ACE Hardware ripoff

[Bob]

Get this: the day after Thanksgiving, ACE Hardware had a big, advertised sale, and just about everything had mail-in rebates associated with it, making for lots of great deals (right). Thinking this would be similar to mail-in offers at other stores, I bought lots of the rebate goodies and carefully sent in my receipt and UPC symbols. Apparently I didn't read the tiny print, because ALL but ONE of my rebates was denied by ACE. I received an email saying "Household Limit Exceeded. Your rebate submission is invalid due to a limit of ONE rebate claim form per name, household, or address. We are sorry but only one submission will be allowed." If this info was anywhere in their advertisement, it was in VERY small print, AND the store clerks said nothing to the dozens of us who were obviously buying all of the rebated items. What crooks!! BOYCOTT ACE HARDWARE, they are deceivers extraordinaire!!!!!

[CharlieB]

There's a lesson in there. The big print give sit to you, and the fine print takes it away.

Charlie

[someone]

Never submitted an ACE rebate. But when I submitted a SAM's club rebate, I was asked to checked all the items on the rebate form with the receipt, and not submit each item seperately.

Bob wrote:

[Bob]

Very true! I just didn't expect ACE Hardware to try to slip something past everyone.

"CharlieB" wrote > There's a lesson in there.

[Richard J Kinch]

Better yet, boycott rebate sellers. Stupid sales gimmick.

[Colbyt]

Sam's Club and OfficeMax are the only two that I know of that do it this way. They are also the only two that you can count on to pay the rebate with no hassles as long as you submit as required.

[xrongor]

the really sad part, ace has a hardware club card. if you bring something back there without a receipt, they can look it up on the computer. they already have all the information on what you bought. they have decided to make a 'rebate center' which im sure costs a pretty penny to operate. its stupid to have it all in a computer somewhere, then require you to go through a maze of bs to MAYBE get a rebate, even when you've done everything correctly. to make it worse, if you have done something wrong on the form, or forgot one receipt, or basically if they're just feeling cranky that day, they just toss it in the garbage. i was told this by an ace manager.

between you and me, after having more than a few problems with the ace rebate system, costing me at least 100 bucks, i took it upon myself to give myself a rebate one day

i like my local ace, i like the people, and they have decent sales. but the rebate system is a scam.

randy

[Jeff Wisnia]

The sales gimmick I HATE the most are those damned checks I receive every week or so with contracts to sign up for some service or another on the back. I wonder how many people are dumb enough to cash them without bothering to read what's written above their endorsements?

I'm also not pleased with charities which send me checks for $2.50 or so with their appeals. It just seems tacky to me, particularly since I'm noticing that if I contribute to one, I'm quickly solicited by several other charities which the one I responded to sold my name to. It's enough to turn me Scroogeward.

Jeff

[Greg]

I agree, just give me the "rebate" at the cash register. They are counting on people screwing up the application, not cashing the check on time (some have real short expiration dates) or just throwing the rebate away, not wanting to screw with it.

[Julie]

"Jeff Wisnia" wrote

Or (having just bought a place) the "offers" from HELOC (or whatever) places:

Pay to the order of JSH : Fifty Thousand Dollars.

Now there's a (huge) accident waiting to happen!

JSH

[Walter R.]

All rebates are nothing but rip-offs. They make you jump through hoops and then still deny your claim, no matter how careful you are.

I have hated rebates for years. After Lowes denied my last one for 40 bucks on spurious grounds, I have sworn off ALL rebates, forever.

Walter The Happy Iconoclast

-

[someone]

I guess I am one of those stupid consumers: I do fill the rebates from time to time, and never keep track of which one I received check on. I believe I received most of those $10 or less rebates. But I did not receive those bigger rebates completely (wireless routers, adapters, etc. which requires mutiple rebate forms to fill on each product).

But in most cases I ask my daughter to fill the forms and cut the UPC, so I am not sure if she did those correctly.

Last time I bought some wireless router/adapter (Office Depot), they asked to send the forms to 3 different places for each item - so a total of 6 forms/envel> All rebates are nothing but rip-offs. They make you jump through hoops and

[Stormin Mormon]

Sounds almost as bad as the IRS.

[rck]

One of the computer magazines had an editorial on the rebate rip-off and commented that it was just plain stupid to cheat customers on a sales promotion meant to foster goodwill.

Bob

[Greg]

Computer rebates seem to be getting better and folks like Office Depot are using "cash register" rebates more often. The last one I got from Western Digital was fast and all done online.

[xrongor]

see thats the thing. other than the cost of a day or two (say a month even, they hired an idiot) of some computer programmers time, it eliminates the 'rebate center', which saves money for the company, and it insures the customer gets their rebate which makes them happy. since all qualifying products are now automatically rebated its a simple matter for a company to get the info to the manufacturer of each item for reimbursement. its a win win situation. they save money, the customer comes back.

but noooooo...

randy

[James Nipper]

Bascially (there are some exceptions, so don't flame me please) rebate schemes are a scam. Any vendor who truly wants (and intends) to give you a rebate will do it at the check out counter. Any other scheme is, by nature, a scam.

--James--

[ega]

Sometime mail in rebate is the only way a manufacturer can give a rebate directly to the customer. Otherwise vendors are often taking the manufacturer rebate for profit.

[avoidspam]

They do not usually own or operate the rebate centers - they are the fulfillment houses that pay most of the rebate offers you find in the stores. The cost of the service is derived from the number of rebates the fulfillment center assures the vendor they will reject!

[William W. Plummer]

No, it's not a scam. A rebate is an interest-free loan to the company. The actual value of the product is probably a few cents, but they have your money for a few months.