As a helpful reference I thought we needed a thread that logs (good and bad) which comapnies are relaible in returning rebates.

I would like to start off by saying that Best Buy has been really good about their rebates. I am waiting on two Western Digital rebates though (it's been like 6 weeks now).

2/20/2006 8:02:30 PM

No problems this year with both Best Buy and Office Depot rebates (from Black Friday).

2/20/2006 8:04:47 PM

no to tigerdirect.

you have to spend $4.11 to "guarantee" that your rebate will be delivered (each rebate), which adds up .

[Edited on February 20, 2006 at 8:39 PM. Reason : eh]

2/20/2006 8:39:16 PM

linksys fucked me

2/20/2006 8:41:39 PM

Quote :

"no to tigerdirect."

I have heard bad things about them too.

So far:

GOOD
Best Buy
Office Depot

BAD
TigerDirect
Linksys

2/20/2006 8:45:20 PM

good:

staples
dell

2/20/2006 8:48:07 PM

I had bad experiences with dell rebates.

they refused to send me my rebate and said that it was out of the promotional period when it was mailed in a week before the period ended.

2/20/2006 9:18:29 PM

I've also had bad experiences with dell rebates. My desktop and laptop rebates were denied initially, but after about 40 hours total talking to customer service people, the place they outsourced rebates to in mexico (I think that's where it was, but finding people who spoke english wasn't that hard though), and threatening to get a lawyer I did get the rebates. That was bout 8 months late though.

Staples, best buy, and office depot rebates have all been really reliable.

2/20/2006 9:20:46 PM

GOOD

Best Buy (3+)
Staples (2+)
Office Depot (2+)

QUESTIONABLE

Dell (1+/2-)

BAD

Linksys (1-)
TigerDirect (2-)

2/20/2006 9:27:11 PM

Well, I've dealt with about 150 dell rebates. They give you the chance to print it online before you buy the machine, during the purchase process, after purchase AND they almost always send the damn form with the machine too.

Never had a single issue with any of them. You send it in promptly and you get your $$ in about 6 weeks.

2/20/2006 9:27:47 PM

^I'll admit it was 3 years ago when it happened, maybe they got better.

2/20/2006 9:28:59 PM

have gotten 100% of all my rebates submitted (40-50+)

staples is excellent
circuit city good
best buy good
motorola good
linksys good
xfx good
netgear good
newegg good
hitachi and segate were both great

(dell a long time ago was fine)

soyo is really really bad (after resubmission, finally got $90 rebate after 6+ months)

2/20/2006 9:29:57 PM

GOOD

Best Buy (4+)
Staples (3+)
Office Depot (2+)
Circuit City (1+)
Motorola (1+)
Xfx (1+)
Netgear (1+)
NewEgg (1+)
Hitachi (1+)
Seagate (1+)

QUESTIONABLE

Linksys (1+/1-)
Dell (2+/2-) - May have improved.

BAD

Soyo (1-)
TigerDirect (2-)

[Edited on February 20, 2006 at 9:40 PM. Reason : trying to keep a tally.]

2/20/2006 9:38:47 PM

I've sent in at least 40 dell rebates over the past few years, never had a problem. their rebate checks arrive almost as fast as their systems

2/21/2006 10:07:16 AM

staples easyrebates = best ever.

dell is good.
best buy is good, but sometimes slow.

2/21/2006 10:10:17 AM

We should legislate rebates, and I only say this because the rebate houses are so notorius for fucking you. As a consequence, they should be regulated more tightly. I sent in a $50 rebate for a table saw in mid november and I haven't seen it yet. I sent in a tiger direct one a month ago without the guarantee and they'll probably fuck me on that one. Then like a dumbass I missed the send in date on a second one (with a friends address AND the guarantee) by a day and I know that one will get denied. This is a lot of money that consumers are getting scammed out of when you think about it. That should be illegal. You shouldn't have to pay to get it guaranteed, thats fucked up.

2/21/2006 10:11:25 AM

I purchased a processor and 2 sticks of RAM recently from Tiger Direct and got my rebate on all three. The RAM though I had to buy on two different cards with my name different on them and send to two addresses (one per household).

I never had probs with Best Buy, Staples, Circuit City, Office Depot. That's all I can think of right now.

