So, I purchased one of those Digital Max DVD burners (rebadged 1635s) back in December. Didn't get the rebate in right away, but anyhow. I checked my rebate status online just now, and they're playing the "no valid upc" game! This is not going to be fun. I made copies of my submission, at least.

that's ok. i sent in a rebate to plextor before christmas and they "haven't yet received it"

apparently they just decided to tell me they didn't get my whole envelope.

That's why I try to avoid the whole rebate game! I try to avoid getting angry, and I am too far away to pay a visit!!! LOL

with mine, i paid $90 for a benq dw1640 and 20 verbatim DL discs.

i always make sire it's worth the money BEFORE the rebates...then if i actually get the rebates it's the icing on the cake.

whether I get the rebates back or not, I still think I got a deal.

although the extra $50 back would be nice, but I definitely don't count on rebates.

That like blackfriday this past year shou ld have been called Rebate Friday.

I have been burned by the rebate from dvd's to Hd's. Im sure there are worse stories but I have made my mind up to say forget the rebate.

Same here. If the price is decent before rebate then sure I'll buy it, but if not, forget it. It's just not worth all the hassels now that rebate houses pretty much handle most of the rebates (even the maufactures ones). It's standard practice for these rebate houses to deny legitamate rebates and it just isn't worth all the time involved fighting them to give it to you.
Just a tip though. With office max, try dealing directlly with the store if possible. They have employees that specifically deal with rebate problems. I have gotten them to give me the rebate money in the past even though it was a manufactures rebate. they still make you go through a lot of trouble following up on it before they will do anything though.

One of worse experience is with OZ "Memory Maker" I have been waiting for $60 rebate that I bought thier memory from Fry' Electronics more than 4 months ago desipte few phone call still no response from them, may be this is going to be the first time I won't reieve my rebate. I hate these rebate it is not worth the hassle.

The only rebate I ever bothered with was with a PC bundle 6 or 7 years ago... I got it back ($400), but, since then, I have heard too many horror stories to fool with them anymore!

Thanks for that tip. Guess I'll wait for my official mail notification and go from there. I want my $20, dammit!

That is were I have had the most problems from rebates. I still go but dont do rebates.

Yup, I'm a rebate hater as well... I try my best to avoid the whole thing...

Recently I purchased a Washing machine from Home Depot... the delivery fee is suposed to be re-bated... ($50)... I sent it in yesterday.... Sent priority mail, with delivery confirmation... They said 6-8 weeks... We'll see...

Anything significant in terms of a rebate, deserves delivery confirmation at least on the initial submition of the rebate info... Without delivery confirmation, it would be nearly impossible to prove your 'mail' actualy made it to the rebate center...

Did I say I hate rebates... and almost nevery buy anything with a rebate, unless it's a good price even without the rebate...

Heh. And people were telling me almost a year ago that I was crazy for hating rebates. In the same boat as all you folks, been burned on several media deals and I had to wait 4 months for one rebate to go through on my old DVD Burner. I will pay a bit more upfront to avoid the hassle and I don't consider rebates "money in the bank" like a lot of folks do.

No rebates for me, either. But, I did once buy something NIB off eBay from a guy local to SoCal (so's I could see it in person before handing over my $$$- I'll only pay for things off auctions > $100 in person when dealing with individuals) and it was eligible for a $100 rebate, so I took a chance and got it, saving me even more money.

I wouldn't bother on something like a disc drive or the like, though. It's also part of why I haven't gotten around to buying another TiVo.

Read in the paper here today they're going to close 120 Office Max's

They're going to close 110 of their stores, but are still going to open 70 new locations this year.

USA Today: OfficeMax, Toys R Us close stores in restructuring

Staples lets you submit your rebate online, I have done this a few times and got everyone. It is just about the only one I trust. Norton AV burned me for 20 bucks last year, even when I contacted them and faxed and e mailed everything again they still never sent it, they even stopped answering e mails, they wear you out so I dumped Norton for a much better product with no rebate

that's why I avoid rebates like the plague!!!!! they piss me off really bad!!!!!!

I really think they are well aware of the issues with rebates too. While some have tried to get nicer with there rebates like staples easy rebates or bestbuys online submissions, In all honesty, I think the lure of a cheap advertised price, and then not having to honor that price fully because so many rebates get denyed is just too apealing to them. didn't bestbuy claim something about doing away with rebates, and yet look at the ads this christmas? Rebates from hell all over the place and many way over inflated prices for the before rebate price!!! As long as there are suckers will ing to buy rebate stuff (or people that have the free time to fight it out to get their rebates), they will keep doing it. Even if the before rebate price is decent, would you have bought it without the rebates (maybe, maybe not). Thats the only time I buy with rebates, but honestly, don't the rebates sometimes influence your decision to buy?

Of course they do. Think of the HDs out there that cost you $130 or more up front, but if there are rebates with the promise of knocking $80-$90 off of that pricetag, then of course, the average person will jump on it. No way in hell they would buy it if they knew they were going to have to pay $130 or more for it.

