How do you know a lot of people are having issues? Conclusions cannot be drawn based on a couple dozen anecdotal reports here. People are unlikely to start a thread about how they got their rebate without problems. However people who do have a problem with the rebate are much more likely to start a thread or complain on an existing thread about it.
Ahhh, I've been on this board for a while, and there's ALWAYS threads about canon rebates having problems. This isn't ONE incident. I see more issues with the rebates than with people complaining about "soft copy" lenses. MANY people have problems with canon's rebates.
Why don't you do a poll inquiring if people have had or have not had any problems with canon rebates? I'd bet you get an astounding # of people who had problems with the rebates.
Check the archives. This isn't a few people's complaints. It's been going on for a while among MANY people.
If I recall someone talked to a canon rep and even the rep told them they were having problems with the 3rd party company taking care of the rebates. The 3rd party company hired by Canon to take care of the rebates is screwing up, so it should be Canon's responsibility to fix the problem.
moondigger wrote:
How do you know a lot of people are having issues? Conclusions cannot be drawn based on a couple dozen anecdotal reports here. People are unlikely to start a thread about how they got their rebate without problems. However people who do have a problem with the rebate are much more likely to start a thread or complain on an existing thread about it.
so, a couple dozen is nothing?
a couple dozen is still anecdotal?
when does it stop becoming anecdotal? a hundred? a couple hundred? a thousand?
or when you get an issue with your rebate. then, all of a sudden, it is a "real" issue.
i don't see how you can draw your conclusion so fast. what evidence do you have? how many pieces of evidence do you have?
or are you just drawing them from a couple dozen anecdotal stories?
and in the last part, you say people with problems are much more likely to start a thread. yes, that's true. but what about the other part? that people like yourself without problems are much more likely to butt in?
you may not believe it, but rebates can be an issue. how many people here have said they did everything perfectly, and yet had an issue?
and you choose to think they made everything up, just sent in their rebate without reading the proper procedure? in fact, they're probably illiterate. i have no idea how they managed to type their response in this thread. probably a random accident, just a bunch of random buttons hit on a keyboard
I mailed my double rebates for a 17-40L and 24-105L lens on Oct. 21. Canon received them on Nov.1. There was no status change in the website from Nov.1 till yesterday...On the 21 of December, I finally got an email that said my request was processed and look for the paymrnt to be issued in 2 more weeks. It has already been 2 months, yes they are slow, but no problems.
I prequalified mine online. I have not followed up.
This is my 6th rebate campaign in 4 years to participate in from Canon, no issues yet.
"Honestly, I was surprised that they didn't want me to fax the copy of the UPC code, though."
Pretty much exactly the point(s).
The rebate processing companies (and the companies who contract with them?) know that a significant percentage of those getting the "invalid UPC" or related notice will just give up. It is just part of the game.
Which leads back to the idea that if you do decide to go for a rebate, do not give up on getting it if you really did fill out and send in all the right forms on time. (But do keep copies, too!)
The point is they did not want you to send the copy of the upc in because they already had it from two months prior. They are just playing the odds...
Odds that someone is going to forget to send the rebate in, they will send it in wrong, they will not keep copies, they will not have the time to call them 2-3 times to fix the problem, etc, etc.
Not everyone who has a problem complains online. Think of the millions of consumers who just buy a flash or lens and if the $45 does not come through no big deal.
These companies are stealing from people plain and simple. Every other rebate should not turn up lost. Everything is sent together but somehow one UPC is lost? Many people complain about the mail system but they pick up mail at millions of different locations and deliver them to millions of other locations. Not many problems. However, take a business that has everything delivered to its door and to mess up on a very high percentage of the claims is crazy. No problems getting your money means not having to make phone calls, talk to a supervisor, keep checking up on them etc.
Richie S wrote:
Seems to me like these third-party companies Canon use are stealing from people. Canon should at least be partially responsible for this.
Canon need to be brought to book, as do the third party companies that handle the rebates.
Please read back your own post. The third-party companies are stealing from people. Now, sit back, take a deep breath, and relax... That's right, in through the nose, out through the mouth. There you go.
Do you think, for just one second, that Canon will be happy about this situation? Do you think they endorse this? They pay for something the end-user only partially gets, oh, and by the way, it creates an incredibly negative image of Canon to those who have been burned.
And you want to hold Canon partially responsible? Whoahhh Nelly! I can understand you're pissed off, but this is pushing it too much. Get your priorities straight please.
This is a third party that's withholding legitimate claims. Canon sees what is being send in, it's some of the customers who do not get what they are entitled to. The rebate company is acting fraudulently, not Canon. Do you think the willfully scamming rebate company is actually telling Canon that a really high percentage of rebates is flawed? That would defeat the whole purpose of the scam! To Canon they will present a situation where almost no rebate application is flawed.
If there is any lawsuit being fired, then it ought to be Canon suing the rebate company for causing damage to the reputation of Canon.
