Complaint Review: Onrebate

My complaint is about Onrebate/Onrebate.com. Of course it's nothing new and certainly not a complaint that hasn't been heard before. I bought a Ultra-X 500 watt power supply from Fry's Electronic's that had 2 rebates, one for $40 & one for $10, for the same product with Onrebate.

I would imagine that part of the problem with this would be obvious. The package only comes with 1 UPC code, so I could not send them seperately. I mailed both rebate receipts in the same envelope with the 1 UPC code from the box.

About a month and a half later, I received the first rebate($40). I figured that was pretty good, so I had no complaints at that point. I thought it kind of odd that I didn't receive the second rebate($10) at the time of the first, but was willing to wait.

I tried using Onrebate's website to find out the status of the second rebate, only to find that it had no status. Their website includes their phone number, so I tried giving them a call.

For my own protection, I copied everything that I sent to them, (UPC, rebate forms, etc.) so I was of the impression that they may have misplaced the second rebate form that I sent them. Before they made a recent change to their phone system, you would just be placed on permanent hold until after about 30 minutes, their system would automatically hang up on you. I have tried calling at all hours of the day and had the same results everytime that I called. I have even tried the very minute that they opened their phone banks and still had the same results.

Back to the website I went. I have sent them a total of 7 e-mails and have not received a response on any of them other than their automated response letting you know they are looking into the problem. And now, they have completely changed their phone system. No matter what time of day you call now, you will get a message that says that due to high call volume, you are being transferred to their automated line to check the status of you rebate.

There appears to be no way to get a hold of a live person to try to rectify the problem and I have been at it for another month and a half since I received the first rebate. I haven't even received a rejection letter at this point! And it's not even the money that matters, it the fact that a business like Onrebate can get away with it and companies like Fry's & Tigerdirect continue to use them.

Apparently, Fry's & Tigerdirect seem to think that customers grow on trees and it doesn't matter to them whether or not they lose a few over such trivial matters.

What a shame, because they just lost another one. I'm not the first and I'm sure I won't be the last.

Scott
Mesa, Arizona
U.S.A.