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This is a common scenario for most nerds. You have a gadget on the mind. It might be a monitor, a video card, a phone, or in my case a notbook. You do the research, memorize the specs, model names, prices, and they you wait for a reason to bite. That reason ranges from waiting for a new model release to justifying its usage, but almost always that reason is cost.
So months go by and I am hounding the deal sites ready to pounce on a Atom based 10″ netbook as soon as the prices get reasonable.
Out of the blue I stumbled upon a deal for the MSI U100-279 for a mere $384 after a $50 mail in rebate. Now im not a big fan in general of mail in rebates, but that was one deal I could not say no to and I bit.
We’ll save the story of how Buy.com managed to charge me twice for the device for another day. So I get my Netbook and promptly submit the barrage of paperwork required. This process involved filling out an incredibly buggy online form, then submitting the original UPC, the printout from the web form, and packing slip.
The waiting game begins.
Several months later it occurs to me that those greasy chumps owe me 50 bones. I look up the status of my rebate and am inform that that status is “Rejected” and that there are no re-submissions permitted. I double checked my photocopies of my submissions to ensure I obeyed all the rules. A quick visit to google showed that I was not the only sucker in this scam.
This is ridiculous MSI. I love the netbook, but ingrain this in you mind- MSI does not honor their rebates!
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February 13th, 2009 at 12:38 am
Wow, that that was so NOT NICE of them to just ignore the rebates. Right now with the recession, trying to save money any way we can is important.
February 13th, 2009 at 12:38 am
Oh yeah, I forgot to add that I love the cat photo!
February 27th, 2009 at 11:41 am
Mine says approved but I haven’t seen a check in the mail and I submitted it back in December. hmm.
March 3rd, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Just going through the process myself MSI customer support tells me a lot of mail was lost or not delivered so they will not honour $150 rebate. Just a con. Dont give in we need to all email them and make like hard for the scammers. May not get my $150 but I intend to ensure that they lose more in sales by rubbishing them.
March 24th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
I bought the same notebook and got stiffed with the same rebate. My status has been INITIAL since I checked it a week after I sent in my paperwork that was also perfectly prepared. So last night I emailed them and asked them what INITIAL means and they emailed me back saying they didn’t receive my rebate. That was the entire email: We didn’t receive your rebate. What a joke. Unfortunately, the joke is on them because I will hound them until they wish I would die. Sometimes OCD has its rewards. One time it took me days to get tires on my car at a Tire’s Plus when I finally had to bust into the garage and demand that they give me my car as the guy was just preparing to beat my tie rod back into shape to fit over my wheel well. I submitted a bill for the repairs it took to fix the front end of the car and I charged them for the leave I had to take waiting and leaving the car for days. I emailed them every, single day for about 80 days when they finally sent me a check for the full amount.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
I bought an MSI GeForce 9600GT from newegg in January, and finally received my rebate today, from MSI themselves.
May 6th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Good for you, Aaron. My status is still INITIAL and I haven’t had time to launch my campaign to recoop my money. I may have to eat this one.
June 4th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
MSI is a ripoff. They screwed me out of 6 in the past 18 months. I’ve decided to initiate a class action suit against them. I need as many co-plaintiffs as possible. If you would like to participate, please email me at mribecchi@live.com. In the mean time, I suggest we victims leave negative reviews (in regards to their rebates) on all their products and on as many sites as possible. Also, start hounding the vendors who carry their products. Lastly, contact the FTC because this is FRAUD. If enough of us do these things MSI will pay in more ways than one.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:24 am
If it says “Initial” – they probably never received your mail. I have not had any issues with MSI rebates, which leads me to believe that perhaps many people do not follow the instructions perfectly. They have it set up so if you so much as spell your name wrong they are going to reject you. That’s good business, it saves them money.. not good for us though!
October 23rd, 2009 at 1:07 pm
I have submitted hundreds of rebates in recent years, but I have never received one from MSI (or OCZ). Logitech and Norton have paid essentially all submissions. Corsair, Asus, Samsung, and most others pay intermittently. In my opinion, you should always assume that the price sans rebate is the actual price for any MSI or OCZ product!
October 27th, 2009 at 9:04 am
I looked up the status of my $30 MSI rebate and was informed that the status is “Rejected” and that there are no re-submissions permitted.
I sent in everything the rebate asked for.
No more MSI products for me, ever!!
October 28th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Guys I appreciate you taking the time to post here to share your stories with others — it sounds like MSI is cheating a lot of customers silently out of a lot of money.