I myself and one of my friend bought merchandise from Fry's Electronics in the San Francisco Bay area. We both bought walkie-talkies based on an advertised rebate from Columbia Telecommunications Group and till date neither of us has received rebates for the same.
Once the 14 weeks for processing had passed, I called them regularly. For a while, they were answering their phones and I was told each time they were backlogged with rebates and that the rebate program had far exceeded their expectations. But that my rebate was in their database and scheduled to be sent "this week." They even went so far as to give me reference numbers on both my rebate and my friends. Now I got response from the rebate center. I get a message saying the voice mailbox is full. Today when I called their corporate headquarters and asked for the person at the company responsible for rebate programs and was told by them that the only responsible people are at the rebate fulfillment center to whom should I need to contact in order to get my rebate. When I pressed for a person within the company, I was promptly hung-up on and it wasn't an accidentally hang-up and I got a reply from them after sometime that "There is nobody here that can help you, good bye."
The very next day I have filed a Mail Fraud form with the United States Postal Service. They base investigations on the number of complaints. It might be too late for us, but if enough people fill out the form, maybe we can stop them from continuing to rip people off via the rebate scam.
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