Rebates! Rebates!

[AbeL]

I guess this fits here since it involves the purchase of hardware.A month ago I bought a WD external HD at CompUSA, there was a rebate involved.Usually, when applying for a rebate they ask for several things to be submitted:-1 - the completed coupon2 - the original UPC code from the box3 - a copy of the register receiptsometimes additional itemsIn this particular instance, item 2 was replaced with, and I quote, "A copy of your WD capacity label from your Western Digital 80GB USB 2.0 external hard drive box as proof of purchase."At the time I thought this was strange, but I did what they asked. I also kept copies of *everthing* I submitted.Today I received a postcard telling me my application was denied because....Get this...I didn't submit the original UPC!!!I called their 800 no., explained that UPC wasn't required, and was told, "my file is now updated and I'll get the check in 4 -6 weeks."That's great! But what if I didn't keep copies, what if I didn't rememeber that UPC wasn't required, And the capper - what happens to someone else who submitted the UPC (because that's always what's requested)???I can't call this a scam, because if you follow the directions, you'll get the money (I hope). But it seems to me that they are really trying to take advantage of people's habits to get out of paying what they promised.So, a caution, read the requirements carefully, don't discard ANYTHING ( had pitched the box)and keep copies of everthing until you've got your money.Abe

[Jeber]

Good advice, AbeL. Once upon a time the requirements for getting a rebate weren't all that complicated, because most lazy consumers didn't bother to apply for themIn today's economy, those lazy consumers are now money saving consumers, most of whom are applying for every rebate they can get. Since the manufacturers don't really want to give you money back...now they make us jump through 20 hoops before they disqualify our request because we didn't submit our writing sample on lime green legal sized paper, as clearly required in the 4 point type at the bottom of the coupon.As you say...keep copies, read the fine print and follow every step to the letter. Then wait for the 6 to 8 months...sorry, that should be weeks, for your money.If they were really consumer friendly, they'd just take that $20 or whatever off the price up front.

[epp_b]

Wow, you got a check within 4-6 weeks? If that actually happens, you're one lucky guy. I finally received a rebate for my D-Link Router after 6 months (of course, I had a similar problem -- I sent the UPC, but not the reciept )But, that's the idea of a rebate. They make it almost rocket science to get everything right, and figure most average users will just get too frusterated and forget about it. That, and you've got to be good for the full price in order to actually save money later (waaaay later ).

[Peachy]

When I purchased my Western Digita 60 GB ATA drive with rebate they asked for the WD Capacity label (the original, not a copy). Now, when I tried to peel it off I knew it would tear; so I cut out the label still attached to the carton itself. They also asked for the UPC code. This was purchased from a Future Shop store in Peterborough, Ontario, so the requirements were likely different. I got the rebate in about 5 weeks. I must be one of the lucky few who've never had any problems with manufacturer's rebates. The longest I've ever waited was 6 weeks and the fastest turnaround was 3 weeks with most averaging 4 weeks. Is it possible that the Canadian rebate centres are more on the up and up and don't try to weasel out of fulfilling said rebates? Go figure.

[Marsden11]

Most require the UPC.Manufactures use rebates because the majority or purchasers forget to send the required info in or forget completely.It is really just a sales gimic...

[Rons]

Good points everyone. Thanks for the info.

[ibe98765]

I've often found with rebates that you have to call the 800 number usually provided ot "tickle" then to send it to you. Every time I do that, I'm always told that it just went out a few days ago.

[Prelude76]

This was purchased from a Future Shop store in Peterborough, Ontario

i can't stand FUTURE SHOP. virtually EVERYTHING you see in their flyers are AFTER rebate pricing. CD Writer, $39.99 (tiny writing - $20 instant rebate, - $80 mail in rebate)oh, and they have a tactic that is truly sleazy. they do false advertising, and 'claim' its misprint of weekly flyer. like for CD Writer for $39.99. you go to the store, and they have a letter at the computer centre, saying its incorrect advertised price. there is no $20 instant rebate, and mail in rebate is only $40. so the CD Writer is $99.99. people still buy it coz they still think they're getting a good deal. but whats odd is that SAME CD Writer that was misprinted the same week in Barrie, Ontario, well i saw Toronto's flyer and compared them and every single price was correct except the CD Writer in question was $59.99 (mail in rebate of $80), and after going to a Toronto Future Shop, guess what? they have incorrect advertisement, it should be $99.99 (only $40 mail in rebate). now i can see an honest mistake, but having 2 different prices and claiming both are mistakes, what are the odds of that? oh, that and i know someone who worked at Future Shop and he said they always had false pricing with 'notice of correction' posted inside store. every week was a different item.needless to say i told both Barrie and Toronto's future shops to SHOVE IT and bought a $79.99 CD Writer (NO Rebate needed) at Best Buy.

