Update on Office Depot Rebates

On April 27, I wrote about my experiences with Office Depot rebates. I did finally get all of my rebates, but not before a very long waiting period. I usually have 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 I had a problem three times in a row with the same retailer, I think that this is more than just a coincidence.

In each case, my rebate got "stuck" in their system. I waited almost half a year 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. Most of the time, the rebate showed up as in the "Required Validation Period" in their online tracking system. 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.

I have also heard from other readers who had the same problem with Office Depot rebates. In one case, a reader spent a great deal of effort, but it still took over 6 months to get the rebate check. That person no longer trusts Office Depot and immediately went to a bank to cash the $20 check, for fear that it would bounce. Does anybody else have a similar experience with Office Depot?

DC