*Ice cold* Best Buy starting to refuse rebates with the excuse, "item was returned"

[Johnbear007]

Originally posted by: glenn1
Had two rebates from Best Buy just refused, with the reasoning given that "the item was returned to the store, and no other qualifying purchase made." Hellllllllllllllllllllllo, McFly, if i returned it, then where did the UPC i just sent in with the rebate form come from?

Anyway, the letter will tell you to call a customer service number, where after a lot of hemming and hawing, the CSR will sheepishly admit that it might be a mistake and will ask you to re-send your rebate materials. Then they *might* honor your rebate. Or they might not. You're pretty much at their mercy at that point, since they already have your money, the UPC and rebate stuff, and everything else.

Also, one of the CSRs i spoke too also said that if you have more than one item on a receipt that a rebateable item is listed on, DO NOT return any item on that receipt. If you do, even if it's not the item which was covered by the rebate, they'll refuse your rebate as well (they'll count every item on the receipt as having been returned).

Charge it back with your credit card. Best Buy is a shady company, even though it is large. Very shady

 

[Johnbear007]

Originally posted by: dew042

Originally posted by: GMaximus
The problem is that rebates, for the most part, work in the company's favor. More people will buy an item when they see the "after rebate" price listed. Later on, quite a few will decide that sending in the rebate isn't worth their time, thus eating the savings. I doubt companies will stop rebates anytime soon.

To offer the other side of that argument: if everyone actually sent in there rebates companies would go bankrupt - the idea behind rebates is to offer a deep enough discount versus the actual amount of ppl who will redeem it. That's why talk of fulfilling rebates in store is just moronic and in no way realistic. So, based on that fact that not everyone goes ahead with their rebates then companies are able to offer a deeper potential discount. Its a balanced risk that has many variables. On many of the deals I have taken advantage of lately I can't imagine any of the participating companies who made or distrubuted the product I bought made profit at all, but all those folks who didn't send in their rebates made my financial windfall possible (thanks btw ). Retailers use rebates as a way to get ppl into the stores and to spend the money.... If it didn't work then they wouldn't do it. Therefore, as I said above, if you don't like the practice then you have the choice to not participate in it at all. Most consumers just want a reason to whine unfortunatly - everybody is out there just to screw you over right???

dew.

Actually thats not how it works. If the companies offfer the discount, and don't have the fund to pay out the rebates they are in big legal trouble. They have the funds. The money is made not on people who don't send it in, but on the time they get to keep your extra cash and draw interest on it and play with it.

 

[Johnbear007]

Originally posted by: dew042

Originally posted by: tpoj
Bestbuy sucks. Last month, I purchased a PNY RAM with $25 rebate advertised. When I sent it the rebate, it got reject because the product does not have the rebate as advertise. I went to B&M and yelled. The guy won't accept return because there was no UPC. I called in .com CSR and they told me to resubmit to another promotion but the rebate amount is $15 WTF. Accepted it anyway (better than nothing) but got no respone on my $15 yet.

Right - rebate probelms with PNY directly (almost always manfacturers rebates on RAM) makes BB suck? Thats well thought through.

Hey, BB offers the promotion through their stores. Thats the bottom line. What are you some kind of BB employee fanboy or something?

Screw bestbuy I'm here for deals for ME. If every comapny goes out of business giving me good deals Great. I dont care about these stores. I care about getting stuff I want. Period. Everyone else can stop whining about fair and go to hell.

 

[jimmyhaha]

no shit..

I wonder what drone BBY hire to facelift their website (site looks like SHIT)

and their "new" (cough) rebate policy disallowing pricematch when dealing with in-house rebate.

BBY - one of my DO NOT DEAL list.

Most stuff BBY has, CC has, I PM CC, give CC business.

<- BBY get no $ from me
<- CC PM BBY 110% = decrease CC profit margin
<- 1 stone 2 birds = I fvck with both store, which are both typical evil corporate america .. (evil laughing....)

btw, is it a BBY in-house rebate or manufacture rebate ?

if the 1st one apply, dude, then check your PM for more info.

 

[Parasitic]

Originally posted by: jimmyhaha
no shit..

I wonder what drone BBY hire to facelift their website (site looks like SHIT)

and their "new" (cough) rebate policy disallowing pricematch when dealing with in-house rebate.

BBY - one of my DO NOT DEAL list.

Most stuff BBY has, CC has, I PM CC, give CC business.

btw, is it a BBY in-house rebate or manufacture rebate ?

if the 1st one apply, dude, then check your PM for more info.

