OnRebate.com - TigerDirect Rebate Ripoff Dishonest, deceptive, and unreasonable rebate policy Internet

After I was ripped by Tiger Direct (and in face EVGA), mid-2009 and January 2010 for $25 in rebates, I began looking for what I could do about it. I see that this report was filed way back in 2005! Well, just letting you know that Tiger Direct is still operating in the same old manner - business as usual - ripping the customer by advertising prices with non-existent rebates.

When I search the internet for gripes on unfair practices by Tiger Direct (and EVGA), the negative reports are legion! Nobody has done anything to stop this yet! Yesterday I filed a report with the Better Business Bureau against Tiger Direct. If I would have known all of this beforehand I would NOT have bought from them. Anyway, I was a pretty good Tiger Direct customer - that is, until they ripped me too.

nyteshade

Dear Jazz,

I'd like to help resolve this issue for you. Please contact me directly at: elizabeth.hernandez@tigerdirect.com

Sincerely,
Elizabeth Hernandez
Customer Service

I am going through a very similar dispute with Onrebate.com, and I want to concur with everything that this particular report claims. I too did comply with every date, every signature, every document, and every timely submission and yet they still have mananaged to NOT send a rebate after ONE whole year. It is among the most clear examples of fraud I have seen in years.

I quit Tiger about 5 or 6 months ago. I was with them a horrifying 5 years, way to long. One of the biggest reasons I left is due to how they did scam, misguide, lie and put customers identities at risk. I just couldn't take it anymore and left. Here are a few things they totally do badly. If you place an order over the phone and find you received extra product where the price ending is odd, like the cent value ends in .81, .75, .50, .25, etc, those were added by the agent without your permission, as they get paid a high commission on those. Their network is constantly having problems on a daily basis and information gets lost. A company that sells technology product and has constant, daily problems, how ironic. The warehouse sends out returned items you purchased new if they don't have it in stock. Lot of customers would call in claiming they received items with RA numbers on them and opened. They think once the customer has it in his hands, they will most likely keep it and some do. They will replace parts of your order without alerting you first in order to fill the order. Then good luck in trying to return the item without any headaches. Now for the more serious and illegal practices Tigerdirect.com performs. Your credit card is always on file, your entire collection of credit cards you ever used with them is in file and every agent you speak to can see it in his screen. They do tell the agents to never tell the customers that Tigerdirect keeps credit cards on file, because it's illegal they told us. They have had instances where metro dade police would be called to arrest agents for credit card fraud on the corporate office call center in Miami, Florida. Those agents would charge customers cards fraudulently since they keep card numbers on file for all agents to have access to. Many agents would get upset at customers on the phone for taking the agents time and not purchasing and if the customers account is on the screen, the agent will run authorizations on the customers cards many times as if to teach the customer a lesson. And although a lot of customers don't understand this next point and get upset at agents like myself for trying to protect them, package tracking numbers. It is posted on Tigerdirect.coms website, tracking numbers are only sent to the customers e mail that is on the account at the time of purchase. Some customers wanted to change the e mail on the phone to get it, still without understanding. Many customers would call in because their packages did not get to them and were delivered elsewhere. That's the reason why tracking numbers are not supposed to be given out on the phone or to newly changed e mail addresses on the accounts. You would not believe how many customers have lost their packages and money because of this fraud act. Since Tigerdirect doesn't care and reprimands employees who follow the rule, the customer looses. Management made it clear for agents not to give the customer a hard time and give the tracking number over the phone. What happens with this now is that anyone with your name, phone number, e mail address knowledge and/or physical address information can call in and get your tracking information, call UPS, FedEx, etc and re-route the packages. Tigerdirect is owned by the Fiorentino brothers, 3 of them and from what I heard in the call center, they are attorneys. They know all the loop arounds everything. Onrebate.com was Tigerdirect, they were in the same call center and recruited a few of my friends. Tigerdirect is greedy and wanted to keep the rebates themselves since it meant more money for them. They told me just how crooked they were. They told me they would come in one day and management would tell them, Ok guys, this week we approve all rebates and the next week managers would say, Alright everyone, this week we decline all rebates. This applied to wrongfully filled and properly filled rebates. They got so much heat from that mispractice, they shut down Onrebate.com and had another rebate office do them. During training, we were advised by the owner and trainer that any credits the customer had, never to disclose it to them. The reason for this was that Tigerdirect.com gets a hold of that money for themselves. When management weren't around and couldn't hear me, I'd let the customer know he had credits and if he wished to use it. Lots were unaware they had and some were surprised to remember since it was from long ago. The first year I was there, one of the owners made a huge mistake of having a meeting with everyone in the call center. He spoke about how badly Tigerdirect.com was getting hammered from bad reviews and comments on review sites. So he told us he was assembling a crew from the call center to post positive reviews and comments on every review site to drown out the negative reviews. Till this day, they have people posting everywhere to counter the negative feed they are getting. This are just of the top problems with Tigerdirect.com that I just couldn't deal with anymore. I was such a good employee and person when I started there and in 5 years it turned me into such a depressed, mean and angered guy. I'm 42 years old, been working since I was 12 years of age and never, ever, ever in any job have I ever been writen up, suspended, reprimanded, etc. At tigerdirect.com I've had 5 suspensions, about a dozen write ups, reprimands up the wazoo. All for following my training, doing the right thing, following the rules. They wouldn't fire me because I fought them through HR with the rules. So they figured that I'd eventually get tired of suspensions, write ups, etc and just leave. Well, I'm tough and lasted 3 years of crap from them, the first 2 years weren't to bad. Since I left them, I'm back to being myself. I'm happy with a constant smile on my face as I used to have. It's such a huge load of my back since I left them, feels great to be the happy go lucky guy I am. I just feel bad for the customers that have been fraudulently hurt or will be soon.
I'm very surprised, as well as hundreds of former and current employees that Tigerdirect.com is allowed to do business. They are so bad, they should of been shut down years ago. They have a huge torn over in employees from how bad it is to work there. They constantly throw stuff in our faces about what a great company they are to work for, how they provide prizes, car give aways, cash give aways. What they don't tell you ( customers, media, etc ) is that Tigerdirect doesn't provide the prizes, it's the companies we sell products for. Tigerdirect only provides the time to raffle away, a microphone and speaker and a raffle tumbler, nothing else.
Tigerdirect is not trusted by major companies either. One huge example is Microsoft Corporation. When Windows XP came out, Microsoft left over 400 copies of Windows XP Pro for us agents due to the great sales numbers we were doing for them. Well, Tigerdirect.com didn't give us our copies, instead they took the over 400 copies to the outlet store downstairs from the coporate office we worked in and sold every copy. Microsoft found out about this and put Tiger in the least trusted list and Microsoft told us that unfortunately we ( the agents ) would not be receiving any more complimentary gifts due to Tigerdirects actions. That same type of thing has happened numerous times with different companies. How sad Tigerdirect is.
Tigerdirect should get sued big time, should be shut down and the Fiorentinos should never be allowed to open another business ever again, anywhere.

