Why Mail-in Rebates Suck

Prior to the last holiday season, I had never experienced the American phenomenon known as "Black Friday." Seeing as I am not getting any younger, I figured it was time to give it a shot to witness the madness and anarchy first hand.

This past year, Crystal and I decided that we were going to purchase a widescreen HDTV as our Christmas gift to each other. We spent much of our Thanksgiving over at David and Beth's looking through the ads trying to find the best deal for what we had in mind. An Office Depot ad caught our eye as they had a 42" Sharp Aquos on sale for $899 - an in-store savings of $500 from the regular price. With that much of a price reduction, it was a no-brainer.

With our one-item list in hand, we headed to Office Depot and arrived there a little before the store opened at 6:00 AM. We stood in a line that wrapped around the store and were greeted by an Office Depot employee who was handing out vouchers for the limited big-ticket items. We told her that we were there for the 42" Sharp TV, however, they no longer had any vouchers left for that item. She informed us that they were selling a 42" Olevia HDTV for the same price, but it also came with a $200 mail-in rebate on top of that. Since we didn't have a backup plan, we ended up taking the voucher for that TV instead.

We were able to compare the Sharp and the Olevia TV's side-by-side in the store once the doors opened. The Olevia TV had everything we were looking for so we stood in line. After a while of standing and waiting in line, we stood in line some more. We even got to see the sun rise while standing in line even longer. Over two hours would pass while we were in line waiting to purchase the TV. In hindsight, that wait wasn't nearly as long as the wait we would endure a few months later.

The original price for the TV was $1199.99, but on Black Friday there was an in-store sale of $300 off plus the $200 mail-in rebate. With all of the discounts, the TV went from $1199.99 down to $699.99. Not a bad price for a 42" LCD HDTV that has more inputs than you can shake a stick at. The mail-in rebate didn't need to be completed and mailed in until the end of December, and being the procrastinators that we are, we pretty much waited until the last minute to send it in.

We filled out the required information on the receipt and even scanned it so we would retain a copy. We sent everything in and patiently waited for our rebate check to come in the mail. Nearly three months would go by before I finally got any notice sent to my email inbox. They were regretting to inform me that the rebate could not be processed as we didn't mail the original serial number with the receipt.

We looked at the copy that we scanned and we had handwritten the serial number in what appeared to be the space provided. We had failed to notice that below that line, written in print smaller than what lawyers use, was a note saying we would need to send in the original serial number from the box. We filled out a customer request form on their web site on February 27th and asked if there would be any way for us to correct our mistake by mailing in the original serial number from the box.

Until today, I hadn't even heard a response back on the matter and had figured that we lost out on the rebate. This morning I checked my email and found a message waiting for me with "Re: OFFICE DEPOT OLEVIA Inquiry GRAENING, JASON" as the subject line. The message told me again that I wasn't able to receive my rebate due to the fact that I failed to send in the original serial number. At first it seemed like they were trying to pour salt in an old wound, but then I read further and it said that they may be able to reprocess my request if I am able to provide copies of my submission information via mail, fax or email.

Nearly six months after I sent in the rebate form, I may be getting somewhere and there may be a chance that I will be getting my $200 rebate. I will be sure to update everyone on the progress, but at the rate this is going, I doubt there will be another update until at least September.

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