Rebate Rejection: Those Lying SOS's

[Neander]

This may not be the right board for this topic, but has anybody else gotten a cheap, fine printed white card telling them that their $50.00 rebate submission is invalid because you didn't send in the right UPC bar code?   A UPC code that looks ....

Like this copy I made before I put the origional in the envelope?

(If that insert image thing worked you'd see it.)

Their plan may be this: send a tiny rejection card so a large percentage ignore it.  2:  Hope that the chump customers that do see it  lost his evidence.  3. Hope a small percentage is not as mad as I am!

Anybody up for a class action suit?

[#2]

I hate mail in rebates, but you do have to follow the instructions. I'm getting ready to mail in a $50 rebate on my wife's laptop. I prefer to purchase on line and get the on line rebate.

[Neander]

".....but you do have to follow the instructions"

I followed it to a T.  Made copies of everything.  STAPLED the cardboard cutout of the entire corner of the box to the form, and these A.H.'s  are trying to say they didn't get it.    I've been burned before - (forget ever getting a rebate from anything from Fry's Electronics).  I thought Verizon might have had a little more class.

The way these rebate services work is exactly like I described.   What they don't pay out they get to keep.    So they deny receiving the proper paperwork, hoping no one will follow up.  They steal plan & simple.  Why the state Attorneys Generals let them get away with it is beyond me.

Update: Called Verizon, given a FAX number,  FAX evidence, "check back in two days".

[crimedoggies]

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Neander wrote:

".....but you do have to follow the instructions"

I followed it to a T.  Made copies of everything.  STAPLED the cardboard cutout of the entire corner of the box to the form, and these A.H.'s  are trying to say they didn't get it.    I've been burned before - (forget ever getting a rebate from anything from Fry's Electronics).  I thought Verizon might have had a little more class.

The way these rebate services work is exactly like I described.   What they don't pay out they get to keep.    So they deny receiving the proper paperwork, hoping no one will follow up.  They steal plan & simple.  Why the state Attorneys Generals let them get away with it is beyond me.

Update: Called Verizon, given a FAX number,  FAX evidence, "check back in two days".

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They don't need to STEAL anything, the unclaimed rebate rate is near 30% already.  That leaves them with more than enough money to pay the folks that mail in for their money.  By the way, the rebate instructions clearly state NOT to staple anything. 

[Grothka]

Also, did you ever think it was possible they may have made a mistake? VZW has a whole rebate department to deal with problems with rebates. Give them a call and talk it over with them before you start ranting about how it's all a scheme to steal your $50.

[cbfromsd]

Do you know the phone number for the rebate dept? They conveniently neglected to put a contact number on the postcard.

15 year Verizon Customer,

Cori      

[Neander]

Hello Cori; I'm sorry this old a topic is still an issue.   I'll tell you what I can.

The rebate rejection card from the Resubmission Dept 10-337 and the Rebate Form itself has the phone number: 

1 800 457-0864      Website address:  www.verizonwireless.com/rebates

You might also get the attention of :

Zrock02 &   JohnB_VZW

Employees on this forum who may be helpfull.

Good Luck.

[dneumet]

Going on record here to report something similar to what was written by others.

I submitted ALL of the requested materials. Received a postcard in the mail stating that the CUSTOMER RECEIPT had not been included in the submission.  Oh, how untrue.  I kept copies of everything that was sent and the receipt was absolutely in the envelope.

After calling the number on the postcard and listening to gibberish I was able to reach someone at 4PM on a Sunday...astounding.  "Joe" looked up the rebate submission and within seconds said that he didn't understand why the rebate was rejected since he could see that all materials were received.

Joe chalked it up to a "glitch in the system."  He said that he would mark the submission as "complete" and indicated that my rebate would be processed within 15 business days.

Would a system glitch ever send a consumer TWO rebates by mistake?  Nah.  Somehow the glitch always seems to give the customer the shaft.

Systems are funny that way.

[Neander]

Dneumet;  Yes, I'm sorry that such an old topic still crops up,   I have NO doubt that the fulfilling agency Verizon hired  DELIBERATELY rejects a percentage of perfectly valid submissions, hoping customers didn't save any evidence, or will ignore their deceptive rejection cards.  

Perego actually brag about it, called "breakage rates"- in their literature.  It's not an accident, because like you said: "How often do people get two rebates?"   Uh, ...Never!

Scan copies of everything you put in the envelopes folks.  I've still got mine sitting on my computer.  Anyone who doubts I submitted the right stuff I can say; "IN YOUR FACE.. A.H.  ... "  and show 'em.

Thanks for contributing to the topic.   Someone from Verizon should be along shortly to direct you to a responsible person.  You may get better treatment because you're complaining here.     ..oh never mind, you're good

[Neander]

There is no mention of stapling at all in my rebate instructions/form.

I'd like to alert people to watch for these deceptive postcards;  they're deliberatly made to look like junk mail.

OK guys.  I'll give it the two days (-after today's FAXing).  Let's see what they can do.

[#11]

So the lesson here is to 1. follow instructions and 2. read your mail. It's on you, not them.

[Neander]

JimFitzgerald;  One more time:  I did everything exactly right.