2/21/2006 10:12:20 AM

In alpha order, never had a problem with rebates from these folks:

- Apple
- HP
- LG
- Maxtor
- Motorola
- Staples (Easy Rebates == teh wins)

2/21/2006 10:23:04 AM

never had a problem with anyone...when i send off a rebate, i send myself an email with scanned copies of the receipt, upc, etc...i've only had to use it once, but i've gotten every rebate i've ever sent in over the past six years or so

2/21/2006 10:24:08 AM

GOOD

Best Buy (6+)
Staples (6+)
Office Depot (3+)
Circuit City (2+)
Motorola (2+)
Xfx (1+)
Netgear (1+)
NewEgg (1+)
Hitachi (1+)
Seagate (1+)
Apple (1+)
HP (1+)
LG (1+)
Maxtor (1+)

QUESTIONABLE

Dell (4+/2-) - May have improved.
Linksys (1+/1-)
TigerDirect (1+/2-)

BAD

Soyo (1-)

Quote :

"never had a problem with anyone...when i send off a rebate, i send myself an email with scanned copies of the receipt, upc, etc...i've only had to use it once, but i've gotten every rebate i've ever sent in over the past six years or so"

You've been lucky. I have sent in a variety of rebates on time and with all proper materials but never saw a check from some companies. Luckily Best Buy has sent me checks for all of mine recently. I am still waiting on rebates from Western Digital (6 weeks and counting) and 1 from Netgear (only been 2 weeks so it will take a while longer).

2/21/2006 11:15:39 AM

I got a note from Linksys indicating that my rebate was denied because I didn't enclose the UPC.

There's a fucking linksys box sitting in my office with no fucking UPC because I cut it out and mailed it in with the rebates.

fuck that.

2/21/2006 11:47:46 AM

Not a rebate, but staples sent me a $10 gift card out of the blue.

I haven't even shopped there in probably 3 years.

2/21/2006 11:48:06 AM

had good experiences with:
Western Digital
Best Buy
Netgear

Waiting on:
OCZ
Sceptre

2/21/2006 12:17:08 PM

Updated list.

I got my Netgear rebate back yesterday.

Now if only Western Digital would send me my rebates from January. (Only company I still haven't heard from)

GOOD

Best Buy (7+)
Staples (6+)
Office Depot (3+)
Netgear (3+)
Circuit City (2+)
Motorola (2+)
Xfx (1+)
NewEgg (1+)
Hitachi (1+)
Seagate (1+)
Apple (1+)
HP (1+)
LG (1+)
Maxtor (1+)
Western Digital (1+)

QUESTIONABLE

Dell (4+/2-) - May have improved.
Linksys (1+/1-)
TigerDirect (1+/2-)

BAD

Soyo (1-)

3/14/2006 9:28:31 AM

I concur on soyo being bad, sent in a rebate a couple years ago, call them after like 14wks, email them, no response, no check

CompUSA, Hitachi, & Seagate, have been hit and miss depending on which rebate center handles it, still waiting on a couple rebates from them sent in after black friday.

Any of the tigerdirect rebates I've sent I've gotten back pretty fast, but they were all through onrebate.com, and I didn't spend anything extra to guarantee rebate delivery.

Staples is by far the best and easiest rebate system. Best Buy, Office Depot, Circuit City, and Western Digital have all been ok too.

3/14/2006 10:09:29 AM

I've sent in over 30 rebates through Dell, I've got every one back..even though I frequently use coupon codes etc when i make purchases.

Linksys has screwed me a few times

3/14/2006 10:18:15 AM

good - western digital, motorola, office max

[Edited on March 14, 2006 at 12:01 PM. Reason : .]

3/14/2006 12:01:20 PM

linksys just screwed me yesterday

"no receipt" - yeah, whatever

3/14/2006 12:08:29 PM

Quote :

"I sent in a $50 rebate for a table saw in mid november and I haven't seen it yet. I sent in a tiger direct one a month ago without the guarantee and they'll probably fuck me on that one. Then like a dumbass I missed the send in date on a second one (with a friends address AND the guarantee) by a day and I know that one will get denied."

Update:

Still no sign of the table saw one - ryobi bought at home depot, I'm gonna call today or tomorrow about this

And in a nice twist of fate, the second rebate I mailed a little late was acceptable and a check should have been mailed, and I also go updates about the first one and a check was supposedly cut for that too.

