Step by step, getting your rebates in a timely manner.
The following STEP BY STEP PROCESS is just my .02 cents on getting my rebates filled in a timely manner.
My opinions are based upon MY spending hours/days of waiting onhold over the years, only to talk to someone who gives me a snowjob and claims to do me a one-time BIG favor by getting my rebate approved with their manager.
Well I finally said, NO MORE.
Life is too short.
Besides, the retailer did not wait for 6 to 8 weeks, before they got my money at the checkout counter.
Nor did they have to jump thru any of MY hoops.
I simply expect the same respect.
I post in forums, to help others get their rebates that are due.
Some folks read my postings and respond that I'm callused about rebates.
Yes. Absolutely. But it is due to the rebate fulfillment places making me that way. [but ultimately it was my fault for even playing the game by THEIR rules. Once I got 3rd parties involved, the games sometimes got fun].
After years of playing their BS rebate games, I really have grown extremely callused on the subject of rebates.
And I simply refuse to play ANY further games, using their rules*.
[*= keeping me onhold, calling back several times, etc]
This new shift in thinking has probably saved me weeks of my time, otherwise spent by waiting onhold. Weeks, meaning that if you add up all of my rebates in the past few years, multipled by all the time the time spent on hold = weeks out of my life
First of all, let me say that I now, IF POSSIBLE, I now try to avoid any and all rebates.
[But sometimes a sale and it's associated rebate is just TOO good to let go by, so I go for it].
BUT, here is MY checklist for successful rebate fulfillment, in a timely manner:
1. Make copies of everything.
Make sure you really are sending in EVERYTHING NECESSARY.
2. triple check everything you send in, before sealing the envelope.
[upc, receipt, rebate form, serial number-if required, which model number purchased-if required, etc, etc]
3. I have a rubber stamp that I stamp onto my rebate forms that says,
"ALL REBATES TERMS HAVE BEEN MET. WILLFUL DELAY AND/OR FRAUDULENT DENIAL OF THE ENCLOSED "VALID" REBATE MAY/WILL RESULT IN LEGAL ACTION." Might not help, but it can't hurt.
4. I then wait a week or two.
If the fulfillment company offers an ONLINE link for checking your status,then check it a week or 2 after submission.
5. I have found that if there are any problems, they usually occur in the first 2-3 weeks.
Hands down, THE MOST USED and ABUSED, time honored,
favorite SCAM of the rebate fulfillment companies is their postcard that
tells you that you
FAILED TO SUBMIT THE PROPER upc/receipt/boxtop/xxxx
You know the drill.
They claim that you DID NOT submit the correct:
- upc barcode
- receipt
- etc, etc
But you KNOW that you did.
When they pull this trick, I go immediately to the
BBB's website and file a BBB complaint against them.
6. You'd be surprised at how many times I'll get another postcard [about a week later] saying my rebate is now valid and is being processed.
[hey, it WAS valid all along].
[But thanks BBB for rattling their cage, so to speak].
7. If the BBB's help is not enough to break the rebate check loose, and the fulfillment company still maintains that it is not valid, with the same old crap like missing or incorrect upc barcode,
[but I KNOW that I sent in everything required]
I'll next contact the State attorney general and file a complaint.
Most state AG's have online complaint forms, so you save the 37 cent stamp.
8. this usually breaks things loose, but if not, I contact the FTC.
Again, online forms.
9. if that does not break the rebate loose, I will then contact the
US Postal Inspectors and file a mail fraud complaint.
10. This will usually break it loose and get me my rebate check. If for some fluke it does not, I then write it off as a loss.
I only write this to help save others a lot of frustration and something extremely valuable, OUR TIME!
TIMED SAVED - Even if I have to fill out and then submit every complaint I listed above, I expend probably one hour or LESS.
When I have posted these tips at other forums, here's the usual response.
1. Some folks whine that I'm being a first-class @#$%hole. A jerk. etc.
2. Others joke and say that the rebate-people reading my rebate submission will
fall off their chairs laughing and then purposefully trash my rebate submission, because they perceive me as being assinine.
They'll do it just for spite.
My answer to these hecklers is that it doesn't matter to me.
[Whether or not to fulfull a VALID rebate is NOT a rebate processer's CHOICE to make.
Rebate fulfillment [for any valid rebate] must be completed, or they risk paying the legal consequences for failing to do so].
I remind these forum naysayers/jokesters that when anyone submitting a rebate has met all the requirements, their rebate MUST be fulfilled.
Or else the rebate company should be prepared to face the consequences of what could easily be construed as consumer fraud.
[One guy [that loved to heckle me], told me that the rebate folks would simply trash my request. Well maybe I'm a neophyte in the field of legal matters, but as I see it, if they intentionally trashed it, they have just committed mail fraud.]
In effect, they would have used the mail system to solicit sales from someone [myself]. I would have made a product purchase, with complete
expectations of a rebate check, yet in the end, they refused to fulfill the rebate by trashing my rebate form]
3. Finally, a few others usually say thanks.
4. others read the post and probably could care less one way or the other.
PS
Whenever I stumble across the topic of rebates not getting fulfilled, I simply try to help others out.
The bottom line, I feel that the rebate people made a contract with us.
We buy their product, and in exchange they promise to send us a rebate check.
1. No where does it say I must BABYSIT them for 6 to 12 weeks and then also
2. kiss their #$% to get my rebate.
Realistically though, when acting as lone individuals, the rebate places can blow us off and probably no one person will ever be able to do much about it.
But when we [as 100's or 1000's of rebate receipients] force the rebate fulfillment companies to be responsible to a 3RD PARTY
[BBB,FTC, State AG or Postal inspectors] for their behavior against consumers, it is amazing how fast they change their tune.
Again, just my 02 cents.
