GoldenTiger,
I hate it when that happens, but don't feel bad if you miss out. I think it's unavoidable when you get into the habit of blindly chasing deals like many of us do on this forum Two I've missed out on most recently:
1. Some Belkin CD/DVD jewel case free w/ MIR at CompUSA. Forgot to pick up coupon and lost receipt. With CompUSA's 15-day return policy, of course I didn't even discover my lack of receipt/coupon until about 20 days after the purchase and by then it was too late to even return to CompUSA. Wasted cash: about $6.00 (Since then I've located the receipt but I still have no idea where to get the coupon... Double-DOH! Oh well, it's probably expired anyway.)
2. MS Streets & Trips 2001, also free after/ MIR at CompUSA. This time, I didn't lose the receipt but I waited too long to think about sending it in. When when I examined the fine print on the coupon it said something about "rebate request must be submitted within x number of days of purchase" and of course by then with my dumb luck it was like x+1 days. Again, no return was possible due to friggin awful CompUSA return policy. Worst of all, I didn't even want this and started to walk away when I saw it in the store, but then I said to myself "what the heck, it's free." Free indeed. Wasted cash: about $20.00
I'm sure others have bigger rebates they've missed out on. Care to share and make the rest of us feel better?
DerProfi