Complaint Review: Frys Seagate The Rebate Center

I purchased one of the 200 GB Seagate drives mentioned in the previous report and just got my $10 mail-in rebate, so obviously it is not always being rejected. I did have to go some bother to get it, though, as I will describe below.

I mailed in my rebate forms on October 28, sending the form for the $40 rebate to El Paso, Texas, and the form for the $10 rebate to Niagara Falls. This would probably be my first complaint, since Fry's had advertised a $50 rebate on this drive. Not until I purchased it did I find out that I'd have to fill out two separate forms and mail them to two separate states.

On December 2, I received e-mail telling me that the $10 rebate would be rejected because I didn't send in the original UPC. Since they were kind enough to provide a phone number (unlike their web site, www.rebatestatus.com, which provides neither phone number nor address), I called them and spoke with a woman identified as Laura, who repeated the claim in the e-mail that the original UPC had been required. When I read from the form that "a copy of the original UPC label" was required, she asked me to fax the information I had to them. When I inquired what good this would do, since I obviously couldn't fax the original UPC even if I hadn't mailed it to El Paso, she had no answer other than to repeat her request. I then asked for her full name, which she refused to give (she did give her employee number as #9242). I then asked to speak with her supervisor, whom I think she identified as Sergio.

After a minute or so, I was connected with someone who identified himself as Benny Marquez, Presidential Line Advocate, employee #9687. He was apparently not Laura's supervisor, but indicated a willingness to help me. Initially I made no further progress with him, but after repeatedly pointing out that the form for the $10 rebate requested a copy of the UPC, he put me on hold for a minute or two, then returned to tell me that a check would be mailed in 7-10 business days.

Much to my surprise, the check arrived last Thursday, December 9. It was amusing as well as surprising, since the same day I received it I also received a postcard telling me that the rebate wouldn't be honored because they didn't get the original UPC. So much for the right hand not knowing what the left is doing, I suppose.

So the good news is that I got the rebate. The bad news is that I went to more bother than most people are probably willing to for a measly ten bucks. On the other hand, the fact that I was willing to call and make a nuisance of myself, costing them money in the process, is probably why they were willing to send me the rebate. So maybe if more people are willing to call they might change their ways.

I might mention that there is also some unknown news, in that I still haven't received the larger rebate, for $40. I did receive e-mail confirmation on November 4 that they received it, along with the URL for a web site to check status, but there has been no change in status ("scheduled for final processing") since then. I can only hope that getting this check won't require as much effort as the last one did.

While this experience was not as bad as it might have been (a friend of mine tells me that he's convinced that Best Buy regularly claims that rebate forms must have been lost in the mail), it does make me wary of additional rebates, especially at Fry's. The next time I purchase anything that advertises a rebate, I'm going to first find out what the rebate consists of. And if it involves multiple forms sent to multiple locations, as this one did, I think I'm going to pass on it.