Fry's Inland rebate scam, May 2012

"Heads Up" for all those buying Inland products with rebates from Fry's Electronics...

I purchased several different "27 cents after rebate" items at Fry's Electronics "Customer Appreciation" Sale, 5/18/12-5/24/12. For each item purchased, I was given a Rebate Receipt, each with a different "rebate number" to download the corresponding rebate form from Frys.com.

After downloading and printing the forms, I see that several unrelated Inland (and Inland NuGiant) items are using the same rebate form, and the rebate form says "one offer per name/household/address". I contacted both rapid-rebates.com and Inland and they confirmed that I am only eligible for a rebate on one item, despite that many of the items that are listed on the same rebate form are completely unrelated (such as a CD Case and an iPad Screen protector). These items were listed as separate "rebate numbers" on the Fry's Rebate Receipt, and many items were on separate pages in the Fry's advertisement.

I have also contacted Fry's (no reply so far). It is annoying to have to spend $10 in gasoline to drive back to the store to return the ineligible items.

I think a Class Action Lawsuit is in order here, for all those people who get scammed out of these Inland rebates.

Dude, I just sent an email letter to Fry's Customer Service about this exact same matter.
I also posted on the hot deals thread, but they've been doing this for a while, and I'm getting sick of it.

Here's my letter. Hopefully more people will do the same.

5/24/2012

Fry's Corporate Officers
Fry's Customer Service,

RE:
Anniversary Sales Items for Inland, NuGiant products & others.
Multiple Items with Different Rebate Numbers for a Single, one time name/address/household Rebate

Rebate Numbers; 95485, 95486 and 6 additional items apply to the same Inland Rebate
Rebate Numbers: 95454 and 2 other different numbers apply to the same NuGiant Rebate
Rebate Numbers: 95464 and one other different number applies to the same Inland Rebate.


Dear Customer Service & Corporate Officers,

I have been a loyal Fry's customer for the past several years. I am taking the time and effort to bring to your attention a practice with your rebates that I find frustrating and deceptive at worst.

This concerns the way you advertise some of the sale items that involves rebates in your anniversary sale this year (as well as others in the past).

It frustrates me to no end when I purchase more than one item (especially from INLAND & NUGIANT), get them home and print my rebate form.

The form then shows that 2, 3 or up to 7 items are listed, and buried in the "terms and conditions" is the statement:

"LIMITED ONE OFFER PER ENVELOPE AND ONE OFFER PER NAME/HOUSEHOLD/ADDRESS"

This was explained to me as only ONE of the items in the list can be used for a rebate.

Now, I have to pick the one I want most for a rebate and go back to the store for return a 30+ mile trip.

I know Frys is a business that needs to make money to survive, but not informing the customers of this kind of "gocha" is very annoying and makes me think twice about YOUR integrity with SOME of Fry's rebates.

Surely you can find space in your 6 page ads to put an asterisk noting only one rebate is accepted for rebates with Rebate Numbers XXXXX, XXXXY, & XXXXZ"

OR...

place a notice on the item shelves to let the customer know if this product/rebate number is part of a multiple rebate offer and it's only one per name/household/address.

You may or may not be aware of this matter, but I hope that it can be address in a timely and thoughtful matter to keep your customers confident & content with your commitment to us.
Sincerely...

Quote from no2u : "Heads Up" for all those buying Inland products with rebates from Fry's Electronics... I purchased several different "27 cents after rebate" items at Fry's Electronics "Customer Appreciation" Sale, 5/18/12-5/24/12. For each item purchased, I was given a Rebate Receipt, each with a different "rebate number" to download the corresponding rebate form from Frys.com. After downloading and printing the forms, I see that several unrelated Inland (and Inland NuGiant) items are using the same rebate form, and the rebate form says "one offer per name/household/address". I contacted both rapid-rebates.com and Inland and they confirmed that I am only eligible for a rebate on one item, despite that many of the items that are listed on the same rebate form are completely unrelated (such as a CD Case and an iPad Screen protector). These items were listed as separate "rebate numbers" on the Fry's Rebate Receipt, and many items were on separate pages in the Fry's advertisement. I have also contacted Fry's (no reply so far). It is annoying to have to spend $10 in gasoline to drive back to the store to return the ineligible items. I think a Class Action Lawsuit is in order here, for all those people who get scammed out of these Inland rebates.

