Bloody ‘ell. My experiences were nowhere near that bad.
Mine was through NewEgg and involved a Mail-in rebate from the Mfr on a new piece of equipment. I had to mail them a copy of the NewEgg Sales receipt proving that I had made the purchase during the timeframe specified when the sales was ongoing, and the Original Shipping Label from the box it arrived in.
Sent them in, watched online as they acknowledged receipt of My documents, and waited the required three months for My refund. I would enquire occasionally about the status and each time their Status Page would state: “Your order is being processed. Please be patient.”
After the 90 days had passed with no refund and no changes in the “status”, I finally emailed the Mfr in an attempt to discover what was going on. Finally got a reply: ‘The information you provided does not relate to any sale we had ongoing during the timeframe specified.’ Not a direct quote but the best I can remember now.
Furious, I emailed NewEgg and lodged a complaint, and they were kind enough to immediately give Me the rebate amount from their own company instead of the OEM.
Have never trusted any rebate offers after that, but am very happy with NewEgg for their quick responce to My difficulties.
My main experience with rebates has been with Kaspersky Internet Security. They have a “free after rebate” deal about 3x/year. So I have not paid for KIS for at least 4 years. And, they do eventually pay up after a few weeks. I also received my rebate from Staples for some copy paper I had purchased. So, rebates can actually work.