Is the Canon Rebate program a sham and a scam ?

[JX]

I just wonder how many people have been stung by Canon rebate offer. I bought a 580 speedlight sent them everything they ask for. Now they are telling me that I did not include the UPC logo. Post a reply if you have had a problem.

[gramps]

I had no problems at all. Total turn around time was about 3 1/2 weeks.

[Belmondo]

My experience has alway been totally satisfactory. If you followed their directions to the letter, you shouldn't have had any problems either. I guess the obvious question would be, did you include the UPC barcode with the application? If you did, you have a legitimate gripe. If not, you shouldn't be upset with them.

[JZaun]

I have received every rebate I applied for with Canon. 5 this past year. You just gotta be real sure to fill everything out the way they ask. There is even a way to check up on its progress and they also send out e-mails with updates. If you are not getting that you probably missed something. If you kept copies of what you sent,send it again with a explination. They will fix it.

Just re read your post. The UPC code is normally part of every rebate. At least all I have been a part of. They are telling you what you need to do to correct the problem.


JZ

[watermarkphotography]

All rebaits are a sham, hence RE-BAIT. I found this out the hard way also, but not with canon. I send it certified mail. Even that doesn't work cause they drag it out hoping you will forget. in store Re- Bait only. is my advise.

[JX]

Just so everyone knows I did submit UPC label.

[rohitkumar]

even I had no problems, I buy a lot of stuff with mail in rebates and never had any problems. You just have to be careful that you need to fill the form completely and send all the things along with it. Had you mailed the bar code along with the form? If you have a photocopy of the material you sent you can call them and tell them your issue.

[Ogrt48]

No problem at all, came fast.

[Steiner]

I bought the Digital Rebel and a zoom lens, sent them what they wanted, then got back a rebate for the camera and a notice that the logo for the lens had not been submitted (I was sure though that I had submitted everything asked for). I resent the logo for the lens and presto! got the full amount I was entitled to. I wonder if they make people do that when they offer double rebates - they might figure that a 'real' purchaser has the box handy and can cut out yet another logo (or whatever it is they are requesting) whereas a 'fake' purchaser might not. Who knows!

[Edgar in ATL]

No problem with $230 rebate submitted in December 2004.

[watermarkphotography]

You ever hear of fry's Electronics, even the people working there won't buy any RE-Bait stuff. Even if you send everything and send it certified they still mess you over.

I don't know about Canon though, everyone seems to have no problems. I am just gun shy when I see Re-Bait. I figure I'm paying full price no matter what.

I know, gloom despair and agony on me. whoo

[JX]

I have sent in over 20 rebates in the past year. Canon INC. is the first company to give me a problem. I received a check from Tamron, two weeks after I sent in the rebate for my 28-75 XR Di lens.

[IndyJeff]

I spoke with a guy who lectures around the country at conventions, his specialty is marketing. During his lecture he said you could run an ad in the paper which offered a rebate. Make the steps to reclaim that 10% as easy as you could and you will still only see less than 10% turn in the rebate.

He had worked for a national company, the name of which escapes me now, in their marketing dept. During the break I talked to him about rebates and their effectivness. He said that if you offer a rebate on a product you can expect a rise in sales of 35-40% because people will buy it over another brand. However, when it comes time for that rebate to be paid out, on 100,000 items sold about 4% will be turned in and processed for the rebate.


Lets say it is cd's and the price is $20 and you offer a $5 rebate. You normally sell 75,000 units per year. So now you sell 100,000 units in that same time frame, that is 2 million in revenue. Now you rebate 4000 units $5 each, that is $20,000. Your sales increased by $500,000 over the expected figures and you rebated $20,000 leaving you with a net gain in sales revenue of $480,000!

[who me?]

I would probably have my rebate now but it appears that the factory didn't put the body S/N upc code sticker on my body box. DOH!! So needless to say, my rebate is now in limbo until I can get Canon USA to help me out. I am waiting for a call back and hopefully they can help. I have not had any problems with rebates in the past. EVEN from Fry's so I am hoping that this will be resolved. Especially since it is $225.

[Longwatcher]

To date I am running an overall 80% return on rebates submitted. On the flip side I am running 0% on Canon shipping me freebie registration stuff when I register (some kind of software if I remember, I will have to check). And the sad part is it was my Canon XL-2 and the registration center is just across the river from me. I am considering visiting personally.

In general I tend to ignore rebates when purchasing items, unless I was going to get it anyway and the rebate speeds up my timing. I consider rebates to be a PT Barnum scam to get the sucker's money from them. I especially hate having to pay extra sales taxes so they can have a rebate. rebates are a pet peeve of mine, although I do understand the market economics of it.

[yort]

My experiance w/any rebate is, if you dont do EVERYTHING to the "t" it can be a challange, almost impossible. Good luck.

[Tom W]

My experience has alway been totally satisfactory. If you followed their directions to the letter, you shouldn't have had any problems either. I guess the obvious question would be, did you include the UPC barcode with the application? If you did, you have a legitimate gripe. If not, you shouldn't be upset with them.

