Oh No They Didn't...

Does anyone else actually mail in rebates?? Last year at the After-Thanksgiving sale I purchased a portable DVD player for the van and it had a $30 mail-in rebate. I followed the directions and had all necessary steps covered. Rebate was supposed to arrive within 6-8 weeks. So I wait…

The company has a website where you can check the status of your rebate, so I check about once a week. All it ever showed was that they had received it. I waited until week 9 before contacting them by phone. At that time I was told it was a glitch in the system and she would move the process along it way. Sure enough, the next day I checked and it had progressed a step, so now I’m thinking any day now I’ll get my money….not! A week later I check and it has not progressed to the final step…I’m not happy. I call the customer service to ask for them to move it along again and mail my rebate. The girl says that is impossible, it takes 2-3 weeks between the two steps. I tell her that is unacceptable since I followed the guidelines they laid out and expected them to do the same. Of course she has nothing else in her training manual to tell me so I insist on speaking with a supervisor…this is where it get hairy!

Supervisor gets on the phone and I give him the sequence of events and explain that I expect my rebate to be mailed immediately. He proceeds to tell me my explanation has no credibility and that my calling in at week 9 had nothing to do with it moving a step and that the rep I spoke to must have lied when she said there was a system glitch, it was just coincidence the day I called is the day it advanced…um, ok, if that’s what you want to believe, but you’re WRONG! I then explain I’m not really concerned about when or why it moved, we are now coming on week 11 and I should have had my money by week 8 and need to know what he is going to do about it. He’s got nothing but a smart mouth and a bad attitude AND he was yelling at ME. So then, after raising my voice at him, in order for him to stop talking, I politely tell him I need to speak to his superior….oh the shock in his voice was priceless. He barks at me to hold and transfers me to a number that rings and rings and rings and goes nowhere….seriously?!? At this point I search the internet for the manufacturing company for possibly a different customer service number. The website that was unfortunate enough to have the same name as the loser manufacturer of the DVD player has in bold lettering on their Contact Us page ‘Note: We are NOT an electronics manufacturer for DVD players and other equipment.Please do not contact us concerning rebates or other questions about their products as we cannot help.' Sounds like I am not the only one with issues. I finally track down the Parent Company and get an email address for Customer Service. Wanting an immediate solution I call the original number and ask for the same supervisor I spoke with to begin with (note: always write down times and names of customer service you speak with—very handy). The agent tried to get the Supervisor I spoke to the first time, but apparently he was WAY to busy-or scared-to talk to me again and I get another Supervisor. I tell him had transpired earlier and he can’t help me either, but he was very nice about it. I then ask to be transferred to his next higher up and he says, hold while I transfer…not again. I ask for a direct number or name and he says they don’t have direct numbers…um, ok, highly unlikely but this is kind of what I expected. So I tell to go ahead and transfer me, but if it rings to nowhere like before, I will be contacting their parent corporation to inform them of the service they are providing their customers and the store where I bought the product to let them know what is going on, and the Better Business Bureau. He sounded a little uncertain about transferring me at that point, but did. And again it rang and rang and rang…I put it on speaker phone and let it ring for about two minutes before hanging up. So very frustrating!!

I never did actually speak to anyone, emails will be sent.

Miraculously I received my rebate in my mailbox within two days!! Victory on my part, I just wonder how many people send in their rebates to this company and get back a big fat zip-zero-nada-nothing…ever!!