Offer a rebate then stack the deck against letting customers collect. What a fucking racket. (NO MJ)

[Stinky The Clown]

This is an MJ and SP free post. KEEP IT THAT WAY

I bought a new HP printer online ... direct from HP. Remarkably, they were the cheapest game in town. Even after shipping, they were cheaper than any of the big boxes. They were, insome cases, $200 cheaper than other web sites.

They also offered a trade-in program, and my old clunker was worth $100, even in non working condition (it needs a new fuser - at $400, worth more than the damned printer).

So I buy the printer. It shows up in two days. I am told to download a document to learn about how to do the trade in. It turns out that HP has outsourced this to some other company.I am told to download the "form". The "form", it turns out is 14 (count 'em) pages of fine print and hard to follow prose. In the end, there is one link in there that one needs to follow.

Except the link is broken.

I call HP sales. I tell them to help me. The eager young man in Costa Rica (not India, remarkably - I always ask) gets to the same page, but on a different web site. We fill out the form together - such fun.

Next day, the trade in company contacts me by e-mail. My proof of purchase is insufficient to them. After filling the air with blue language, I call the same HP number and tell this person to fix it. In the course of discussion, I ask her if she's also in Costa Rica (Spanish accent). No, she's in the Philippines. She shows me where my elusive "Online Order Receipt" is located. I open it and print it to PDF, and she sends me a copy. Nice young lady.

Next I get an e-mail from the trade in company. They will only pay $75 because I bought the printer after July 1. Except I bought it on June 29th. As shown of THE FUCKING INVOICE THEY REQUESTED.

Back to HP's sales number. After clicks and buzzes and various levels of pressing 1 and 4 and 2 and 7, I get another youg woman. Spanish accent. Where? Belize.

She sends me a form that documents the date of purchase. I am to send this to the trade in company.

I just sent it.

I am not hopeful.

They wear you down.

At what point is $100 - or $75 - no longer worth the pain of dealing with this shit?

By the way, all of this gets me no money. It gets me a SHIPPING LABEL. To send the old printer off to them. Then ... maybe ...... I get my trade in.




What a fucking racket.

[rsmith6621]

1. This is Why I Dont Buy Rebate Items...

.....I think rebates should be illegal....they are gambling on people unlike your self to forget or just give up halfway down the path.

If you cant give me the savings at the register then I DON'T WANT YOUR DAMN PRODUCT.....Congress should stop these programs.

[pnorman]

3. "If you cant give me the savings at the register"

That has always puzzled me, and I too have a sour taste in my mouth with some rebates that I've had to deal with (although NOTHING like yours!). Is it to get by "fair trade" laws that may still be on the books in some states? Such were a large part of FDR's New Deal recovery plan, but I thought they were all eliminated a long time back.

pnorman

[Morning Dew]

20. Rebate items is probably why Circuit City went under.

Best Buy would give you the good price at the register and Circuit City required a rebate for an equal or poorer deal.

[Sebastian Doyle]

26. Yep. Been burned on too many rebates

I don't bother with that shit anymore.

[ThirdWorldJohn]

2. 14 pages is insane.

[sandnsea]

4. Lifting the world out of poverty

One shipping label at a time.

Seriously, if our economic geniuses hadn't blown our financial house to smithereens,

and if Al Gore were President the last 8 years and had invested in green technology,

this would be an example of trade working the way Clinton intended.

Provided you get your rebate. Which is also why I only do instant rebate purchases because somewhere along the line there I'd have called someone a fuckwit and been blackballed...

[imdjh]

5. Rebating is a skill, an art, and a religion, but your case is the worst I have heard.

The only company to screw me out of a rebate was Fuji and they did it from their service center in Nashua New Hampshire.

"We cancelled that rebate program. We lowered the price."

This was after playing games with Best Buy, the game where they advertise the digital camera that they don't have and give you a rain check for a model that they will never get again?

[Texasgal]

6. What in the world would MJ

have to do with a rebate???

