This is a picture of the 1,300 unopened rebate forms a Mercury News reporter found in a dumpster near Vastech, a rebate processor for Fry’s Electronics.
When confronted, the company’s owner blamed it on a lazy employee who no longer works for Vastech and offered to process and sign checks for all of the envelopes in front of the reporter.
Stories like this make Matt’s “as organized as a Swiss train system” rebate tracking methodology seem less and less insane.
Tech Talk: Unopened rebate requests found in San Jose dumpster [MercuryNews]
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I had trouble with a MacMall rebate but once I actually called them to dispute the rejection letter, since it made absolutely no sense whatsoever, the person I spoke to overrode the rejection. I received my checks in less than 2 weeks.
@Egakino: Yes, it is definitely a copyright violation UNLESS he asked for and was given permission to reprint it. (Or if there was an indication on the site that all its stories were free to reprint or redistribute, but I doubt that there was.) A lot of news sites have a form available for that, though I have no idea how often permission is granted.
As if shopping at Fry’s wasn’t already such pure joy, now you can figure in a decent likelihood that those rebate offers behind most of the good-looking deals may end up as unprocessed landfill.
Here’s a look at some of the happenings this week from the MoneyBlogNetwork and beyond: FMF asks do you pay cash for your cars? – FMF’s post highlights a Bankrate study that found that 12% of thier respondents paid cash for their cars.
All this story will do will make them burn the envelopes now or throw them in their neighbors dumpster.
By the way, how did he know it was the lazy employee who threw them away? If he did know that the employee threw them away, why didn’t the owner take them out of the dumpster????
@yahonza: That’s exactly the point, they don’t wan’t to save you money. The last thing they want is for the advertised savings to become real. This is why I can’t stand it when companies claim they’re devoted to satisfying us and that it’s prority numero uno. Behavior like rebates that they’ll do anything to deny you makes this sound like bull to me.
So that’s what happened to my 20 bux!
Yes, the point of using rebates is to advertise a really low price, but in most cases the customer wont even bother filling out the forms.
Also, most customers who do fill out the forms, don’t read the instructions and fill it out wrong or don’t include the proper paperwork (they send copies of receipts when the original is needed, or don’t include the model number, etc etc etc) And most rebates are from manufacturers, not the stores, so the store really has little control over if the rebate gets filled.
So as usual, you post an article with questionable details. You claim they are “a rebate processor for Fry’s Electronics” but that is not true (and the article does not say that). They were a company processing their own rebates for items sold at Fry’s. Your “article” makes it seem like Fry’s dumped them. The original article doesn’t even mention Fry’s in the title (and Fry’s does not offer their own rebates — they are always from the manufacturer). If you do not understand rebates then you may say “what’s the difference”? If you do, it’s everything. I would expect a consumer website to know the difference and attempt to educate.
Common sense says you do not buy stuff with rebates from unknown companies who process them themselves. That’s the lesson from the original article.
By the way, given that the majority of rebate fraud I see comes from California (stuff that goes to City of Industry, IO Magic, etc.), why hasn’t the California AG done anything to stop it???
@82300sd: You waste ~$3 on certified mail for a rebate of $20? That is ridiculous. Maybe on a $100 rebate. As someone else said showing that they received it is no proof that they won’t claim that the form was not in the envelope. And this story is a rare case of dumped rebates. The bigger problem is bogus rejections where they claim it is missing the UPC, etc. Certified Mail does NOTHING to prevent that.
as a former customer service employee of a major(think **&*) wireless company, a major computer/printer manf.(put two really popular letters together) and a nation wide office supply store(the one with that button)…there is a thing called “thresholds” now if a rebate becomes too popular/or a large amount(+$50) then a certain amount(%) of these rebates are “lost in transit” the company really has no intention of honoring these and with the requirements of sending in and only accepting originals(how do you resubmit an “original” when you had to send them in the first place)…I had many interactions with the 3rd party processing centres and in the cases where a file exsisted, even though they could confirm that the customer had fulfilled the requirements the reap would tell me the rebate issuer(att, motorola , hp/compaq, belkin, toshiba, sony, nokia) had denied the rebate and there was nothing that could be done(sorry miss RAZR owner) denials are sent to customers most of the time completely without cause…as the cs agent i was able to confirm all eligibility reqs. yet the company i worked for stated the customer was ineligible for no apparent reason..i luckily have never been denied a rebate because i know how to threaten a company properly(each is different) realize you are but a small voice and they don’t need u as a customer…hit em where it hurts, they’re policies…they have no wiggle room if you know what you are entitled to.
