Inmar Scam, Apartment Number Internet

Over the Course of the past five years, we have submitted dozens of rebates for anything ranging from alcohol to Pet medications.  Almost all of those rebates are processed through Inmar Rebates. 

Of the 40 or so rebates we have submitted, roughly 10 have been paid.  Of the other 30, 5 or so just disappeared into thin air, and the rest we have been able to track online at inmarrebates.com.

For each and every rebate submission, the user is required to fill out the little card in its original form.  These cards are designed to be quite small for the singular purpose of making it difficult to write information legibly.  So, with each submission, we have always included a typed piece of paper which is a duplicate of that information.  We do this to ensure that everything is perfectly legible and that it is simply not possible for the recipient to make a mistake.

However, on nearly every submission, we will follow up months later and are told that the check was already mailed.  When we ask where to, we are told 75% of the time that it was mailed to the wrong address.  In most cases, it appears they just ignore our apartment number altogether.  So, when we speak to them, we ask that the include the apartment number and resend the check.  In many cases, we still never receive the rebate check.

This morning, after having this happen three or four times in recent weeks, we contacted again about a rebate that was supposed to be issued through Novartis.  The rebate was supposed to come in the form of a prepaid Visa Gift Card.  When we spoke with Inmar, they advised that the card was mailed to our address, but, yet again, failed to include the apartment number.  So, they transferred us to the Novartis representative to have the card resent.  However, Novartis couldn't help.  They advised that we had to speak with "card services".  And this is when we completely got screwed.

We contacted "card services", which might by Citi (I am unsure).  Card services advised that even though this was a mistake on the end of Inmar and Novartis, the gift card that was issued had already expired.  When we said we never received it because Inmar didn't put our information into the system properly, they said, "yes, we know".  Card services went on to say that "even though this was a mistake on our end, the gift card that we issued has expired.  Once a card expires, we cannot issue a new one".

We called back a few minutes later hoping that a more logical, intelligent representative would be able to help.  What were we told?  We were told that the previous representative had notated the account indicating that we were not eliegible for a new card, even though the error was on their end because when they mailed it to the wrong address it was returned to sender and expired.

Mail in rebates are always a crap shoot, but the process with Inmar is the worst I've encountered.  They absolutely refuse to take down the address information properly.  This appears to be strategic so that they can avoid paying out the rebates.  I wouldn't be shocked to learn that there is a policy that every other submission be input into their systems improperly just so that most rebates aren't paid.

Most people simply do not care enough to follow up on rebates or they don't remember the information they have submitted.  In my case, I document every one that I send and I photocopy the submission.  Every submission is accompanied by a printed version of my information so that these types of mistakes are avoided.  Even so, it usually takes two to three phone calls to correct the mistaken address on the submissions to ever receive the rebate.  Now, it appears they are refusing to send the rebates at all by hiding behind expiration dates. 

So, the question is this.  In what other industry could you possibly order something and then have the seller mess up the delivery, keep your money, and refuse to send you the product based on the fact that it had expired.  If you order groceries, and the delivery guy sees that the milk he was about to give you had expired, does he get to keep your money and not replace it with new milk?  I would hope not.  But this is exactly what Inmar, Novartis, and "card services" are doing.  They make you buy a product to be eligible, pay for postage to get the form in their hands, and then screw up the submission through either intent or gross negligence just to avoid giving you what was bargained for.  This is a total scam, a total ripoff, and total BS.  It is absolutely strategic and calculated to avoid paying out on rebates, not matter how carefully submitted they are.  If you ever see the Inmar name on the back of a rebate form, I'd suggest not buying that product.  Or at the very least, don't expect to see a dime.  Not unless you're willing to fight it out with them for a year, spending more of your own time and money.