I bought a Samsung Syncmaster 17 inch LCD monitor for about $450.00 before the advertised $110.00 mail-in rebate. The rebate was divided into two: one for $50.00 to be obtained from Samsung and one for $60.00 to be obtained from BestBuy. For both the wait time listed to receive the rebate was about two to six weeks. This was December.
Upon finally receiving a check for $50.00 from Samsung in March, after a prolonged struggle I may add, I attempted to contant BestBuy as to the status of their promised rebate.
Time doesn't permit me to relate the entire experience here, but to put it quite briefly, it took BestBuy until September of this year to resolve the matter. Throughout this ordeal, I sent three letters via regular mail to their corporate office, countless emails to the same, called at least fifteen times, and spoke to an innumerable army of customer service representatives.
Each time I contacted BestBuy's offices, I was directed from department to department, from rep. To rep., occasionally being hung up on. The typical phone conversation lasted about twenty minutes, although it often exceeded this if I requested to speak to a manager, the latter which often led to being told that he or she had "just gone stepped out."
On the rare occasions that I actually did get a rep. Or manager willing to help, I was usually told that the error was MY fault. Either I didn't write my own address down correctly, or I wrote the wrong rebate number on the form, both of which are obviously untrue, especially considering this continued even after I sent again the needed information numerous times in both written and oral form. I even had a copy of the original form, correct info and all! Essentially they were claiming they had been trying to send the rebate but that it was repeadedly returned "undeliverable." I found their insinuation that I cannot write my own address highly insulting. This haoppened three times. I should add that there was never a question of whether the rebate form had been received on time.
Over the course of nearly ten months, my complaint was filed, lost, refiled, lost again, and so on, too many times to count.in fact, then the issue was finally resolved (which, of course, never resulted in them sending me the rebate) the manager who I spoke to knew absolutely nothing of the history of my complaint.
This past September I spoke with yet another manager who very reluctanly decided to send me a $60 gift card, although she said it was a "courtesy" and BestBuy was not obligated to do so.
Overall, BestBuy clearly did not wish to send me the rebate promised. Their customer service departement offered deception after deception in an attempt to have me give up. They were rude, largely unresponsive, arrogant, and outright liars when dealing with me, and they acted as if I was somehow attempting to extort money from them.
They never did send me the rebate and I feel as though I was robbed by their corporation.
0 comments