Complaint / Review
Best Buy
Online receipt deemed invalid for flash drive rebate

This is regarding a $30 mail-in rebate for purchase of a SanDisk 512 MB USB 2.0 Flash Drive between 3/27/05 and 4/2/05. There were 2 mail in rebates, one for $10 and the second for $30. The $10 rebate was from SanDisk and I received it within 4 weeks of mailing the paperwork. The second rebate was offered from Best Buy directly.

I purchased the product online and at the time of purchase I printed out all the necessary papers as the website directed. I received a letter 3 weeks after I submitted the rebate forms stating that my receipt was missing. I had scanned in a copy of my online receipt before I submitted the paperwork, so I printed out an additional copy and resubmitted the rebate forms.

About 3 weeks after the second submission I received a letter stating that they were not going to honor my rebate request because my online receipt was "invalid." They did not detail how it was deemed invalid. They did direct me to access my purchase information online to obtain a "correct" receipt, however you can only access this information if you opted to create an online account with Best Buy at the time of purchase, which I did not.

It isn't a large amount of money, however, their requirements for honoring my online purchase seem very subjective and fishy. I will no longer consider shopping at Best Buy.com when a rebate is concerned.