Fry's/Outpost.com Rebate fraud

[jdurbin]

Did anyone else take advantage of the PC Relocater (by Aloha Bob) for free deal at Outpost.com about six weeks ago?

I was cruising through the site and noticed that they were advertising that it was free after rebate. I bought it and followed the directions perfectly.

I just found out that www.rebateshq.com, the outsourcing firm Fry's uses, declined my rebate because the store isn't participating in the rebate. My theory is that someone at www.rebateshq.com doesn't know that Fry's owns Outpost.com.

Has anyone else had problems with rebates from Outpost.com or www.rebateshq.com?

Thanks.

[rourkchris]

I think you'll find LOTS of people who've had problems with rebateshq. Slowest rebates ever if you get them at all.

[jdurbin]

I have about 5 or 6 rebates outstanding with them and their website seems to be easy to follow the progress of them. The only outsourcing group that has screwed me has been www.rebatestatus.com. They screwed up a $50 rebate from Dell and a $30 rebate from Circuit City.

[chicagobrick]

www.rebateshq.com is trying to screw me out of a rebate on a Logitech Elite Duo. They say that I did not send them the correct UPC label. Well Logitech only makes one Elite Duo, and the box only has one UPC on it. Me thinks that they lost the UPC, it was rather small, and are trying to cover their ass.

[chris64]

Originally posted by chicagobrick
www.rebateshq.com is trying to screw me out of a rebate on a Logitech Elite Duo. They say that I did not send them the correct UPC label. Well Logitech only makes one Elite Duo, and the box only has one UPC on it. Me thinks that they lost the UPC, it was rather small, and are trying to cover their ass.

I'd say they're trying to screw you big time. Did you make copies because if you did just call em and tell em you have records and you could resend it if they would like you to and then they usually say no it fine will send the rebate.....you probably sent the right UPC they're just trying to keep your money.

[chicagobrick]

Thanks. I will give your suggestion a try. Will let you know what happens.

[jened]

.

[woodbutcher]

jened
I think the feeling from most people here is thet rebateshq is far from being top notch.
Staples rebates do arrive in a reasonable amount of time, one of the few that do.
Rebateshq is slow, 4 months to receive my $40.00 Cendyne rebate from Office Max. It was sent on the 6th of September, showed up on there system 15th of October with the mesage of "We have received your rebate request and are now processing it".
Two months went by before they posted a reply confirming my rebate and it's eligability.
Three weeks later I received the "check".
To long IMO.

WB

[Vurtrue]

Mail-in rebates just suck period IMO. I never buy anything because it has a mail-in rebate, and if it does, I usally don't send it in anyways. Why do they take so long to go through? Are there that many going around that it takes forever for them to be processed? There has got to be a better way to do rebates other than instant rebates which I love 8) With all this technology we have it boggles my mind that rebates don't go through faster. I do understand that they have to at least wait till you can't return the item back to the store and get your money back. I could see a problem there, but other than that *shrug.

[Hawkmoon269]

Rebates are, plain and simple, incentive to get you to buy Product B over Product A. Take for example two 100Gig HDD's, next to each other on the shelf at Best Buy. One is $120. The other is $125 + a $40 rebate. In essence, the manufacturer of Product B is willing to *pay* you $40 to but their product. Sure it'll cost'em (once you prove to them you did buy it), but it goes towards their bottom line.

You're right about technology and the fact that it should be speeding up the rebate process. Well, it does.. in terms of facilitating the job of the $10/hr employee behind the computer screen. And I think this is where RebatesHQ is the leader. However, consider the fact that often times there is backlog. More rebates submissions than are able to be processed in a timely manner. Technology can't do much in this case. More manpower can.
I think in the past that most rebate processing companies intentionally delayed payment so that they can earn money off of interest. However, rapid technology does not behoove this. I think in RebatesHQ.com's case, 99.9% of the delayed payments on otherwise valid rebates is due in large part to participating companies (OfficeMax, Staples, etc) not funding the accounts that your payments are cut from in a timely manner. Remember, RebatesHQ only pays you the money provided to them by the manufacturer. And the fact that it shows up as a postcard instead of a first-class item is because of the large difference in postage. Remember, not only are you trying to save money, but so is RebatesHQ. With RebatesHQ (and I'm not sure who else), I don't think it's in their best interest to hold on to or deny your rebate on purpose, since I think they make their money based on turnaround (ie, the number of valid transactions).
Just remember to hold on to all your paperwork, since it doesn't take a rocket scientist to sit behind a computer screen and enter your information.

my $0.02 (after rebate of course )

FWIW, I submitted a Best Buy rebate via RebatesHQ.com in late January and received my check 4 weeks later.