Dear Kevin,

The reason all your emails to nadina.urdaneta@onrebate.com have bounced is because I am no longer with the company since the beginning of November.

To all customers please know that I am not associated with Onrebate.com or TigerDirect.

A word of advise to all:
Always keep copies of ALL documents sent in case your rebate gets denied for whatever reason you WILL be allowed a resubmission.

Thank you for your time.

Okay, I'm back with further complaints against OnRebate's tactics. First, I have a rebate number from TigerDirect, but can I enter the rebate number at OnRebate to pull up the necessary registration form? No, I have to figure out that CA-2735 probably refers to Computer Associates, then scroll though a long list of Computer Assocaites' rebates at OnRebate until I find a corresponding one listed.

Then after I fill out some preliminary information, I am subjected to two pages of offers in lieu of my rebate, and you have to find the tiny "No Thanks" near the bottom and click on it to avoid getting something else you don't want instead. A couple of more clicks, one to avoid
paying $1 for your rebate to be expedited, and you think you are nearly done, but then the clincher.

Instead of just giving you a tracking number, OnRebate then says that they have sent you an email with the tracking number in it, and that on receipt, you have to enter the tracking number into the current web page to continue processing your claim. And they claim that it can take up to 24 hours to get your email, and give instructions of what to do if you don't get it within that time frame.

Now this is a con. First, if they have already
sent the email, then it will normally arrive in
minutes, not hours, no matter where you are in the world. So the delay must be something that they are doing, to prevent the email from being sent out immediately. Second, they tell you that you must enter the information in the current
page - but that means keeping your PC powered up and your web browser set to the same location until you get the email, and who is going to wait up to 24 hours to complete this transaction?

The whole idea is to discourage you or cause you
to either give up or elect to accept some other
software bundle in place of getting your money
back. The prices quoted for the value of the software is drastically inflated anyway.

I have to give OnRebate (and TigerDirect) their due credit. They keep coming up with inventive ways to make the rebate process as painful and difficult for the person trying to make a claim, while simplifying the rejection process by forcing people to work though a maze of web forms and inflexable computerized processes,

Yes, OnRebate and Tiger Direct are the same company.

If you get email from onrebate about your rebates, it's from the server serv1.domain19.net, and domain19.net is owned by Tiger Direct:

, e.g.

Return-Path:
Received: from serv1.domain19.net (serv1.domain19.net [63.247.80.130])
by mx3.messagingengine.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id D9EF2193558
for ; Wed, 8 Nov 2006 09:23:19 -0500 (EST)

whois domain19.net result:

(note the bogus phone and fax #.)

Registrant Contact:
DOMAIN19.NET
DOMAIN ADMIN (richard.wallet@tigerdirect.com)
+1.0000000000
Fax: +1.0000000000
7795 W FLAGLER STREET
SUITE 35
Miami, 33144
US


(Yes, they've failed to honor their rebate policy with me too; BBB complaint filed.)

I'm Donald from Pensacola. Yes, the same person
who has heaped much criticism onto OnRebate several times in the thread above.

I still use TigerDirect and OnRebate, and I must say, the process has improved considerably. I've gone though several rebate cycles now, and I've had no further problems with either.

I still feel the process is too unweldy for the average user, at least in any non-technical group, but the process is working consistently, meaning that I'm getting acceptable results after coming to terms with the process.

The clue to doing this well is to (1) Follow up
on the rebate process as soon as you make the buy.