Wow, how stupid can you be… you could at least shred the damned things.
It has come to attention the past year that customer service has been replaced with an a definate sense of apathy. Seems everytime I turn around there is some kind of frustration associated with a product or service I have purchased. Seems there are many corporations that want to sell you their products and are always your best friend until, they get that buck then it’s as if they never knew you!
Just like the GM Corporation, my husband and I purchased a 2004 Chevy Silverado 2500HD Duramax Diesel.with the Allison Transmission
My husband had been a fireman for over 22 years and was very familiar with the Allison Transmission and was convinced this was the truck we had to have, many fire engines he had driven have the Allison Trans and it is a great Trans.
So after purchasing this truck we have had to replace the fuel injectors 3 times, not a minor repair, each time the bill was in excess of $4000.00, fortunately we had purchased the extended warranty so we only had to pay the deductible. So 4 sets of injectors and a truck that is rapidly approaching 100,00 miles we are faced with the dilema of what to do, normally any person will tell you that at this mileage a diesel is just broke in, in the case this truck has had major problems since the very beginning!
The local Chevy dealer has not even offered us enough to pay off the existing loan, and I cannot legally or in good conscience sell this truck to a private owner because I knnow they are going to have major problems and I would rather not see the inside of a courtroom for selling them a pile of, well you know!
And after all this General Motors stand point has always been “we feel the truck has performed to it’s expectations!”
Four sets of injectors, leaving me and my family stranded in the desert for 3 days, the engine shutting down abruptly on the freeway pulling a 32′ trailer and dieself fuel filling the crank case AGAIN! HOW MUCH DAMAGE DOES THIS DO? Having to wait 2 hours for a tow truck on the side of the road in 103 tempbeing out of a truck for my busines for dayson end, shall I go on, WAS THIS PART OF YOUR EXPECTATIONS GENERAL MOTORS?????
General Motors has said they have no responsibilty to my husband and I or this truck! they have offered up no suggestions except WE’RE SORRY THAT YOU’RE NOT HAPPY WITH THIS TRUCK?
Like I said earlier in this blog customer service has become a thing of the past, all I have wanted through this entire ordeal is for General Motors to step up to the plate and stand behind their product.
We have been treated very poorly in all this, and as far as these consumers feel we prefer to take our hard earned $$$$$ and spend them elsewhere and will encourage anyone who will listen to do the same!
This situation could have been taken care very simple if they weren’t adhering to dunderhead policies!
Lawrie Mantwell
o2beclean@aol.com
Rebates should be illegal. I had a much more witty comment before, but it didn’t stick. Maybe because of the link I put in?
Anyway, here’s the link to my page about rebates:
http://www.jeremyduffy.com/retailers/product-rebates/
Without the http this time.
Wonder why you haven’t received your rebate? I might be because they just threw it away. Above are 1,300 rebate forms that were dug out of a dumpster by a San Jose Mercury reporter.
Stuck in rebate hell? Wonder why? Mercury News uncovers what many of us have suspected, at least on occasion: I am staring at more than 1,300 rebate requests sent to Vastech [for Fry’s Electronics sales] on Bonaventura Drive in San Jose.
I’ve submitted about 4 or 5 rebate forms over the past few years, and I haven’t had trouble with any of them. In total, I’ve received approximately $200 back, which is definitely worth it for me.
In a responsible society, the office of consumer affairs would send out secret shoppers on a regular basis to make sure the rebate system was honest. If a company denied a rebate without proper cause, then they are fined 1000x the rebate amount. It would not take many occurrances for them to realize that it is cheaper for them to pay the rebates honestly.
As a rather active rebater and first-time visitor here, I’ve got to jump in here with a couple of comments. For 2007 so far, I’ve submitted 23 rebates with a value of $553.99 (OK, so I’m moderately anal-retentive about rebate tracking). Of those, 15 were paid on time and 8 are pending. Online tracking shows those 8 were received and most show an estimated check mailing date. I’ve called about two rebates this year; one didn’t show up on the online tracking but was confirmed to be in the rebate system. The second I knew I would have to call about – it was a backordered item that shipped after the rebate submission period. The company said they would override and approve the rebate if it was rejected. It was rejected by the rebate processor and when I called it was quickly approved; I had a check in 2 weeks.
