An Update Re: ZoneAlarm Rebates Hell (Praise to Fry’s???), Some Other Rebate Rants (That Means You, CompUSA), And Scammy Blogs
Quick-hitters:
- To all the loyal readers of the UngsungBlog, this is what I have to say to you:
We’re BROTHERS…’till the end of time!
Now excuse me while I go shoot myself in the face.
- I still have yet to play Super Mario Galaxy. It’s like I’m saving it for a special occasion or something.
- All these rants I’ve been doing lately documenting my horrible experiences with rebate processors have caused me yet another headache: tons of Google ads for work-at-home rebate processor positions 
(Yeah, I know…why don’t I just Adblock Google Ads?)
Speaking of rebates…
- I’ve got an update on my ZoneAlarm rebates fiasco. I got this email from MyRebateOnline.com on Tuesday, the day after faxing in my rebate submissions to Fry’s:
Thank you for participating in the MyRebateOnline program.
Our records show that your rebate submission has been approved and your payment will be issued at the end of the pending period for the following product(s).
4000069-Buy ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite 3-User Pack at Fry’s Electronics or Frys.com get $40 Check Your rebate will be invalidated if you return your product(s) during the remaining return period.
After the return period expires, your payment will be released and processed. Please allow an additional 2-3 weeks to receive your payment.
So far so good, but no mention of the other rebate in question.
Fry’s.com emailed me shortly thereafter:
Hello Peter, we have received your faxed rebate submissions. Please
allow up to 78 hours in order to hear anything back from Fry’s.com in
regards to this rebate inquiry. Please let me know if you have any
further questions. Thank you!
Ok…
Earlier today, this email hit my inbox:
Hello Peter, in regards to your ZoneAlarm rebate in the amount of $40.00
we have since gotten in contact with the rebate manufacturer in regards
to your denial. They have stated that your rebate had been validated and
you were expected to receive your rebate by the end of February. In
regards to your other ZoneAlarm rebate in the same amount. They have
stated that the promotion has been closed with this offer and that you
were no longer able to resubmit. We will go ahead and give all of your
copies to our corporate office in regards to this rebate and they will
be issuing you a check. Please allow up to 1 month in order to receive
this check. If you have any further questions please feel free to
contact us. Thank you.
Sweet! We’ll see, though, if I actually see both checks.
- Unfortunately, these ZoneAlarm rebates aren’t the only rebates I have to fight tooth-and-nail for (yes, this is what we “rebate monkeys” have to deal with):
- AllRebates.com is currently giving me a hard time on a $25 rebate with the purchase of a Kaspersky software title. I have faxed in my resubmission twice now (as instructed by their customer service), and they have yet to validate my rebate.
- I’m still waiting on 2 $19 rebates for a supposedly FAR CPU heatsink/fan from back in May. I’ve emailed these clowns several times, and have heard nothing but “please allow x weeks for processing.” The latest reply, which came on 12/17, said to allow an extra month for processing. I’m about ready to go down the state AG/BBB route.
- I bought an American Telecom phone back in October, and have yet to get an update on the status of that rebate. I have now sent two emails to their rebate processor, and have yet to hear back from them.
- Finally, I got email notification of 2 $40 rebates submitted through CompUSA’s eRebates that were issued to me today. To my horror, I noticed that the email notification said that I would be receiving a pair of rebate debit cards, not checks. I know for a fact that I opted for checks, and yet they’re going to go ahead and give me stupid debit cards instead. Argh!
(It seems I’m not the only one that is getting a headache from CompUSA.)
That’s what I get for playing the rebate game.
- Krunk recently alerted me to (what appears to be) a huge increase in the number of “auto-post” blogs lately (basically, these scammy blogs either rip material from other blogs, or quote entire blog entries). That same night, I got five separate requests from Wordpress to moderate comments; turns out, all these “comments” were just trackbacks from these scammy blogs.
Over the last three days, Wordpress has asked me to moderate nearly twenty (!!!) such comments, and there’s no telling how many Akismet caught and didn’t notify me of. It’ll be damn funny, though, to see this post ripped by a number of scammy blogs later tonight.
That’s all I’ve got for now.