OnRebate.com - TigerDirect Extremely Difficult Rebate Process Naperville, Illinois Boca Raton, Florida Internet

2006-Mar-18: Purchased MP3 player at TigerDirect Naperville, IL store for $55.00. $40.00 in rebates were promised.

2006-Mar-19: Processed 3 rebates ($5, $15, $20) on the Onrebate.com website. All items were filled in correctly and triple checked (I've submitted rebates many times and know that you must follow every step explicitly or you risk not receiving your rebate.) I want to also note here that I was under the impression through their whole submission process that I was receiving a "No-wait" rebate and that I would get my rebate deposited to my PayPal account in "Hours, not Months". I never saw any place where I had to "click here" or "pay this fee" to get this "no wait rebate".

A few hours later: Received email confirmation of all 3 rebates, with a reminder that I needed to send in all the appropriate documentation.

2006-Mar-20: Mailed all the appropriate documentation.

2006-Apr-20: Received confirmation on all 3 rebates that my rebates had been approved and that "OnRebate will credit your PayPal account within 8 to 10 weeks at no extra cost." Great. What happened to "hours, not months"?

2006-Apr-28: Received email stating rebates were "declined by vendor", reason "serial number left blank, invalid". I called their toll-free number and gave them the serial numbers again since they "didn't have them." I know for a fact that I filled in the on-line form completely and the mail-in one as well. So either they "lost" it or the form did not have a place to fill it in.
A few hours later: Received confirmation on 2 rebates ($15, $20) that my rebates had been approved and that "OnRebate will credit your PayPal account within 8 to 10 weeks at no extra cost."

2006-May-01: Received confirmation on $5 rebate that it had been approved and that "OnRebate will credit your PayPal account within 8 to 10 weeks at no extra cost."

2006-Jun-13: Received email stating 2 rebates ($15, $20) were "declined by vendor", reason "serial number invalid".

2006-Jun-14: I, again, called their toll-free number and was told that the email was a mistake, a computer glitch and that they weren't declined by the vendor. I asked when I could expect payment and was told "7-10 days". I received an email about an hour after my phone call for the 2 rebates ($15, $20) stating that my rebates had been approved and that "OnRebate will credit your PayPal account within 8 to 10 weeks at no extra cost." Strange, but it's a system genereated email, so I figured I'd just wait 7-10 business days before calling again.

2006-Jun-19: Received PayPal payment of $5 rebate. Wow, surely the others must be on their way....

2006-Jun-29: Had not received the remaining rebates so I called OnRebate again and was told that "no, you must wait 8-10 WEEKS after your approval, which was on June 14th". I tried to explain to them that the June 14th approval was a mistake, like they had told me and she said she only had record of a June 14th approval. I asked to speak with a supervisor and, of course, no one was available, but they would call me back the next day. I also called the manager at TigerDirect in Naperville, IL who then sent an email to Nadina Urdaneta explaining the situation.

2006-Jun-30: No call from OnRebate.

2006-Jul-03: Received call from manager at TigerDirect in Naperville, IL saying that she heard back from Nadina Urdaneta and was told that the serial number situation occurred on June 14th and that is why I'd have to wait 8-10 weeks from June 14th. I tried to explain to her that that was incorrect. She gave me Nadina's phone number and I left her Nadina a voice mail and sent her an email directly asking her to call me back.

2006-Jul-10: Nadina had not responded to my email or phoned me so I sent her another email threatening filing a complaint with the Florida Attorney General against both Tiger Direct and OnRebate. I received an email just over an hour later stating "I will put in a request to have you paid within two weeks." I responded that since I had already been waiting 16 weeks total for this rebate, it would behoove her to push it along a little quicker especially since I chose PayPal and the rebate could technically be deposited immediately.

2006-Jul-17: Received both rebate checks in the mail, which is weird since I chose PayPal. Obviously, I would have preferred PayPal as then I would know for sure that the money is there.

2006-Jul-18: Deposited checks at my bank. I will update this posting if and when they clear.

Total time from sending of documents to receiving rebates.....
17 WEEKS. Ridiculous. I'm very worried they will bounce.

Lisa
Geneva, Illinois
U.S.A.



Click here to read The *EDitorial: The Marketing Rebate Rip Off ...Manufactures invent reasons why not to pay the consumer