That is, get the necessary instructions, and be
ready to file as soon as shipment is received.
(2) Don't throw away any boxes or shipping material until you find the barcode label, and make sure that it is the one required for the rebate. (3) Read carefully, and if you are told to do two different things, try to error on the side of caution. In once case I was told to attach the barcode label for a hard drive, but the manufacturer required the whole sheet with the barcode be returned. I sent the whole sheet. (3) Fill out the forms, and make sure you sign, and that they have your address and phone number. Pick a payment option you can live with - I chose PayPal, because that gives me a second transaction record in case of dispute. (4) Make copies of everything - use your scanner and printer, or save to a disk file. You could also make copies with a copier. Having copies means being able to argure with them or resubmit if they claim you did not send something. (5) Mail well within the submission deadline. To delay means to forget. Just pick a time and set down and do it. Make sure it gets to the Post Office too. (6) If you get rejected, don't just do nothing. Be prepared to challenge their rejection. Remember, the rebate is part of the package deal. It's yours to claim, because it is a part of the bargain made.

Twice sent report of six (6) month delayed submission to Nadina's attention earlier today at nadina.urdaneta@onrebate.com. Both times, the message came back as undeliverable.

OnRebate is a rip-off. It took 4 months for the rebate to finally even get acknowledged. All of my tons of e-mails went unanswered.

They did not even reply to even one of my e-mails until I contacted Florida Attorney General and the FTC. After I contacted them, the next day OnRebate e-mailed me back quick.

I will never buy anything dealing with rebates again.

I assembled a new computer from a bunch of parts bought off TigerDirect. I had 8 total rebates through OnRebate, submitted them all in late June and they were all excepted. Now about 20 weeks late I have only gotten 2 back. Still waiting on the rest of them, I think I will be filing a complaint to the FL attorney general as well.

I have contacted with the Federal Trade Commission, the Florida Attorney General, the local better business bureau and the Palm Beach County Consumer affairs office.
Every agency has said NOBODY has complained about OnRebate before me.
How is this possible?
I encourage everyone with a problem to fill out this on-line form. We cannot post links so here is enough of the web address to find the forms. Follow the instructions and be prepared to wait a month before they contact you. I filled it out 3 or 4 times over the course of a month before they contacted me.

(www-dot)pbcgov.com/pubsafety/consumer/html/home.asp

I am also another victim of of TigerDirect and OnRebate.com. I got this e-mail telling me it would take 10 weeks! Hmmm, (Jun 30, 2006 11:10 AM) I think this has been more than 10 weeks.

I keep e-mailing Nadina; she just keeps saying it will take 10 weeks. Ok,Nadina, when does 10 weeks start, started, hasn't started?

You guys are the ones shooting yourselves in the foot with poor business practices.

Oh, and Nadina does not respond to my e-mail anymore.

=======================
Dear Christopher Yxxxx,

Your rebate payment has been approved!!!!

Summary of your rebate registration:

Rebate Description: $100 Mail-In Rebate on Acer AS5002WLMi Notebook PC
Rebate Offer: TD-2535
Rebate Award: $100
Tracking Number: JXxxxxxxx

OnRebate will mail your rebate check via 1st class mail within 8 to 10 weeks from
receipt of your rebate documentation and approval of your claim at no extra cost.

Thanks for using onRebate.com!
-------------------------------===================================
Save $60 (after mail-in rebate) on HannsG 17-inch LCD.

Increase Your Storage Capacity:
TaxCut 2005 Deluxe Filing & State Bundle w/ eTrust Internet Security Suite just
$14.99 (after mail in rebate)
=================
You received this email in response to a rebate submission at OnRebate.com.
If this is incorrect, please alert us at: privacy@help.OnRebate.com
OnRebate, Inc.
120 East Palmetto Park Road
3rd Floor
Boca Raton, FL 33432

You spend your money on cheap and cheap products (poor quality) tirgerdirect products then you try for a rebate and find that onrebate.com web site just don't work. msn cannot find their site.

I've used TigerDirect several times with OnRebate handling the rebates. I've received every single one of my rebates in the time specified on the forms. No problems, no complaints.

I find it a little odd that some people are perfectly fine with this company while others have no luck whatsoever.

I finally got two rebates posted to my PayPal account, months after I filed them. I know this is not all of them, but I have not taken time to go through and do an audit on what has been submitted and what has been received. I'm probably several hundreds of dollars in the hole right now for rebates that have not been paid out. But I am keeping all the paperwork involved, and expect to have some real evidence of persistent fraud on the part of OnRebate if and when some investigative agency asks me for it.

Meanwhile, I still do business with TigerDirect and OnRebate. Why would I do this, if I believe that they cheat and defraud their customers? Because I intend to beat on them until they pay out like they are suppose to, and when they don't, that will be more evidence against them. Meanwhile I intend to post a new Rip-Off Report each time they try to pull this stuff on me, and hope my example will help you in your fight to get what is rightfully yours.

If you were unable to get your rebate due to system issue as you claim I will be more than glad to assist you.

Please send me an email to nadina.urdanetaATonrebate.com and we will work together towards a satisfactory solution.

I used to live near the TigerDirect store in Naperville, IL, and would purchase a lot of stuff there. Then they started the onrebate-crap. Just with the ones I kept track of, they owe me in the neighborhood of $500. They used the following tactics to screw me out of my rebates:

- OnRebate.com confirmation email never sent. I own my mailserver and know every bit of email that comes in. I would send, re-send, and re-send again, but never an email from them. I would use other mail-services, like yahoo or hotmail, but still no mail. When I contacted them about it, it would often take them days to get back to me... until finally the rebate-claim period was expired. With each reply I had to restate all the facts, even though the original emails would be attached... someone obviously too lazy or dense to read through prior correspondence. Very unprofessional.