it's all spelled out for you right there on the form, your "class action" nonsense doesn't stand a chance, (unless you can find a judge & jury that can't read neither)

Quote from Count_Chocula : ...unless you can find a judge & jury that can't read neither)

Hmmm... While I will concede that class action only really benefit the lawyers, I think there's a little more to it than not reading the form once you get home and then have to print it, and THEN find out which of your purchase is not eligible for a rebate that they imply is available.

If Fry's has to deceive it's customers to get them in the door with this nickel and dime crap, I would like them to know that its make's them look bad, pushes folk more to other online alternatives, where they too will go the way of the Circuit City, Best Buy, and the Dodo Bird.

For those who say I can't read the terms on the rebate form, note that the customer doesn't see those terms listed anywhere in the Fry's newspaper ad or on the store shelf where it says "$0 After Rebate". Each item purchased requires downloading a different pdf form from Fry's website that just "happens" to have the same "department" code.

Also, I would contend that the "limit one offer per name/address" is a bit vague even when reading the form. Each item has a different UPC and a different rebate amount, so why isn't each one of these a separate "offer"? Some of the forms that have the same "department number" aren't even the same form. For example, one form has items A,B,C and the other form has items A,B,C,D. In this case I purchased items B & D. So The first rebate form doesn't mention item D, so how can they say it's the same "offer"?

Anyway, I was able to reach the Fry's store manager and they're mailing me a check to make up for the ineligible rebates because of their mistake in not mentioning this limitation in the ad. I am still a loyal Fry's customer, and Fry's is making it right.

Quote from no2u : For those who say I can't read the terms on the rebate form, note that the customer doesn't see those terms listed anywhere in the Fry's newspaper ad or on the store shelf where it says "$0 After Rebate".... ... I was able to reach the Fry's store manager and they're mailing me a check to make up for the ineligible rebates because of their mistake in not mentioning this limitation in the ad. I am still a loyal Fry's customer, and Fry's is making it right.

Glad you were able to work it out. Fry's is pretty good about making things right AFTER you call, kick, & scream. Just takes additional time and energy (and gas) beyond the additional time and energy just to do the rebate in the first place.

I wouldn't call it a "scam", but for them, its an almost scam with benefits! lol

Lol class action

Quote from no2u : "Heads Up" for all those buying Inland products with rebates from Fry's Electronics... I purchased several different "27 cents after rebate" items at Fry's Electronics "Customer Appreciation" Sale, 5/18/12-5/24/12. For each item purchased, I was given a Rebate Receipt, each with a different "rebate number" to download the corresponding rebate form from Frys.com. After downloading and printing the forms, I see that several unrelated Inland (and Inland NuGiant) items are using the same rebate form, and the rebate form says "one offer per name/household/address". I contacted both rapid-rebates.com and Inland and they confirmed that I am only eligible for a rebate on one item, despite that many of the items that are listed on the same rebate form are completely unrelated (such as a CD Case and an iPad Screen protector). These items were listed as separate "rebate numbers" on the Fry's Rebate Receipt, and many items were on separate pages in the Fry's advertisement. I have also contacted Fry's (no reply so far). It is annoying to have to spend $10 in gasoline to drive back to the store to return the ineligible items. I think a Class Action Lawsuit is in order here, for all those people who get scammed out of these Inland rebates.

Yeah, I agree with you, those Inland and NuGiant rebate forms are very misleading. It says "Limit one offer per envelope and one offer per name/household/address."

I interpreted that as each item being a separate offer. Otherwise why would there be a "limit one offer per envelope" exclusion? I've done rebates in the past where you had to submit each item individually, even if it was sent to the same Dept. # (i.e. Samsung Bluetooth Rebates).

