I purchased a cellular phone in July which offered a $125 Customer Loyalty rebate and a $125 Customer Appreciation Rebate. I completed the appropriate forms and enclosed the appropriate documents to obtain my rebate not realizing that you could not request the rebate for 6 months (if I had known this I would have not made the purchase) They sent me 2 post cards in the mail stating that the rebate submission was too early, therefore, it was being denied. That was fine.
The problem occurred when I resubmit the two rebates in January 18. They were mailed to their separate addresses at the exact same moment. I dropped them in the mailbox together. I never heard anything else, but knowing that it takes several weeks to process I thought nothing of it. Every now and then I would check the website on the rebate form (where it says to check the status-www.rebate-zone.com/wireless) to verify my status, however, nothing ever came up.
Eventually, after several times of not seeing a status I pulled out my original sign up paperwork and went to the website listed on there. The information listed at this website that also included my order information took you to a different website (www.cellphonerebates.com) to check the status of your rebate. I went there just to see if it may work and low and behold there was my status. The web address on the rebate form was not even the appropriate web address. This is when I noticed that the Customer Appreciation Rebate appeared to have been declined because it was received to soon.
Initially, I was under the impression the status had not changed from when I had sent them in to early the first time so I sent an email. The representative that responded assured me everything was fine and my rebate was in process so I accepted that.
When the status still never changed for the Customer Appreciation Rebate I contacted their office again. I was advised that the rebate was denied because it was received to soon and that it is too late now to remedy the situation.
My first response was this is impossible the Customer Loyalty rebate was approved and they were dropped in the mailbox at the same exact moment so they should have had the same postmark and that one was not declined and second I never received a postcard, email or any communication/notification that would allow me to remedy any errors that were allegedly present. From that point on I have been communicating with them back and forth by email and fax with to avail.
The first problem is the fact that the website listed on the rebate form to check the status of your rebate is inaccurate so how is a customer expected to even keep up with what is going on or meet any requirements by a deadline. The second problem is the fact that I never received a post card, email or any communication allowing me to remedy the situation and the fact that I could not check the status because the wrong rebate status website was provided does not help any. And lastly, it is impossible for them to state that the postmark date was too early because the Customer Loyalty Rebate was approved and they were dropped in the mailbox at the exact same moment.
I feel that I was purposely misdirected and not informed of the status of my Customer Appreciation Rebate in order to eliminate having to send me the rebate. Once I finally located an accurate website to check the status it even states that a postcard would be sent telling you what is required to remedy the situation, however, that was never done this time around when the rebates were requested within the appropriate timeframe.
I was also mislead by several representatives that my rebate was okay not knowing that they were not even addressing my Customer Appreciation Rebate they were only speaking of the Customer Loyalty Rebate, which was not the one I was asking about. I feel it is of utmost importance to reiterate that I was not given the opportunity to remedy the situation because I never received any form of notification that there was one as promised by InPhonic, nor was I given a valid method to verify the status on my own (as mentioned before the incorrect web address was given on the rebate status form).
I feel I was totally mislead and scammed by this company. They are not customer friendly and are not exhibiting very good business practices in my opinion. They obviously did not put it in plain sight that the rebate could not be requested for 6 months and then when I did send it in the appropriate time frame they did everything they could to ensure I did not receive the full $250 (two rebates for $125).
Tee
fredericksburg, Texas
U.S.A.
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