- OnRebate.com would claim invalid confirmation number received in the email. The email conversations that ensued are of the same poor quality as the ones referenced above.

- Of the five times I did manage to get my rebate form printed and sent to them, I only received three rebates. The rest was silently ignored, lost or simply tossed.

This company is garbage, and anyone dealing with them is to be avoided. I have not made a single TigerDirect purchase in almost two years because of OnRebate. Everytime I see an OnRebate offer, I write to the business to let them know how I feel about OnRebate.

As an aside, any service-company who hides behind a private domain registration as onrebate.com does, should be looked upon with suspicion in the first place.

If anyone is interested, I should still have copies of most of the onrebate email conversations.

I to have tryed Rebates on products and have been refused for one reason or another. There always seem's to be a reason why they cant give it to you.. I to have bought products from Tiger Direct with rebates on Memory for the Computer and also a Computer.. They were all refused.. So what I do now is this, I wont buy anything on a rebate if they want me to buy it I guess they better have a better deal or I go buy somewhere else.. I wont put up with any company and there Bullcrap antics to get you to buy.. If these companys have to offer Rebates to get People to buy Guess What? There Prices Are To High.. Its just like Warrantys on products What Warranty.
Always a reason why you cant claim them eather..
Tiger Direct Needs to Dump there Rebate Programs before they lose all there good customers...

Alan
Edgewood,NM

In the beginning, OnRebate was to send your rebate check within 6 to 8 weeks. Then they tack on several weeks at the beginning to process your claim.

All information concerning the sale is already
available from TigerDirect, but you have to know
to go to the Rebate Center on the TigerDirect
website and find the right rebate, or attempt a
more daunting search from the OnRebate web site.

What makes it daunting is that on both sites,
venders often post multiple rebate offers, and it
is difficult to determine the right one to apply
for.

Further, on the TigerDirect web site, the info
on the rebate is put into a PDF form, and how
many people know that you have to download a
free copy of Adobe Reader in order to open the
PDF document and be able to read it?

And you may also have to print off a copy of an
additional rebate form if the vender or
TigerDirect is offering a special promotion,
meaning you may have to mail in two rebates
rather than just one, a fact you have to figure
out for yourself from a number of factors, such
as the total rebate promised, and finding a
combination of rebates that add up to the total.

For TigerDirect and vender special promotional
rebates, you need to be able to print off the
form, each which has its own submission address
and own requirements for qualification.

OnRebate also requires you to print out a paper
form to submit, with a space for your signature
and date, plus appending the barcode label and
copy of order or invoice.

They claim that the signature is required to
ensure that you abide by their terms of
agreement, but it is really just a gimick to make
it necessary to wait on regular mail, and while
most regular mail gets delivered in less than a
week, they act as though you need to allow up to
two or three weeks for the mail to be received
and processed.

Fact is, the purchase agreement itself should be
adequate to prove purchase and to qualify you for
the rebate, but they use every means to defer
payment or to decline your claim.

Their newest gimick is to offer PayPal customers
a fast rebate for some set fee, and to offer you
alternative choices for the rebate funds, such
as Katrina victum relief. Now why should I trust
these people to give the money to any charity or
relief effort? I can't even trust them to honor
the rebate process unless I stay on their case!

It just may be that money that customers chose to
decline in favor of any of these organizations is
kept by OnRebate or "used up" in additional
administrative processes. Who holds them
accountable for these claimed efforts to help
others?

If you decline the offer to get a fast PayPal
credit (which, at last check, was up to a fixed
cost of $5.50 for this privelege), you are told
that it will be another six to eight weeks before
you get a check from OnRebate. It's up to the
customer then to keep tags on their incoming
regular mail and verify if they get it or not.

And if you don't get it, meaning you may be
waiting four months to be sure, you have to then
find out how to contact them and get a new
check issued. They may never even send out the
first check, and you have no way of knowing. If
you forget the matter, that leaves the funds in
their possession.

I suspect that through such devious tactics,
OnRebate is able to hold onto about 85 percent of
the money given them by TigerDirect that was
intended to be paid out in Rebates.

Now that makes the Rebate game a very attractive
venture for dishonesty, and the more dishonest or
unethical they behave, the greater the reward to
them.

There are two questions that I have left: The
first is whether TigerDirect is aware of
allegations being made against OnRebate, and what
steps, if any, they are taking to ensure that
their agent for the rebate process is acting in
a manner that serves their customers as they
should be served?

