Big BIG Problem with TDK Hot Deal

[smensch]

This makes me mad. I've already sent my rebate form in, and I bought the drive from NECX (no turning back, now). Maybe my form will "slip" by the rebate people...

 

[divinemartyr]

smensch

It might slip by the rebate people but I guarantee those are CSR's. When a company issues checks, ultimately it has to go to a higher authority. So if the CSR misses it, I guarantee the person cutting the checks won't... Sorry to hear about your unfortunate incident.

dm

 

[Plucky]

Gateway's Accessory store has a list of rebates that they currently have for the products they sell. T doesn't have anything listed under it, but all the other products they sell seem to have lots of manufacturer rebates, so I dunno if TDK will honor products purchased from them. I sure hope so. It'll be a pain to return the drive, especially now that it's in my system and running perfectly.

Gateway Store Rebates

 

[Kingofcomputer]

For sure, you should buy something from a retailer that states that item with rebate.

 

[madmax111]

You could buy online from buy.com or other rebate participating retailer, print the receipt, and return the drive to buy.com when you get it.

Same thing with any other rebate. It's easy enough to come up with a receipt from a place participating in rebates and a UPC from whereever you want to buy from.

 

[VenGog]

There is a sneaky way of doing it too©
Some Web sites let you order it and gives you an hour before processing© you can cancel with out even getting the product© Print the receipt and cancel the order© No-body knows how you got the product?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Take my name of this reply©©©©©BAD!©©BAD!!©©BAD!!! VG

 

[Arschloch]

Good ideas all, for how to cheat the rebate system.

However, for those of us who have already sent in the rebate (such as myself), it's impossible, because we already sent in the UPC/bar code with the rebate! Any other ideas?

--Arschloch

 

[mikebill]

Buy.com still has this TDK velocity in stock.sku 10255780

 

[Plucky]

It was mentioned that the company you've purchased the item from would have to pay part of the rebate. If that is true, then "cheating" to get a invoice for an item you never intend to receive wouldn't work because wouldn't they check in their records whether or not you've actually made a purchase from them? Sure, I can get a buy.com invoice, but when they process the rebate, they can probably tell that I never ordered this product from them.

I don't think this "cheating" will work. Unless they never check with the company you bought it from, then I guess it'll work.

 

[uhNickname]

I can't believe this is the first deal on AnandTech that I went for after lurking for weeks, and it might be a bad one. I just got my burner, and was going to install it tonight or tomorrow. I'm still excited about the drive, it is to replace a 4x Memorex that is approaching 100% coasters.

Question, do we know for sure that Buy is a participating dealer? When I cycle thru Buy's 6 pages of rebates, I don't see the TDK burner.

 

[Plucky]

I don't think they are going to be that anal about it. As long as I have some sort of receipt, the UPC from the box, and the rebate, I should be good. But I guess we'll wait till someone verifies from TDK again.

 

[Basilisk]

As posted before:
buy.com -- "participating"
necx aka gateway-accessories -- "NOT participating"
Also sprach TDK... a reasonably reliable reference.

My NECX unit goes back tomorrow, unopened. (Get your RMA first.)
My buy.com order goes in now.

Jeez... we all were lax. Let's pull out a mirror and blame the responsible party: No fault in NECX, or in TDK. Just those lazy buggerers who expect others to think for them. Uh... yeah, mine's going back... guess that means me!

 

[extro]

Sending the drive back to NECX isn't such a great deal.

Shipping back to NECX = $8-10 Ground
Shipping from Buy.com = $8-10 Ground

Time waiting for backorder = ???

It costs at least $20 off the TDK rebate.

 

[TheLizardMan]

Hey VenGog if you get a print out of a fake receipt then PLEASE let me know so that I can make a print out of it, yet change the order number.

Tnx
E-mail me here

 

[GoldenTiger]

TDK drive took about 1.5 weeks last time to get back in after backorder... so yeah there will be a bit of a wait if you're ordering from them now probably. Thank god I went with the buy.com name instead of NECX (I've never done NECX ordering before) figuring I already knew they came in reliably and quickly... I'd be dead otherwise lol losing $50 if I kept the drive + cdr bundle or $10-15 shipping them back otherwise .

 

[DefRef]

Hate to say this, but when this post listed participating stores back on Dec. 9th, some people took notice.

Too bad people are now plotting to gank Buy.com to make up for the oversight. Hope they aren't planning on complaining when/if Buy goes under.

 

[mHubs]

NO!!
I didnt know about that post.. I just saw the deal @ NecX for it and... dammit!

Hmm, order from buy.com, return un-opened buy.com burner to NecX, send in rebate,
That should work right?

 

[DefRef]

Hmmm...that might work. I once bought an Annihilator Pro for $300 at CompUSA on a Monday, then discovered it online for $250 the following Thursday! D'oh!!! I ordered the 2nd card and when it came in, I took the unopened box to CompUSA and returned it without hassle. In fact, they were glad to see it cuz they had advertised it and had no stock! This is back when AniPros were new and SCARCE! The $250 deal wasn't matched for months!

 

[AndrewR]

Speaking of CompUSA, if you are stuck with a drive ordered from NECX, there is a way to get a receipt for a couple days without costing anyone any money...

I won't elaborate but think about it. Seems somewhat crappy to me to have a rebate without specifically identifying the retailers on the form itself.

 

[Freestyler]

"Seems somewhat crappy to me to have a rebate without specifically identifying the retailers on the form itself. "


Give me a break. If the rebate is not on the website where you bought the drive from consider it not having the rebate. There is such a thing as calling and confirming like others did.

The only thing crappy about it is your pointing fingers at the wrong people.

 

[thegreatjeff]

It specifically says on the rebate form you need a UPC, how can you just print off the receipt?

 

[AndrewR]

Freestyler: You're new at this, aren't you? I've ordered literally DOZENS of rebates from sites that didn't specify there was a rebate for a product because I knew there was a rebate from the manufacturer which wasn't advertised extensively. ALL OF THEM went through. The amount of rebates that are limited to particular retailers, as opposed to being tied to any sale of the product, is quite limited actually and usually confined to the weekly ads of CompUSA and BestBuy and such. When they are so limited, the limitations are CLEARLY defined on the rebate form itself -- "Only valid for purchases made at CompUSA, etc." If they cannot straighten out the retailers before they publish the rebate, then it's their own sloppy fault for not taking the care to do so, and they should bear the responsibility for sucking up the cost, not the purchaser who has to ship the product back to the retailer to buy from a "participating retailer". That's crap.

I didn't even buy this product anyway.

 

[stellar678]

I checked my saved version of the rebate FROM TDK's website.

It says nothing of "participating retailers".

I downloaded this copy on Jan. 09, 2001. I've put up a copy at my website if anyone is interested in looking.

This is the UNMODIFIED (except for the save-tag that MSIE adds) original version. I simply re-uploaded it.

http://www.epochmedia.net/velocdrebate/velocdrebate.html

Let's hope that this works for us all who bought from Gateway/Necx.

Steven Lybeck
Epoch Media
http://www.epochmedia.net/


*** EDIT: (Any interest in a forum on my site for this "problem" specifically, seeing how AnandTech seems to want to lock it up? ***

 

[XL]

stellar678 Way to hustle man. You came through in a pinch. Thanks!!!!!!!

 

[smensch]

The version of the rebate I sent in is exactly like Stellar678's rebate form. It doesn't say anything about participating retailers. That may be a loophole worth exploiting. I guess I'll know one way or the other if my check arrives... Thanks for giving me hope, Stellar678...