[Peachy]

needless to say i told both Barrie and Toronto's future shops to SHOVE IT and bought a $79.99 CD Writer (NO Rebate needed) at Best Buy.

Prelude,this is ironic since Best Buy owns Future Shop!!!I hear ya, though, generally speaking about Future Shop. I no longer partake in the Toronto area stores, but my sister seems to love them. Anyway, when they opened shop in Peterborough last November, I was curious to see if they'd be any different. For the most part I'm generally satisfied with the Peterborough store and I haven't had any bait and switches there. Nor have I seen any flyer price corrections like I see in Toronto. Their prices still tend to be higher than buying from the industrial park shops in Markham.

[Prelude76]

needless to say i told both Barrie and Toronto's future shops to SHOVE IT and bought a $79.99 CD Writer (NO Rebate needed) at Best Buy.

Prelude,this is ironic since Best Buy owns Future Shop!!!

dang, i thought Citcuit City bought out Future Shop. we'll i'll be danged. i thought we had healthy competition and instead we have a monopoly here in Canada. i wonder why they're building so many Best Buy stores so close to Future Shop stores? whats the point of that? to make people THINK there's competition? it certainly fooled me. any word on if Circuit City will enter the canadian market, to compete with best buy / future shop?

[Peachy]

any word on if Circuit City will enter the canadian market, to compete with best buy / future shop?

Can't say that I've heard/read any at the moment. There's a Best Buy store near a Future Shop store in my sister's area of Toronto and I was astonished to see how similar the store layouts were. From what I understand, Best Buy intends to keep the Future Shop brand for now to try and create two marketing niches. What that is I'm not sure because they are both competing for the same customers. Their prices are pretty similar as well as their products although you will see some differences in the flyers. My guess is that once Best Buy has some name recognition in Canada you will see them either convert the FS stores to Best Buy stores or sell them off.

[Prelude76]

bunch of bums, is what they all are. i recall going to future shop once, and trying to negotiate a better price for a Car CD Player, and i used a well-used tactic "yeah, we'll let me think about it. besides, i think Best Buy was wiling to throw in these 2 speakers for free.", yet the guy a Future Shop didnt seem to care. almost got a "fine, go to our competition" attitude from him. find it highly odd at the time, but it all makes sense now. ITS THE SAME COMPANY.

[Jeber]

As a former Musicland (also bought then dumped by Best Buy) employee, I can assure you that this is the B.B. way of doing things. Cluster their stores, fail to support their subsidiaries, then either convert them to B.B.'s or sell them off. We were never allowed to sell CD's at the B.B. price, for example.

[AbeL]

I guess I hit a hot button with this post - good, I think the retailers need to hear enough unhappy customers to quit the rebates concept and return to old fashioned discounts. That's not likely to happen, unfortunately, as long as they only have to deliver on 50% or less of rebates.BTW - to track rebates I've been using a piece of freeware called Rebates! Rebates! from SIX international (www.sixintl.com). When I submit the paperwork I always try to "hint" to the rebate center that I'm "watching them". The hint is in the form of simply taping all the small bits and pieces of paper that they ask for onto a letter size sheet and writing the mailing date on the large sheet. I started doing this simply to keep the small pieces (like the UPC) from getting lost.It may be that correctly submitted rebate claims are increasing which is causing mfgrsr and retailers to change the rules in order to trip us up. In addition to the situation I described in the original post, I had an earlier submission for a different product where they asked for a copy of the serial number from the label on the bottom of the device. Consequently, they added two new complexities:1 - you had to read the rebate requirements before you installed the unit or you might not "bother" to remove it to get the picture.2 - on the label were two bar-codes, and which was the serial number was NOT clearly marked.I lucked out, I had no trouble getting this rebate (yup check's already been cashed).Abe

[zox]

I've often found with rebates that you have to call the 800 number usually provided ot "tickle" then to send it to you. Every time I do that, I'm always told that it just went out a few days ago

