Sears/ Sears Rebate Center

Sears employs a classic bait and switch with its purported "rebate"

enticement for large appliances, which it runs several times per year.

It offers 10% off one appliance, 20% off two appliances, and 30% off

three or more appliances over $399 in value. But the incentive is

nowhere near as good as it sounds because soon after you sign on the

dotted line, the friendly folks at Sears disclaim any knowledge of, or

connection to, your rebate. Instead, you are directed to the Sears

Rebate Center, which either intentionally or incompetently mismanages

the rebate process, taking no action on the rebate for at least eight

weeks while Sears holds your money and earns interest on your savings.

The Sears Rebate Center employees will cheerfully inform you that "it

takes 6 to 8 weeks to process your rebate application" as if that is a

perfectly reasonable amount of time to log something into a computer.

Then after six weeks of "processing" the application (which any

mechanized system with a handful of staffers could do in a single day),

Sears then takes "up to 30 days" to mail the check to you because the

company inexplicably chooses to send the check via third class mail.

Nothing makes a customer feel so appreciated as when a Fortune 100

company sends rebate checks via third class mail. Rest assured, the

billing statement for the full price of your appliances will be

"processed" in less than two weeks and mailed via first class mail so

that you will have to bear the entire brunt of the cost of these

appliances for weeks before your money is returned to you. Sears should

be ashamed of itself. Rebates are a ridiculous way to credit consumers

for sale prices on appliances and the money should be taken off at the

cash register as it is at Best Buy, Home Depot and Lowes. =20

T. Manganello

(please withhold email address)

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I am having the same challenge getting Sears Rebate Center to actually mail my rebate to me. Does anyone have advice on how I can get my rebate? I have been trying to get the rebate for over 6 months now. - Laskowski

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Fortune 100 company = big, bloated, inefficient, foreign financed and consumer adverse.

I try to limit all my consumer activities to local, small-time businesses because they understand the need to make customers happy. I may not get the best price always, but if I ever have an issue, I can drive a few miles and resolve things amiably in a few minutes.

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I received a rebate check in the incorrect amount. I wrote several letters and never received a response. Now, Sears is saying, "It's too late to rebate the money because the program expired."

No more rebate purchasing for me unless it's instant (at the cash register).

Please withhold email address.

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Hi - I've had the same issue. Been struggling with a getting my promised rebate for 6 months now. I've called the rebate center 6 times! Each time they see I am due a rebate and say the check was sent to my address. Their system shows my check is uncashed. For whatever reason my name and address on the check is too hard to deliver?! I've emailed and called Sears customer service. They have the same answer. That they can do nothing else for me. To call the rebate center. I've spent alot of money at Sears and to be treated this way is going to definitely influence me to not buy from them. But then - they obviously won't miss my money.