Verizon uses a company called Parego to fulfill their rebates.  It doesn't take a whole lot of googling to see what kind of operation Parego is.   They actually have a patented system that they sell to their vendors, specifically bragging about their "breakage" rates.  Check this out  for just one.

http://routingbyrumor.wordpress.com/2007/12/14/still-waiting-for-that-rebate-check-dont-hold-your-br...

& this    http://j-walkblog.com/index.php?/weblog/comments/rebate_patent/

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"....I'm 100 percent sure it is not a vast conspiracy to steal your money."

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I'm 99% sure they know exactly what they're doing.   Not only do they count on customers not submitting rebate forms, they also count on customers forgetting to use the redemption cards,   and When they are used,  making that difficult.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Grothka; "Give them a call and talk it over with them ..."

Done. Waiting for results.  

"....before you start ranting about how it's all a scheme to steal your $50."

If  $50.00 is a piddling consideration for you,  feel free to send me yours.  I'll feel much better.

A few thousand customers here, a few thousand customers there, after a while we're talking real money.  If it weren't for us "ranters"   all the rebate success stories would be even rarer.

[#13]

There's no doubt they count on a certain percentage of people to ever send in their rebate request. They also count on a certain percentage of money left unused on debit cards. That's also true of the gift card industry. That's not in any way fradulent. People are just lazy.

[Neander]

UPDATE:   After uploading the evidence  (the image/insert feature doesn't take .gif's   just  .jpg's) to

Zrock02 - Verizon Guy,  I got the following:

From: Zrock02

To: Neander

Sent: 01-21-2011 02:06 PM

You should receive your rebate within 15 days.

Thanks,

Zachary

________________________________________________

Thanks Zach;  I'm looking forward to pushing the SOLVED button.

In summary, I'm sure the rank & file of Verizon is embarrassed by incidents of poor customer service (technical & clerical) and are doing the best they can.   From what I've researched all the rebates that are handled "In House" are done professionally.  Parego looks like the problem, and who's ultimately responsible for hiring them?

[Neander]

You should receive your rebate within 15 days.

Thanks,

Zachary

________________________________________________

Thanks Zach;  I'm looking forward to pushing the SOLVED button.

In summary, I'm sure the rank & file of Verizon is embarrassed by incidents of poor customer service (technical & clerical) and are doing the best they can.   From what I've researched all the rebates that are handled "In House" are done professionally.  Parego looks like the problem, and who's ultimately responsible for hiring them?

[Grothka]

Neander, I am really happy that you are getting your issue corrected, but I'm also slightly annoyed with you saying that this was a result of pooor customer service. There are a few issues with the rebates... but based on the overall impression I've gotten, most people have them handled without a problem. Even in your case where they did have a problem they got it corrected fairly quickly (3 days between your first post and your last post). So really, it was annoying but if this is an indication of the type of service people can expect from parago then I'm happy VZW uses them.

[Neander]

Grothka; I'm sorry you're annoyed.       

Perhaps I got better customer service...    because I complained?       -the way I did?

How many others have gotten this White Postcard after doing everything right?

      <---  Actual Size   the fine print is of coarse much smaller

Seriously,  it doesn't take a whole lot of googling to see what Parego is about.  Check some of the links.  We'll never know how many perfectly submitted forms have/will be rejected by Parego's tactics.   Why should I be happy about "quick service" over an issue that should never have happened in the first place?  

My whole point over this message was/is to alert people to look out for the postcards,   Granted,   I don't seem to be getting a lot of positive feedback on that point,   but if it's not someone's particular problem,  it's easy enough to ignore.

[steveanderson13]

Hey Neander,

     Would you post what happens in the end?  I never use mail-in myself just because of the general hassle and the likelihood that I would lose/forget it, etc.  I always go for the online instant rebate.  It used to be that some stores would even give that to you.  Anyway, thanks for posting.

[Neander · Accepted solution]

Got It!     I'm looking forward to (helping)  fill my truck's gas tank,  with what I think of as what was my own money to begin with.    I just got it back.    Always read the fine print folks. But even when you do,  there are a lot of low-life's out there that hope you'll ignore Their Infractions.           

I've got a gym membership I'm about to cancel.    Here I go  again.....

[steveanderson13]

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Neander wrote:

There is no mention of stapling at all in my rebate instructions/form.

I'd like to alert people to watch for these deceptive postcards;  they're deliberatly made to look like junk mail.

OK guys.  I'll give it the two days (-after today's FAXing).  Let's see what they can do.

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Hey, Neander

Just saw this post in "General Android Questions"  so I'm pasting it here:

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jjb579 wrote:

I got a denial card and set it aside to call them later. Six days later, I got ther rebate.  I looked at the original denial card again to make sure I read it correctly. It was definitely a denial.  Regardless, I took the rebate card out and used it for dinner that evening.

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But just to make your day: your device is probably different from the other poster so this probably won't happen to you, lol!!!!

[dirkbonn]

My wife and I have been purchasing phones from Verizon for over 12 years and my daughter for almost that long.  We get new phone approx every two years, (Somes time a little longer though) so that's about 30 phones and mail in rebates.  We have never missed getting our rebates...... Never!

I wish you luck with your "class action" lawsuit!

[#22]

This had nothing to do with Fry's. Most rebates I've ever seen are from the manufacturer. They usually hire a firm of low paid workers to process the rebates. I suspect your information actually got lost. Mistakes do happen. I'm 100 percent sure it is not a vast conspiracy to steal your money.