Ibe, exactly my case with NEC Multisync LCD monitor.Rebate waiting was almost 8 weeks and than I remembered, I looked through papers and such and noticed 1-800 number "in case if rebate doesn't come after 6 weeks", stupid me.I called the number and it was all automated, no representative.I've got my rebate in a week from that date, amazing.Prelude, BB recently opened Best Buy store just across the street from Future Shop here in Ottawa.The only difference is Future Shop sales people are comissioned while BB sales have salaries.This has been told to me from each salesman in BB that aproached me, numerous times.They are also trying to sell you "Price Protection Plan" which is similar or same as "Extended warranty" in Future Shop.I think Canada can do better and let some other companies to compete on the market.Whatever happened with Computer City??We have Compu Smart as well but it doesn't have very good deals.I like to purchase really expensive stuff from Future Shop only for one reason and that is you can always return product "no questions asked".Other than that, I usually buy computer stuff from small retailers.They have great prices most of the times.I just ordered DVD burner from NCIX, to test waters.We'll see how it goes

[littlebone]

Interesting topic. I am about to send in my UPC, sales receipt and rebate coupon to get $20 back from the manufacturer on a Linksys router and notebook wireless card. I bought these through buy.com, which advertised the two units with before and after rebate prices.buy.com also offered a $20 rebate if the item was purchased on 8/19 (mine was). Hot dang, I thought! I'll get $40.00 off, $20 from Linksys, $20 from buy.com. Fine print: both applications require the original UPC. Cold dang.

[GolfProRM]

littlebone... I'd try sending in copies of the UPC's to the buy.com rebate to see if it'll go through...sometimes it will.

[Prelude76]

Whatever happened with Computer City??We have Compu Smart as well but it doesn't have very good deals.

another ironic thing: Computer City was owned by Future Shop. and then one day they just decided to shut its doors and send everyone to the nearest Future Shop instead.let's face is, there is ZERO competiton in Canada when it comes to large consumer electronics stores. as for computer, i recommend finding a good cheap mom & pop computer store. i found a real good one in my home time and i keep them busy.

[Peachy]

Whatever happened with Computer City??We have Compu Smart as well but it doesn't have very good deals.

another ironic thing: Computer City was owned by Future Shop. and then one day they just decided to shut its doors and send everyone to the nearest Future Shop instead.let's face is, there is ZERO competiton in Canada when it comes to large consumer electronics stores. as for computer, i recommend finding a good cheap mom & pop computer store. i found a real good one in my home time and i keep them busy.

Yeah,I got one in town that I go to whenever I need a cheap part to put in someone's PC or if I need a replacement very quickly. For major purchases I choose a very good place that's a 5 minute walk from my dad's house in Toronto or I buy online at another good vendor in the Warden/14th Avenue industrial area in Markham if I can't get to Toronto. For software I can get the educational price in the college bookstore at work!

[Prelude76]

good vendor in the Warden/14th Avenue industrial area in Markham

i know a huge computer warehouse in Markham, are you talking about the same one? its right next door to the new huge ATI building (side story: i was in that ATi building; its impressive. a neighbor of mine works there as a manager and i designed a chip-loading machine for them in 3D a few years back; they built 10 of those machines and shipped them to Taiwan; i prefer nVidia myself, but glad to say something i made contributed to ATI's success )(another side story: in case many of you don't know, ATI and Matrox are both canadian-based. a friend of mine was a top-notch engineering student from Queens University and he worked at Matrox for a few years;' he said 2 years ago, him and most of other top-level engineers all left Matrox and joined ATI in Markham; now i see how Matrox is sucking, and ATI is pounding nVidia at every step; makes me wonder if that high-level defection might have been a contributing factor. )sorry for the rambling stories... i'm wired on hay-fever drugs and caffeine.

[Peachy]

i know a huge computer warehouse in Markham, are you talking about the same one?  its right next door to the new huge ATI building

Not Canada Computers, but GreyTech. I sometimes buy stuff from Canada Computers on College Street, downtown. As for Matrox, yeah, it's a shame that happened. They were losing money big time because the Matrox G400MAX, although just as fast as the nVidia TNT2, was late to market. I didn't get mine until about 9 months after it was announced, and it wasn't even the AGP 4x version but the 2x. Still have the card; it works great in Linux and has comparable Quake 3 framerates to an nVidia GeForce 2 MX-400 in Red Hat 8.0.

