PS -- I think Tax Program Rebates are the worst about shafting you. If
there is some enterprising Attorney that ever files a suit on behalf on
everyone that gets shafted (Class action that is ) Count me in!


On 12/28/06 9:05 PM, in article ,
"John" wrote:

I know that the institution of rebates is meant to rip you off so I'm
quite anal about paying attention to the details and ALWAYS sending in
the rebate with delivery confirmation. The delivery confirmation at
least minimizes the "Sorry, we never received your rebate" or "Sorry, we
didn't receive your rebate in time" excuses.

I read the rebate forms several times looking for the "gotcha's". I know
I go through way more trouble than I should for $20-$50 but it's the
principle. They make it as annoying as possible to claim a rebate so
that most people won't bother. I'm the one that bothers.

I send in my rebate to Canon along with all the rebate form, purchase
receipt and I cut out the UPC code from the box and put that in the
envelope. My new tactic is to use wide tape and tape the UPC code to
the rebate form.

I checked on my rebate status just now.

Error(s): An original qualifying UPC was not included

Yep. No matter how hard I tried, Canon still managed to screw me over.

Since they want "an original" qualifying UPC", my copy won't suffice.

Canon, the next time I'm in the market for a product I'll remember this
incident.

Gary KW4Z wrote:

PS -- I think Tax Program Rebates are the worst about shafting you. If
there is some enterprising Attorney that ever files a suit on behalf on
everyone that gets shafted (Class action that is ) Count me in!

I assume you didn't notice that as of this past year, tax
software rebates are pretty much a thing of the past?? Too bad,
since you were often able to get much better deals than you can
now. And the sad thing is, the tax rebates were pretty reliable
and fast.

Bill

Not mine .. Maybe they saw me coming. I do my Taxes now online and total
cost for using the service and e-filing is about $15.00 total and I think
that was State and Federal.

Now one more point. I think companies that make it easier on the consumer
should be rewarded and I know there are plenty that do but I know of one
that is BEST and one that is up and coming and at least trying to a degree.

STAPLES has online filing of Rebates and always pays fast when I have filled
out them. You can also track them along the way. CompUSA, to a much lesser
degree, is processing a few Rebates online now or e-rebates I think they
call it. I told Staples manager that due to their majority of online filing
most of my shopping, if it can be had there, is at Staples. I also hope
others that read this will post and commend other retailers that use and
promote e-rebates.


On 12/29/06 3:09 AM, in article , "Bill"
wrote:



Gary KW4Z wrote:

PS -- I think Tax Program Rebates are the worst about shafting you. If
there is some enterprising Attorney that ever files a suit on behalf on
everyone that gets shafted (Class action that is ) Count me in!

I assume you didn't notice that as of this past year, tax
software rebates are pretty much a thing of the past?? Too bad,
since you were often able to get much better deals than you can
now. And the sad thing is, the tax rebates were pretty reliable
and fast.

Bill

Our local Staples rarely has the rebate merchandise in stock
when I look for it. Maybe that's why they can process them
so well.

Gary KW4Z wrote:

STAPLES has online filing of Rebates and always pays fast when I have filled
out them. You can also track them along the way. CompUSA, to a much lesser
degree, is processing a few Rebates online now or e-rebates I think they
call it. I told Staples manager that due to their majority of online filing
most of my shopping, if it can be had there, is at Staples. I also hope
others that read this will post and commend other retailers that use and
promote e-rebates.

Now one more point. I think companies that make it easier on the consumer
should be rewarded and I know there are plenty that do but I know of one
that is BEST and one that is up and coming and at least trying to a degree.

STAPLES has online filing of Rebates and always pays fast when I have filled
out them. You can also track them along the way. CompUSA, to a much lesser
degree, is processing a few Rebates online now or e-rebates I think they
call it. I told Staples manager that due to their majority of online filing
most of my shopping, if it can be had there, is at Staples. I also hope
others that read this will post and commend other retailers that use and
promote e-rebates.


Staples "EZ rebates" are top notch. I fill out the form online and can
follow the procedure all the way through. I've also had great
experiences with Circuit City rebates - never had one disappear.

Squirrel

Staples "EZ rebates" are top notch. I fill out the form online and can
follow the procedure all the way through. I've also had great
experiences with Circuit City rebates - never had one disappear.

Circuit City may not lose rebates but they do reject them. They
have this new thing going on with "minimum purchase price" for
items, which they conveniently leave off of many forms, but
still reject the rebate if you paid less than the minimum price
their computer has for that rebate. So if you did a price match
or used a large Circuit City coupon, they will reject the rebate
using bogus excuses like it cannot be combined with other offers
(which they interpret the rebate/price match to be). Only
problem with that is that it CAN be combined with these if the
price you paid is above that minimum price (which is NOT the
normal selling price), so that means that those terms do NOT
apply to coupons and price matches.

Some attorney is going to come along (hopefully) and file a
class-action suit against them on this.

Bill

Some attorney is going to come along (hopefully) and
file a
class-action suit against them on this.


Circuit City has already been sued TWICE by New Jersey's
AG for failing to honor rebates. That's unreal...
nowadays you have to screw a lot of people before any
watchdog agency will take action, so to have gotten sued
again. wow!

we need much greater penalties. If the companies keep
engaging in the same old practices, it's evidence the
penalties aren't effective... i'd love to see it something
along the lines of "whatever your last one or two
quarters' net income was, you pay us that much in cash."
You talk about walking the straight & narrow.

anon wrote:

Circuit City has already been sued TWICE by New Jersey's
AG for failing to honor rebates. That's unreal...
nowadays you have to screw a lot of people before any
watchdog agency will take action, so to have gotten sued
again. wow!

Can you post details? Was it recent? With this "minimum price"
BS, they were rejecting stuff back in September-October, but
they never had any wording on their rebate forms regarding the
minimum price. All of a sudden, people reported invalid rebates
had been validated (this after calling and having the rebate
house refuse to validate them, and their rebate house will
almost always validate rejected rebates by calling) and the
minimum pricing wording started showing up on forms. I figured
someone must have gotten to them because they would not do stuff
like this on their own. Then on Black Friday, they got sloppy
and did not include the wording on most of the forms, only to
add it to the online versions a couple of weeks later and reject
rebates that did not meet that amount.

I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to rebate shenanigans, but CC
really deserves to be hauled to court over this stuff.

Bill

anon wrote:
Some attorney is going to come along (hopefully) and
file a
class-action suit against them on this.


Circuit City has already been sued TWICE by New Jersey's
AG for failing to honor rebates. That's unreal...
nowadays you have to screw a lot of people before any
watchdog agency will take action, so to have gotten sued
again. wow!

we need much greater penalties. If the companies keep
engaging in the same old practices, it's evidence the
penalties aren't effective... i'd love to see it something
along the lines of "whatever your last one or two
quarters' net income was, you pay us that much in cash."
You talk about walking the straight & narrow.

Interesting! I must admit, I've never walked in with boatloads of
coupons to bring the price way down, although I believe I've
pricematched before and still received the rebate. I must have not
reached the price point put into their system for rejection. I guess
Staples is the only (?) "good guy" out there.

Thanks for the info on CC.