I mailed all of mine out and will hope for the best. Maybe I should call Fry's on Monday to alert them of the problem.

Unlike you, I ordered from Frys.com, so there really isn't an option for a return (especially with all the items missing their UPCs). If Inland/NuGiant denies the claims (which it sounds like they will), Fry's better make this right.

I posted about this exact same thing with the Inland rebates back around Thanksgiving with their FAR ads then. And that wasn’t the first time I got caught by it as well.

I agree that it’s deceptive and misleading. Illegal? Probably not, unfortunately. But to me it would cause me to question the overall reputation of the merchant doing the advertising, even though I’ve been shopping at Fry’s for years and will continue to do so. And, I’d think that in the interest of good customer service and customer relations, Fry’s would clean up their act in this regard.

I recall a while back a major nationwide retailer getting called down by some government agency for repeated and frequent incorrect pricing on their shelves. To the person saying that it’s right there in the rebate terms, you could argue that when you get to checkout, the correct price is right there in front of you so you have the choice to buy at that price or not. Fortunately though, the government cracked down and told them to get their act together on the shelf pricing.

The Fry’s ads, and the product signage in the stores, say nothing about the limitations of these Inland and similar rebates. If they’re going to point out that the rebates don’t refund sales tax, why not point out this information about the limitation that is just as critical. Otherwise, any ordinary prudent person would infer from the ad that they could get each and every item advertised for FAR as per the ad. Last time I asked someone in the store to let me see the rebate terms so that I could make an informed decision about buying the item, they refused. I, too, do not want to go through the time and money to return an item after getting home and finding out the rebate terms are undesirable.

(Before someone asks if I expect them to print the entire rebate terms in the ad, the answer is no. Consider that almost every rebate must go to a street adress, limit one per household/address/etc., must be sent in by a certain cutoff date, etc. It is very unusual to have several items of different categories be lumped together so that a given rebate is valid on only one of the items, so I'd say that is something that would warrant disclosure, especially since, as I say, any ordinary prudent person would think you would be able to get a rebate on one each of all the different items since they are entirely different items.)

I had suggested to Fry’s in the past that they should group all these items together in their ad, with a bold box around them, and point out that the rebate is good on only one of the items. Whereas this doesn’t address store signage, it seems like a good solution to me from the ad standpoint. (Okay, so some items that might fall into different groups and thus would normally be on different pages would then perhaps end up in an unnatural place in the ad, but I think accurate representation about the rebate limitation should prevail.) But, they don’t seem interested in taking a step such as this.

Fry’s definitely has a stake in this. The rebate promotions result in more sales which results in more money for them. As far as I’m concerned, they have as much responsibility as the manufacturer in properly and accurately presenting the rebate terms. Since Fry’s doesn’t seem to want to address this on their own, maybe if enough people complain to the BBB, FTC, AG, etc., it might get some of those agencies after them and then they might do something.

Quote from Count_Chocula : it's all spelled out for you right there on the form, your "class action" nonsense doesn't stand a chance, (unless you can find a judge & jury that can't read neither)

This. ^

I've been doing Frys rebates for years and they have been making more mistakes in the past year.

1. They should do a better job of working with the vendors on these rebates. Recently I had a hornettek rebate and the assholes wanted the original invoice receipt, not the rebate receipt. I told them that the Frys buyer effed up as they should know how their own system is laid out and prints these rebate receipts so the vendor/rebate processors should accept it.

2. The ads should state limit one each instead of limit one of this companies product per this rebate cycle. That again is the Frys buyer and vendors fault and they are both trying to not take the responsibility for the mistake. If you bought the items and they deny you, take the ads to the store and say either pay me for the rebate or deal with the state attorneys for fraud and illegitimate false advertising penalties. That is false advertising if they do not state limits.

Tired of Frys and other software manufactures messing with their rebates.

But if you contact Frys CS in San Jose they usually find a way to make it right with you. i've been paid on all of my Frys rebates so far.