If anybody should know the rebate process, it should be you, Mr. Lots-a-lenses. :)

I did have a stumbling block with mine, but that was due to my poor-quality scan of the body number on my camera. I re-sent a cleaner scan and they're now processing towards issuing another check.

Triple rebates are my friend. :)

[Tom W]

I spoke with a guy who lectures around the country at conventions, his specialty is marketing. During his lecture he said you could run an ad in the paper which offered a rebate. Make the steps to reclaim that 10% as easy as you could and you will still only see less than 10% turn in the rebate.

He had worked for a national company, the name of which escapes me now, in their marketing dept. During the break I talked to him about rebates and their effectivness. He said that if you offer a rebate on a product you can expect a rise in sales of 35-40% because people will buy it over another brand. However, when it comes time for that rebate to be paid out, on 100,000 items sold about 4% will be turned in and processed for the rebate.


Lets say it is cd's and the price is $20 and you offer a $5 rebate. You normally sell 75,000 units per year. So now you sell 100,000 units in that same time frame, that is 2 million in revenue. Now you rebate 4000 units $5 each, that is $20,000. Your sales increased by $500,000 over the expected figures and you rebated $20,000 leaving you with a net gain in sales revenue of $480,000!

I think that depends a lot on the rebate amount. I've ignored small $5 or $2 rebates before, but I wouldn't think of ignoring the Canon rebates. Especially if double or triple rebates are at stake. That's a pretty big sum of money.

[Bodryn]

Isn't it funny how the major manufacturers have us consumers so well trained that we will jump through all their silly little artificial hoops like trained dogs? Why do people put up with it? Such marketing ploys show a total lack of respect for the consumers, which after all, is their meal ticket. Who do those people think they are? Often, when I find something has a rebate, I reject the purchase in favor of something else. When I do have to purchase the item with the rebate, I usually just don't bother with it. Time and trouble has a money value, too.

[kb244]

Isn't it funny how the major manufacturers have us consumers so well trained that we will jump through all their little artificial hoops like trained dogs? Why do people put up with it? Such marketing ploys show a total lack of respect for the consumers, which after all, is their meal ticket. Who do those people think they are? Often, when I find something has a rebate, I reject the purchase in favor of something else. When I do have to purchase the item with the rebate, I usually just don't bother with it. Time and trouble has a money value, too.

Sad thing is that people think like this, are rare compared to the number of people who actual try to deal with the rebates. The other problem is Something like the Drebel is already the cheapest DSLR out there, with the rebate end-cost wise cannot be beat, everyone always out there looking for the best deal, so the manufactures take a chance and offer rebates in the hope that only a certain percentage actually choose to deal with or remember to fill every thing out.

But I guess the way I feel is that I'm gona get something because it's what I wanted, not because there was a bunch of rebate offers on them. If something I wanted came with rebate offers , why not send them in, didnt cost you anything extra than maybe a little time to do. I guess the best mentality to have is that if you cannot afford the normal list price, dont get hung up on the rebates, anticipating "Oh it'll be back before I really need it".

[sparker1]

My $230 rebate came in about 3 weeks.

[flyfisher]

My first one came in 3 1/2 weeks no problems I sent a second one this week we'll see how it goes
make sure you have copys of everything before you send it in case the say that you did'nt send it

[watermarkphotography]

Isn't it funny how the major manufacturers have us consumers so well trained that we will jump through all their silly little artificial hoops like trained dogs? Why do people put up with it? Such marketing ploys show a total lack of respect for the consumers, which after all, is their meal ticket. Who do those people think they are? Often, when I find something has a rebate, I reject the purchase in favor of something else. When I do have to purchase the item with the rebate, I usually just don't bother with it. Time and trouble has a money value, too.

Re-Bait. ( fooled again )

They wave a carrot in our face and we jump " Oh look hun its on sale, now we can afford it " Hence now we can justify it to our selfs and our spouce, Knowing in full that we won't see it or will forget about it when it never comes.

I must agree that the RE-Bait on the Canon is much more and likely not to be over looked. I also must agree that it is very profitable to the seller, Oh I should start a Re-Bait prograhm for the stuff I sell.

[glangston]

Canon Rebates?

I was scrupulous about the conditions and have gotten a message that I had an invalid UPC and that an original product logo was not included. I bought the EOS 20D, a 17-40L, 70-200L, and a 580EX Speedlite. The lids of ALL these product boxes are nearly gone so I'm pretty sure I sent the logos in but it's possible one got lost. It's the invalid UPC that confuses me. All I sent were photocopies of the ones on the boxes so it's not like the #'s could be transposed and they're all USA items. I'm not happy but I'm expecting a notice soon as to the particulars.

ETA: Well I reached a human for the second time and this guy actually had the information in front of him that revealed they had indeed transposed the UPC number on my EOS 20D. Either they lost all the cardboard cut-outs or I didn't send them but my boxes all have lids missing so...who knows. As per this guy's instruction I sent in another copy of the UPC (with explanation) and more cardboard. I'm not sure I'd do this again. Wait and see.