CC is so much better than BB in every way

 

[nickels84]

I guess according to dew I am an Idiot, I going to bite my lip this time because the last guy I fried is still crying. Moving on, I wanted to mention that the rebates themselves are the first deterrent. Then if you're PNY your second deterrent is to dick with every rebate abiding customer telling them they fvcked up in some way. Your last and final deterrent you only use if you get some hardcore customer that is still moaning 3-6 months after submission and rejection. You tell them they must submit the rebate again after having an argument for 4 hours on the phone with someone that speaks broken english and works for $.02 an hour in outer mongolia. I'll go one step further... You resubmit and they catch you on some technicality like, you mispelled your name, your mother was ugly and she dressed you funny, your dog only has three legs, or my favorite you left the field "Second Address" blank. In the end the best you can do is piss and moan if you get the wrong ammount back or anything back, and if your really bent on revenge you attempt to kill yourself on their front lawn to give bad publicity and possibly find some hope in the fact that you screwed them last.

On a lighter note
I am a firm believer that legal action is somewhat necessary. The supreme court should mandate that the lowest rebate prices must be accepted as the pricematching price at all stores that have pricematching policies. And to really mess em up, have a small clause that forbids them from changing their pricematching policy in any way.

We must find a way to get them back for all those times they have taken advantage of the unweary buyer.

 

[stevejst]

Next time when OM promoters come with 15 rebates for 3 products to "make money" on "hot deals" make sure you all make that the biggest thread around with postings like:
"Thank you diggler, I made $50 on your #3 deal though my credit card bill seems outrageously unimformed about that."

 

[kyutip]

Not all rebates are bad.
Rebates from Staples are generally good and pretty fast.
Since the Geforce rebate fiasco from black friday 2 yrs ago (took them a comfy 6 months to fulfill), I will never do BB rebates again and CompUSA for the same reason.
Those 2 are notoriously bad at fullfiling rebate, worse than pulling teeth.

Do some research before committing yourself to rebates.
Some rebate centers sucks major donkey azz such as New Rochelle and any AZ rebate center.
Some are fast and reliable (no matter where you purchase the item from) such as MN one.

Staples is the most reliable in rebates for me.

 

[nergee]

........I have never had a problem with Best Buy rebates..........
Just lucky I guess.....

 

[ericlp]

Originally posted by: nergee
........I have never had a problem with Best Buy rebates..........
Just lucky I guess.....

Hmmm, Me too... I've only been screwd out of a couple of rebates but they were only the 5-10 dollar items not worth my time to call someone up and ASK WHY it didn't come...

Tho, if I returned somthing to BB (lesson learned) have them print you out a new rebate. I usually send my rebate in right away and make a copy of it. If I have to return it for some reason then I have a copy.

That being said. When you find something on sale... and Has a rebate you have to always ask yourself.... IS it worth the Risk... How bad do you need it??? How big is the rebate?

If it's less then 25.00 I don't even bother making copies.... If it gets lost in the mail or it gets lost in the filing process or the rebate comming back to me gets lost or sent to the wrong address. I'm sure this is bound to happen since I sometimes get other peoples mail in my mail box. What if someone goes... This isn't mine. He/she isn't obligated to sort out the mail and give it back to the post man to get it to your door.

POINT is... you have to look at the risk and ask yourself is it worth it? If for some reason you buy that TV with a 300.00 rebate you have to ask yourself can I live with it if I happen to NOT get it? I believe that your taking a risk when buying anything with a MIR since there is a 3-5% chance you may never get it!!!! ESP, if you sending in orginal reciepts with RETURNED written all over them... I've gotten back well over 1000.00 from dell. Every rebate I sent in I've gotten back no problems. Tho, if a rebate is more the 50.00, I make sure I make copies and I even certify it at the post office. Yeah it takes a bit of extra work. But, I've never gotten screwed on anything over 10 bucks.

BESIDES this THREAD SSSSSOOOOO belongs in the OT forum. Since this is HOT DEALS not ICE COLD deals. Sigh...

 

[weepul]

thanks for the heads up. will make sure to order items that have rebate separately from now on.

//krunk (^_^x)

 

[glenn1]

Just so that i'm clear, i'm not bashing Best Buy per se. My problem is with the folks who are processing their rebates for them (Calais, ME in this case). BBY simply happens to be the store i bought the items from, and whose "return" policy is being invoked to justify not paying the rebate. It could have just as easily been another store involved.

 

[DurocShark]

This is why I *never* consider rebates when making a purchase. If an item comes with one, awesome. I'll send it in. But the price would have to be low enough to buy the item anyway...

I love Staples online rebate tracking. I've only bought 2 rebate items from there so far, but it was super easy. But I still would have bought those items regardless...

 

[exharr]

Originally posted by: huzefa1

Originally posted by: Pothead
I'm sorry to say but there are lots of people that cut the upc and the store still accepts the product back.

