Rebate Ripoff and Fraud from Fry's Electronics

Another Rebate Ripoff Story from Fry’s Electronics

This is just another boring rebate fraud story. I’ll tell you now so you don’t have to read to the end. Still no rebate.

What’s your rate of success getting rebates in the mail? Mine is pretty good, especially from Costco. From Fry’s Electronics I’m only successful about half the time.

The latest fiasco was a $50 rebate on a Compaq computer I bought back in November 2006. I dutifully filled out all the tiny blocks and lines on the rebate forms, snipped the bar codes from the boxes and even made copies of all the forms before sending them to some mysterious post office box in ‘Little America’, Minnesota. I’m thinking now that ‘Little America’ is code for ‘let’s screw people out of their rebates’.

Got a letter from them saying my rebate was refused, that bar codes didn’t match, that they needed more information, that they needed serial numbers and bar codes. Crap! I included all that stuff in the envelope when I sent in the rebate. Gave them everything they asked for!

So I wrote a letter demanding the rebate. And I filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau against Compaq and Fry’s Electronics. And I filed complaints online with the state attorney generals of Minnesota and Arizona. And I filed more complaints online with Ripoffreport.com, Planetfeedback.com and Consumeraffairs.com.

Fry’s Electronics actually answered me with a couple of emails which didn’t help a bit. First they didn’t know who I was, even though whenever I buy stuff in their store I simply give them my phone number and up pops my name, address and probably shoe size and morning breakfast cereal preference in their database. Once I identified myself, and the exact invoice number, they said they still couldn’t help me. Useless, but then Fry’s is known for low prices, not good service. I love the place for their discounts, but reserve high levels of hatred for any interaction with the employees, up to and including the checkout clerks after an incident when an item rang up for $2 more than it was marked, and it took 2 hours at the register and 6 people to fix it.

My next step will be to contact my credit card company to file a charge back complaint. Then it’s off to small claims court. Wish me luck.

Cmahar