[DaveinJapan]

9. Something about the O2 tickets maybe?

:shrug:

lol about your asking everyone where they're located.

at least it sounds as though they tried to be helpful. ;)

[Stinky The Clown]

10. Nothing

Let's keep it that way.

[FormerDittoHead]

7. I avoid them when I can, but sometimes you have to deal with it. HERE'S THE POINT...

Funny thing, with everyone talking about health insurance, I think the point about health insurance is that they make their profits from DENYING a certain number of paying people coverage!

But to the rebates - HERE'S WHY I ALWAYS HATED THEM.

If you wanted to sell something for a lower price - LOWER THE PRICE.

THE ONLY DAMN REASON THAT REBATES EXIST IN THE FIRST PLACE IS THAT THEY *KNOW* A CERTAIN NUMBER OF THEM WON'T BE CLAIMED/GIVEN.

SO IT'S A BIG SCAM, AND THEY USE THEIR CREATIVITY TO FIGURE OUT HOW NOT TO GIVE IT TO YOU.

I remember an MP3 player I bought from eCost. It took THREE WEEKS to get, and guess what the rebate said? Must be mailed / received by AFTER THE TIME I GOT THE THING.

I feel for you.

[PeaceNikki]

8. Michael Jackson invented rebates.

LEAVE MICHEAL ALONE!!

[Stinky The Clown]

11. Not funny

[parasim]

12. What's funny is your invoking MJ in a thread that has nothing to do with him.

What did you expect?

[Stinky The Clown]

14. I expected people looking for relief from 100 threads saying the same NOTHING to click here for

refuge.

I kept out of all those threads and let the posters in them say whatever the fuck they wanted.

Stay out of mine, where it isn't welcome.

My opinion of MJ has remained unstated. That's besides the point. Exercise a little Live and Let Live. Is that fair enough?

[parasim]

23. Well, I'd guess that if you hadn't put "No MJ" in your subject line...

you most likely would not have gotten a response regarding MJ. By putting No MJ in your subject line, I submit that you only invited somebody to come into your thread and comment on it.

just sayin'...

What I don't get is why those who don't want to talk about MJ, keep invoking him.

[Stinky The Clown]

24. Yeahfinewhatevergoodbye

Why did you even find the need to post here?

:eyes:

[parasim]

29. sorryi'llleaveyourthread...

Didn't mean to piss you off as I typically really dig your posts and agree with you most of the time... I only posted because I was intrigued by this weird thing I've noticed around here about starting a thread where you do not want MJ fans participating, yet you put MJ in the title anyway and then seemed surprised that somebody would mention MJ.

Sorry for tainting your thread...

[PeaceNikki]

18. It's cool. Clowns aren't known for their sharp sense of humor.

[Stinky The Clown]

25. We don't suffer fools easily.

[Statistical]

13. Mail in rebates should simply be illegal.

Manufacturer can do point of sale rebates (sometimes called "instant" rebates).

There is too much from in the MIR business.
All of them are outsourced to 3rd parties who get paid a flat fee and then a bonus for each claim denied.

Thats right denied.


At one time manufacturers relied on laziness. 30%-70% of the time people don't ever send the MIR in so they can offer more in an MIR. Instead of offering say $20 off they can offer a $40 MIR (50% get it = $20) and it looks better.

Well that wasn't good enough so now they use 3rd parties to push the pay rate to as close to 0% as possible.

It is greed and fraud. Make them illegal. Offer point of sale rebates or nothing.

[Stinky The Clown]

16. This program had a new wrinkle to it

It isn't a rebate program. It is a trade-in program.

Recycling or reusing the turned in printer

They claim that, once received, they test them. If they can be reused they get donated to someone worthy. If they're junk, they get stripped and recycled.

[csziggy]

15. Rebates have always been a scam

I only buy if the price out the door is good enough. Then if I ever do get the rebate, that is 'found' money.

My worst rebate story was at CompUSA. I bought a CD burner, the brand was CompUSA, the rebate form said CompUSA, the mailing address to send it to was CompUSA. Then the CD manufacturer went out of business. I complained at the local CompUSA Customer Service Desk that I had not gotten my rebate. The assistant manager told me since the CD manufacturer had gone out of business and they were responsible for the rebate, no rebates would be issued.