In over 5 years of shopping at BB, I've never seen anyone return an item without the UPC code present.

Shopping doesn't give you the full view of what goes on. Employees there will get away with this easier than customers. And it does happen. Far too often.

 

[exharr]

Originally posted by: Johnbear007

Originally posted by: dew042

Originally posted by: tpoj
Bestbuy sucks. Last month, I purchased a PNY RAM with $25 rebate advertised. When I sent it the rebate, it got reject because the product does not have the rebate as advertise. I went to B&M and yelled. The guy won't accept return because there was no UPC. I called in .com CSR and they told me to resubmit to another promotion but the rebate amount is $15 WTF. Accepted it anyway (better than nothing) but got no respone on my $15 yet.

Right - rebate probelms with PNY directly (almost always manfacturers rebates on RAM) makes BB suck? Thats well thought through.

Hey, BB offers the promotion through their stores. Thats the bottom line. What are you some kind of BB employee fanboy or something?

Screw bestbuy I'm here for deals for ME. If every comapny goes out of business giving me good deals Great. I dont care about these stores. I care about getting stuff I want. Period. Everyone else can stop whining about fair and go to hell.

Just because they offer the promotion doesn't mean its really their responsibility. If its something the manufacturer has out there, they aren't the ones behind it. They are only advertising it because if they don't another store will and will get that business. Its like blaming a car dealer because they got a car with a bad engine. They didn't make the engine, they are just a middleman.

 

[jliger99]

Originally posted by: kyutip
Not all rebates are bad.
Rebates from Staples are generally good and pretty fast.

Staples is the most reliable in rebates for me.

Both Staples and Microsoft are very reliable when it comes to rebates.

With MS, if you mark you calender exactly four weeks after sending in a rebate form, you should have it back by then...

 

[ak3883]

"CC is so much better than BB in every way "

As I call them, Circuit SHITY!

Boy do I disagree! I have had bad luck with CC rebates on more than one occasion. I hate my local CC. Everyone there are assholes, esp. CS people. The closest BB to me is just over an hour away, and when I am at college there are 2 different BB's both within 15 minutes. I have never had problems dealing with the people there, doing PM's and such. Maybe I'm just lucky, that could be.

But to be fair I have only gotten one rebate from BB, and it came in like 5 weeks, no problems whatsoever. CC has screwed me out of a few rebates. I go to BB whenever possible.

 

[Cleaner]

I will say that I've never had a problem with BB rebates. Although its definately YMMV. I will also agree that Staples rebates are very fast!

Keep on flaming.

 

[RagManX]

I'm amazed by the mental prowess and logic skills displayed in this thread. Get the Supreme Court to regulate rebates? Um, wrong branch of government. Close to 100% rebate submissions? In the 4 years I've been doing Hot Deals forums, every report/study I've seen puts the number around 30% submission rates. Making money off holding your money for 2 months and not off the non-submissions? Riiiight. Blame Best Buy for PNY not honoring a rebate? Wow!! What wonderful insight in to the world of business relationships.

I could go on, but no one will appreciate it, and I'll just get flamed, regardless.

RagManX

 

[Boiler]

It seems like everytime I read a thread on rebate, or even deals, there are complaints about rebates. I have done so many rebates from all the retailers and I must say that I have never had any problems. Yes, I had on a few occasions where they didn't receive my rebate or somehow they denied it. A phone call/fax has always resolved the problem. This includes all the rebates from TCA, rebateshq, BB Calais ME(which is always the quickest turnaround beside Microsoft), from BB, staples, CompUSA, CC, OD, OM, Amazon, Buy.com, you name it.

I always keep a copy of the rebate I sent.

I was a month past the mailing deadline for a HP CDRW $100 rebate that I accidentally dropped between the car seats. It was my fault but I sent it in anyway and got my rebate back.

I bought the 17" Matrix BestBuy/SamSung DVI monitor for $200 AR($160 from TCA, $50 from BB). Got the JVC 5-dics progressive scan DVD player from BB for $40 AR and BVG.

I have done thousands of dollars in rebates beginning about 8 years ago when I first purchased my PC from Dell, and CompUSA was having weekly FAR with fantastic stuffs(those were the good old days with CompUSA). One of my very first FAR from CompUSA and still being use under-monitor power switch by Memorex.

I even took advantage of Dell by submitting and receiving a $100 rebate meant for Home/Home Office after I have purchased it from their Small Business.

Some of them took a while, the monitor rebate from TCA took 4 months but they always arrive.

I always buy for personal use only, I don't push my luck by buying worthless junk and submitting 10+ rebates to Office Max to make money, or buy stuff to sell on Ebay, that's just not good karma.

