STATEMENT
BY CYBERREBATE.COM, INC.
Wednesday, May 16, 2001; 11:00am EDT
CyberRebate.com, Inc., an on-line retailer headquartered in Long
Island, NY, filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 in
the Eastern District of New York at 10a.m. today. As of the
filing time, CyberRebate.com suspended operations on its Web
site. Questions regarding customers, vendors and others affected
by today's action will be resolved as the bankruptcy process
proceeds. Sadly, most employees were released this morning. A
small staff will remain to take the company through bankruptcy.
More information will be available once the bankruptcy process
gets underway. Customers will be contacted regarding their rights
and remedies.
Here is my original
Cyberrebate story, doesn't really matter now, other than I was trying to tell
people at the time they were crooked.
I made an order with Cyberrebate.com and didnt
get everything I ordered. I wrote a letter to them asking where
it was and they replied:
I apologize that this item was not included in
your order. I wanted to let you know that a
credit will be issued to your credit card. Please
allow 3-4 days for the credit to be issued. We
wanted to let you know that once the credit has
been issued it will take about 7-10 days for it
to be posted to your account. We are working on
being able to reship items, but we are unable to
do this right now. Therefore, we encourage you to
visit our site again and you can reorder the
product.
If there is anything else I can do for you,
please let me know!
Sincerely,
Josh
Not too bad, but I wanted what I paid shipping/handling for:
I guess not, I see that I must be finished doing
business with you people. I told you I did not
want a credit for that item (clearly stated in my
email above), but obviously you do not read what
I write. The shipping charge that I paid was for
THREE items, not TWO. I sent that message several
times and finally you reply to it, but you didn't
read it. Or just ignored what I wrote. Whatever,
I cannot tolerate that kind of shoddiness so I
must refrain from doing any further business
here. Thanks for nothing.
Figured I was done with them till I got my credit card refund
and my rebates...but
You jerks are really getting on my nerves now.
After refusing to honor the order that I made,
thereby screwing me out of the shipping charge I
paid for THREE items, some bonehead there (Josh)
tells me he's gonna credit my charge card for the
$37.99 that was overcharged. This order was made
on 12-5-99 and the credit should have occurred no
more than two weeks later than that. Now it is
1-14-00 and I see no credits on my credit card.
What is your problem? Now I will be forced to
dispute this charge on my credit card and pay the
full amount until they credit me because some
jackass (Josh) in your group neglects to act
responsible with my money.
I thought in the beginning that this wasn't a bad
deal even though you charge outrageous prices for
your merchandise (24 CD Collector $24.99--this
item is $5 at Walmart). But I figured what the
hell, if it has a 100% rebate it can't be bad.
But I thought YOU would handle the rebate and it
would be a pretty fast process--until I found out
that it may be up to two months before I see my
rebate! That's just as bad as the crappy rebates
you find at CompUSA. So I sit around waiting 2
months not having any clue if you have even got
my form I sent in, constantly looking at this
ignorant PENDING page that never changes. Then
you screw my credit card up. Real nice work. I
guess I now have enough information to add you to
my Companies That Stink pages at
As your account was credited yesterday for the
items never sent with your order, please let us
know if for any reason you do not see the credit
appear on your credit card in the next ten days .
We are very interested in righting this wrong. If
there is anything else I can do for you, please
let me know.
Sincerely,
Aaron
The reason I got that last one was that about 2 days earlier a
real nice woman called me and acted interested in my plight. She
must've been a temp employee. Now comes the part where you wonder
why your rebate check hasn't arrived yet.
Thanks for writing. In order to serve you more
efficiently, you can now track your rebate status
online! To do this, please take the following
steps:
1. Go to the "My Account" Page (by
clicking on the "My Account" button).
2. Enter your login (e-mail address and
password).
3. You will be brought to your Order History Page
with all of your previous orders. Choose the
order you wish to see the status for, and click
on the "Shipped" link for that order.
4. This will bring you to the Order page, with
all your items listed. In the "Rebate
Status" Column, you will see either the
words "Pending, Complete, or Invalid".
Clicking on one of these words will make a screen
pop up, which will show you the status of your
rebate.
Please note that the rebate departments take
approximately 6-8 weeks to process a rebate
submission, including registering that it has
been received, and to provide a status update on
it. Until that time, thestatus will say
"Pending."
