Man, Rebates are a SCAM.
ON Thanksgiving, I purchased $350 worth of stuff with an $80 investment after rebates. All from Staples. To Date, I've recieved 3 of 6 rebates back that I sent in the following monday after "Black Friday" (And no, former retail workers call it Black Friday because it SUX to work during it.)
ON top of that, I've got a couple of rebates that never came. Namely from IOMagic thru Comp-USA (Floppy Disk, and CD-ROM). From now on, I scan my rebate, and receipt, and call the company if after 30 days I haven't recieved it.
The one place where rebates are not a scam, is SAMS Club. NEver had a problem with them.
My uncle believes that some companies purposefully stall their rebates to see if people will call. He's had that happen to him a bunch of times since he bought ass-loads of computer equipment for his church's School (35 computers all built from scratch). He's still waiting on over $1000 of rebates at last check. (And yes, he had church volunteers buy the equipment and fill out the rebates so there was 35 differenet addresses). Two Companies he's called have said "We're sorry sir, your rebate return was misplaced." and then a week later, his check arrives.
