Consumer World Blog by MrConsumer

[See 6/22 update at end.] I love Panda anti-virus software, but this is the story of their rebate gone awry.

Back in March, it was advertised free after two rebates ($30 and $35) at CompUSA. MrConsumer hussled over there and snagged a box for future use. I mailed both rebates to Parago (the rebate processor) in Miami, FL, at the same PO box number. They may have even been in the same envelope.

The $30 rebate arrived on schedule, but the $35 had not been received after 8 weeks. So in mid-May I called Parago and they had a real hard time finding my rebate under promo number 05-98682. In fact, they had no record of receiving it. They said I should get it in 30 days, however. Fast forward to mid-June... still no rebate, and a total of five calls to Parago were made. I was told the real number for the rebate is 06-98682 ... but looking under that number, no rebates have been processed because of a "technical problem." Today I learned that the offer number printed on the rebate form was in fact incorrect. So presumably everyone who sent in the rebate to the incorrect offer number just wound up in limbo. No notification, no processing, no rebate. I have resubmitted it again under the correct promo number at Parago and Panda's suggestion.

What makes this fiasco worse, is that I contacted all the relevant parties multiple times: Parago, CompUSA, and Panda. Not one of them took responsibility for the problem, and most pointed fingers elsewhere. CompUSA said deal with Parago. Panda said deal with Parago, and they would not send me a $35 check for their rebate promotion gone haywire. And Parago said there is an error and technical problem.

Clearly, MrConsumer is not the only one affected by this bungling ... and it still isn't resolved. Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter.

UPDATE 6/22: Early this morning the vice president of sales at Panda called me and was very friendly and quite interested in getting the problem brought to the attention of the proper group at Panda. I subsequently received an apologetic email from the head of their customer service department. And just now, Parago sent an email confirming that my $35 rebate had been received and was in the final stages of processing.

In all, the number of contacts required to obtain a solution was inexcusable:

Panda: 1 calls and 5 emails to cust serv; 2 phone messages to sales VP

Parago: 5 phone calls

CompUSA: 3 emails

In the end all appears to have been worked out (and hopefully for all the other consumers who participated in the offer)... but no consumer should have to spend the amount of time MrConsumer did on this matter.

For more consumer news, visit Consumer World.

# posted by Edgar @ 5:55 PM