I'll add to the rant with a non-anecdotal account.
I bought a 100mm 2.8 macro back in May or June. I sat on the paperwork for maybe 2 or 3 weeks, then sent it in using SERIOUS anal-retentiveness. I triple checked the contents of the envelope and am 100% sure that all materials were enclosed.
About 2 months later, I recieved a postcard indicating I was not eligible for my rebate (only $40) due to not including all of the required materials. I called the 800 number and was told that I hadn't included the original UPC. The woman I spoke with was really nice and sort of helpful and suggested that she put a request in to re-examine the contents of the submission to see if maybe it'd been missed. Apparently, that would take about 1 week to check. Okay.
So a week passes or so and I get an email indicating that the UPC hadn't been found. At this point I called up and voiced that I thought this was a scam and that it came down to my word against someone elses; someone who'd maybe just dropped the UPC and didn't know which envelope it went in so they tossed it...a UPC that wasn't worth a cent to them anyways. I'd also enclosed a reciept from B&H so they knew that I'd purchased the lens at the very least. She said she was sorry but that there was nothing she could do, but offered to give me a credit at the Canon online store for the $40 I was missing out on. That made me a little less pissed. She emailed me the link. She said that without a copy of the UPC, there was nothing she could do. As it was, I had a copy of the reciept but not the UPC.
So a few days later, I went to the website and it quickly became apparent that there was NOTHING useful for me at the online store (see estore.usa.canon.com for a laugh!). The store is a joke - seriously $50 for a 128mb CF card and $65.99 for a 256mb! Not kidding!
So I called back and told her that I'd like to register an official complaint and started my rant.
At this point all of this was no longer worth the $40 I was supposed to get but I was marching on based on principle!
After listening to me for about 5 minutes she said that she totally understood and explained why they couldn't honor it without a UPC and said that without either the UPC, a copy of it or the box with UPC cut out, she couldn't do anything. "WHAT?!?! you mean you could do something with the box?"
I ended up sending her 3 or 4 photos of my box with the UPC cut out and then, after a couple more prodding emails and waiting the girl finally said everything was looking fine and that my check was being issued. Then after another 2 weeks or so, I got the check in the mail.
Lessons:
1 - Don't assume everything is going to be alright when you make your $ calculations based on rebates.
2 - Copy everything and keep it handy.
3 - Don't be shy about contacting them - repeatedly
4 - Get ahold of a decent customer service rep, get their name, extension #, and deal with them specifically. I suspect they'll make the rebate go through so you'll stop bothering them.
5 - Don't give up and don't take no for an answer. I was almost relegated to paying big money for some overpriced accessory I didn't need.
6 - Keep your box - we all have digital cameras here and the ability to send photos.
Do you think, for just one second, that Canon will be happy about this situation? Do you think they endorse this? They pay for something the end-user only partially gets, oh, and by the way, it creates an incredibly negative image of Canon to those who have been burned.
An what is Canon doing to fix this? These rebate scams have been going on for years now...and Canon has done NOTHING. Yes, it might be the company that Canon contracted out, but it is CANON's reputation that is being smeared, not the company collecting the rebates. If Canon really cared, they would follow up on how the rebate process was going and they would see first hand what a sham it is. Not following up and sticking their head in the sand just tells me how much Canon values it's customers.
Does anyone know if Nikon has such a problem when they have rebates?
No, a couple dozen is approximately a couple dozen. Maybe more, maybe less. I haven't counted them.
a couple dozen is still anecdotal?
when does it stop becoming anecdotal? a hundred? a couple hundred? a thousand?
"Anecdotal" has absolutely nothing to do with the number of people reporting problems. Look it up.
or when you get an issue with your rebate. then, all of a sudden, it is a "real" issue.
I never said it wasn't real. Obviously some people are having problems.
i don't see how you can draw your conclusion so fast. what evidence do you have? how many pieces of evidence do you have?
or are you just drawing them from a couple dozen anecdotal stories?
What conclusion do you think I've drawn? My commentary was a reply to PimpDaddy's statement that "a lot" of people are having problems. I'm asking him how he knows that "a lot" of people are having problems, if all he has to go on are the reports of a couple dozen (or less) people who are obviously worked up about it.
and in the last part, you say people with problems are much more likely to start a thread. yes, that's true. but what about the other part? that people like yourself without problems are much more likely to butt in?
Cool off... you're not making any sense. If I (and several others) hadn't mentioned that we've had no problems with the rebate process, people might be left with the impression that everybody who submits rebate requests has a problem with it. You're jumping to conclusions based on a small sample of people, who because they have had problems, are more likely to complain publically than those that haven't. Imagine how much worse the "conspiracy theory" would be if nobody "butted in" to say they haven't had a problem!
