Best Buy Rebate Center Ripoffs I honored my part of the deal Canada
My beef is not with my local Best Buy store but with the Rebate Center located in WHO KNOWS WHERE? As a Best Buy credit card holder I received a coupon for a $25 gift card by mail with a purchase of $100 or more. In early January I bought myself a PDA as a late Christmas gift. My total purchase was well over $100.
I gave my coupon to the clerk. He didn't know how to key it in so he got someone else to help him. This guy seemed to know just what he was doing. He punched in a few numbers, kept my coupon, and gave me my receipts and rebate submission form. Now, my understanding is that those rebate forms only print out if the necessary info is keyed in or if there is a rebate available. Anyway, the computer printed my rebate submission form. I mailed my rebate off within two days.
Last week I got to wondering where my rebate was. I went on-line to track its status, and just like every other rebate I have ever sent in on Best Buy purchases, they have no record of it. I e-mail them to follow up on this. Yesterday, I received a letter from the Rebate Center that went something like this--sorry, but we cannot honor your rebate because you did not redeem the necessary coupon. If I didn't redeem the coupon, how did I get my rebate submission form? DUH!
I am now in the process of writing them a letter saying, in essence, "So sorry but I gave the clerk my coupon as I was supposed to. I honored my part of the deal so send me my @*&$#*! $25 gift card!!!" We'll see what happens next.
By the way, anyone ever read their little rebate submission policy regarding sending in fraudulent claims and how it is a federal offense to do so and you will be punished, etc? Such hypocrits!
Melanie
York, South Carolina
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Melanie
York,South Carolina,
U.S.A.
Four Months Later....
#3Author of original report
Fri, July 04, 2003
Shortly after filing my complaint on this website, I sent Best Buy a letter at the address from which I received my letter stating that they could not honor my rebate submission. Not long afterward I received my $25 Best Buy gift card with no mention whatsoever of what had happened. Then, today, when I logged in to check my e-mails, I found that I had received a rebuttal from this company...four months later! "M" stated that it wasn't a Best Buy-funded rebate and the only way you can check a Best Buy-funded rebate is to call this toll-free number...The rebate was for a $25 Best Buy gift card but it wasn't a rebate funded by Best Buy. Now that makes a lot of sense to me! So I am supposed to know all about how these rebates are funded and processed once they leave my mail box and all about how they work. I am the consumer! It is not my responsibility as the consumer to know how to process a rebate. All I am supposed to do is fill out my paperwork and send in the necessary UPC's, etc. And I always make a copy of my submission, including the UPC's, before I send it in (most companies are counting on you to forget to make a copy). By following the rebate instructions, I have fulfilled my end of the bargain. It is then up to the company to either honor my rebate or try to stiff me. I don't care where it goes or WHO funds it as long as I get my rebate!
M
NS,Nova Scotia,
Canada
Wasn't Best Buy
#3UPDATE Employee
Wed, July 02, 2003
You went online to check on the status of your rebate; guess what, its not a Best Buy funded rebate! With BB funded rebates the only way you can check the status of your rebate is by calling the toll-free phone #...