Subject: Re: How do I look up the status of my
rebate?
From: MADwand@usa.com (MADwand)
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2000 23:25:16 GMT
How about just answering my question? it's been
well over two months and still no clue as to when
this is ever going to happen. What's the problem
NOW? looks like I'll never have this monkey off
my back. This is the second time I write this
particular message because no one is answering my
questions. You can be assured that I will be
making it a top priority to add your website to
the list of crappy businesses I have had dealings
with at my businesses that stink" site at
Thank you for your recent e-mail. I apologize
that you did not receive a proper response to
your question. At this time, we cannot verify
that any specific submission has arrived at our
mail-processing department. We receive tens of
thousands of rebate submissions per month and
process them in the order that they come in. At
the time it is processed, your mailing will both
be entered into our computer system and checked
for completion. Therefore, all submissions that
we receive state “Pending” (under
Rebate Status on the account page) until the
forms are actually processed. I suggest that you
check back by accessing your Account (on our
website) approximately eight weeks after you sent
in your submission in order to get a status
update. Please be assured that you can expect
your rebate checks to arrive within 10-14 weeks
(as stated on the website) from the time you sent
your submissions. If there is anything else I can
do for you, please let me know!
Sincerely,
Josh
Now I start getting mad...I send this mail TWICE, look at the
two dates.
Subject: Re: How do I look up the status of my
rebate?
From: MADwand@usa.com (MADwand)
#1. Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2000 00:05:38 GMT
#2. Date: Mon, 06 Mar 2000 18:59:21 GMT
I find it truly amazing the number of people who
work for your company that simply refuse to READ
my emails every time. I will say this for about
the 5th time now: IT HAS BEEN PENDING WELL OVER 2
MONTHS FROM THE TIME I SENT IT IN. How hard is
that to understand?
To: MADwand@usa.com (MADwand)
Subject: Re: How do I look up the status of my
rebate?
I apologize for the delay in getting back to you.
I also apologize for any aggravation that our
misunderstanding of your issue may have caused
you. I have personally gone through our files and
noted that all your information has been
received. Your rebate check is going out with our
next batch. Expect to receive your rebate check
within the next four weeks. If there is anything
else I can do for you, please let me know!
Sincerely,
Abe
What?!? Ok, so new question...why is the next batch not due
till 6-5-00 even though you just told me FOUR WEEKS MORE??? This
is the middle of March, the first week of June is almost 3 months
away. (BTW that was a LIE, no check has been sent to me)
Well your rebate status form says 6-5-00, which
is approximately 6 months from the date I sent my
forms in, quite a ways from the 8 weeks some
moron told me in February, isn't it? It's even 4
months longer than your website states, as well
as all of the devoted customer testimonials. Tell
me something, are any of them real? Do any of
those satisfied customers really exist? Or do you
make them all up just to have something to write
on that page?
Since I do not believe that anyone on the planet
has ever successfully obtained a rebate from your
company, I am going to set up a website devoted
to finding that out. I shall ask your customers
if they are aware of anyone ever getting a
rebate, and if they are, was it within a 6 month
period?
Your webpage will be found at www.madwand.org/cyber.htm
It'll take me a day or two to get it up there,
but it'll be a lot quicker than waiting for a
cyberrebate.com rebate, I can guarantee that!
Feel free to add a link to your testimonials
page.
Our processing time is 10-14 weeks from the time
that we receive your submission. We do our best
to provide the rebates as quickly as possible,
and we often send out rebate checks earlier than
the anticipated 10-14 weeks.
Going in the order that we receive the rebate
submissions, we follow a schedule by which we
sort, verify, enter data, verify again, print
checks (which is done twice a month) and mail
them. If there is anything else I can do for you,
please let me know!
Yeah, you could answer the question that everyone
keeps ignoring...why does it take 6 months? You
people keep quoting 4-8 weeks, 10-14
weeks--nothing near the 6 months that it is going
to take according to the status window that pops
up. You DO realize, don't you, that 6 months is a
helluva lot more than 14 weeks? Why did Abe tell
me below that I would be getting my check in the
next 4 weeks, which would be sometime in April,
when the status window says June? Try answering
the question this time instead of reading from
the manual, it ain't working!
