I am so sick of this whole thing. The goofs in Minnesota denied our rebate because it was an “online purchase”.
I go back to the orignial issue
As we all know, the whole rebate process was a nightmare due to a lack of foresight and infastructure to support the number of hits. We made two attempts, one for a washer rebate, one for a refrigerator.
With two of us trying from different IP addresses, we both managed to get in on the one for the washer at the same time – as I was filling out the form, my wife called and said she got the one for the washer, so I stopped that process and started in on the refrigerator rebate. I was not able to get an actual rebate reservation for the refrigerator, but managed to get on the waiting list for one. That only took about 7 hours, lol.
When my wife got home, I asked her if she had printed the rebate forms out – she had not. She did not have the Web Submission ID, so we waited on the email to come – which we didn’t get (we actually did, see below).
So at this time, we have no web submission ID – we start looking for a phone # to call to verify if we actually got the rebate. Digging around on Twitter #txrebate, we found an 877 for the Call Center. My wife called and the call center could not locate a rebate or waiting list entry for us.
In hindsight, I should have known at that time that something was wrong as I was able to get on the waiting list for the refrigerator and had a web submission ID and had printed the forms, so at the very least, they should have been able to locate that entry. My wife’s name is pronounced “Sherry” but is spelled “Cheree”, so a typo on the call center’s part is a likely cause of not finding our entries.
Having done all we could and feeling screwed by the State, I bitched and moaned here and on Twitter a bit, we both used the feedback form the state set up to provide feedback, and we finally decided to just put it all behind us and buy a washer – we had been putting up with a leaky one for a few months waiting on this rebate program to kick in.
We could have gotten in the car and driven the 10 miles one way to our local Lowes store, but we didn’t. There was no need to adhere to any of the conditions of the rebate submission since we had been told by the Call Center that there was no record of a rebate for us.
Instead, we did the easiest thing – jumped online and placed the order – saved us 20 miles worth of gas. Our local Lowes store (in Texas) brought the washer out the next day, hauled off the old one – everything’s cool.
Over two weeks later, we get an email from energy.efficiency@cpa.state.tx.us stating among other things
April 28, 2010
Thank you for taking the time to submit your feedback regarding your experience with the Texas Trade Up Appliance Rebate Program. We know that many hardworking Texans spent hours trying to reserve a rebate. We recognize your frustrations and concerns.
Our records indicate that your rebate requests were accepted, even if you did not receive a final confirmation via web. Below are your web submission ID numbers for your records:
The next day I get an email from someone at SECOStimulus@cpa.state.tx.us stating
We understand that you were given erroneous information about your rebate status and thus purchased an appliance outside the official purchase period.
We are working to resolve your issue but need the following information from you to do so:
Name the reservation was placed under
Address
Appliance Category
Email address (if different than this one)
Phone number
So, I give them the info and get the following back:
We sincerely apologize for the misinformation you received from the call center regarding your rebate status. This email is to confirm that your rebate for an Energy Star washer purchase on April 10 will be honored. Please send in the appropriate forms and purchase information to the address on your confirmation page. If you need to reprint your forms, you may do so at https://www.txrebates.com/
So we gather all the docs including copies of the emails from SECOStimulus, make copies, send them in. BTW, the address given on the rebate website and on the forms is incorrect – the address verifier from Pitney Bowes that is used by Paypal simply would not print the postage using the address given.
Then we get the denial letter claiming the rebate won’t be paid becuase it was an online purchase.
There were two requirements that we apparently didn’t meet – 1) we purchased onilne, and 2) our receipt did not show the store’s physical address.
I think these stipulations were to prevent people from purchasing from an online or out of state retailer thus avoiding the Texas sales tax that the comptroller so badly needs. The Lowes website requires you to pick a store location to make purchases online – we picked the store in Burleson Texas.
Our receipt clearly shows that we paid state sales tax.
The state is willing to make an exception on the date, but not the fact that we purchased it online?
I maintain that had we known we had gotten the rebate reserved that we never would have made that purchase online, nor would we have made the purchase prior to the qualified rebate period – we had been waiting on this for months.
