Canon Rebate - or lack there of

Has anyone else experienced problems with receiving rebates from Canon?

I purchased my XL2 along with the Canon 16x manual lens back on June 30th to get the $500 rebate. To date I have not received the $500. Has anyone else experienced this problem. Canon has outsourced their rebate work to http://www.rebateshq.com and my emails have gone unanswered.

[Allan Phan]

It took 4 months to get my rebate.
They'll send you an email when they start sending it out

Cheer
Allan

Thanks. I emailed Canon directly and they were very quick to respond, as well as efficient. It looks like they are going to contact the outsourced company and get it resolved within the day. If anyone is experiencing the same trouble, you may want to do the same. But honestly, after this experience I will never let "having a rebate" be a factor with making a decision no matter who the manufacturer is.

Just take the money off the price when I purchase it.

[Richard Alvarez]

I've had awful experiences with rebates. One of the things the do, is mail them to you as 'postcards' that often get thrown out as junk mail, or lost inside of other circulars your postman leaves. Sneaky.

[Nick Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Derek West

I will never let "having a rebate" be a factor with making a decision no matter who the manufacturer is.

Just take the money off the price when I purchase it.

I hate to sound like a jerk, but that's the worst way of looking at your situation. If you want to get $500 for free, you'd better expect that someone is going to make you jump through hoops. I worked at Best Buy for a long time and I heard so many people talk about how they never got their rebate checks.

I sold computers, so this is my experience with people and rebates.

The category of computers is probably the highest volume seller that always has some sort of rebate. The reason rebates are offered on computers is because they have no margin (basically like having a sale that isn't exactly a sale; something that looks like an amazing deal in the Sunday newspaper, but would result in Best Buy loosing about $100 on every laptop sale). So, when someone (let's say his name is Ronald) sees a $1700 toshiba laptop on sale for $1400 after a $150 manufacturer rebate and a $150 retail rebate, he freaks out and says, "Man, what an awesome deal. If I don't get that computer, I'm an idiot." Ronald isn't thinking about low returns on rebates at that time. He doesn't know the figures: Best Buy's rebate return rate on computers is something along the lines of 11% if I recall correctly. So, for every hundred people who send off for this amazing $150 Best Buy rebate, 11 of them actually get their money. The reason the other 89% didn't get it is usually because they forgot to circle the selling price of the laptop on their rebate receipt (which is a stipulation found in the fine print of the rebate, if you read carefully enough).

When Ronald wakes up one morning, 3 months after he's sent his rebates into Best Buy, he has a revelation: "Holy crap, I never got my $150 from Best Buy." This happens the majority of the time. Ronald has forgotten about the rebate! The time in which he was supposed to receive his rebate has come and gone with no return. But what can Ronald do? He takes a shower and heads to Best Buy to figure out what happened.

Ronald gets there and sees me. "Hey Nick. Remember that computer you sold me three months ago?" I say, "Sure Ronald, how's that working out for you?" "Great," he says, "except for one thing. I never got my rebate back!"

At that point, it's pointless to tell old Ronald about our 11% rebate return. Whoops. Maybe now he understands that Best Buy was banking on him not returning his rebate correctly because they would lose money if he had.

This same scenario happened to me at least two or three times a week.

But I know something Ronald and our buddy Derek here don't know, so I have some advice to offer. Don't let getting screwed out of a rebate deter you from cashing in on the next one. As a matter of fact, you should learn from the mistake and let it strengthen your resolve, so that you can more diligently check your rebates for accuracy.

Basically, don't get mad, get even. The next time an awesome rebate rolls around on an item you want to purchase, call the rebate company and the retail company every day after four weeks to check the status. Trust me, you can do this. I've done it for people at Best Buy before. You just have to be smarter than the people who don't want to pay you.

They're never going to just take the money off. It parallels the old addage: "there's no such thing as a free lunch." And that's the truth.

Not sure why my comment is "the worst way to look at it." I don't know if there's a "worst" or "best" way to look at rebates and whether or not to have them be a factor in a purchase decision. Everyone's got their own opinion.

I do know why they do it (and there could be an entire book written on the subject with additional information) and that's why this was the last one I'll do, or at least let it be one of the factors for making my decision. It's just a waste of EVERYONE's time, energy and resources.

I think it's foolish for manufacturer's too look at it so short-sighted and be so sneaky. One of the other factor's for buying my XL2 was brand loyalty. Due to my experience with this, next camera purchase, which will more than likely be within a year, I will be looking at Panasonic, Sony and JVC. As when I go to buy, I'll be remembering what a pain this purchase process was with this manufacturer. The most important items will of course be how good the camera is for my specific purposes.

So short term rebate statistics can look good to the one's making the decision. But they will never know the long term damage they are doing to themselves. The sales just go away... and the suits just all sit around the big table, scratching their heads & wondering why.

If you want to see something interesting just go to GOOGLE and type:

[insert your manufacturers name here] rebates suck

... and you can see what kind of good PR rebates get. Actually, it was typing that phrase and going to the very top link that I found that lead me to my solution which I posted above.

So all of those millions spent on advertising go down the drain.

Rebate... Schmeebate.

BUT - I do really like my XL2.

[Nick Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Derek West

BUT - I do really like my XL2.

Yeah, me too. :D

Got my rebate last night in the mail.

Unbelievable - it was not even in an envelope. It's a fake looking check printed on a thick card stock paper that's 3.5 inches x 6 inches. The only thing it was missing was the text "STEAL ME" written in red.

Looked like junk mail (probably why it was not stolen) and almost got thrown away. (just like Richard said above)

Nice job Canon. Keep up the good work.

[side note to Chris Hurd here - Chris, I appreciate you allowing us to post the good, the bad & the ugly here in the forum and not being a gatekeeper.]

[Greg Boston]

Well, as you guys have so astutely observed, it's not the retailer handling the rebate. They farm that out to someone else so that if you aren't lucky enough to get someone like Nick who cares about customers, you'll get a line like, "We don't have anything to do with the actual rebate, you'll have to contact XYZ Rebates about this." That way, the retailer can stand back and wash their hands of the whole affair while you stay in limbo.

I could tell a number of horror stories here, but I'll spare the forum since they didn't happen directly to me. I wish however, that a federal law would be enacted that prevents advertisers from putting prices in large print that aren't the actual price. That, to me is very deceptive advertising. Something like what they did for interest rate disclosures on credit offers.

-gb-

[Michael Plunkett]

I got my Canon GL2 rebate check in the mail last month. It came in an envelope and I instantly knew what it was. The rebate came quicker than I expected and was given several email updates on its status. I worked like a charm.

I have received checks from stock options and closing money market accounts that came in junk mail looking envelops- the reason is to prevent them from looking like they are carrying a big check (which they are). I did almost throw away a stock closing check earlier in the year. Glad I opened it.

That's interesting. Maybe your rebate was outsourced to a different company or something. Glad you got it quick though.

[Bill Zens]

It took about four months to get my rebate check, uh, postcard. My wife almost threw that one away too.

Poor Brian at Zotz got real tired of me calling and e-mailing him every other week looking for the check. Eventually it came, and I, of course, immediately turned around and spent it on more goodies from Zotz.