In February we decided to participate in a rebate program for a security system in our home. It was fairly simple - if we spent $100 a month at Albertsons, we would get a $20 rebate from Star Rebates and if we spent $100 a month at Chevron for gasoline, we would get another $20 rebate. The first red flag should have been when we were asked to pay $12.95 to participate per program, and then be required to spend additional funds to mail the registration in via certified mail. After investing more than $30 just to participate in the program, we then began to spend $100 each month at both Albertsons and Chevron, and sending the receipts in each month. After three months of not receiving a single rebate in the mail, we began questioning the program and I began to send them emails. Here we sit, March - more than a year later and $3,000 worth of money into a program and have not received the promised rebates. I have, however, gotten an email from them (finally) explaining the program was bigger than they ever intended it to be and they were not able to accommodate all the rebates and were basically not going to be sending them out ever. Meanwhile we have spent thousands of dollars at two specific vendors simply to meet the required amount to get a rebate that was never received. We could have shopped at Costco or Vons or gotten gas at Shell or Mobil. I did contact both Chevron and Albertsons and neither were aware of Star Rebates. No surprise there. My question is whether or not any legal action can be taken?
Here is part of an email I received:
"Star Rebates began in 2009 to provide rebate programs as consumer incentives. With the payment of a small registration fee consumers would be able to participate in this program based on purchasing normal products that they would already be buying for their normal day to day lives. Like all new businesses you use the information available to make projections and create a business plan. The usage of the program has far exceeded expectation. We did not anticipate the deep recession and the continued elevated prices of fuel. At this point Star Rebates has exhausted its available resources. Our goal now is to ensure that those people that registered and participated in the program have been able to redeem to recover the original registration funds they submitted to Star Rebates.
We sincerely apologize if this program has not met your expectations and hope that you understand that like many organizations, Star Rebates has been impacted by the dramatic and unprecedented events of this global economic downturn. We thank you for your understanding. The Star Rebates Team"
Really??
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