3/14/2006 12:55:15 PM

GOOD

Best Buy (8+)
Staples (6+)
Office Depot (4+)
Netgear (3+)
Circuit City (3+)
Motorola (3+)
Western Digital (2+)
Xfx (1+)
NewEgg (1+)
Hitachi (1+)
Seagate (1+)
Apple (1+)
HP (1+)
LG (1+)
Maxtor (1+)
Office Max (1+)


QUESTIONABLE

Dell (5+/2-) - May have improved.
Linksys (1+/2-)
TigerDirect (1+/2-)

BAD

Soyo (2-)

3/14/2006 3:24:28 PM

So I just called about my table saw rebate. Called and talked to Home Depot customer service, they gave a number to the mediator called FSI.

Called FSI, got an operator within 30 seconds, within another minute they had my rebate up and said a check was mailed on January 18th and could also see it hadn't been cashed. She offered to put a stop payment on that one, and issue another which she said could take 2-4 weeks, and I am of course fine with this.

That went better than expected.

3/15/2006 4:18:04 PM

I say bad to dell, ive sent in about 30 rebates, and ive had a problem with 10 of them
they always brought up some picky issue which had nothing to do with me and made me fix their mistakes,
although if you haggle with them long enough you'll probably get it in the end

oh yeah, ive only sent in one tigerdirect rebate and they denied it at first cause the store reciept says tigerdirect.com and they said they dont take rebates from websites, but i got it after some explaining

[Edited on March 15, 2006 at 5:10 PM. Reason : .]

3/15/2006 5:09:24 PM

check over at the hot deals forums on anandtech and fatwallet

rebate reliability is not always related to the company, but rather which processing facility it's being sent to.

a lot of office supply stores do manufacturer's rebates anyways so listing the entire store as good or bad doesn't mean anything.

stores and manufacturer's change their processing centers based on volume too sometimes - like black friday, christmas, etc. so it really really depends on location.

3/15/2006 6:04:06 PM

how is logitech?

3/15/2006 6:33:06 PM

^^ so when you get a rebate should you ask them which processing center it will be sent to and then research the processing center?

3/15/2006 7:17:55 PM

^^^ I see the point of that but a lot of times with companies like Best Buy and Staples and such they will have their own rebate and then there will be the manufacturer rebate.

I am (for example) waiting on TWO Western Digital rebates but Best Buy gave me rebates for the same products weeks ago.

For online orders it can be easy to just look at the form and see where it is headed but it is hard enough to keep track of the company, let alone how good particular processing centers are. Personally, if a company is even using an unreliable processing center then I would take that into account before I buy a rebated item. I started this thread so we could keep track. If I buy with a rebate I want my fucking money back.

3/15/2006 8:09:06 PM

I've gotten ALL (3) of my Hitachi Rebates back, my (1) Western Digital Rebate, and my (2) Logitech rebates, all of these three were VERY fast (6-8 weeks)... I've probably had 40+ MIR in the last couple years and only one that was bad was the soyo one. just do everything it asks for (cross every T, dot every i, and ALL CAPS for better clarity) and make copies and you'll get your rebates back.

currently waiting on
$50 via RadioShack (already received $45 via onrebate/paypl (<1 week))
$30/$30/$60 Seagate/CompUSA Rebates
$40 Corsair/Newegg Rebate

[Edited on March 29, 2006 at 2:55 PM. Reason : .]

3/29/2006 2:53:48 PM

Quote :

" Manufacturer Offer Description Offer Value Date Received View ATI Technologies, Inc. 11-FBGH-80 NATIONAL - Faster, Better Graphics Oct 15 - Jan 3/06 $20/$30 12/16/2005 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- View ATI Technologies, Inc. 33-TTWO-71 T2 Multimedia $20 MIR MPA21354 $20.00 12/09/2005 "

both from ATI and i've yet to receive either. tiger direct sucks too. i bought a router from them because it was only 9.99 after the OMFREBATES. 2 rebates for $20 each. only one of them ever came. never had any problems with office depot, staples, or circuit city though.

3/29/2006 6:29:12 PM

^^ Keep us posted. I am STILL waiting on my WD rebates from months ago.

