INFOWORLD GRIPE LINE BY ED FOSTER Bookmark this page

  
Display: Sort:
Circuit City changes rebate terms after the fact, rejects submissions | 23 comments (23 topical) | Post A Comment
Circuit City Rebate False Advertising[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#12)
by Anonymous User on Tue Aug 09, 2005 at 08:50:32 PM PDT

A couple of weeks ago, Circuit City put all their Netgear Gigabit networking hardware on sale (if this is the right term). I was interested in a 5-port switch, NIC and PCMCIA card. The ad showed a manufacturer and Circuit City rebate for each item, which is 6 rebates on 3 items. For the final price shown, it was worth it to fill out all the paperwork. When I did that today, I was in for a big surprise. All three items were under rebate program YE892, which allows for rebate on a single item. This means that even though I purchased three items, with a listed rebate of $10 each ($30 total), I was only going to receive a single $10 rebate on one of those items. This was evident by the fact that only one of the items appeared on the in-store rebate form. I called and complained, but the response I received was "it is clearly stated on the rebate form that the rebate is for a single item only...blah...blah...blah" I checked the form again. Yes, it does state one rebate per household and lists the qualifying products with an OR condition between them...*but*...the submittal instructions state "Please circle the qualified items..." and "A copy of the UPC barcodes...". Notice that both statements are plural. In reality, the rebate form is NOT clearly written. Unless you do research on the rebate before you purchase (which may mean a call for clarification), you will likely get screwed by Circuit City. A similar situation happened to me there about a year ago, when I purchased a couple of other Netgear products. One of the in-store rebates did not print at checkout. I caught it immediately and told the cashier. She thought it was a computer problem and just refunded me $20 on the spot for the missing rebate form (a rare happy ending). I was not so lucky this last time. A word of advice...before purchasing, research the rebates and verify every single one at checkout, even with the pressure of a long line behind you. Catching a problem at checkout puts pressure on the store to resolve it quickly to keep things moving. I wonder how many people have gone into Circuit City to purchase multiple items, only to discover that they are not eligible for all the advertised rebates! Imagine that...screwed because you are a better customer and purchase several items! On the other hand, I had no issues submitting for the Netgear rebates on all three products.

[ Reply to This ]


Circuit City changes rebate terms after the fact, rejects submissions | 23 comments (23 topical) | Post A Comment
Display: Sort:

Menu
· create account
· faq
· search

Login
Make a new account
Username:
Password:

 HOME  NEWS  COLUMNS  BLOGS  PODCASTS  TECHNOLOGIES  TEST CENTER  EVENTS  CAREERS  IT EXEC-CONNECT   About Awards Contact Us 

Copyright © 2006, Reprints, Permissions, Licensing, IDG Network, Privacy Policy.
All Rights reserved. InfoWorld is a leading publisher of technology information and product reviews on topics including viruses,
phishing, worms, firewalls, security, servers, storage, networking, wireless, databases, and web services.

 ComputerWorld :: LinuxWorld :: Network World :: CIO :: PC World :: Darwin :: CMO :: CSO
IT Careers :: JavaWorld :: Macworld :: Mac Central :: Playlist :: GamePro :: GameStar :: Gamerhelp
ITWorld Canada :: Computerwoche :: Techworld UK :: tecChannel :: IDG.se :: IDG.no :: IDG.pl

create account | faq | search