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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