The Surprise Rebate!

Posted on September 26, 2007 by Melissa
Filed Under Groceries, Shopping

Rebates can be a fickle mistress. Sometimes it seems like a gamble on whether or not you will actually get that rebate you so painstakingly prepared. You might get it in the mail or you could get rejected for something small or for seemingly no reason at all.

A while back I saw a $10 rebate in the paper for buying 10 of the sort of products I use. Most of the time I ignore smaller rebates but this one was substantial and it beckoned to me. I had a handful of coupons I could use for the products included in this rebate and with the current sales I could get a very good deal. With this rebate I had to buy all 10 items in one shopping trip so I knew I couldn’t afford to mess it up. There would be no second try.

After buying the items, cutting off the UPCs, and getting all the paperwork in order I did my final check before sealing the envelope. I noticed something. Staring me in the face was one UPC for an item of the wrong size. I was mortified and felt sick. Suddenly my great deal vanished before my eyes. I knew all this work was for nothing. I was really surprised at how upset I was over it.

My husband convinced me to go ahead and send it in anyways. I already had it ready to go in a stamped envelope and he thought it was worth a shot. If it got rejected I guess I would know why. I feel like I followed the rules. My store only offered this one product in one size so I got it not even thinking it might not be included in the rebate. But I know rebate centers look for things like that to deny requests. After all, companies don’t want to actually redeem these rebates. They use them as lures hoping most people forget about them or mess up and it works.

Yesterday I got a big surprise - that rebate check I didn’t think I’d ever see.

I’m thankful that they overlooked that one issue and issued the check anyway. I sure feel better about redeeming rebates through them now. I wish all companies were so forgiving with rebates.

It kinda makes up for all the other rebates that never came through. Well, not really.