The pictures that I have been taking with an Olympus SP350 camera and posting the images on flickr, the camera had a rebate for $50, which I sent in during the week of March 19th after purchasing the digital camera before going into work.
I sent in the rebate with all the required materials and waited... and waited... and waited... After about 2 or 3 weeks I called "Olympus Rebate Center" and was told that they didn't recieve my rebate submission... I got pretty upset and asked to talk to a supervisor, to which I was told the same thing, I then asked to talk to a manager and was again told the same thing, that they didn't recieve my rebate, however about 2 days after calling I get an email notification that they had recieved my rebate submission on April 11th. Ok, so according to the rebate terms, it stated that I need to wait 8 to 10 weeks for them to send the money after my rebate had been processed and validated.
I waited as stated in the rebate terms and emailed Olympus to check the status of my rebate. I got a reply to call customer service and so I did, upon calling them, I was told that I had to call a different number, the number for their "rebate center" to check on the status of my rebate. I replied to that email and told them of my last experience calling for a status, however I don't think that they have a live person answering emails or they have a preset reply, cause it seemed as if they didn't read my email and got the exact same response the next time they replied. I even ended up emailing the parent company in Japan and was directed back to Olympus USA and didn't get a response then...
I was pretty frustrated with the whole situation. About a week later, about 11 and a half weeks after getting no where, I get an email again stating that my rebate has been validated and that they will be sending out a check, but to allow up to 30 days for it to arrive... NO WAY AM I GOING TO WAIT THAT LONG!!! It's already been 12 weeks at this point, why should I have to wait an additional 4 weeks to get a rebate that was supposed to get back to me in 8 to 10 weeks?
I ended up going through the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) web site and filed a complaint with them and also found about 2 sites that you can leave complaints on regarding a company that you've had troubles with and posted my issues with Olympus... About a day after that, I then emailed Olympus and informed them that I had filed a complaint with the FTC and posted my complaints on 2 other sites... Low and behold! I go to check the status of my rebate and find that it has been mailed on July 5th... then on July 10th, I get an email stating that my submission for a rebate has been recieved.
I go through the link to check out what it was about and find that it was for a Garmin GPSMAP 76Cx, 76CSx and 76CS Plus and that the rebate is for a $100.00. I then thought to myself, I didn't buy a GPS, even if I did, I would have remembered if I did. At this point I suspect that it was a mistake and that I'll be getting an email stating such, however I didn't, the next day I check the link, it stated that my submission was valid and that a check was being sent. Ok, so I still didn't believe it, not until I have the check in hand. Then on Saturday, July 15 (after the postal carrier arrived late), I got the check...
Now, I suspect that the company that actually handles the rebate, Paragon, messed up big time and someone from Olympus got on their case to resolve the issue. I don't agree with them going through another company to resolve this issue, but then again, I can't complain, basically I got a $150.00 off my camera, however I don't think I'll be getting another Olympus when I get a digital SLR camera.
I've been looking at the Canon D30 and the Nikon D200, the Canon is least expensive by about a thousand, it has the same megapixels as the Nikon... I'll have to do more research cause at first, I was leaning more towards the Nikon, but with the New Canon D30 available, it's looking pretty good.
つづく ( To be continued... )
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