UPDATE: Newegg’s Reputation For Customer Service Remains Unbroken
Reader RJ purchased an Nvidia graphics card from Newegg and submitted his $20 rebate information in January. Nearly 5 months later, he is still waiting for his cash. He wrote to Newegg for answers but received a tepid reply. RJ’s letter and Newegg’s response, inside…

To whom it may concern:

I wanted to let both Newegg and MyRebates411 know that I am displeased with the $20 rebate process for my Foxconn FV-N84SM2DT GeForce 8400 video card. (Newegg Order #72954831) I submitted my rebate in January following every rule MyRebates411 could dole-up including:

1.) Registering at the Myrebates411.com
2.) Writing my Myrebates411.com username on the rebate form
3.) Writing my Myrebates411.com transaction ID on the rebate form
4.) Writing Newegg.com, the promotion code and transaction ID on the
back bottom of envelope
5.) I included UPC code and original receipt.

I have done all this only to be told that Myrebates411 had a server crash that lost all customer rebate submissions information from December and January and not to contact Myrebates411 until April. However I can be assured it will come. This information came from the Myrebates411 web site. My username on their site is also no longer valid to check my rebate status after the crash.

It is now May 7th and no rebate has come. I have contacted Myrebates411 via email and was told by ?John? to email him a copy of my rebate form. (Ticket #8076) I did so and emailed ?John back on three occasions for an update yet he has not responded. Apparently John has better things to do then right a wrong his company made. Why do I have to be penalized because Myrebates411 had a server crash??

It is quite obvious to me that Myrebates411 could care less. I want to let Newegg know that as a long time customer I am thus far unsatisfied with Newegg utilizing a rebate program via Myrebates411. Furthermore I will avoid future products advertising rebates if I find out the company behind them is Myrebates411.

Newegg’s response,

Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting Newegg.

Please kindly note that all rebates are issued through the manufacturers directly. Any use of the aforementioned rebates is limited to the terms and conditions as determined by the product manufacturer. As for the mail-in rebate, we have contacted our related department for further investigation. Once I receive their feedback, I will update you as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to let us know.
Sincerely,
Ruby Luo
Have I exceeded your expectations today?

Some quick research revealed that myrebates411 is having some serious problems. Aside from the myriad of disgruntled customers, we discovered this statement from myrebates411 posted in March:

Our Customers,

***This is an automated message so please do not respond because it cannot be answered.***

Most of you know that we experienced a hardware crash on our servers at ipowerweb that was not our fault.

This crash affected our RAID drives which made it impossible to restore them on an as is basis. It does not mean that you lost your rebate. You will not lose your rebate. We are in the process of re-entering the data on our own systems from your mailed-in copies, and have almost completed the task.

It was not possible to restore all of the usernames and passwords of everyone on the website exactly as they were because new people are being added all the time and it might create duplications; therefore, some people will have their password NOT recognized when trying to check the status of their rebate.

If that happens, it will do no good to attempt to click the missing password link to get your password. Customers will need to create a new username and password and reregister when they apply for a new rebate. This new registration will not work to see the status of an old rebate. This problem only effects certain months.

We will begin issuing checks for November promotions to customers who have not received them due to the website outage. This will begin sometime next week.

We are asking customers to help us help you.
Attempting to answer the sheer volume of emails just to check a status is slowing down the main purpose, which is to help you get your check-because we attempt to answer every email.

Our priority is to get you your check and the volume or emails is seriously slowing down that process. We cannot possibly answer thousands of emails and get your check issued in a timely manner. We have upgraded our site to insure this never happens again. The site is functional so all new entries and some old entries will be able to track their status; however, some people will need to reregister. Even if you reregister, this will not insure you will be able to track your old rebates. It only insures you will be able to track the new rebates you enter.

We thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Customer Service

Newegg blames myrebates411 and myrebates411 blames “ipowerweb?” We don’t even want to hear ipowerweb’s excuse. It seems like a big game of culpability hot potato. Hopefully, Newegg can put enough pressure on myrebates411 so that they’ll cough up your $20. If not, we would like to see Newegg, at least, step up with $20 store credit as not to put any cracks in their reputation.

(Photo: Getty)

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