The second question is whether there is any
direct involvement by TigerDirect in how OnRebate
is managed, or any evidence that the two companies are involved or commonly owned beyond the view of the public? It would explain how TigerDirect is standing mute, while avoiding criticism and direct blame for the manner in which OnRebate is conducting business.

hi
I to was rejected 2 rebates
both where from tiger Direct for 2 motherboard and cpu
I call tiger Direct and blah blah blah
Same old story
I bought a new Canon printer with a $50 rebate
since i purchase a laptop and printer combo
Quess what?
My rebatewas accepted on nov 25 2005
and the check was mail january 13 2006
now it's febuary 10 and no check.
Call canon rebate and i have to wait 30 days from date check was issied so they can cnacelled the check and send new one.
Here is the story about rebate center.
The company issues X amount of money to the rebate center for the refund of the rebate.
the comapny pays a fee to the rebate center for processing.
IFFFFFFF there any money left over the rebate center keeps it and if the there more rebate accepted and there no more money left from the comapny the rebate center pays it.
Now you know the rest of the story

After re-sending my rebate form, this time with my monitor's serial number hand written on it, I received notification that my rebate has been declined by the vendor for an incorrect serial number. I posted earlier stating that this company was sneaky but not dishonest. I revoke that comment. I am on hold again after being disconnected after 25 minutes. My patience with OnRebate is thin. There are plenty of companies that offer bargains. I would advise anyone considering using TigerDirect/OnRebate to take their business elsewhere. I am filing complaints with the above mentioned organizations as well, and am thoroughly dissatisfied with my experience.

Gayle-

Please send me an email with your tracking number and I will ensure your rebate.

nadina.urdaneta@onrebate.com

My RipOff report was filed 1-23-06 detailing my trip down the slippery slope of OnRebate. com and their shoddy business practices. Realizing from my initial purchase that the rebate process was back-ended to insure rejection, I read, re-read and read again the precise instructions for submission. As some folks may have noted on one portion of the online instructions you're told to send via certified mail, whereas on the printed rebate form there is no mention of this requirement. Like another "victim" I too removed the peelable label from the outside of the TV shipping box which showed both serial and model number, only to be told more than 30 days AFTER my rebate was received that this was insufficient and incorrect. Their "status" check provides no way of knowing if there are any issues with your submission, allowing them to wait until the requisite time has expired to void your request. Nice trick...

To insure the highest visibility of my dissatisfaction with this outfit and Tiger Direct, I have filed complaints with my State Attorney Generals Office; the Federal Internet Security Fraud Center; Reseller Ratings; BizRate, Amazon; Tiger Direct; Syntax Group (the manufacturer)and will continue to look for more avenues to warn other unsuspecting consumers.

Oh and that "real person" Nadina Urdaneta at OnRebate.com who appears to provide the online rebuttals has been sent a copy of my posting to insure her speedy reply.

It is my fond hope that manufacturers wanting to retain customer loyalty will either eliminate OnRebate as a vendor and/or educate them on just what it takes to keep a "valued customer"!

My RipOff report was filed 1-23-06 detailing my trip down the slippery slope of OnRebate. com and their shoddy business practices. Realizing from my initial purchase that the rebate process was back-ended to insure rejection, I read, re-read and read again the precise instructions for submission. As some folks may have noted on one portion of the online instructions you're told to send via certified mail, whereas on the printed rebate form there is no mention of this requirement. Like another "victim" I too removed the peelable label from the outside of the TV shipping box which showed both serial and model number, only to be told more than 30 days AFTER my rebate was received that this was insufficient and incorrect. Their "status" check provides no way of knowing if there are any issues with your submission, allowing them to wait until the requisite time has expired to void your request. Nice trick...

To insure the highest visibility of my dissatisfaction with this outfit and Tiger Direct, I have filed complaints with my State Attorney Generals Office; the Federal Internet Security Fraud Center; Reseller Ratings; BizRate, Amazon; Tiger Direct; Syntax Group (the manufacturer)and will continue to look for more avenues to warn other unsuspecting consumers.

Oh and that "real person" Nadina Urdaneta at OnRebate.com who appears to provide the online rebuttals has been sent a copy of my posting to insure her speedy reply.

It is my fond hope that manufacturers wanting to retain customer loyalty will either eliminate OnRebate as a vendor and/or educate them on just what it takes to keep a "valued customer"!

My RipOff report was filed 1-23-06 detailing my trip down the slippery slope of OnRebate. com and their shoddy business practices. Realizing from my initial purchase that the rebate process was back-ended to insure rejection, I read, re-read and read again the precise instructions for submission. As some folks may have noted on one portion of the online instructions you're told to send via certified mail, whereas on the printed rebate form there is no mention of this requirement. Like another "victim" I too removed the peelable label from the outside of the TV shipping box which showed both serial and model number, only to be told more than 30 days AFTER my rebate was received that this was insufficient and incorrect. Their "status" check provides no way of knowing if there are any issues with your submission, allowing them to wait until the requisite time has expired to void your request. Nice trick...

To insure the highest visibility of my dissatisfaction with this outfit and Tiger Direct, I have filed complaints with my State Attorney Generals Office; the Federal Internet Security Fraud Center; Reseller Ratings; BizRate, Amazon; Tiger Direct; Syntax Group (the manufacturer)and will continue to look for more avenues to warn other unsuspecting consumers.

Oh and that "real person" Nadina Urdaneta at OnRebate.com who appears to provide the online rebuttals has been sent a copy of my posting to insure her speedy reply.

It is my fond hope that manufacturers wanting to retain customer loyalty will either eliminate OnRebate as a vendor and/or educate them on just what it takes to keep a "valued customer"!