I’ve been rebating for several years and I follow the basic rules in the post about Matt except I’d add a few:
1) Skip rebates (and don’t buy products) with convoluted rebate instructions;
1a) If you frequent deals forums, you’ll quickly find out which brands/companies stink at rebate fulfillment and should be avoided;
2) Staple the UPC code to the rebate submission (unless the instructions explicitly say tape it to a spot on the form); note the comment above about the UPC codes on the floor, something I’ve been told by a customer service rep at a rebate house as well.
3) Print the right address – specifically the promotion code and zip code – on the envelope. In fact, I cut’n'paste the address from the PDF directly into my tracking sheet and print the address so there’s zero chance of a typo.
Ideally one should also keep track of their submissions, but from my experience “The Rules” work 95%+ of the time with no other action required but watching the mail for a check. That’s another thing – some companies still mail postcard checks that can be mistaken for junk mail so check your mail carefully.
As for the time required, it takes me less than 10 minutes to download a rebate form, fill it out, cut out the UPC, scan the form/receipt/UPC, enter the info in my spreadsheet, and print an envelope. Online rebates usually take less than 5 minutes. My average rebate over the last 8 years is $21.29; if I deduct for postage and the cost of envelopes that works out to an hourly rate of at least $120/hr, which is more than what I made at work.
The final thing is that the bad guys get a lot of press, but companies that do a great job with rebates get almost no recognition at all. This year, Costco paid an online rebate in 19 days; my record is KitchenAid whose check I received 16 days after I dropped the envelope in the mail. Microsoft rebates have never taken more than 21 days for me to receive, and Staples’ Easy Rebates pretty consistly arrive at the 35-day mark for me.
Fry’s is actually complicit in the rebate denial scandal. For example, Fry’s provides two receipts, an Original Receipt and a Rebate Receipt, with a mail-in rebate form that must be completed for each product purchased with an active mail-in rebate program.
The Fry’s Rebate Receipt has “Submit For Rebate” just below the boldface “Rebate Receipt”. This directive is inconsistent with the directions on the accompanying mail-in rebate form. Item 3 on that form invariably states “Include the original receipt or gift receipt”. Now, it is easy for the consumer who reads this instruction to consider the Rebate Receipt an “original” and return it. After all, the receipt itself says “Submit for Rebate”.
This is faulty reasoning. In fact, the Redemption Company will reject the claim BECAUSE the submitter failed to submit the “Original Receipt”. By the time the consumer determines that the claim has been denied, usually by waiting the required 12 weeks and receiving no check, it is usually too late to correct the error since the program is over.
The error of submitting the Rebate Receipt in lieu of the Original Receipt is so common that the drones who process submissions frequently miss the fact that an Original Receipt was, in fact, submitted. In the two cases where my claims were improperly denied by Allrewards, the four months of the rebate program duration were trumped by the wait of 12 weeks to determine that I had been denied. And, “no” I was not notified of the denial proactively by Allrewards. I had to determine it after calling in and talking to their customer service drones.
The service drone script followed the same process for both claims:
1. Our records show your claim was denied because you didn’t submit an original receipt.
2. You did? Well you probably submitted the rebate receipt. It isn’t the same as the original receipt.
3. Oh, you DID submit the Original and have photocopies?? Please hold.
4. wait — wait
5. New person arrives: Mr Camp? You are making a claim after the rebate program has expired. There is nothing we can do because the program is closed.
6. Wailing and gnashing of teeth aside, you’ve been screwed with Fry’s as the major contributor of misinformation abetted by Allrewards (or insert the Redemption Management company of choice).
I just got done telling my husband he needs to stop buying merchandise that have rebates from Fry’s Electronics because half of them we never receive. When you confront Fry’s they say oh we’ll research it and get back to you but never hear from them again. I think all rebates are a scam and if a company offers a rebate it should first be rung up as a sale and then credited immediately at the register. Stores created rebates to make more sales but the government is allowing them to scam people because I would say that maybe 20% of the people that mail in rebates actually receive the money. This is another way for companies to up their profits and just act like they didn’t receive the rebates. It’s about time the government stepped and regulated this dishonesty. I think it happens all the time but because most people can’t be bothered tracking their rebates they never receive them.
Hi