Last week I bought a Hewlett-Packard Pavilion desktop, two monitors, a printer and two years extra insurance against glitches… and I was told at Circuit City that two grand could be reduced by $300 smacks with HP rebates and promotions. So I should be happy… right? Wrong…. My nightmare made me look at who is getting the real deal here… and you guessed it… Hewlett Packard wins at the expense of its customers … a fat 2/3 of the time.
It turns out that rebates are only successfully collected 22% of the time I am told by Circuit City managers … And further research shows that companies who give rebates… do so in hopes that buyers don’t get them…. What kind of customer service is this folks?
After hours of reading Hewlett Packer demands for the 6 different required sets of papers to be filled out and mailed at my expense to 6 separate mailing addresses… I felt furious for their assumption that I would be thrilled.
Now… I can see why good customers let their refunds go. It took hours from my small business and I doubt that I got all their tiniest detailed demands for serial numbers here – extra sales records there and bar codes in other places. Oh… there were other requirements to give them emails and so on … all copied and filed according to their fuzzy directions… before they would send any refunds my way.
Have you noticed the growing trend to overcharge clients at t counters and wait for them to work their way back through mazes-made-for-big-business-profits with increasingly complex rebate spins… made to look like a deal from their desks? Have you claimed your refunds lately or are you part of the 78% of customers who are paying top CEO salaries… through your unclaimed rebates? What can be done…?
I've wondered why I have to send a UPC code and sales slip to get a rebate when I make a purchase. Obviously I bought the item. Seems more reasonable to have the rebate come right at the counter. Maybe it's the 30 day return period that influences this process. At any rate, I was glad to hear through a DIGG comment that Best Buy is trying a new approach to help customers avoid this process.
Posted by: Robyn McMaster | July 9, 2006 3:32 PM | Permalink to Comment