My RipOff report was filed 1-23-06 detailing my trip down the slippery slope of OnRebate. com and their shoddy business practices. Realizing from my initial purchase that the rebate process was back-ended to insure rejection, I read, re-read and read again the precise instructions for submission. As some folks may have noted on one portion of the online instructions you're told to send via certified mail, whereas on the printed rebate form there is no mention of this requirement. Like another "victim" I too removed the peelable label from the outside of the TV shipping box which showed both serial and model number, only to be told more than 30 days AFTER my rebate was received that this was insufficient and incorrect. Their "status" check provides no way of knowing if there are any issues with your submission, allowing them to wait until the requisite time has expired to void your request. Nice trick...

To insure the highest visibility of my dissatisfaction with this outfit and Tiger Direct, I have filed complaints with my State Attorney Generals Office; the Federal Internet Security Fraud Center; Reseller Ratings; BizRate, Amazon; Tiger Direct; Syntax Group (the manufacturer)and will continue to look for more avenues to warn other unsuspecting consumers.

Oh and that "real person" Nadina Urdaneta at OnRebate.com who appears to provide the online rebuttals has been sent a copy of my posting to insure her speedy reply.

It is my fond hope that manufacturers wanting to retain customer loyalty will either eliminate OnRebate as a vendor and/or educate them on just what it takes to keep a "valued customer"!

TigerDirect offers some outstanding prices on various products at different times, but there is always that catcher - the rebate mentioned in the ad, but scarce details about it after the sales until you return to their web site. On advertised rebate before Christmas was actually two different rebates, one having to be filed with OnRebate, and a $10 bonus that had to be filed separately with the vender. That meant twice the work to file for the rebate.

Another gimick added is to delay your rebate twice - first, it has to be approved, which takes a number of weeks, then another six to 8 weeks to actually have the rebate posted to your PayPal account or a check mailed to you. You can get a rebate in just a day or two posted to PayPal, but they raised the rate for this service from $1 to $4. Obviously, the idea is to hold onto your money as long as possible so that they can use it to earn added income - for them, of course.

Like I've said before, if you are very exact in the rebate process, and persistent, you will eventually get the money. But it is not something that busy people would have the time to do, and obviously intended to be that way.

I am in the process of trying to claim a $95 rebate on a 19" flat panel display I ordered from TigerDirect, via onrebate.com. I must have spent an hour printing out all the forms, pasting the official mailing label onto my envelope, taping the UPC in a particular spot on the mail-in rebate form, and loading the envelope with several stamps lest the extensive list of contents keep my envelope from reaching onrebate. It turns out that neither TigerDirect or OnRebate is keeping me from my rebate now, but the vendor, who is requiring me to mail another envelope, this time with my serial number written on it. It has been two months since I purchased the monitor.

I just got off the phone with OnRebate after holding for 25 minutes (the first 10 had no music, and reminders that I was actually on the phone were as scarce as every 2-3 mins), and they assured me that this was the last hurdle they were going to put me through. The man said that OnRebate is upset with the vendor (X2Gen) for adding to this difficult process, but I have my doubts that they aren't all in on this. You sign away your right to any declined or unclaimed rebate when you accept OnRebate's terms, so I'm sure they're counting on people to not make it through the last hurdle, and they'll get to keep who knows how many times $95.

In all fairness, however, my rebate tracking process wasn't nearly as cryptic as the first report. TigerDirect has copies of all rebate forms available (in case you forgot to download and store yours when it was offered), and OnRebate's process was relatively straightforward if not extremely tedious. I did have to send multiple emails before I could achieve the second level of "email verification" from OnRebate, but they warned me that their email may take up to 24 hours to send (of course, I do web design, and there is no excuse for an email taking 24 hours except to hope you forget or foil you if you were filling out your rebate in the final hours).

In any case, this is terribly inconvenient. As I have no printer, I'm going to (again) have to borrow a friend's to print the rebate form and another copy of my TigerDirect invoice. I'm going to have to load another envelope and find my way to a post office to get the new stamps so I can send this thing out and get my money. While they may not outright be ripping you off, this is about as difficult a process as it could be without being totally impossible. Hopefully I will receieve this money eventually.

In the meantime, I will be wary of rebates and favor the $65 item over the $100 with the $50 rebate. You get what you pay for. The TigerDirect rebate extravaganza is a scam, but they put it out there. I knew I was going to be jumping through hoops, I just didn't know there would be fire in them.

I am in the process of trying to claim a $95 rebate on a 19" flat panel display I ordered from TigerDirect, via onrebate.com. I must have spent an hour printing out all the forms, pasting the official mailing label onto my envelope, taping the UPC in a particular spot on the mail-in rebate form, and loading the envelope with several stamps lest the extensive list of contents keep my envelope from reaching onrebate. It turns out that neither TigerDirect or OnRebate is keeping me from my rebate now, but the vendor, who is requiring me to mail another envelope, this time with my serial number written on it. It has been two months since I purchased the monitor.

I just got off the phone with OnRebate after holding for 25 minutes (the first 10 had no music, and reminders that I was actually on the phone were as scarce as every 2-3 mins), and they assured me that this was the last hurdle they were going to put me through. The man said that OnRebate is upset with the vendor (X2Gen) for adding to this difficult process, but I have my doubts that they aren't all in on this. You sign away your right to any declined or unclaimed rebate when you accept OnRebate's terms, so I'm sure they're counting on people to not make it through the last hurdle, and they'll get to keep who knows how many times $95.

