UPDATE! Philips CDRW PCRW80 $40 Rebate

[Whitneymuse]

I called Philips yesterday and I finally got a CSR who explained what has been happening with this...it actually put ALL of this into perspective and exonerated Philips...but to place this here, in print and get the wrath of everyone who's heard the "just wait 4 to 6 weeks crowd..." I'm convinced you get the rebate: just as long as you make certain that Philips' emails their promotions fulfillment that you're a rebate-er. You could be a *********-er and be awaiting your check from Philips; they're workin' to save their corporation in the USA...they don't want to screw this up.

 

[Justincase]

>>>but to place this here, in print and get the wrath of everyone who's heard the "just wait 4 to 6 weeks crowd.<<<

Whitneymuse: I can't see a downside to sharing what the CSR claims is 'really' going on, with us...I think right now most of us are just tired of being jerked around and lied to by (some of) the frontline CSRs and supervisors..if we knew the 'real story', many of us would be a little more understanding, patient and give Philips the benefit of the doubt and time to make good on our rebates.

The downside of not sharing that info is that many of us will get more irate about this situation as time continues to go by, and direct our anger at Philips' reps. Oh well, your call.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

<< Up Up Up, >>

Philips has serious customer care issues

 

[ArchAngelha]

I threw away my only copy with my serial number on it, but when I visit RebatesHQ, it shows that Phillips/RebatesHQ received my claim on 8/7. Am I screwed?

 

[copyfixer]

To archangelha:

I am still waiting on mine, but here is what I did. Call Philips 800-531-0039, raise cain and get a case #. Once you have a case# continue to pester.

 

[Whitneymuse]

"I'm convinced you get the rebate: just as long as you make certain that Philips' emails their promotions fulfillment that you're a rebate-er." Call Philips customer service during the work week -- so they can verify that the promotions department has had your claim transmitted to them. If you received a claim number from Philips, the US2-XXXXXX number, you've got to take the extra step of verifying that customer service has verified with promotions that you're a bona fide rebater.

During October and the change-over from Parago, Philips made some assumptions about the usefullness of Parago's database; apparently, these didn't pan out and so they couldn't use Parago's database as they thought they could. Philips didn't go back through the database they created during October-November and call back everyone that they initially told that their rebates were being processed to completion. That's why when some of us called them back with the case number form that period, we were surprised to learn that there was an additional step Philips needed to do to process the claim.

If Philips can be faulted for anything, it's that when they made the decision to take over the Parago fulfillment of their rebates, they made some assumptions about Parago's database's adequacy; when it proved inadequate, Philips, as far as I can tell, didn't take the additional step to contact those who received the new case numbers.

 

[Justincase]

Thanks Whitneymuse.

^to the top it goes again.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

<< ^:| ^ >>

^:|^

 

[Omagh]

Just looking through my rebates folder and found that I got my
rebate from Philips for $40.00 sometime in September. Mailed it in
July.

No problem with me. However this was the only rebate that I tried on
this deal. Still reasonable enough for me. Sorry that so many of you
are getting shafted for your rebate.

 

[MadCow00]

Call them! Call them! and Call them Again!
From my experience, Emailing don't work.
You have to talk to a CRS to make sure ur case is submitted to promotion department.
sigh... we'll just keep calling.
At least, it's a 800 number.

 

[ENIAC]

^

 

[hotstuff2000]

IT has now been over 4 months, and I have yet to receive even the "LETTER STATING WHEN I SHOULD RECEIVE MY CHECK" that the CSRs keep promising me. I say after the new year, someone talk to a lawyer and then we can all figure out how to join the class action suit. This should be a last resort, because I'm sure it would take years before it ended and we get our money, but after the new year, it is time for them to be punished. Some people will be going on 6 MONTHS, HALF A YEAR with no rebate. This is ridiculous.
It would serve as a lesson to any other company who treats its customers like crap.

By the way my drive has bufferunderruns ALWAYS at 8x and sometimes at 4x.. a truly shiitty drive. It came with 2,1 firmware, I am now upgrading to 2,5 and will try again but it has already wasted my money on coasters. I am burning Fuji 24x discs and this POS drive can't burn them at 4x. I can't BELIEVE I bought this drive and they didnt make it BURNproof.. I can't believe anyone makes drives that arent BURNproof anymore. But then again, I guess you guys saw that story about Philips shutting down in the USA? :disgust:

 

[hotstuff2000]

WOW! I upgraded to 2,5 and I am shocked! The drive worked at 8x and buffer never went below 96% ! This makes me feel a little better about Philips, but only because they drove my hopes down my failing to perform as advertised, and then *thrilled* me by--- doing only what promised. Hah, I think its funny, but I have this great feeling that I can quickly burn CDs at the speed they were promised to... after ruining about 5 coasters that is.. Anyway, it makes me wonder HOW they could ever release a drive that didn't burn at 8x, and call it that... what happened in the lab tests ? And the fact they can just release some software that makes it burn at twice the rate.. well that is cool but makes me wonder.. could they turn it into a 16x?

