In May, Mouse Print*’s sister site, Consumer World, promoted a great bargain of the week: Buy Norton Anti-Virus 2010 for $39.99 at OfficeDepot, and get THREE rebates — a $20 debit card, a $20 check, and two movie tickets worth up to $24. Few offers are ever as generous as this one.

Of course, the trouble with rebates, is that you always have to monitor fulfillment and occasionally have to fight with the rebate fulfillment company to get what you are owed. That was the case with these rebates for MrConsumer, and we wonder if others may have had similar difficulties as well. [Please comment below if you ran into a problem getting your rebate on this offer.]

On May 9th, MrConsumer purchased the proper Norton product and mailed away the three rebates in one envelope (despite a warning that doing so might cause a delay). Periodically he checked SymantecRebates.com, the website where one can track rebate submissions. Nothing was showing up as having been received. So on June 7, he contacted the rebate fulfillment house (Parago) via their toll-free number. He was directed to fax in copies of all the rebates in three separate faxes.

*MOUSE PRINT: From the rebate form:

“Make a copy of your rebate submission for future reference.”

Now you know why that provision is included. If you haven’t copied everything you mailed, you will not be able to resubmit the form and proofs of purchase if something goes wrong.

To make a long story short(er), despite faxing in all the paperwork, not once, but three times over the course of the next three weeks at the request of the customer service department at Parago, one of the rebates — the one for the free movie tickets — simply never made it into their rebate tracking system (until days after the third fax).

MrConsumer poked around online on the day the submission was faxed for the third time to find someone to rectify this situation at Parago. (The customer service folks at the call center in the Dominican Republic simply could not go beyond the “fax it again” routine.) After finding the name of the CEO, an email was quickly dispatched to her.

Exactly 11 minutes later, the CEO responded saying that she would look into the matter, and later she called MrConsumer to relate her findings. Wow, wow, wow. [Note that this response was not because MrConsumer invoked the name of Consumer World or his prior position as an assistant attorney general, but rather because this top executive, a co-founder of the company, takes these types of problems seriously when brought to her attention.]

The CEO even indicated that she skipped a board meeting call to try to get to the bottom of the problem. In short, no excuses were made for the failure of their systems, and a humble apology was offered. She also arranged for the missing movie tickets to be delivered by overnight express delivery the next day.

And they arrived as promised. An additional unpleasant surprise, however, was a notation on the movie “tickets” that said they expired on August 31.

*MOUSE PRINT: The terms of the rebate offered stated:

“Tickets expire 12/31/10”

The CEO promised to check with Symantec to get to the bottom of that issue.

Before we let Parago, the fulfillment house, off the hook so easily because of the extraordinary customer service provided by their CEO, something seems to be wrong in the processing of some Symantec (Norton) rebates, based on MrConsumer’s current and past experiences.

In two out of the three rebates for Norton Anti-Virus 2010, MrConsumer received a status email from Parago, indicating the submission was invalid.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Missing proof of purchase? No, it was included. In fact, two copies were included for one of the rebates. Missing email confirmation? No, this was a retail store purchase at Office Depot, so no email confirmation is even possible or required for a brick and mortar store purchase.

A call to Parago’s customer service department quickly resulted in an instant approval of the denied rebates. When asked why this mistake happened in one of the cases, the representative simple said “stuff happens.” Baloney.

Parago’s CEO explained what happened:

“When the resub was done via fax (and the campaign was in an open status), it was invalidated because the campaign rules require an “original” UPC code.  Your original, however, was sent with your original envelope, so you had no way of submitting an original. Symantec allows us to override when this happens, but the override can only get triggered when the customer calls, which is how you ultimately were made valid.”

Of course, it makes no sense for customer service to tell a caller whose original submission never was received or failed to make it into Parago’s computer system to fax in a duplicate, if the duplicate is going to be automatically rejected.

Every rejection, right or wrong,  is money in the pocket of the company offering the rebate. And that is how manufacturers can afford to offer generous rebates.  They know that some purchasers will not bother to submit them, will submit them improperly, or will fail to follow-up if the rebate goes unfulfilled or is erroneously rejected.  All that saved money benefits the company offering the rebate, and is known as “breakage.”  According to patents obtained by Parago:

*MOUSE PRINT:

“Breakage refers to any event that prevents a rebate transaction from being completed, for example, denying based on bad verification materials such as receipts or UPC symbols, denying based on improper purchase dates or purchase price, or slippage from checks issued but not cashed.

Because rebate programs offer the potential for breakage, manufacturers can offer a more valuable rebate compared to a straight reduction in product price. Thus, manufacturers establish procedures to maintain a sufficient rate of breakage …”

In MrConsumer’s personal experience,  maybe one in three or four valid and complete rebates submitted for Norton products have been initially erroneously rejected in recent years (but subsequently approved upon calling to complain). Could this just be a coincidence?

Without going into excruciating detail, Parago explained in MrConsumer’s case this time (which they say was an unusual one), that several things went wrong: all three rebates were submitted in one envelope; two of the three promotions were not yet “open” (active in Parago’s system — a fault, apparently of Symantec); and a flaw in their system kept some of the original rebate submissions and/or resubmissions from being properly entered into their system. Parago’s CEO concluded by saying:

“My only last comment on our email dialogue is that in our business, there is nothing worse than a ‘false invalid’.  Low invalid rates are the sign of a very well run program.  So while mistakes were made, the only thing I can say is that it benefitted no one….not you, not Parago and not Symantec.  A bad customer experience is a heck of a lot more costly than a rebate.  As I mentioned when we spoke, I wish we processed all 50MM rebates perfectly. I hate when mistakes are made. But we always try to learn from them and grow and improve.  That is why I appreciate it when customers like yourself take the time to reach out to me.”

Parago has indicated to Mouse Print* that it is undertaking some process changes that will help avert some of the issues raised by this encounter.

Again, we encourage readers to comment on your personal experience, good or bad, by clicking the “comments” link below. [We ask that you keep the comments civil, factual, and relevant.]

If you experience a problem in getting a rebate processed by Parago for a Norton/Symantec product, first try calling their customer service number at 866-206-8800. Most complaints can be resolved at that level. If you do not receive a satisfactory response, Parago has provided readers of Mouse Print* with a specific contact person for additional help: Bob.Wood@parago.com