Complaint Review: OnRebate.com

I have dealt with OnRebate.com on two different occasions, having purchased bundles from TigerDirect.com. Both bundles had more than one rebate from OnRebate, and both times I had to spend a great deal of time on the telephone before I could claim my rebate. I am a college student so my time is worth the money, but I imagine there are lots of people who would sooner let a $50 rebate slide than spend two hours on the phone.

The first bundle included several computer components. Each component had its own rebate, and there was a rebate on the bundle as a whole. The individual rebates were clear, on what information was to be included, but the bundle simply said "Include a copy of the original UPC." This was ambiguous because there were several UPCs that could be included. I sent an e-mail to their support asking which UPC I needed to include. This was there response:

"Copies of all information must be mailed with the rebate for the bundle."

Which was less useful than what was on the rebate form. So I included a copy of every single UPC that had come with my bundle, as well as a note for whoever processed it that the rebate form had been ambiguous and I had included everything I thought they could possibly need. A few weeks later I got an e-mail that my rebate had been rejected due to a lack of a UPC.

Right away I got on the phone. They had an automated line that told me why my rebate had been rejected, but I could find no way to talk to a representative. After about half an hour of piddling around on their phone system my father suggested pressing 0 to see if I was forwarded to a person. That worked (after holding for quite a while).

The first person I talked to insisted that I must not have submitted the right barcode. I assured her that I had kept photocopies of everything involved with the rebate and sent copies with my rebate form. She gave me a sequence of numbers and said they were the first five digits of the UPC code they were looking for. It didn't match anything that I had. She told me to look through my documentation and call back when I found something.

I hung up and called back. After holding for another 45 minutes a much friendly person answered the phone. He said that there had been an issue with that bundle for everyone who applied, and it he would mark it as accepted.

A week later I had not received any kind of notification that it had been accepted, so I called again. Again, I held for about 25 minutes, only to be told to wait another week and it would be accepted. Sure enough, I eventually got an e-mail stating that it had been accepted.

I eventually got my rebate, but I had to spend more than two hours on the phone to get it.

My most recent issue with OnRebate was a bit strange. I purchased a bundle that had a rebate for the manufacturer, and two rebates for OnRebate. I filled out the online forms to get my rebate and waited for the confirmation e-mail. It never came. After 24 hours, I requested that it be resent. It never came. Finally I sent an e-mail to their support desk stating that I had never received a confirmation e-mail, and gave them the two offer codes I was applying for. I never received a reply.

Finally, a week after applying, I had a day off work to call their support line. After almost exactly 30 minutes of being on hold, someone answered and asked for my tracking number. I told him that my problem was that I did not have a tracking number, that the confirmation e-mail had never arrived. He asked for my first and last name, e-mail address and rebate numbers. Then sent me an e-mail with the confirmation numbers. He sounded irritated when I asked him to stay on the line until I could confirm receipt of the tracking numbers (I thought it was a reasonable request, having just held for 30 minutes). I received the e-mail and thanked him. I got the rebate in the mail 10 days before the redemption period expired, more than a week after I had started trying to redeem the rebate.

I just mailed out the second set of rebates, so I don't know for certain that my troubles are over. Things are currently looking okay for me, but someone who works for a living would probably be out $120 to OnRebate, and I wanted to put out a warning for anyone who is thinking about dealing with OnRebate.com.

Warren
Tulsa, Oklahoma
U.S.A.

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