLE for all his companies actions. if the CEO is such a tool that he does not know what is going on and does not have a competent management team underneath him to make sure things are done right then the pampered ass needs to be fried.
That is what they get those huge incomes for, it's not for their witty banter or great story telling.
Fry a CEO or two really hard and you will see the corporate world straighten up overnight. nothing put in line an overpaid prima donna like a real threat of being jailed with icky poor people.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I've only sent in for a few rebates, and I received every single one. Usually I don't figure it into any buying decision because I'm always suspicious, but those on things I happened to be buying anyway, I've always received them.
In fact in one case they screwed up and gave me the money twice.
Mail sometimes gets legitimately lost.
Given the expenses incurred when applying for rebates, I have made it my policy not to buy into rebated items unless the list price matches the normal list prices of no-rebate stores. Another reason I rarely bother hunting for rebates is that they are often precursors to price reductions and new product introductions. For technology products, I generally consider them as blinking and screaming "End-Of-Life / Discontinued" tags, indicators that I should avoid buying the stuff or at least be particularly wary.
I have applied for rebates only twice ($15 on a $40 DI-524 and $45 on a $100 Audigy 2ZS) and got both back 2-3 months later. In both cases, the counter prices were already lower than other stores and in line with what I considered to be a fair price so I did not care too much whether or not the rebates came back... but I certainly would have made it a point to make it known to as many potential customers as possible if they did not.
Wow, I'm surprised at all the horror stories about the rebates. I'm sure some of them, maybe a lot of them are true to an extent.
However, I've sent in hundreds (Close to 300) of rebates over the past 3 or 4 years, and I've had exactly 6 come up with problems, which were resolved with a call to the company or to send in copies of my rebate submission.
One company in particular, which I'm not sure what name they use, though, so they might actually be part of the retailer itself, as opposed to a rebate company proper, has been the lions share of problems. They claim part of my submission was not included... Well, I always keep copies, so I know what is included and what isn't, but on more than on occasion, they claim they got the receipt, but not the UPC or something... the funny thing is, the submission has the UPC and receipt on the SAME PHOTOCOPIED PAGE... so it's physically impossible not to receive one without the other... yet they claim it is so. Obviously they try to scam some people... Either way, once I send them in another copy of the SAME page, they send me my rebate.
But, I digress. My point is that out of the nearly 300 rebates I've sent in, a very small percentage has ever given me a problem, and a large part of that very small percentage has been from one company in particular. Otherwise, I've always received my rebates without hassle, even if it takes 4 or 5 months for them to arrive.
There's a program out there called "Rebate! Rebate!" that keeps track of your rebates. I don't have a link, but it works pretty well.
I like rebates... kind of a pain to send in, but they do offer some really good/incredible deals now and then and are worth the effort, so long as you follow the requirements exactly, which usually isn't that hard.
e.g. Buy an item for $1000 + sales tax (around here that would be $90). . . . get a rebate for $200 . . . . you paid sales tax on $1000, not $800, so where's the rebate for overpayment of that tax?
That's why rebates will never go away. The government collects sales more tax than they would normally collect. It's a ripoff, courtesy of your greedy politicians.
My biggest pet peeve with rebates (other than not receiving them) is that in Ontario, we have 14% sales tax. And we have to pay sales tax, and don't get it refunded on the amount of the rebate. This can add up to quite a bit ($14 on a $100 rebate for those who can't do math). Whereas if they just take the rebate amount off the extra purchase price, then you don't have to pay the tax.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
...I ask the sales person to take the amount of the rebate off the price. They are argue that they can't, and when I go to leave they just end up getting authorization from their manager. I get the rebate, instantly, and without the tax worries (I live in BC, so I know your pain).
And if they try to call my bluff, I grab a flyer and go to one of the other stores in town to get a 'price match', in which I get them to factor in the rebate. So far I've been lucky and haven't lost yet!