Complaint Review: LetsTalk.com

Hmmm, where do I start. Unfortunately I came upon this website shortly after I made my purchases. We have about a total of $1000 worth of rebates due back to us, that at this point I wonder if we'll ever receive. Hate to say it, but I doubt it.

Essentially, Letstalk.com offers $100 for a particular Nokia phone as long as you purchase it within a week or so and activate your service thru T-Mobile. It seemed like a pretty good deal, so we purchased all the phones that we use for our business under this rebate.

I sent of ALL of the required info. They have a long list of items that they want, packing slip, sticker off the box (that I had to cut out of each package), 2 months worth of phone bills for each phone, etc. All must be in order and mailed to their rebate center.

I'd say about a month later I checked online for my rebate status which claimed that it was denied because I did not include a packing slip. I know for a FACT I included every item necessary to process these rebates. So, I played along, and asked them how I can re-instate my rebates in which they said all would have to do is fax them the packing slip(s) with a bunch of other info. I did that the same day.

The next day I received an email from Letstalk that confirmed they got my fax and that they would need 2 weeks to review everything for accuracy. Well, 2 weeks went by, so I forwarded the email they sent me (that confirms they got my packing slips) back to letstalk.com and asked again about the status of my rebates. Their CSR's are pretty slow. They wrote back telling me my rebates were denied because they didn't receive a packing slip. I went back and forth with various CSR's via email explaining to them "to read below, because it says you received my fax." Needless to say, the last rep got snippy, said they get tons of faxes and they would need another 2 weeks.

I've been going thru this same 2 week verification process for about 2.5 months now. Everytime I call/email I get the same response.

Just recently I sent them off 2 more emails asking about the status of my rebates in which no one replied to. Then yesterday I receive a bunch of little postcards stating that my rebates have been denied because of the lack of a packing slip, and that if I resubmit EVERYTHING again by mid August, they would be so kind as to review and decide then if I qualify for the rebates.

Are these people fricken kidding me? I called up the number on the various emails (which by the way, they list as 886, when in fact it's 866 - I would've wrote it off as a typo if it didn't appear on almost every CSR's email signature line.) I got some guy there who told me there was nothing they could do about it and was so extremely unprofessional, that he actually started pressing the phone buttons in my ear so that I would stop talking. I asked to speak with his manager and he claims that there isn't a manager to speak with. So I asked to be transfered to someone else and he said he can't do that, that I could hang up, dial the number again, and talk to someone else that way. I continued to ask to speak with a manager and he said, "call back in 30 minutes." I kept asking him "what 30 minutes is going to do? They are running a huge business there, with tons of CSR's answering their phones and you mean to tell me there's not one single manager on the floor?!?!"

Then I decided to call the guy that sold me the phones at Letstalk.com, since he was actually quite nice (who wouldn't be after you've spent $6000 with their company?) Unfortunately he doesn't work there anymore and I got someone who was in training. Poor girl. I was nice to her, letting her know upfront that I was upset and I know it's not her fault but I may get pretty angry under the circumstances. Letstalk gave me the status of my rebate as "under review" and told me to wait 2 more weeks. I told them that I can't, I'm tired of this, someone needs to tell me something else other than that. So they ended up calling their rebate company (which by the way, the number is 888-314-9907 - good luck if you call.) They put me on 3-way, so it was myself, letstalk.com, and the rebate center. The rebates centers' CSR proceeds to tell me that my account is under review and I would have to wait (the infamous) 2 weeks. I told him no, in a more drawn out way, but no. Then goes to "see what he can do." Comes back on the line after being on hold for a while and tells me that there was a glitch in their system, and my info isn't there, so that's why it was being denied. Also stating supposedly there were tons of other customers that were affected by this "glitch" and they're having to go back and re-enter everything or some kind of b.s. like that. Then he goes on to state that I need to resubmit everything again for them to process my rebates.

I can't get over this...are these people serious? So I asked him what changed from the time I called till these few minutes later that my status goes from "under review" to "you need to resubmit?" Which he couldn't explain. We go round and round, all the while letstalk's CSR is still sitting quietly on the conference call, then letstalk chimes in "we'll go ahead and override your proof of packing slip." I clarify with letstalk that this "override" is NOT a request to override, but the "green light" to override.

Honestly this is ridiculous since I know for a fact I included the packing slip AND faxed it to them. But, I continue to play along in hopes that this will somehow push my rebates thru.

Sorry this is so long, but if anyone even thinking about ordering thru letstalk.com reads this, and sees how frustrating this company can be to deal with, maybe it will discourage you or at the least, make you think twice before doing business with them.

Right now, I'm suppose to call letstalk back on Monday to be sure the "override" went thru. If it has, then I have to wait another 10 business day (infamous 2 weeks) before I can contact the rebate center to see if my rebates were approved. Honestly, nothing matters to me until the check is cashed in my account. I think I read on someone elses post that they also send bogus checks that bounce. BUYER BEWARE!

PS. My thoughts about TMobile, honestly, so far they've been good to me, so no complaints there.

Vivian
Atlanta, Georgia
U.S.A.

Click here to read The *EDitorial: The Marketing Rebate Rip Off ...Manufactures invent reasons why not to pay the consumer