Best Buy instant rebate fraud and runaround Rockford Illinois

My husband and I were in Rockford, IL over the Thanksgiving holiday and went to Best Buy there as we do not have one close by in our area. My husband bought an external hard drive that was marked "instant rebate" on the shelf price card. We paid for the items we bought an didn't think anything of it.

When we got abck home to Indiana, my husband looked at the receipt and saw that we had not received any "instant rebate" and realized that the cashier had not mentioned anything about a rebate instant or otherwise. My husband called the Best Buy store in Rockford where we made the purchase and was told to call a toll-free number to find out what to do about the rebate. My husband called that number and was told to get the rebate form from the Best Buy website. I got the form and when I went to fill it out, the form asked for a certain number on the register receipt which was not on there; I filled out the form and enclosed the requested proofs-of purchase and also enclosed a note stating that Best Buy had told us to do the rebate via the website and that we were unable to because we did not have the rebate code on our register receipt to apply for the rebate online.

It has been almost 6 weeks now and we have not heard anything in regards to the rebate. I just want to file this report because it seems like deceptive advertising or something. We would not have purchased that particular brand, but with the rebate it would have been a great bargain! Maybe the young kids working there don't change the signs or something an it was an expired offer. I don't know, but I hope that this will be resolved in a timely manner. They make you jump for hoops to get rebates anyway, so what's the point? If the store can offer an instant rebate, why don't they just put it on sale for the "after-rebate" price and save us all a lot of headaches?

Cheryl
NorthVernon, Indiana
U.S.A.