Complaint Review: Best Buy

I bought a KOGI LCD 17" monitor when Best Buy had them for sale with a rebate. The final price would have been great for this monitor, but without the rebate, it's somewhat overpriced. The monitor is quite good, and I have no complaint about it.

Anyway, it's been a while since I sent in the rebate, and when I went to check on it, they have no record that they recieved it. It's the old 'lost in the mail' scam.

This week (March 16-22, 2003) Best Buy has the same monitor for sale with a rebate. If you want to buy the monitor at it's full price (lowered since I bought mine) then make your decision based on that. Don't buy it with the expectation that you'll get a rebate.

Another thing...I noticed when I got home that a portion of the UPC sticker had been removed before I bought the monitor. I sent in the portion that had the UPC code and S/N. That's what they scanned at the cash register, so it should be a valid UPC. When I went back to the store, I checked the boxes of KOGI monitors that were still there, and every one of them had the same portion of the UPC sticker removed. Could be another scam.

Maybe someone at Best Buy is removing stickers and collecting our rebates. Or maybe they removed the UPC stickers in an attempt to prevent us from collecting the rebates. Anything is possible.

I'm thinking of having my copies of the UPC and rebate forms notarized for my records, and then sending the rebates by registered mail, with return receipt. It's an extra expense, and an extreme measure, but this is the third time I lost a big rebate because of Best Buy's fraud and deceit. Next time I want something to take to court. The rebate scams have to stop. We need some way to unite so we can come at them as a group instead of individually.

Sam
Homewood, Illinois
U.S.A.