In all fairness, however, my rebate tracking process wasn't nearly as cryptic as the first report. TigerDirect has copies of all rebate forms available (in case you forgot to download and store yours when it was offered), and OnRebate's process was relatively straightforward if not extremely tedious. I did have to send multiple emails before I could achieve the second level of "email verification" from OnRebate, but they warned me that their email may take up to 24 hours to send (of course, I do web design, and there is no excuse for an email taking 24 hours except to hope you forget or foil you if you were filling out your rebate in the final hours).

In any case, this is terribly inconvenient. As I have no printer, I'm going to (again) have to borrow a friend's to print the rebate form and another copy of my TigerDirect invoice. I'm going to have to load another envelope and find my way to a post office to get the new stamps so I can send this thing out and get my money. While they may not outright be ripping you off, this is about as difficult a process as it could be without being totally impossible. Hopefully I will receieve this money eventually.

In the meantime, I will be wary of rebates and favor the $65 item over the $100 with the $50 rebate. You get what you pay for. The TigerDirect rebate extravaganza is a scam, but they put it out there. I knew I was going to be jumping through hoops, I just didn't know there would be fire in them.

First I will say that I don't like these rebates. They require far to much work on behalf of the customer and are no rubstitute for an instant discount.

I had a similar experience with two claims being denied because I did not sign the form - the form has a checklist but 'Sign the form' isn't on it.

After reading Nadina's response I wrote a polite email attaching a scan of the signed form, sent 11:48PM. At 10:42AM the next day I received a polite note informing me that my claim was now approved.

Much as I dislike these rebates in all fairness On-Rebate: 1) Notified me that my claim had been denied and the reason why, 2) allowed me to correct the problem and 3) responded promptly.

It would have been better if THEY had informed me HOW I could have corrected the problem. I only found out when I came to this site to register a complaint.


-----My Email-----
From: nadina urdaneta
Sent: January 12, 2006 10:42 AM
To: Quentin
RE: Claim # XXXXXXX

Thanks for your attachments

Your rebate has now been accepted.

-----Original Message-----
From: Quentin
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 11:48 PM
To: nadina.urdaneta@onrebate.com
Subject: Claim # XXXXXX


Dear Nadina
Rebate Description: $50 Rebate on the Intel Celeron 340 2.93Ghz 256K
Rebate Offer: IN-1717 CA
Rebate Award: $50
Tracking Number: XXXXXX

This claim was rejected as the form was missing my signature. I was not aware that a signature was required, but on reading your response to this report:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff149417.htm
it appears that you will accept a scanned signature.

Following your instructions I have attached a scanned signed form.

Thank you for your help

----------------------------

First I will say that I don't like these rebates. They require far to much work on behalf of the customer and are no rubstitute for an instant discount.

I had a similar experience with two claims being denied because I did not sign the form - the form has a checklist but 'Sign the form' isn't on it.

After reading Nadina's response I wrote a polite email attaching a scan of the signed form, sent 11:48PM. At 10:42AM the next day I received a polite note informing me that my claim was now approved.

Much as I dislike these rebates in all fairness On-Rebate: 1) Notified me that my claim had been denied and the reason why, 2) allowed me to correct the problem and 3) responded promptly.

It would have been better if THEY had informed me HOW I could have corrected the problem. I only found out when I came to this site to register a complaint.


-----My Email-----
From: nadina urdaneta
Sent: January 12, 2006 10:42 AM
To: Quentin
RE: Claim # XXXXXXX

Thanks for your attachments

Your rebate has now been accepted.

-----Original Message-----
From: Quentin
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 11:48 PM
To: nadina.urdaneta@onrebate.com
Subject: Claim # XXXXXX


Dear Nadina
Rebate Description: $50 Rebate on the Intel Celeron 340 2.93Ghz 256K
Rebate Offer: IN-1717 CA
Rebate Award: $50
Tracking Number: XXXXXX

This claim was rejected as the form was missing my signature. I was not aware that a signature was required, but on reading your response to this report:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff149417.htm
it appears that you will accept a scanned signature.

Following your instructions I have attached a scanned signed form.

Thank you for your help

----------------------------

First I will say that I don't like these rebates. They require far to much work on behalf of the customer and are no rubstitute for an instant discount.

I had a similar experience with two claims being denied because I did not sign the form - the form has a checklist but 'Sign the form' isn't on it.

After reading Nadina's response I wrote a polite email attaching a scan of the signed form, sent 11:48PM. At 10:42AM the next day I received a polite note informing me that my claim was now approved.

Much as I dislike these rebates in all fairness On-Rebate: 1) Notified me that my claim had been denied and the reason why, 2) allowed me to correct the problem and 3) responded promptly.

It would have been better if THEY had informed me HOW I could have corrected the problem. I only found out when I came to this site to register a complaint.


-----My Email-----
From: nadina urdaneta
Sent: January 12, 2006 10:42 AM
To: Quentin
RE: Claim # XXXXXXX

Thanks for your attachments

Your rebate has now been accepted.

-----Original Message-----
From: Quentin
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 11:48 PM
To: nadina.urdaneta@onrebate.com
Subject: Claim # XXXXXX


Dear Nadina
Rebate Description: $50 Rebate on the Intel Celeron 340 2.93Ghz 256K
Rebate Offer: IN-1717 CA
Rebate Award: $50
Tracking Number: XXXXXX

This claim was rejected as the form was missing my signature. I was not aware that a signature was required, but on reading your response to this report:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff149417.htm
it appears that you will accept a scanned signature.

