Tech: Compusa et al rebate scam beware!

04 Dec 04 - 07:46 PM (#1347629)
Subject: Tech: Compusa et al rebate scam beware!
From: GUEST,Techie Elve

In the last year I bought 3 items from Tech Depot - online- and from Compusa - at the store. All promised a rebate of $20.00.

None have been paid.

When I checked into the company paying the rebates I ended up poking around at some mafia type oufit in Florida.

Pass this on and help close down these scam merchants!

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05 Dec 04 - 05:57 AM (#1347860)
Subject: RE: Tech: Compusa et al rebate scam beware!
From: JohnInKansas

Both CompUSA and Tech Depot are fairly reputable, but I've NEVER seen a rebate that either paid directly. CompUSA, unlike many sellers, does usually offer a "duplicate sales receipt" when there's a rebate involved. Others seem to prefer that you send your original receipt (demanded on most rebate offers) so that they can tell you "no refunds without receipt" if the product turns to shit.

The "mafia type outfit" you found was most likely a "rebate processor." These guys are just hired to do the paper work by some sellers/manufacturers. "Mafia type" is probably an apt description for many of them. I'd suggest contacting CompUSA and Tech Depot directly to voice your complaint, AND the manufacturer or distributer for the product, but I've been that route and it's seldom visibly productive.

A rebate is just a seller's admission that he tried to cheat you worse than he's willing to do now, and that he couldn't find enough d...d fools to buy at his original price. In addition, in most areas, you pay the sales tax on the "full price" so they've set it up for the guv'ner to get in on the cheating.

I haven't seen recent figures, but a few months ago an interview with a major "master (re)bater" produced the statistic that less than 20% of rebates offered were ever paid on items less than $1,000 (US). He confessed that about half those not paid were just because people "forget" or don't bother to send them in, but the rest (isn't that 40% of sales?) are disallowed based on some technicality (Illegible receipt, non-original receipt, "lost in the mail(room)" etc.)

I give my business to the people who do NOT offer rebates where possible; but for computers and software at retail in my area there aren't many choices, since it's the manufacturers who push them. Hard to believe, but CompUSA is about the "only store in town" (pop. about 1.4M for the market area) with a decent selection of "off the shelf" stuff.

John

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05 Dec 04 - 10:19 AM (#1347969)
Subject: RE: Tech: Compusa et al rebate scam beware!
From: SINSULL

40% disallowed on a technicality? Sounds like a scam to me. I had no problem getting my rebate from Dell.
SINS

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05 Dec 04 - 02:13 PM (#1348105)
Subject: RE: Tech: Compusa et al rebate scam beware!
From: JohnInKansas

The record for people actually collecting on small "rebates" is pretty dismal. Most never get the rebate. For "reputable" dealers/distributors and for relatively major items, the record is somewhat better, but far from 100 per cent. Generally, if you are reasonably careful about "following all the rules" you can expect, eventually, to receive most rebates of about $30 or greater (just a guess) but smaller rebates are just too easy for the "rebater" to weasel out on, and apparently too profitable on large volumes for many of them to resist.

Aside from the "never paids," the rebate also works in favor of the seller's cash flow. You give him additional money (more than the product is worth). He gets the money in his account almost immediately. Rebates are NEVER paid less than 30 days after submitted, and some companies openly state that it will be 90 days. The company gets the free use of your "extra" money for whatever "float" time is incorporated in their "agreement" or on their "office practice" for delaying the processing. In other words, an interest free loan. If, in fact, you paid with a credit card - and particularly if you have a running balance, YOU pay the interest on his loan, until he pays it back by sending you the rebate check. Even if you don't use a credit card, it's still money you could have used to kick in a little on the mortgage so IT HAS AN INTEREST COST TO YOU when you allow someone to deprive you of your own use of your money.

So we have a fair market value for the product, but in order to buy it you have to give him "a little extra" to use interest free for however long he decides to take to give it back? Isn't that called extortion?

John

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05 Dec 04 - 02:36 PM (#1348129)
Subject: RE: Tech: Compusa et al rebate scam beware!
From: Uncle_DaveO

No, it's not extortion. Wrong, unethical, illegal(?), or whatever, but not extortion.

Extortion is the exaction of money or money's worth under threat of harm if payment is not made. Blackmail is a form of extortion.