Well, I got the $10 rebate last week for my miniDV tapes from BestBuy, and Staples EasyRebate site says "Validation complete." for my $40 HDD rebate, so those went through. I may be done with rebates after this.

[quote=teflonmyk]That's why I try to avoid the whole rebate game!

My exact thought.

I'm thinking that staples easy rebates and best buy online submissions are a little more liklly to go through (at least some of the retailers are learning to a point that we are fed up with rebates and are trying to be a little more honest), either that or you fell on the right side of the quota. It seems like everyone is using rebate houses to handle their rebates anymore including all the manufactures. The rebate houses generally don't just sit there and deny every single rebate. It is common for them to actually approach companies and promise them that only a certain percentage of rebates will be honored. Back before these rebate houses were so common and competitive, even though rebates often still said 6-8 weeks, it wasn't uncommon to get your rebate early. I think one of the reasons they can take so long now days is that the rebate houses have each and every rebate submission in hand, counted, and they know exactlly how many were submited properlly. If the number of valid submissions falls below the percentage they promised, no porblem, everyone gets there rebate. If there are more valid submissions than the quota they promised, then look out. they know that they cannot just deny the extra submissions, because some of those people are going to fight it and they will have to pay. they are going to have to deny so many valid submissions that even after they pay the people that fight it, they still stay under the quota. I cannot say for certain about all rebates houses, but one, rebateshq actually eats all the rebates that are paid out over what they promised. You can pretty much guarentee, they will not be paying out more rebates than they promised to the manufacture. Thats when you get all ths crap about invalid upc (when you sent the only one that was on the box) and other such lies, when they go over quota and they know that they have to deny a lot of rebates, so in the end, after they pay those who fight the hardest, they are still under quota.
It's all just a big roll of the dice. If they are under quota, you get your rebate, no hassels (and that is why that still sometimes happens). If they are over quota, prepare to fight and still maybe not get it.

Thinking about it, it gives me a new way to look at rebates. I cannot remember the exact numbers that it was said rebateshq typically promises, but it was something along the lines of smaller rebates like 10$ only have about 25% valid submission, medium size rebates like around 30-40$ have about a 33% valid submission rate, and large rebates are more like 50-70% valid submissions guarenteed. I wonder if that is why we see so many items with several smaller rebates instead of a large rebate. The stores/manufactures like to do it like that because they get beter guarentees. I figure, if an item is 120$ with a 30$ and a 40$ rebate, over time, and various rebates, I only have a 33% chance of getting rebates those size. that means those rebates average out to 33% of 30 and 40$ (10$ and 13.33$). The final price is 120$ - 10$ - 13.33$ = 96.67$, not the 50$ price they prommised.
Part of the reason that I am considering changing my thinking to this way, is that I follow the same approach as some others do, it has to have a decent price before rebate. I caught myself buying something that I wouldn't have bought and the rebate influenced me though. It was the plextor at best buy with the free dual layer disks (I know the disks were a mistake that they honered but we calculated it into the price as the drive was not worth 90$). I figured that the dual layer disks were worth 40$ and the drive was worth 40$ (thats what benq 1640's were going for and that is what the newer benq's will probably go for after they have been out for a while). So I paid 90$ for 80$ worth of merchandise with the possibility of getting 50$ in rebates. I'm second guessing myself and think it might not have been such a great deal. I did not want the dual layer media (I already have a small stock of verbatim dual layer and rarlly use it). I only wanted the drive. The rebate still influenced my decision to buy because it included something that I didn't want. I figured if I didn't get the rebates I still got my moneys worth, if I did, the media was free. But was it free? 90$ - 10$ (33% of 30$) - 6.66$ (33% of 20$) = 73.33$ (the amount that statistically I am going to pay). Maybe I would have been beter just getting a 40$ drive and save myself the 33.33$ that I paid for 40$ worth of media that I didn't really want. Fyi I know that it might be worth it if you really wanted a 1640 as they are no longer avalable for 40$, but I already have plenty of burners, and would be just as happy waiting for the new benq's to drop in price a little. I only wanted a benq to play with the qsuite tools, not because I cannot burn exelent disks or sca or anything (the benq is still sitting on the shelf unused till I get around to having the free time to play with it).

So what does every one think about using there own percentages against them when considering rebates? Also, does anyone remember where the info for what rebateshq uses for percentages promised was posted, or for that matter know where to find accurate numbers of what any of the rebate houses are paying out?

M favorite is one I sent in August that said 4 to 6 weeks. They sent me an e-mail in December telling me it was rejected because I didn't send in the rebate form.

It took a while to find a number to call, and to reach a person who had no idea how they got my e-mail address. It was on the rebate form I didn't send in.... It's still being processed, again.

I have heard there are more problems with rebates going to Niagra Falls, NY(where this one went).

rebate are for suckers, and there are 1 born every min.

Just stay away from the rebates. If everyone would just not touch, the stores would figure out after a while that they aren't a viable means of promotion. But people still get suckered into that garbage.