Following your instructions I have attached a scanned signed form.

Thank you for your help

----------------------------

Dear Donald-

We will allow you to resubmit the forms with the required signatures.

Please visit our website www.onrebate.com and reprint your forms. Make sure you sign them and date them and go ahead and fax them in to 1-888-426-9467 attn Nadina. You may also scan them and email them to nadina.urdaneta@onrebate.com

If you are unsure of how to do this please contact us at 1-888-222-9300.

Please note that we do require your signature which is what indicates to us that you agree to our Terms.

OnRebate.com does not bother to let you know how to contact them, except for a sMail address that you can search for. Trouble with sMail, is that you can easily go beyond the rebate offer period if you try to reach them that way. I used the reject eMail return address, and actually got someone to tell me what was wrong with my submission, and I did get my rebates posted back to PayPal. Trouble there is, my wife says the money has not gone back as a credit to my credit card. Another issue to resolve.

My brother-in-law took my suggestion to order an external hard drive to backup his computer with. That was one of the really good deals that TigerDirect was offering, with a $40 rebate from
the Manufacturer. He called me because when the
drive came in. there was no information on the
rebate offer - my original complaint again. I told him to access the TigerDirect web site, which he did, but using a notice from TigerDirect where
they told him the drive had shipped. The page it
took him to showed the order, but not mention of the rebate. I had to redirect him to the home page and to the link to the Rebate Center, which is not what I consider an intuitive process.

There, we finally put in the invoice number and
were directed to a PDF form which was suppose to
give us information on the rebate. Trouble is,
though my brother-in-law has Adobe Reader 6.0 on
his machine, for some reasion he could not get
that PDF form to open. So I had to access it on
my computer and read it off to him. How about
people who don't know that you have to have a
program on your machine to read PDF files?

The PDF document basically tells you to access
OnRebate.Com, and (take careful note), which of
the several possible rebate offers you need to
apply for. In this case, it was MX-1552 (if you
made a mistake and picked MX-1550 on OnRebate,
they could turn you down).

OnRebate.Com seems reasonably straightforward.
They lists steps 1, 2, and 3. You have to figure
out that you don't need step 1, unless you are
shopping in reverse, looking for items that come
with a rebate. So you start with Step 2, where
you have several ways to input your rebate
number, product, or manufacturer, to find the
right rebate. Since Maxtor is running two
different rebate programs for their 160 GB Hard
Drives, you needed to know the information in the
PDF document to identify the right offer to respond to. Sort of tricky, and I wonder it that
is deliberate as well.

I talked my brother-in-law through the multiple
steps of qualifying for the rebate, incuding the
point where he had to wait for an email from
OnRebate.com, and he clicked on the link inside
to complete the registration process. At least
we were told the process was complete - my
brother-in-law got a web page that said that the
rebate form would appear in a new window, only
it didn't. Instead, he said he had two new
rebate offers appear, one for $15 and another for
$10. He closed those windows, then we went
through all the existing windows, and did not find
the one where the rebate form was suppose to be.

He was tired, it was late, we were both frustrated, and the next morning he had to get up early to go out of town for a few days on church business. That meant he could not do much about it until he got back, and I elected to try and
find out how to contact OnRebate.com about getting
a copy of the missing rebate form.

So the next day I searched all over, and finally
went back to my old email from them and sent off
an email to them on his behalf, giving his name
and email address. I sent it to status@onrebate.com, and got a reply from support@onrebate.com, which basicly just assigned a case number to my email. I haven't heard anything further, and it seems my brother-in-law
has not heard from them either. I guess that he will have to try to do it himself when he gets back.

Note that OnRebate.com does not post a phone
number, email address, customer service, or
support link on their web site. There is no way
to ask anybody for help - the FAQ section is so
limited that it is of no value, since it does not
deal with problems that can come up. The whole
idea is that if you don't get it exactly right on
your first attempt, you are forced to extend
yourself and find creative ways to get past the
road blocks that you hit along the way, each one
designed to discourage you from continuing on.

That someone can get a rebate, means that they
had to persist and be very exact in completing
each step. Having done it once to completion may
be something to be proud of, but is this fair?
And is it what we bargained for when we bought that item initially? Would you really strive so
hard if the rebate value were only $5 or $10?
How much of your day do you want to give up in
your pursuit of something that SHOULD BE YOUR
RIGHT BECAUSE IT WAS A CONDITION OF A SALES CONTRACT?

Donald, it's always interesting to read reports of people that have been ripped off - by themselves.

If you didn't read the rebate forms, and didn't follow the rules, how can you expect them to give you the rebate? That's like going to a store to buy something that costs $10 and trying to give them $9 and get the item.

I was rejected a rebate by onrebate.com because I didn't send in the right info. I called them after I got the email, they explained to me why I didn't get it, I had to say 'oh well, I screwed myself out of $20'. I've gotten 4 other ones from them with no problems.

Blaming the company for your error is like blaming the condom company for you getting pregnant when you didn't actually use one. Saying that you didn't know that you didn't know that you had to sign it is just like saying 'well, I had it in my pocket. I didn't know I actually had to wear it'.

Donald-

We apologize for the inconvenience we may have caused you.

If you would be so kind to please contact us at 1-888-222-9300 we will gladly revise your rebate information and work together in hopes resolve it.

You may also email Nadina at nadina.urdaneta@onrebate.com