[Avalonthas]

[QUOTE=watermarkphotography]Often, when I find something has a rebate, I reject the purchase in favor of something else. When I do have to purchase the item with the rebate, I usually just don't bother with it. Time and trouble has a money value, too.

That has got to be the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. I understand if its any rebate under $10 that you might not have the motivation (ur lazy) to send it in, but anything over $10 is a substantial amount....so why not pay 50 cents to recieve 10+ bucks in the mail for free (especially if it is 40+ then its a good lil piece of paper).

Sure it takes forever to recieve money sometimes but who cares, money is money, and the more you have, the more power you have when it comes to buying more equipment and/or other things.

If your telling me that you make $240 an hour then tell me to shut up because it takes 5 minutes to do a 20 dollar rebate (Im being generous by saying it takes 5 minutes to fill out/ prepare a $20 rebate). And I know you are not making $240 because you wouldnt have time to be posting in this forum if you had such a prestigious job. Then for that couple of minutes for each rebate, factor in 45 seconds to pullover and insert the envelopes into the mailbox on ur way to work/school.....

Argument sake (all canadian currency): So if you had 25 small twenty dollar rebates that would amount to $500 worth of rebates. Envelopes cost 1 penny a piece, plus 50 cents for postage, thats a nontaxable income of $487.25, that you would not get if you ignored ur rebates. Based on my highly overexagerated time of 5 minutes each, it would take you just over 2 hours to do them all, which amounts to $243.63 an hour, which im sure everyone likes. All these small rebates add up to a large sum and u can go out and buy a lens or some accessories for ur camera, or pay for many many prints.

Sure its unlikely that you will have so many 20 dollar rebates but with some people getting just over 200 bucks between one to three rebates, thats only 15 minutes to get that kinda of money which amounts to $800/hour. Of course im pretty sure u would cash in on such a high rebate, but you would earn so much more if u cashed in on ur smaller rebates rather then ignoring them, as most technology these days come with some sort of rebate (and wether the store makes it an instore or outside rebate is up to them), but either way its giving you money your normally wouldnt have if it wasnt for the rebate.

Also to mention to those who hate waiting long, there is a reason behind it. When you cash a rebate, you are investing that money back into the company it originated from, such as Canon for a short period of time. Say you have 200 bucks worth of rebates. You pay it at the store, so theoretically they money is being circulated back to Canon for 4 weeks or so, and with that money they expand the company, invest in mor R&D, and hopefully further sales so that they are expanding the company, yet not losing much money in such expansion because they are in essence loaning money from you to further the company.

Im done.

[T M Vollmar]

:mad: It is my opinion that, they are either incompetent, sloppy, or perhaps other . . . I have notified my retailers of the difficulties and incomplete fulfillment. I sent it certified, IT IS COMPLETE!!!! Contrary to their postcard . . . I will write Canon again with the copied stuff I originally sent.

I am an advanced amateur who took the dip into digital this year, and suffering from lenses too old to use on the 20D. My advice ( and the advice of an importer): DO NOT BUY the USA product. You aren't supporting our flag doing this, FYI. Buy the imported versions which come close to the price you pay with rebates for the products. Then you don't have to snip "this and that", copy, watch and hope. I can afford the $6000 and climbing, I spent on the equipment update, I just want the advertised rebate without jumping through hoops . . . which I already did.

Too bad. Canon has great products. A miserable back office. If I ran my own business this way, EVERYONE would have Nikons. MARTY

[tim]

Ifollowed the instructions to the letter, no rebate, it's been a couple of months.

[Vegas Poboy]

I purchased two lense in January from dell, followed all instructions & even went to canons website and had the rebate pre approved. Received my check mid March. I guess I'm on eof the lucky ones & even though I hate rebates looking for the next one to get my 70-200 IS.

[Citizensmith]

I haven't received mine yet but I have been watching it progress to completion on the website.

Personally, as others have said, I ignore small rebates as they are not worth the time, and won't make purxhase descions based on them. For something like this the timing was good and the value was sufficient.

[FlatBattery]

We don't have the rebate system in the UK and the first time I came across it was when I bought a lens from B&H and had it sent to the UK. I sent off everything they asked for from the UK including my friends US address and eventually my friend recieved a cheque from Canon for $50, which he mailed to me and I paid it into my UK bank account. The whole procedure took several months and I wasn't bothered if it didn't work, but I wasn't going to turn down free money!

I was VERY surprised it worked!

[Citizensmith]

And then a day after my last post a check for $420 shows up in the mail.

[cactusclay]

Got mine a couple weeks ago, along with one for a card reader for ten bucks.

[R_Alexander]

I had no troubles getting my $200 cashback when I bought my 300D just took around 6 weeks which is normal as I used to work for a company that handled these sorts of promotions

8 weeks or longer is even normal, delays happen and if its really popular that slows things up as well

Rob