At that point I got LOUD. I pointed out the CompUSA name over every single piece of paperwork. Not once was the CD manufacturer name printed on anything I had gotten with that CD burner. She still refused to help me with the rebate process. So I got even LOUDER. Now, this was at one of their big sales events. People in line at the registers had begun to listen to our discussion. People coming into the store were listening.

I asked, "So this means NO ONE REBATE on ANYTHING with the COMPUSA BRAND IS WORTH THE PAPER IT IS PRINTED ON?" The manager said the current rebates were good. I asked, "How is the customer supposed to rely on that? COMPUSA PROMISED A REBATE ON THESE FORMS AND IS NOT PAYING!"

People started leaving the lines, deserting their carts loaded with goodies that were only great deals if they could get their rebates. After about thirty minutes with customers leaving the store in droves, the manager finally caved. First, she offered me a store credit. I just laughed at her, so she gave me the full amount of the rebate in cash. I know for sure I cost them at least five times that in customers that left carts with items sitting in the store.

Thoughout the entire process, I was polite, not profane, just got really loud so every customer in the front third of the store could here me and hear my complaint. I also played slightly deaf so the manager had to raise her voice.

The next time I went into CompUSA, next to the wall that held all their rebate forms was a large sign proclaiming that ALL rebates were the responsibility of the equipment manufacturer and NOT CompUSA's responsibility.

:evilgrin:

[Stinky The Clown]

19. The out the door price on this item was very favorable, trade in notwithstanding

If I get the hundred bux .... or even 75, to be honest ...... that's pure gravy for me.

[csziggy]

27. That is the way to shop! I always used my rebate money as my "mad money"

To take my husband out for dinner & a movie or some other thing together. These days, I am not buying much of anything so no "mad money" to splurge with. If we go out, we have to fit it into the budget.

But I did work at being completely organized about applying for the rebates. The companies that offer them have deals with 'fulfillment' firms - those firms basically get paid an estimated amount for the total number of rebates expected to be paid. The fewer rebates they have to pay, the better their profit. So they have absolutely no incentive to actually pay a single rebate, except if the company making the sales and offering the rebates gets enough pressure from dissatisfied customers.

So keep after HP on this - every time you call, it costs them money, in addition let them know that you are sharing your experience with acquaintances on the internet. They know that means thousands will hear about your dissatisfaction, not just a few friends you tell in person.

Years ago when I used to do tech support on a different forum we had the personal email for Carly Fiorina when she was president of HP. We'd tell people with problems Customer Service had not solved to drop her an email - and it worked. One person who had been fighting to get a working laptop after a year of BS from Best Buy, got a brand new laptop in the mail, courtesy of Ms. Fiorina. Hp did not even ask for the old laptop back - a real bonus since the problem was only with the battery and it worked fine while plugged in.

[Libertyfirst]

22. I followed your tactic at Verizon. It worked there also. n/t

[csziggy]

28. Obnoxious works - especially if you are a white woman in a Southern town

When others might just be shoved off, most Southerners will still not be rude to 'mature' white women. I also grew up with a family with very effective complainers. I learned at my mother's knee how to be logical, concise, and keep to the point, but to not take "No" for an answer, especially when I was in the right. Also when to take it up over the phone, in writing, or in person.

As my husband says, "Don't make her mad - you wouldn't like her when she is angry!"

[Liberal_in_LA]

17. Rebaters really don't want to rebate. My story

Bought a monitor. Mailed in the rebate, carefully keeping a copy. After a few months, I checked on the status. The company told me that they don't sent rebates to P.O. Boxes. Fine...but they didn't contact me for a street address. They just toss it. If I hadn't followed up, I would have gotten the rebate. So only the persistent get their rebate $$.

[LiberalAndProud]

21. My favorite rebates are

the ones where you have to send in a label from the merchandise. Only in order to open the package, the label must be destroyed.