I have became yet another victim of OnRebate.com
Despite the fact that I went to great lengths to go through their process of accepting a rebate my rebate was declined on a ridiculous technicality.
I lost only 10 dollars but the emotional trauma of realizing how the scam was setup made me write this report.
Here is how the scam is setup in 10 easy steps:
1. A rebate is offered by Tiger Direct
2. You pay full price and fill out numerous forms related to the rebate.
3. At this point OnRebate.com already has indeed all proof reasonably expected that your rebate is legitimate.
4. You must wait till the shipment comes from Tiger Direct
5. Here is where the scam begins:
6. You MUST include in an envelope the Tiger Direct Invoice (thus parting with your original invoice) AND the UPC label with the barcode.
7. You look at the packaging and see two UPC labels One on the box and one on the invoice. The one on the box (if not destroyed by the opening of the box) is taped over with clear tape so well that it is impossible to detach. The one on the invoice looks exactly the same (your name is in the TO-box) and can be peeled off. This second one has also bar-code on it.
8. You peel off the easy one, attach it to the OnRebate claim form and send the envelope.
9. NO sane person in the world will choose under these circumstances to ship for over a dollar the entire front of a box if the rebate is 10 bucks.
10. Step #10 You just lost your rebate.
OnRebate apparently does NOT recognize the barcode on the peeled label this despite the fact that Tiger Direct is one of their significant accounts. Therefore your rebate is denied on the ground of missing UPC label.
You call and if you are lucky and persistent you finally get to talk to a person then you are told that Unfortunately our system cannot reverse the process once the rebate was denied
The beauty of the system is that every victim parts with amount of money which is not significant enough to open a fight. This on the end of Tiger Direct and OnRebate is measured by a multiplier representative for such situations your guess what is the multiplier for a nation-wide Internet distributor.
It hurts my heart to see shameless exploitation of basic human nature namely to just shrug away an insignificant amount of money if there is too much trouble.
I hope somebody sues them and puts them out of business and if money is returned to victims like me I would gladly donate my small portion to whatever good cause is chosen
One thing is
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