People are jumping to a wild conclusion -- that Canon and/or the rebate center are attempting to "steal" money from people on purpose. This is unsupported by anything anybody here has said. However the fact that several people have had no problems getting rebates is strong evidence that they're not. It is far more likely that when there is really big money at stake ($600+ rebates) the rebate center gets a lot of rebate requests from people trying to work the system or get rebates they aren't actually entitled to. That would mean that both Canon and the rebate center want to err on the side of caution -- if something doesn't look quite right, for whatever reason, reject it. A minimum-wage 1st line rebate center worker isn't going to risk their job by approving a $700 rebate that may or may not be valid. But approve just one rebate for hundreds of dollars that turns out to be fraud, and they likely lose their job.
Somebody with a valid rebate claim is definitely going to make a phone call and provide supporting documentation if necessary to get their hundreds-of-dollars rebate. The rebate center supervisors know this. But they also know that somebody trying to get a rebate through fraud is NOT going to be able to provide supporting documentation and is unlikely to make the phone call in the first place.
you may not believe it, but rebates can be an issue.
Again, I never said they didn't.
and you choose to think they made everything up, just sent in their rebate without reading the proper procedure? in fact, they're probably illiterate. i have no idea how they managed to type their response in this thread. probably a random accident, just a bunch of random buttons hit on a keyboard
Drop the attitude. I never said anything about people "making up" anything, or being illiterate. I said you cannot draw the conclusion that Canon or the rebate center are acting in bad faith based on the couple dozen or fewer reports we've seen here, especially when weighed against the experiences of those who have gotten rebates without problem.
jackchinook wrote:
I'll add to the rant with a non-anecdotal account.
Your account is anecdotal as well. "Anecdotal" does not mean "invented" or "false." It just means that it's not part of a controlled study of the issue.
danmitchell wrote:
The rebate processing companies (and the companies who contract with them?) know that a significant percentage of those getting the "invalid UPC" or related notice will just give up. It is just part of the game.
And that's where I have to disagree, even if slightly.
They should KNOW that for these rebates of several HUNDRED dollars, where people took the time to send them in, that people WILL take the time to call back when they KNOW that they sent in the info properly.
Think of it this way: just what percentage of those who took the time to fill out the rebate forms for several hundred dollars in rebates, who DID send in the correct paperwork, do you think would NOT take the time to call up and complain when they were told they were only getting $20 or so? I submit that this would be a VERY low percentage.
David, that's exactly the point I was making above. There are more logical explanations for rejecting rebate claims than that Canon or the rebate company are trying to "rip people off." More likely they're erring on the side of caution in an attempt to minimize the amount of money they pay out in fraudulent rebate claims.
I have participated in 6 rebate offers in past years. This inculuded the submission of several rebate offers during each of those 6 periods. I might buy something at the beginning and send it in and later during the rebate period buy and send another in. I have only had to resubmit two claims because of reported lost items. Both paid promptly when they received my backup info.
I presently have a rebate pending during the present rebate offer. What I have noticed is that it is taking longer to process the submissions. Usually by now there would have been a change to the web listing from my internet submission to actually receiving my submission. This would make me wonder if they had received it at all if it wasn't for my registered mail receipt.
I think allot of the apprehension that is being felt may be tied to the slowed process and the large amounts of money being given out. I have participated in a number of rebates for other products and I have yet to find any of them to be any better than the ones Canon contracts with.
If you don't believe there is a problem with Canon rebates, just do a google on Canon rebate scam. You'll be amazed at the amount of issues that are popping up. Too many to be just normal practice.
moondigger wrote:
David, that's exactly the point I was making above. There are more logical explanations for rejecting rebate claims than that Canon or the rebate company are trying to "rip people off."
Well, it *could* be that the rebate companies are trying to rip us off, but are just too STUPID to realize that we're not gonna back down when expecting several hundred in rebates.
I've had very good luck with rebates (no problem until this one), even with Canon rebates (probably done 5 or 6 of them by now). The one I had problems with was NOT a "double rebate", either. It was simply a rebate for two items this spring . . . double rebates or triple rebates weren't available then.
I'm still waiting on that second check that Canon said they were sending on the last rebate after claiming that one of my purchases was made outside the rebate offer date. In my case both items were ordered and shipped on the same dates but from different vendors, both well within the date requirements.
They verified with me over the phone that all my information was correct as provided but that I needed to resend all the information again to an adrress they provided and that an additional check would be mailed to me as soon as they received it. I mailed copies of everything again and have yet to hear back. I don't have the time nor patience to keep playing games with them. Many of the camera bodies and lens offered under the rebate will start showing up for sale on FM soon with various prices depending on how much someone wants to make on their cost savings from the rebate. You can see some of that happening now. I would rather pay just a little more to someone here and not worry about the rebate offer.
I have had run arounds in the past with Canon rebates. Eventually I got them. However, with other products for which I have filed rebates and not received them I have filed complaintes with the Federal Trade Commission. If enough complaints are filed, this might be the "sqeeky wheel..."
