Complaint Review: ONREBATE.com & Tigerdirect

Hello
This company is supposedly a processing company for rebates from manufacturers
They work in close tandem with Tiger Direct who promotes items by using rebates as an incentive to promote specific products on top of the items people actually want to buy

However,
I am waiting on rebates that were properly filled out and processed for months and one from nearly one year ago
It is nearly July 31, 2006 and I still havent recieved my rebates that were submitted and processed in early May and supposed to have been sent to me..
I also had one that was processed--Jan or Feb of 06 and havent seen or heard a thing to this day

They even accepted it as processed and since it has gone so long they have removed it from their queue of rebate
listings they keep for customers and it no longer exists in their system Perhaps it could be a mail error but I have had problems with slowness of processing from this company on nearly every rebate they processed for me from any company!

There is NO customer service number except one which merely repeats the same litany that one can get off the site to apply for it in the first place
...simply--the process on how to apply for your rebate thru touch tones and automated recordings--no real person to talk to or help with any real problem and forget emailing
You get a form letter on how to apply for your rebate and a statement saying your rebate was "processed"

They answer all emails with merely another redundant form on how to apply for your rebate even if you have already been approved for it and it seems to just be a stalling tactic that leads to frustration to the buyer

This company is just holding people's money
for long periods of time and using that tactic- I suspect so users submit to their "FASTER rebate service" which takes a large CHUNK of your rebate just so you get your rebate in a reasonable amount of time

Otherwise, they hold each subsequent rebate for a longer period of time--in my case anyway---and Im sure are earning interest on my money and yours!

Tiger Direct is currently using this rebate scheme to
promote some sort of substandard problematic firewall software (as per customer reports and reviews and my comparisons-see link)

http://help.lockergnome.com/security/Computer-Associates-Trust-EZ-Antivirus-Blew-Today-ftopict1942.html

and to get the good deals you MUST buy it along with whatever product you actually want and use the "rebate" on the software to get the deal that originally should be promoted on the item you want and
NOT as a slap-dash promotion bundle to force you to buy something you dont want and use it as the excuse for the rebate

If they want to offer thier own company rebate they should just do and allow people can hold them to it and not some "third party"!

I might add that Tiger Direct no longer has a method to 'guarantee' their rebate fulfillment either as they once had advertised on their site or if they-per chance- do they certainly do not make it easily available and do not promote it as they once did
Gee...I wonder why?
Too many people simply not "giving up"
on their rebate and demanding the rebate guarantee?
I suspect they work out the % of people who give-up on a rebate before using it to set and promote a LOW price which is ONLY low when the rebate is factored in as most of their special 'deals' are astericked rebate deals on their site

They have lost my confidence and business for the last several months--perhaps forever-- and I prefer to use a company that sells goods for the lowest price and not as a promotion to push some 'goods that you dont want or desire and then not even pay the rebate or pay it in a timely fashion

I have found as long as you order and get a MANUFACTURERS rebate with the item you ORIGNALLY wanted- it seems to come--in time....

BUT, if you order an item and it requires you to buy some sort of other item as a bundle you do not want but are forced to buy just to get the rebate it takes forever or never comes
A tip!
If your manufacturer or seller uses onrebate to process your rebate
consider the actual cost of the item as the price you may have to pay as
it will take several months-at BEST- to get the rebate, in a best case scenario.

Thank you
Ben

Ben
lancasater, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.

Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Tiger Direct