Just want to give a different perspective because most people don't post about good experiences so complaints far outweight positive posts.

I sure hope I haven't jinxed my good luck rebate streak!

Thanks for the tip about returns on the same receipts!

 

[zettler]

Originally posted by: Richardito
My wife actually worked for the first person that implemented the rebate system.....She sucks and rebates suck too...

Could this be a typo? Do you really mean ex-wife, or, as I like to say, future ex-wife?

 

[Lalakai]

I see so many people whining and crying about bad stores, poor csr's, service managers that don't match prices from the net, and countless other complaints generated from the person thinking they aren't getting the deal of a lifetime. Grow up people. If the store doesn't treat you in a fashion that you like, don't return. If you don't think rebates are fair, or too much work, don't use them. If you're trying to scam a place by purchasing an item before the sale, then returning it during the sale, and run into problems, it's your own fault.

bottom line is that we have the right to purchase what we want, from a store of our choosing, at an agreed price. If we do enter into additional agreements (rebates, extended warrenties, ect.), then the store or manufactor has an obligation to meet their conditions. Too many times though, it's people's petty greed that get's them into trouble and then they blame someone else. When there's a legitmate complaint, then follow through, learn from it and don't deal with that store anymore. But it gets really boring hearing everyone crying about how poor they've been treated and how unfair it is that "stuff" actually costs money. If you don't like it, stop buying it. (off my soap box and back to work)

 

[razor2025]

Whine? These people are complaining BLATANT immoral business tactics employed by major retailers. If you've ever had to deal with crappy rebate then you might understand.

bottom line is that we have the right to purchase what we want, from a store of our choosing, at an agreed price. If we do enter into additional agreements (rebates, extended warrenties, ect.), then the store or manufactor has an obligation to meet their conditions

You've just contradicted yourself. The people here are complaning because the STORE / MANUFACTURE are NOT fulfilling their part of the agreement. They advertise in BIG BOLD letter of after rebate price and then goes in their way to screw the consumers of their entitled rebates. Here, we have BB using a rediculous claim to not fulfill the rebate which the OP was entitled too. Think of it like this,

You buy a car with $1000 rebate. The rebate says you have to include the original sales invoice and a vehicle serial number (ok, this is kinda not realistic, but I needed a UPC substitute). Let's say the rebate was denied saying "the car was return to the dealer". They have all the original document + the money that was rightfully/legally entitled to you. Now, you'll have wade through their incredibly sloppy customer service center waiting in the line 30min to speak to some drone. After that you'll have to deal with many excuse they throw at you. "Rebate expired" "Send it AGAIN please".

IMO, I don't mind having rebates, but the way they're handled are rediculous. Retailer advertise with rebates but does nothing to help their customer to get the money. It borders in line with false advertising. I think there was a thread not too long ago saying that some states require the retail stores to display the REAL price of their item larger than the AFTER rebate price.... That's a good start if they would enforce it and spread to other states.

 

[Parasitic]

Originally posted by: ak3883
"CC is so much better than BB in every way "

As I call them, Circuit SHITY!

Boy do I disagree! I have had bad luck with CC rebates on more than one occasion. I hate my local CC. Everyone there are assholes, esp. CS people. The closest BB to me is just over an hour away, and when I am at college there are 2 different BB's both within 15 minutes. I have never had problems dealing with the people there, doing PM's and such. Maybe I'm just lucky, that could be.

But to be fair I have only gotten one rebate from BB, and it came in like 5 weeks, no problems whatsoever. CC has screwed me out of a few rebates. I go to BB whenever possible.

I don't buy electronics from Circuit City, but whatever BB has on sale, my local CC will gladly PM...usually I can get in and out in FIVE minutes, saves me a bunch of time.

I hate rebates, so if the amount is bigger than $10, I send the submissions via Priority Mail along with delivery confirmation and when it arrives at the rebate HQ, I print out the delivery page as proof so the con artist representatives from the rebate agency can't give me the whole lost in mail thing.

 

[Bee01]

Originally posted by: Boiler
It seems like everytime I read a thread on rebate, or even deals, there are complaints about rebates. I have done so many rebates from all the retailers and I must say that I have never had any problems.
I was a month past the mailing deadline for a HP CDRW $100 rebate that I accidentally dropped between the car seats. It was my fault but I sent it in anyway and got my rebate back.

Would you like a cookie? Seriously though, most people have had problem with at least one rebate. I sent in a Maxtor $30 rebate 3 weeks before the mailing deadline and got a "postmarked after due date" postcard in the mail. I think the chances of getting a large rebate that was sent a month after the deadline gets rejected 999/1000 times.