RichA wrote:
John wrote:

I know that the institution of rebates is meant to rip you off so I'm
quite anal about paying attention to the details and ALWAYS sending in
the rebate with delivery confirmation. The delivery confirmation at
least minimizes the "Sorry, we never received your rebate" or "Sorry, we
didn't receive your rebate in time" excuses.

I read the rebate forms several times looking for the "gotcha's". I know
I go through way more trouble than I should for $20-$50 but it's the
principle. They make it as annoying as possible to claim a rebate so
that most people won't bother. I'm the one that bothers.

I send in my rebate to Canon along with all the rebate form, purchase
receipt and I cut out the UPC code from the box and put that in the
envelope. My new tactic is to use wide tape and tape the UPC code to
the rebate form.

I checked on my rebate status just now.

Error(s): An original qualifying UPC was not included

Yep. No matter how hard I tried, Canon still managed to screw me over.

Since they want "an original" qualifying UPC", my copy won't suffice.

Canon, the next time I'm in the market for a product I'll remember this
incident.


Mail-in rebates are always a scam. Why do they do them? Because
people buy based on this.
50-80% never claim them.
Rebates take 8-12 weeks and often are never delivered, another 50%
forget about them.
They force you to call someone to fix the problem or ask where your
rebate is 16 weeks past due delivery time.
At the end of it all, according to various business studies, only 3% of
rebates are ever paid out. So, they can boost sales with what might
amount to a 0.5% overall discount paid.
It is business genius.



I LOVE rebates.

I always fill them out, checking off each step on the firm as I do so,
always make copies of everything, and always send them in, with delivery
confirmation.

Eight out of 10 times no problem.

When there is a problem, I go to the local Small Claims Court here in
Oregon and sue both the stre and the manufacturer for breach of
contract, fraud, and for violtions of something called the Oregon
Unlawful trade Practices Act (ORS 646.601 et seq.)

The local vendor is an actual and apparent agent of the manufacturer.

I have always recovered my filing fees; a minimum of $ 200.00 statutory
damages under the Oregon UTPA; a stautory "prevailing party fee" of $
250.00 and the costs of service of the complaints and summonses on the
local retailer and the registered agent of the manufacturer.

Zinging Fry's and its various manufacturers is lots of fun. I just
fiished, in early December, with Frys and Kingston Memoy on a thumb
drive, which Kingston laimed lacked a dated sales receipt. They get so
twidgy when served with a request for production requiring them to
produce the original of the entirety of the rebate package sent in to
the. Apparently whatever the service company at the post office box
address in El Paso which so many manufacturers use (the work is actually
done in Juarez across the river) keep no iinal records at all. Judges
get so ticked when a defendant's lawyers say its company polivy to
thow orginal records away g.

Having lawyered for amost 40 years before hanging up my cleats makes
this rather simple and quite profitable.
After hiring lawyers two or three times to represen them, Fry's has
figred out its cheaper to pay me than to contest the claim.

YMMV.