Anyway nice job Philips ENGINEERS
Pathetic job Philips CUSTOMER SUPPORT

 

[Justincase]

Just like the old saying...you get what you pay for. Better drives were, and are, available. Oh, and...

>>>I can't BELIEVE I bought this drive and they didnt make it BURNproof.<<<

You chose a drive that did not have, nor did it claim to be, Burnproof. That's not Philips' fault...if you expected a Burnproof drive, it would have been a good idea to look for a drive with "Burnproof" clearly stated on the box, or in an ad.

 

[jsmckenna45431]

I've given up, if it comes it comes. I hate MIR.

Jeff

 

[hotstuff2000]

<<
You chose a drive that did not have, nor did it claim to be, Burnproof. That's not Philips' fault...if you expected a Burnproof drive, it would have been a good idea to look for a drive with "Burnproof" clearly stated on the box, or in an ad. >>



Ahh yes, but like I said, "I can't believe they still MAKE drives that are not BURNproof".. This was my first CD writer drive. I didn't know a whole lot about them and only had a day or so to buy with the rebate. When my first CD was spat out of the machine and a window told me "The burn process was interrupted while write was in progress, disk is ruined" I laughed out loud!! I can't imagine that if anything slows down the drive from spinning, there is a DMA delay, etc... the "dumb" CD writer will just "give up" and ruin the disk! Can you imagine if your hard drive worked like this??! OOPS there was an error on that read, now the platter is destroyed.. HAH. I certainly *DO* fault Philips for making a slow, buggy, outdated, shoddy piece of hardware like this and then slapping a brand name on it. Just as I blame Magnavox (a Philips company) for making a TV that can't change channels without the remote! (Yes, our high school bought like 25 of them a few years back) Did they come with the guarantee that you could change channels on the box? That is not the point! The point is that is a ridiculous lack of a feature and so is BURNproof! And I will flame any company that passes off shoddy second hand labor as a quality brand name good. I guess I should have saved my money and bought a Mitsumi, those things are rock solid, cheap, and they don't even advertise the things. If I got this drive for $8 like I was supposed to, I wouldnt be complaining. But for $48, yes, I am complaining!

 

[clarkmo]

Burnproof was new at the time and does anyone have an 8x burner with burnproof? I can't think of one. So PhilipsUSA is going under? That's why they won't pay then. The question is, when was it part of their plan? I think that when they started dumping these drives on the market with the big rebates, they already knew what they were going to do. Doesn't this constitute some kind of fraud?. They sold the drives with no intentions of fulfilling all of the rebates that were submitted. I don't think large multi-national corporations announce closings until well after all the preparations for that closing have occurred. And dumping of the drives was in preparation of this closing, IMO. Hmm.. I think justice is going to have to be served.

 

[TerryB]

Hotstuff2000,

Where did you find the firmware upgrade? Please post!

 

[Justincase]

>>>I certainly *DO* fault Philips for making a slow, buggy, outdated, shoddy piece of hardware like this<<<

My CDRW drive was fine - and the person I sold it to was really happy with it. And from reading this and the original huge thread for the deal, it seems that just about everyone that updated the firmware is satisfied with the drive as well (I think there was only one person that did not see improvement)...and the stores that had this deal all have return policies, for those that were not saisfied.


>>>Just as I blame Magnavox (a Philips company) for making a TV that can't change channels without the remote! (Yes, our high school bought like 25 of them a few years back) Did they come with the guarantee that you could change channels on the box? That is not the point! The point is that is a ridiculous lack of a feature and so is BURNproof!<<<

I think the real point is that you would benefit from researching and learning more about the items you are considering purchasing, prior to buying them. If I wanted a drive with Burnproof, you can bet I would get it...I wouldn't go out and buy a cheapo drive and then expect it to have a feature that is not listed in the product specs, then blame the company because it doesn't.

 

[ashneel]

Philips are the most mother fuken slow as rebate company wtf they doing taking so long.

like they didnt see this comming.

 

[LoverOfTheNight]

ANYBODY ACTUAL HAVE THIS REBATE ALREADY?

 

[hotstuff2000]

<< Hotstuff2000,

Where did you find the firmware upgrade? Please post! >>



2,5 Firmware upgrade

This was impossible to find on their website! Had to find where someone had posted the link earlier

 

[WhiteMouse]

Here's the way to find the firmware on Philips' site, so at least you know you are not downloading a home-made "update".

http://www.pcstuff.philips.com/
->Left: Support & Drivers
->Middle: Downloads (........)
->Enter: PCRW804K (or Select Multimedia Peripherals, then CD Rewriters, then select PCRW804K)
->Firmware is at the top

 

[crippledgiant]

I tried to install 2.5 but got error message requesting installation of Adaptec's Aspi. Do you know what this is and where it can be gotten?

 

[clarkmo]

Do a Google search for forceaspi or aspiinst.exe (could be 1 i). Either one should work. I think you can find aspinst.exe on tekram's mobo support website. Most of us need to run one of these programs to acquire an updated aspi layer that windows doesn't provide.