Dave Oesterreich

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05 Dec 04 - 04:02 PM (#1348178)
Subject: RE: Tech: Compusa et al rebate scam beware!
From: JohnInKansas

Right of course, DaveO. I just can't help using the same kind of meaningless adspeak the sellers do when I get on the subject.

Still - if it's a needed product, then harm will result it you don't pay on their terms. And they demand an "extra" price in the form of a free loan to "not deprive you of what you need."

Where's that smart lawyer when you need him - oh, yeah, working for the rebaters who have all your money(?)

John

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05 Dec 04 - 06:20 PM (#1348234)
Subject: RE: Tech: Compusa et al rebate scam beware!
From: John on the Sunset Coast

Several years ago I bought a scanner, which had a mfg.s rebate, from CompUSA. Whilst I was waiting for said rebate, I found that the company had gone belly up. I contacted CompUSA and they made good the rebate. Suggest you do the same. Good luck. ---JSC

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05 Dec 04 - 06:24 PM (#1348240)
Subject: RE: Tech: Compusa et al rebate scam beware!
From: Lin in Kansas

However --

Much as everyone biyches about Microsofty, I received my $10 rebate on their Tips and Trips software when they told me I would, and the check cashed just fine...

Lin

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05 Dec 04 - 06:44 PM (#1348256)
Subject: RE: Tech: Compusa et al rebate scam beware!
From: treewind

A M$ check bouncing WOULD be news!

Anahata

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05 Dec 04 - 07:32 PM (#1348304)
Subject: RE: Tech: Compusa et al rebate scam beware!
From: GUEST,.gargoyle

I have NEVER had a problem with CompUSA.

It is like a game. Follow their rules PRECISELY (like a legal contract) and you will NOT have a problem.

MAKE SURE:

1. You have purchased the PRECISELY specified device/software.
2. You have purchased/mailed within the rebate DATES.
3. You make a copy - the service desk will make a copy.... free of charge
3. You have included all required coupons/bar-codes

It IS a "game." Each party (you - they) are in a contest to attempt to hold the largest section of profits....as specified within the "game."

It does not matter if it is Shoots and Ladders or if it is Go To The Head of the Class....

ALL REBATES

(follow RULES.....violate a single ONE.....and you go to the bottom of the heap...or the bottom of the class ((ass-wipe in other-words.)))

My personal suggestion:
Stop the whinninnnnnggggggg, in a folk-song-data-base and search out web-logs BLOGS that "listens" to "rebate diatribes."

Sinceley,
Gargoyle

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05 Dec 04 - 10:23 PM (#1348478)
Subject: RE: Tech: Compusa et al rebate scam beware!
From: Joe Offer

I buy a lot of rebate stuff from Office Max, which uses a rebate company in El Paso. I regularly get rebates rejected, but they always pay if I call their toll-free number and ask. I don't even have to fight them to get what I want.
I'll bet all the El Paso rebates are the same company - Staples uses an El Paso address, too.
-Joe Offer-

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06 Dec 04 - 01:21 AM (#1348553)
Subject: RE: Tech: Compusa et al rebate scam beware!
From: JohnInKansas

Tech Depot is the "web store" for Office Depot. One thing to be aware of is that except in exceptional cases, for an occasional "house brand" item, neither Tech Depot nor CompUSA "offers a rebate." The rebate deal is with the manufacturer or distributer of the particular product you purchase.

I've found both CompUSA and Office Depot among the more helpful in making sure you get everything you need to request your rebate, but in all cases I've seen it's the manufacturer you are dealing with when you apply for the rebate. In the retail store in my area, CompUSA has their checkout registers rigged to automatically print you a "duplicate original" receipt for items that are bar-coded as having a rebate offer. At most other places you have to specifically ask for a duplicate receipt, and you sometimes get a bit of argument - usually because the "clerk" you're dealing with doesn't know how to do it. It's still up to you to follow the rebate instructions exactly and to send your request for rebate to the right address with exactly the specified documentation.

John

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06 Dec 04 - 01:15 PM (#1348975)
Subject: RE: Tech: Compusa et al rebate scam beware!
From: M.Ted

I find it annoying when the advertised the price for something is not the price you pay because they've factored in a couple of rebates--

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