Why don't you answer my last question posed to
you on Mon, 20 Mar 2000 as recorded on www.madwand.org/cyber.htm?
I quote:
"why does it take 6 months? You people keep
quoting 4-8 weeks, 10-14 weeks--nothing near the
6 months that it is going to take according to
the status window that pops up. You DO realize,
don't you, that 6 months is a helluva lot more
than 14 weeks? Why did Abe tell me below that I
would be getting my check in the next 4 weeks,
which would be sometime in April, when the status
window says June? Try answering the question this
time instead of reading from the manual, it ain't
working!"
On Mon, 13 Mar 2000 Abe LIED to me saying:
"I have personally gone through our files
and noted that all your information has been
received. Your rebate check is going out with our
next batch. Expect to receive your rebate check
within the next four weeks."
You certainly have earned your lowest possible
rating at the BBB!
Thank you for writing back. I apologize for the
incorrect information you received. We make every
effort to provide our customers with accurate
information. Our records indicate that we
received your rebate submissions on 2/25/00. Our
processing time is 10-14 weeks from the
postmarked date on your rebate submissions. Your
rebate checks are scheduled to go out on
approximately 6/2/00 - this is within the 10-14
week period as stated on our site. Please accept
the coupon below for any inconvenience that may
have been caused:
Subject: Re: Crooks or liars?--Order Number:
105745
From: MADwand@usa.com (MADwand)
Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2000 00:16:52 GMT
I don't know how that can be as I mailed it on or
about December 15, 1999. I see no way that it
could have taken TWO MONTHS to get to you. Is
this yet ANOTHER lie, or do you have proof you
can show me that you received them (both on the
same day) over two months later?
Thank you for writing back. While I cannot
provide you with proof, I can tell you that the
postmarked date on your submissions are the dates
that our Processing Center enters in the
computer. You can expect to receive your checks
within the next 2 weeks. If there is anything
else that I can do for you, please let me know.
Subject: Re: Crooks or liars?--Order Number:
105745
From: MADwand@usa.com (MADwand)
Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2000 01:07:18 GMT
That's crap and you know it. You thieves are
stealing interest off my money while I sit here
waiting, then you lie about postmarks. There is
no way in hell I took over 2 months to send in
those forms. I sent them within 2 days of
receiving my order. And why is it going to take
two MORE weeks? Your website now
says that 6/2/00 is the date of the check. As I
suspected, you people are crooks.
I'm sorry that you are unhappy with our 10-14
week policy. Please check our site as this policy
is clearly stated there. You will be receiving
your checks shortly. If there is anything else
that I can do for you, please let me know.
It is a 6 month policy and I am sorry you feel
like preying on innocent people. You should have
read the email below. Now it is your turn to send
me another patronizing email instead of doing the
right thing and admitting you received my rebate
submissions in December like you really did.
First, I'd like to introduce myself to you. My
name is Lani and I am the Director of the
Customer Care department here at CyberRebate.com.
Helena has informed me of your situation and I'd
like to sincerely apologize for the negative
experience that you have had with our company.
It is highly possible that your submissions were
received in December and a data entry error was
made on our end. Unfortunately, I cannot, at this
time, go back and make that correction now as I
was not aware of the issue until now. I'd like to
reassure you that your rebate checks have been
issued with our last batch of rebate checks and
you should be receiving them shortly.
CyberRebate.com prides itself on being an honest
and ethical company, however, unfortunately, as
with all companies sometimes errors do occur. I
am hoping that when you do receive your rebate
checks your faith in our company is restored.
Again, I do sincerely apologize for the error!
Sincerely,
Lani M.
Director, Customer Care
CyberRebate.com
We would like to know about your experience with
our Customer Care Department. Please send any
comments or suggestions to
Feedback@cyberrebate.com.
The odyssey continues...these people either do not know what
the hell they are doing, or don't give a damn. Every email they
write conflicts with the website and all the other emails they
send. Their status page says that my check was cut on the 2nd of
June, that was another lie,
I still haven't gotten it.
Finally, the day I've waited for is
here, 2 days short of 7 full months from the day I sent in my
submissions. The checks are here for a total of $36.99. They are
dated 6-8-00, further proof of
this company's lies, they stated 6-2-00 on their site. Now if
they don't bounce, I'll be ok.
