Aug 08
15
Scam Week: Office Depot Rebate Scam
In the third installment and final installment of Scam Week, we will discuss another rebate scam, this time at the hands of Office Depot. Earlier this summer, I purchased an HP LaserJet 3050 printer from Office Depot. The printer was on sale for $199.99, and there were two rebates of $100 each advertised in the store, which would make the printer free after the rebate. As this was an amazing deal, I jumped on it and submitted my two rebate requests.
One of the rebates came as promised, however it was clear from the beginning that there would be issues with the second. Once the rebate showed up on the rebate processor’s website, it sat in the processing stage for weeks with the notation “Error: Pending Verification”. After several weeks I called the rebate center and was told they would escalate the issue and to call back in a week. After a week in which the status changed to noncompliance, I called the rebate center back and was initially told again that they would escalate the issue and to call back in another week. Of course I wasn’t satisfied with that and when I escalated to a supervisor I was given a BS story that it was a system issue that would be resolved in a couple of days.
A week later when I receive a postcard stating that the rebate is in noncompliance and that I have until a certain date resolve the issue if I would like the rebate to be paid. So of course I call again, and again I am told by the first representative that they will escalate the issue and to call back in a week, and then I escalate to a supervisor who tells me that they aren’t sure I can claim two different rebates on the purchase of a single printer and that they will escalate the issue to the account manager, and finally I speak to the floor manager who flatly states that their policy is not to honor two rebate offers on a single item purchase and that although the rebates were advertised together only one would be paid. I asked for the address for their principal place of business (the rebate processor, not Office Depot), and they refused to even confirm what rebate fulfillment company they were and would only give me an address for the Office of the President of Office Depot. They also refused to escalate me to the next level supervisor and the manager I spoke to told me he was the highest authority I could speak to.
I contacted Office Depot customer service about the issue, however I have never received a reply. I used to consider Office Depot to be one of the best in terms of standing behind its advertised rebates. About four years ago I had a rebate offered through a manufacturer for an item sold at Office Depot that Office Depot was willing to pay after the manufacturer refused. However in the last two years or so there has been a definite change in the culture at Office Depot with regards to customer service and now if you do a rebate for a purchase from them you are pretty well assured that Office Depot will not help if something goes wrong. And in this instance the rebate was offered by Office Depot itself and not by the manufacturer. How disappointing!
At this point in my SlickDealing career I have only had three rebate deals that did not come through, and sadly two of them have been through Office Depot. That is why I am so thankful that we are finally getting Staples here in Houston, so we can finally have an office supply store that provides good customer service unlike Office Depot and OfficeMax.