Adobe Rebate Ripoff

[The Merc]

In November 2008 I upgraded to Photoshop Elements V6 - I submitted my paperwork to the appropriate Adobe rebate center in Niagra Falls. Toward the end of January 2009 (23 Jan 2009) I called Adobe to find out where the rebate check was and was told that the "rebate handlers" in Niagara Falls had gone "belly-up" - I had to resubmit my $20 rebate again, this time to El Paso, Texas. Well, I did - then waited until 2 March 2009 and called again. I was told by "Mary" that they had no record of my rebate, but they were processing allot and should call back in 2 weeks. Four weeks later, on 2 April 2009, I called - no record of either complete submission. This discussion, with "Vonna" (were talking to people in India now), was escalated to a supervisor - who promptly disconnected me. I called Adobe Corporate Offices in San Jose, CA - "Vasty" said someone who was an American (I'd had it with the "no decision" Indians) would call me. OK! Great! Ummmm. Nope! I received an email with a case I.D. and the same 800 telephone number back to India. I again called San Jose and was told "that's how they do it, and that the Indians speak great English"! I guess my point was missed: "Give me someone who can MAKE A DECISION" about getting me my $20 rebate for being a faithful customer for at least the past 6 years on several Adobe products! Result: No help - lots of running in circles. Submit, resubmit, resubmit again! Therefore, I will never buy another Adobe product.

Eric A. Nicolaus
Jefferson, Georgia
E: ***@nicolausassociates.com

[pupick]

If you do not realize by now that the rebate game is just that then you have learned a valuable lesson.
Never count on receiving a rebate.
Vendors pretend to have a "sale" price fueled by rebates because they know that a significant percentage or buyers will never send in the rebate, they can ignore/lose a high percentage of rebates and never get complaints and, finally, consumers have absolutely no recourse when a rebate is ignored.
For products that sell at Adobe's price points, including Elements, Adobe runs its business like they were a second tier, knock-off oriental carpet seller.
That attitude may explain why fundamental programming bugs persist through several revisions of high end products, like the Bridge portion of Photoshop CS3 and CS4, and why they will only update the raw converter for the newest version of Photoshop every time a dSLR manufacturer minutely changes its raw file format.

[tkloth]

The part about not having any recourse is not true. A letter to your state's States Attorney works wonders. We waited 18 months for a rebate from AT&T. I got the rebate two weeks after I contacted our states States Attorney.

Tim K
"pupick" <***@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:yQPBl.11502$***@flpi144.ffdc.sbc.com...
If you do not realize by now that the rebate game is just that then you have learned a valuable lesson.
Never count on receiving a rebate.
Vendors pretend to have a "sale" price fueled by rebates because they know that a significant percentage or buyers will never send in the rebate, they can ignore/lose a high percentage of rebates and never get complaints and, finally, consumers have absolutely no recourse when a rebate is ignored.
For products that sell at Adobe's price points, including Elements, Adobe runs its business like they were a second tier, knock-off oriental carpet seller.
That attitude may explain why fundamental programming bugs persist through several revisions of high end products, like the Bridge portion of Photoshop CS3 and CS4, and why they will only update the raw converter for the newest version of Photoshop every time a dSLR manufacturer minutely changes its raw file format.