The list so far. (1 vote per person, if there are more - than + I put the company on the "Bad" list)

GOOD

Best Buy (8+)
Staples (7+)
Office Depot (5+)
Circuit City (4+)
Netgear (3+)
Motorola (3+)
Western Digital (3+)
Xfx (1+)
NewEgg (1+)
Hitachi (1+)
Seagate (1+)
Apple (1+)
HP (1+)
LG (1+)
Maxtor (1+)
Office Max (1+)
Logitech (1+)


QUESTIONABLE

Dell (5+/2-) - May have improved.


BAD

Soyo (2-)
TigerDirect (1+/3-)
Linksys (1+/2-)
ATI (1-)

3/29/2006 6:41:33 PM

I got screwed on a Soyo rebate as well. No responses to voice messages or emails (besides auto responses). Sounds like a similar experience to EEStudent and there are thousands in the same boat with Soyo right now.

Recent rebate successes: LG, Netgear (kind of slow), and Staples.

Best Buy advertised a $20 rebate on Nero 7 underneath the display but nowhere did it mention that it was only good if you had a previous version of Roxio, Nero etc. You only found out that it was an upgrade-based rebate when you removed the sticker on the box. I have had other rebate successes with them in the past however.

3/29/2006 7:32:48 PM

VERY BAD:
OnRebate.com
TigerDirect

May not be news to some, but apparantly onrebate and tigerdirect are sister companies and will sell your information for $100, also many rebate issues with both, read more about it here:
http://jerryfeil.com/

I have had (1/1 successful rebate) with onrebate but it was with radioshack, not tigerdirect, so YMMV, but be sure to do everything according to your rebate's specific terms...

4/3/2006 3:58:19 PM

I have been 2/2 with onrebate, both with the speedy return (at a $5 hit) and with the slower return also.

4/3/2006 4:00:42 PM

Linksys seems to be screwing me too on a WRT54G rebate.

Bastards.

Add a -1 up there for them.

4/3/2006 8:02:57 PM

holy shit, linksys actually sent me $10. wtf

4/3/2006 8:24:07 PM

I sent my WD rebates back months ago and a month apart and got one yesterday and today.

It took long as hell but I am glad I finally got my money.

Quote :

"holy shit, linksys actually sent me $10. wtf"

should I remove the negative for LinkSys?

Updated list:

GOOD

Best Buy (8+)
Staples (8+)
Office Depot (5+)
Circuit City (4+)
Netgear (4+)
Western Digital (4+)
Motorola (3+)
LG (2+)
Xfx (1+)
NewEgg (1+)
Hitachi (1+)
Seagate (1+)
Apple (1+)
HP (1+)
Maxtor (1+)
Office Max (1+)
Logitech (1+)


QUESTIONABLE

Dell (5+/2-) - May have improved.
OnRebate (1+/1-) [S]

BAD

Soyo (3-)
TigerDirect (1+/4-) [S]
Linksys (1+/3-) - May adjust by 1
ATI (1-)

Adjustment: [S] Company sells info. (Need others, this is a good thing to add ... thanks!)

4/3/2006 8:36:44 PM

Quote :

"should I remove the negative for LinkSys? "

naw, they fucked me a few times, came thru only once, and only for $10.

4/3/2006 8:41:49 PM

TigerDirect and OnRebate Scam via digg

Quote :

""If you purchase something from TigerDirect and try to get the rebate from OnRebate.com, Good Luck!" It seems that many people are being denied rebates for items purchased at TigerDirect. TigerDirect points the fault at OnRebate.com and washes their hands of it. But guess what? THEY'RE SISTER COMPANIES!"

4/3/2006 8:51:08 PM

the company that processes pep boys rebates (web-rebates.com) is rather shady and terrible.

they denied a whole slew of rebates for a couple of invalid reasons.

aparrently the people who run shellrebatecenter.com are bad too, since they denied my rebate claiming that it was a year out of date, which is a lie.

rebate houses will tell you they don't have a fax number, don't believe them. you can fax them the copy of whatever you want and they/you have a record of the transaction. that way you don't have to go through the bullshit of sending it back in.

4/3/2006 11:01:51 PM

Has anyone dealt with rebates from InFocus?

5/29/2006 11:02:56 AM

If I don't have a reabate for my printer purchase from buy.com when I get home, I might shit kick someone

5/29/2006 11:07:30 AM