I purchased a Blue Tooth adapter as an impulsive buy because it had a great rebate. The rebate is $21. I went to the onrebate.com web site to submit my rebate soon after I got it. The web site said I will may not make the mistake of submitting it twice. Note that this does not mean anyone can try to cheat them this way, after all the report contains a unique order number.
First the web site had an annoying problem. The default date that I was supposed to select for purchase was set about 1000 years in the future with no way of just typing it in. The customer is expected to click through all these numbers till he arrives at the present. It could just be an innocent mistake because they were too cheap to properly develop or test the web site. Or it could be seen as placing one more hurdle to discourage the customers. I took a screenshot to help them fix the problem if that was the case.
I selected the PayPal option since I thought that would save me the hassle of cashing the check and arguably cheaper and easier for them to process. Soon as I clicked the PayPal option, it returned me to the home page. Now I was confused. Where is the confirmation? I was warned not to try the second time. I looked for the phone number on the web site. None. I emailed them explaining them the problem and attached the screenshot. I got an automated response stating that they recieved the email.
I waited and waited for them to respond. I checked a couple of times in between to see if thing have changed on the web site. The date problem persisted.
Finally the rebate submission date was close. I still have not heard from them. I checked the web site again and the date was working fine. This time I was able to submit the rebate information, only to find that it did not really submit it to them but only printed a page for me mail them the standard way. All the electronic and easy promise of TigerRebate for printing a rebate form? Now I was stuck. The next couple of days were holidays and there was no way for me to get the postmark by then.
(They do now have an FAQ that indicates that regular mailing needs to be done. I do not know if it was there earlier.)
I hoped they would be understanding. I mailed them all the correspondence including the screenshot to them. My mail would be postmarked one business day late. I just got an email from them that they rejected my rebate.
I know people would point to me that it was my responsibility to get them the form by the date. Online rebate submission is fairly new and this is the first one I am doing (I am by no means new to technology. Among other things I have developed web sites). It led me to believe that the online part was all that there was to it.in the end it looks as if it is made harder than the old rebate process. Further the site has problems and with no way to contact them.
I would not call this a deliberate ripoff yet. It could just be that they have bad customer service (no responses to queries). I had since ordered 2 more rebate products from TigerDirect. I already sent the rebate for one and am waiting for the delivery of another. If OnRebate trips these one way or other, this will be my last purchase from TigerDirect or anyone else associated with them. And I will post a followup in that case.
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