[zox]

Matrox just dropped from 3D competition with ATI and Nvidia.It seems that Nvidia and ATI have some agreement to slow down a bit since NV40 they announced will not happen this year.Matrox still releases quality products but they are mostly for Video enthusiasts and professionals.They have the only video card that supports 3 monitors and they have the best multimonitors custom cards for large displays and such.They are too pricey IMHO.I find it sad that there is no 3rd video card manufacturer who can compete with ATI and Nvidia on 3D level.That way we would get even better deals.I remember when ATI was number one on the market, for a long time.They fell asleep and customers were not getting good stuff not cheap stuff.When Nvidia came around with new business model they swiped most of the market.ATI giant woke up and it took them a lot of time to get back to producing good and quality stuff.They are getting back their market share now and we have never seen so many improvements in 3D arena, thanks to Nvidia and competition.

[Jeber]

i'm wired on hay-fever drugs and caffeine.

Boy, Prelude, I don't know...posting under the influence! Somebody take his "enter" keys and let him walk home.

[Prelude76]

its dangerous working on heavy machinery like computers while under the influence. i'm much more likely to respond to any computer problem with a FDISK, DELETE PARTITION, YES.

[havnblast]

I know that feeling with harvest in full swing here - sneezing, watery eyes - augh, but sudafed usually works for me. Whole town probably thinks I have a meth lab with the sudafed I buy. Without that stuff I am totally miserable, at least it's not 100% like it is in Canada

[Cluttermagnet]

For some reason, pretty good experience with rebates here. I buy mostly from the 2-3 local Best Buys, occasionally from Circuit City or even CompUSA, which seems to be taking a real beating from the others. Maybe a while back I might have gotten stiffed on a rebate but I don't remember any specific incidents. I got in the habit of running copies of everything and hanging them on the corkboard until the check came in. Near as I can tell, I have been batting 1000 the past couple of years. This includes WD HD purchases, RAM sticks, inexpensive CD burners, UPS's, etc. No problems here. Occasionally one might take 3-4 months but eventually shows up. More common is 3-8 weeks or so. No complaints.

[BarryB]

its dangerous working on heavy machinery like computers while under the influence.  i'm much more likely to respond to any computer problem with a FDISK, DELETE PARTITION, YES. 

You mean that's not how your supposed to respond? ut oh

[AbeL]

Hey!! You think Microsoft is bad with their EULA, WPA, phone home tricks (and whatever other nasties they're accused of)!!You ain't heard nuthin' yet!I started this topic on Wed., the day that I got the rebate denial, made the phone call and (hopefully) got it straightened out. But, I think WD must have a voice detection scheme built into the drive that responds to someone complaining about a rebate rejection.Evidence? The drive failed on Thurs!! What a bummer. I've owned many WD drives since mid 1980's; this is the first one to fail. I don't think its the drive mechanism, but rather the USB-drive electronics.Fortunately, I hadn't yet committed any critical files to it, just being conservative during the infant mortality period.A replacement is on its way under the warranty.I thought you folks would get a chuckle out of this (I truly hope) coincidence. Tho' I wasn't amused when I couldn't access it!Abe

[havnblast]

I have had great luck with WD also, I have only had one that was only about 3 months old and poof it started getting bad sectors. I called up WD and within 5 days I had another hard drive. This happened on a customers computer, otherwise I still got one that is 10 years old and still going. I don't understand how some people can say WD's are no good. It's all I have used pretty much.

[Cluttermagnet]

Hey!! You think Microsoft is bad with their EULA, WPA, phone home tricks (and whatever other nasties  they're accused of)!!You ain't heard nuthin' yet!I started this topic on Wed., the day that I got the rebate denial, made the phone call and (hopefully) got it straightened out. But, I think WD must have a voice detection scheme built into the drive that responds to someone complaining about a rebate rejection.Evidence? The drive failed on Thurs!!   What a bummer. I've owned many WD drives since mid 1980's; this is the first one to fail. I don't think its the drive mechanism, but rather the USB-drive electronics.Fortunately, I hadn't yet committed any critical files to it, just being conservative during the infant mortality period.A replacement is on its way under the warranty.I thought you folks would get a chuckle out of this (I truly hope) coincidence.    Tho' I wasn't amused when I couldn't access it!Abe

More than a chuckle. Actually, a full belly laugh. This computer has a 40G WD 7200 and has lasted out the infant mortality period and continues to run at 6 months plus. But then I too have had older WD Caviar drives die on me (probably normal wearout, as near as I can tell). Not enough experience overall to have formed either a good or a bad opinion of any of those HD makers. Zero infant mortality so far, but it sounds like quality has gone to the dogs and it is only a matter of time.