In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission's regulations require consumers to dispute bad credit card charges within 60 days (nine weeks) of billing. Other countries' laws vary. If a problem with the rebate becomes apparent 14 weeks after the order, therefore, consumers in the United States have no right to reverse the charges.
In theory, CyberRebate earns profits when people who received rebate checks go back to the Web site and buy other products at higher prices. But also consider the following:
? After receiving a product they?ve paid for, many people will never return to the Web site to fill out the rebate forms.
? If a rebate check never arrives after 14 weeks, some people will forget about it rather than pursuing a complaint, even for amounts of $100 or more.
In a telephone interview, CyberRebate CEO Joel Granick said about the BBB report, "I can't tell you we haven't had challenges along the way." He added, "What we've done at CyberRebate is to take every complaint very seriously."
Granick said that in the rebate industry as a whole, consumers fail to submit rebate forms 90 percent of the time. But he said only about 5 percent of CyberRebate's customers don't submit the forms.
If that's true, it represents a huge profit margin on products that are priced at several times the normal retail rate. My advice? Don't whip out your credit card in hopes that you might get a rebate check three and a half months later.
In theory, CyberRebate earns profits when people who received rebate checks go back to the Web site and buy other products at higher prices. But also consider the following:
? After receiving a product they?ve paid for, many people will never return to the Web site to fill out the rebate forms.
? If a rebate check never arrives after 14 weeks, some people will forget about it rather than pursuing a complaint, even for amounts of $100 or more.
In a telephone interview, CyberRebate CEO Joel Granick said about the BBB report, "I can't tell you we haven't had challenges along the way." He added, "What we've done at CyberRebate is to take every complaint very seriously."
Granick said that in the rebate industry as a whole, consumers fail to submit rebate forms 90 percent of the time. But he said only about 5 percent of CyberRebate's customers don't submit the forms.
If that's true, it represents a huge profit margin on products that are priced at several times the normal retail rate. My advice? Don't whip out your credit card in hopes that you might get a rebate check three and a half months later.