I get every damn rebate I file, so I'm saving money at
the expense of
illiterates/incompetents - so what?

he said he followed the directions to the letter... you're
nuts if you think the rebate houses don't often deny for
bull**** reasons. I get all mine too, but more than once
i've had to resort to pretty well harrassing them to do
it. I am meticulous as he is, and i've had them denied
for bogus reasons.

The most recent example was with a Seagate hard drive.
They tried to claim my model wasn't eligible for a rebate,
despite the rebate form itself showing the model as
eligible. They also gave the same excuse to my father, so
it wasn't simply me.... and fatwallet.com had more
examples of people being falsely denied on this rebate,
they were denying legit claims left & right. It was only
after calling & raising hell they reversed the denials and
sent the checks. Still took over 6 mos.

my hassle with a BellSouth rebate was even worse. The
rebate house claimed my copy of my phone bill wasn't
valid. I didn't get paper bills, & the only copies of
bills available electronically at the time didn't look
like normal bills -- everything was in a courier 10pt
font, no graphics, lines anything. The rebate house
repeatedly diddled around saying that wasn't acceptable,
despite it being the only option available to me. And
it's not like BellSouth didn't know I had their product.
I had to write to Georgia's Office of Consumer Protections
to get that one. That got the BellSouth's presidential
escalations office involved.

Others I've had to call multiple times. I note the
dates/times I call or check the website, the CSR i spoke
with, everything... nowadays i even put a piece of paper
in the envelope advising that all contents have been
photocopied, including the postmarked mailing date on the
envelope (i use a machine), and that i will be routinely
following up.

certain rebate houses repeatedly crop up when people talk
about bogus denials. The goal is to deny. If the rebate
house promises a vendor only xx% will be fulfilled, often
they have to eat anything above that amount.