Yeah, I've had this happen before. It was for $150 when XP came out, and I was like a month late. I still sent it in anyway, without covering anything up, and it actually came. I probably would not do this again though, after hearing all the other ideas out there. I didn't think of any of those. So I wouldn't recommend this method, but maybe it does actually work...maybe they don't look at the date actually. I'm not sure.
Also, you guys are complaining about how he is "cheating" this company. Well, I'm sure they have cheated people enough that it at least evens out. I've lost about $100 in rebates so far(don't buy too much stuff), including one from July that I sent in my info 3 times, but they said that it was purchased in the wrong time period, even though it was in the right time period. I circled the date each time I resubmitted, and still nothing.Then, when i resubmitted the last time(in March), they said they couldn't fill it cause they have stopped the promotion or whatever. I emailed them back, kinda just going off on how unfair it was, and they didn't write anything back.
So I think, if they can screw you over, then you should be able to do it right back to them.
Kruseman