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Replying To:
Dell Rebates (and others) (none / 0) (#5)
by Anonymous User on Thu Jul 17, 2003 at 10:38:18 AM PDT

I had an interesting situation with a Dell rebate. I bought a Dimension 2350 and their All-In-One printer. There was a $30 rebate on the printer, which I sent in promptly. Several weeks later, a check arrived from Dell for $200!!!. Their rebate status site indicated it was for the 2350, even though it was not eligible for any rebates. Now some might think I'm nuts, but I try not to keep things that don't belong to me, so I contacted them about it. They told me to destroy the check (which they put a stop-payment on), and sent me another(only 3 days later) for $50 ($20 for my trouble, I guess). Not bad! Dell did have a lot of trouble with their rebates in the paste, however. So much so, they set up a separate online user forum just for rebate problems. Judging by the comments I've read on the board, they seem to address and resolve most of the problems fairly quickly. I bought another 2350 from them soon after, with a $50 rebate, and it came in with no trouble. I've bought a TON of stuff with rebates over the years, and I'd say less than 5% didn't come in automatically. On the few that didn't, it usually only took one email or phone call to resolve it. One company, Tiger Direct(!), even wound up eating the rebate and sending me a $30 check directly, because their ad was incorrect in stating the expiration date (THAT one took about 3 phone calls to resolve). As has been stated, the key is to: a) Read everything, and follow instruction EXACTLY b) Make copies (or scans) of everything c) Follow up on those that don't come in. In following up on a rebate, I've never had a vendor refuse to accept a photocopy or scanned image as proof that I sent in the documents. In my experience, they're usually pretty good about that sort of thing.



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