I have usually had good success with rebate offers for products that I buy. I estimate that I participate in maybe two dozen rebates a year, and have not had any problem 80-90% of the time. However, over the past year, I have sent in three rebates for products that I bought at Office Depot and had a problem receiving each one. If a problem happens with receiving a rebate, I usually consider it a fluke or coincidence. But since a problem happened three times in a row with the same retailer, I think that there a definite problem.
In each case, the rebate got "stuck" in their system. I am still waiting for a rebate on blank DVD media that I bought the day after Thanksgiving. I have talked to their customer service (at Web-Rebates.com), and they said that they would try to expedite the rebate, but it is still in the "Required Validation Period," after almost five months. In any case, Office Depot is now officially off my list of places of where I will shop for rebate items. Curiously, I have not had problems with other retailers who also use "Web-Rebates.com" for rebate submissions. Does anybody else have a similar experience with Office Depot?
On a different note, I will give credit where credit is due. One retailer that I have not had any problem with is the drugstore Rite-Aid. They have a system where you can submit your receipts online instead of by mail. You do have to sign up for an account, and they keep a running total of your combined rebates for the month. Once I've requested a check, I have always gotten my rebate within three weeks of submitting it.
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While there are retailers that will sometimes goof on rebates, there are a couple that seem to work a little harder to ensure that they keep your money; compusa and tigerdirect.com are two that I generally don't hold out much hope for. On the flip side, two that are nothing less than awesome on rebates are Staples and Costco.
Thanks for your input. My opinion is that CompUSA is about average as far as rebates are concerned. They recently closed all of their stores in my area. Staples is probably better than average, but I haven't had much experience with rebates from tigerdirect or Costco.
Yes, I had the same problem with Office depot for $20 buck rebates. I worked for what I felt was $200 of my time and effort over 6 months to get the check. Then when I got the check, I immediately went to a bank and cashed the $20 check, not depositing it to my acct in hopes if the check bounced, the teller might had forgotten to put a reference to me on it, though they could figure my signature. That was how much I felt I could trust rebates at OFFICE DEPOT. I now never buy anything at office depot for a mail refund. Only INSTANT REFUNDS if I would be happy with that and forget about mail refunds as a gift from luck in the future maybe. No more months of anger and high blood pressure as it is not worth it if you are willing to accept just INSTANT REFUNDS and view mail refunds as a maybe bonus.
Mail refunds at others so far have been good. Office Depot uses a franchise system of local investors. That may make it weaker as I did complain to the friendly manager here in Hawaii but he could do nothing. There always seems to be some disconnect with the franchise here and the mainland.
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