Don't bite on Meritline's internal rebates!

Living Room Bargain Basement
#1

I know folks have heard this all before, but it needs to be repeated until Meritline feels a little pain. No doubt I let my greedy desire to score a good deal get the better of me. I saw the warnings from others, but DANG! if I didn’t place an order anyway.

Verbatim paid their $9.00 rebate very quickly…within six weeks. Meritline has passed sixteen weeks and won’t respond to email or voicemail…and I’ve tried every email account and customer service phone number I can find. I’ve been tactful and polite, but that doesn’t seem to matter.

I left a review over at ResellerRatings.com about the transaction. You ought to go over there and read the reviews. There is a very strange and very obvious pattern of “Very Satisfied” and “Somewhat Satisfied” reviews immediately after any “Dissatisfied” input. It’s uncanny! You don’t suppose they pad their ranking do you?

Anyway, I get the DORK award for thinking I’d ever get my little $4.00 rebate from Meritline. That must be a very profitable business model for them. I wonder what percentage of their internal rebate offers ever get paid out…without a fight. I don’t think I’ll be going back to Meritline for anything.

#2

so did you call meritline? what was their excuse?

#3

The ONLY live contact I’ve had was when I called Meritline’s corporate or main business number. I spoke to the operator (on 3 occasions) and she would only offer me the opportunity to leave a message at two different extensions. I never got a response and I have not been able to get the operator to put me through to a living, breathing person.

The answer is NO, I have not been able to talk to anyone about the rebate. Heck, I don’t even know if they even got it, since they don’t acknowledge the receipt of internal rebates via email. If they make it impossible to communicate, how can you ever expect to resolve anything?

#4

have you tried the meritline forum? they have a coupons/rebates subsection and it seems like they have customer service reps that monitor it.

#5

there are posts everywhere about how crappy meritline is in regards to customer service and honoring rebates. You’re preaching to the choir here on cdfreaks. you’d be better off channeling that energy into resolving your situation :slight_smile:

if i find any other phone numbers/contacts i’ll post them here

#6

In spite of the good deals Meritline seems to have from time to time, I prefer to stick with Newegg. They recently honored a rebate for me when Verbatim declined it, and then told me to keep the amount they had credited to my credit card as a “thank you” for being a good customer when Verbatim had second thoughts and paid the rebate. That was a $30 rebate! (To be completely honest, I have to admit Newegg credited only $25 since that was the max the service rep could authorize on his own.)

I’ve never heard of that kind of service from Meritline.

#7

Oops! I guess that’s what I get for now doing my homework and checking before I ordered. Just placed my order for a BENQ DW1650 2 days ago. Guess I can forget about the $6 rebate.

#8

haha yeah pretty much.

i wouldn’t say it’s 100% chance you won’t get it, but I’d say there’s about a 75% chance you’ll have to do some legwork in order to get the rebate.

#9

resellerratings is a lot of bullcrap - much like ebay ratings.

I recommend you visit ripoffreport.com and file a complaint there. File a complaint with the BBB as well.

#10

Given Meritline’s rating I seriously doubt they are members of the BBB. As for resellerratings being alot of bullcrap, how is that so? Just curious if you have some info that we don’t know about. Anyways, @the original post Meritline’s shady business practices are well known. Sorry, you had to learn the hard way.

#11

I don’t know if I’d say resellerratings are rubbish, as they were right on about Meritline, and I have seen that pattern of “padding” after “bad” input from a customer. Rule of thumb is that if you see an “I like (this vendor)” with nothing else, or a review in general with no substance (no concrete information about product performance), it is highly likely someone is “padding.” Sure, there are people who legitimately put only that for a “review,” but unless you see concrete evidence and feedback about a product that lets you know both pros and cons, then lets you make an informed decision, assume it’s invalid. If you leave somewhere with no better idea about the product that what the manufacturer already said, pass it up and buy something that’s been seriously reviewed, that lets you know pretty much what you’ll be getting. :wink:

#12

Never use Meritline. Rebates are crap.
Shop4tech offers same or better prices and good service too.

#13

Not necessarily. Back in February I bought a 100-disc spindle of
Verbatim 16x DVD-R’s. There were two rebates, a $25 one from
the manufacturer and a $6 one from Meritline. Looking at my notes,
I sent in the Meritline one on 03/09, actually two days late (needed
to be postmarked within two weeks of purchase). I finally received
the Meritline rebate check on 06/10. Maybe I just got lucky. :confused:

BTW, you’re going to love that burner. :clap: :clap: :clap: