Federal CCI Rebate

[CopperFouling]

Just passing this along:

If you purchased Federal rimfire recently and haven't submitted your rebate yet, be aware that you apparently need to upload individual pictures of every UPC code from every box of rimfire that you purchased (in addition to the receipt, the front of the box containing the little plastic boxes, and the side of the aforementioned box). From what I can tell, you should not just upload a single picture of all of the UPC codes grouped together, which is what I did.

Federal's instructions about this are not clear, which means I get to spend time on the phone tomorrow with customer service unless I want a $6 rebate instead of a $60 one.

 

[berettaprofessor]

I had a previous submission for that rebate and only had to submit one for the full value. Submitting more doesn’t make sense. They’re all the same.

 

[CopperFouling]

I hope that's the case, but at the end of the process, the website said that I was getting back $6. I'm sure that customer service will make it right, but I do not like losing part of my lunch break calling companies. Oh well.

 

[crestoncowboy]

I bought 4 cases. My pictures had 2 boxes in each picture. I got my full rebate. Takes forever. Also most of mine never showed up correctly on the vista outdoors status. I bought a savage rifle 2 years ago and I recieved the 100 dollar rebate, but when I checked the status of my ammo rebate I saw that my rifle rebate is still on there as pending....2 years after I recieved it.

So it could very well just be the website. Who knows

 

[rpenmanparker]

I’m done with that foolishness. What a runaround. And wait 3 months for the money. Never again. There are too many other deals online without the rebate scam.

 

[crestoncowboy]

Idk. On one hand it's a PIA no doubt. But I gave 49 dollars for 350 rds of 40 after the rebates with an online black Friday deal. I can take 3 minutes online and wait for 3 months (and I'll be honest...3 months is optimistic in my experience) for a cash card. And they do pay out so SCAM may be a bit harsh. Usually scam implies they don't intend to honor it. The savage rifle one was a pain too. I even had to call them because they messed up.. But 100 bucks for a phone call wasn't shabby

I grew up poor watching my mom do that whole refunding deal (waaay pre internet) they would save receipts and UPC codes and get magazines and send in stuff all the time. I never had a toy or clothes that didn't say COLGATE or HERSHEY or PEPTO or exlax or something on it (maybe how I got into Boxing in the first place....) until I got to high school lol. Now that was frugality. I don't fool with coupons or refunding (although I don't think it's a thing anymore either) but occasionally I'll do a rebate. I usually forget and never send them in. I lost on quite a bit of free brass from Xtreme bullets because of forgetfulness

 

[rpenmanparker]

Idk. On one hand it's a PIA no doubt. But I gave 49 dollars for 350 rds of 40 after the rebates with an online black Friday deal. I can take 3 minutes online and wait for 3 months (and I'll be honest...3 months is optimistic in my experience) for a cash card. And they do pay out so SCAM may be a bit harsh. Usually scam implies they don't intend to honor it. The savage rifle one was a pain too. I even had to call them because they messed up.. But 100 bucks for a phone call wasn't shabby

I grew up poor watching my mom do that whole refunding deal (waaay pre internet) they would save receipts and UPC codes and get magazines and send in stuff all the time. I never had a toy or clothes that didn't say COLGATE or HERSHEY or PEPTO or something on it until I got to high school lol. Now that was frugality. I don't fool with coupons or refunding (although I don't think it's a thing anymore either) but occasionally I'll do a rebate. I usually forget and never send them in. I lost on quite a bit of free brass from Xtreme bullets because of forgetfulness

I hear you about the meaning of scam. What I am referring to is holding your money. The rebate could be sent the same day as the application is completed by an automated system. But they are making money on my money for several months. That too is a scam.

 

[Casefull]

I filed the rebate online and it took about six weeks to get the money.

 

[GBExpat]

"Back In The Day" ... it seemed that Rebate Offers were pretty straight-forward: fill out the form, attach PoP, mail it in and they send you what they advertised.

In the past couple of decades I have come across increasing numbers of Rebate Offers that turned out to be dodgy, to varying degrees.

The first "trick" was probably shady operators just trashing a percentage of claims ... disappearing them.

The oldest/first ploy that I experienced: I am convinced that some of 3rd-Party Rebate companies would simply blindly deny a certain percentage of claims, claiming that forms were not properly completed and/or documentation included. I am convinced of this because this occurred to me far too many times to be mere coincidence. Thankfully, I weathered all of these because of my detailed approach to such things and my implacable persistence.

In order to avoid giving disreputable operators any excuse to deny my claims I am very careful to follow their instructions to the letter. I recall one that misprinted something in their mailing address. I made sure to address the envelope in exactly the same way. Yeah, I have some Trust Issues.

I am convinced ... that with the newer Debit Card approach, those Rebate companies make quite a bit of money on the percentages left on the cards. Heck, last year I was sent one that would not allow me to use it for anything but the full register total ... it would not allow me to zero it out against the total and then use another card to pay the remaining balance. <sigh>

I quickly learned to hate those #^%@# Rebate Debit Cards and actually avoided making Rebate Purchases unless I could be guaranteed a check would be sent to me.

Recently, someone here suggested to me the ANSWER to this Rebate Debit Card (IMO) blight: Use the Rebate Debit Card to buy Amazon eGift Cards for the full amount ... and then the money is parked in your Amazon account until you are ready to use it ... and you are done hassling with the silly things.

Brilliant!

Yesterday, I finally received the first of 3 $20 Rebate Debit Cards from the Federal(?) Rebate Program from Thanksgiving. Once I scan the card & included docs (yeah, what can I say ... I use my scanner a LOT and HDDs have gotten cheap), I will activate it and immediately buy an Amazon eGift Card.

That said, there are bound to be other online vendors where you can do the same thing, not just Amazon ... if those reading this can ID some of them for us, please include them in a response.

I know that others would be as happy to know the information as I was to read about the Amazon Tip.

 

[boom boom]

Thanks for that tip. I have had the same problem with some rebate debit cards.

 

[rpenmanparker]

Well the Federal debit cards can be zeroed out on a larger balance with the remainder paid separately. So that scam isn’t operating here. Jus’ sayin’.

 

[crestoncowboy]

I got my ammo rebate in about 7 weeks. The rifle I bought 2 years ago on black friday week (wednesday or thursday) it took until may i believe of the next year. They did claim some bs about the reciept number or something after I submitted it. I can't remember exactly what it was but it was actually Cabelas mistake but I had to talk to woman in customer service at vista outdoors. She spoke english clearly (always a suprise) and was very knowledgeable. (Again another suprise) she had me fixed up in just a minute with no holding, transferring or anything. Oddly it still says pending online two years later. I submitted 3 ammo rebates at once. It seperated then into 2 for some reason online. One of those still says under review although I got the money from all 3 on a single gift card month's ago.

I agree 100 percent though. They make it such a hassle on purpose so people don't bother. Get us to buy because it's a low price after rebate but when we get lazy and dont claim it they pocket more. It's a great sales strategy actually. And one I see on a regular basis where i work. Although with many more zeros. And between manufacturers of apparel and suppliers of textiles. They come to renegotiate prices, get a higher price but with potential to make it lower, but never fulfill it. Then think they came out ahead...just like us with the ammo.
As far as ammo I know I have bought plenty over the years due to rebates that I wouldn't have bought otherwise and never sent them in. Lol

Edit to add...there may have been 4 ammo rebates at once. Either way it was split up on the website but came on one card

 

[crestoncowboy]

You can also pay the 20-40-60 whatever at walmart with one card and finish with cash or another card. Just tell then "I want to put x amount on this card and the rest on another" they never have a problem.... just never pull out a coupon. Lol. If I see coupons at walmart I find another line.

 

[rpenmanparker]

I have been using True Shot Gun Club a lot lately. Just bought 1000 9mm S&B FMJs with brass cases for $156 plus $20 shipping minus a $10 goodwill promo coupon that came in the email. So $166 or $0.166 a round delivered. Who needs rebates?

 

[KNO3]

I bought 5k rounds from Target Sports, free shpping. Took a picture of the whole unboxed order from 4 sides, and one upc from a row of 5, x10 rows, rebate processed. Too bad it's 10 - 12 week wait... But paying <4 cents a round for 40gr Minimags isn't a bad deal in the end! Just wish I could have bought more at the time.

 

[GBExpat]

Well the Federal debit cards can be zeroed out on a larger balance with the remainder paid separately. So that scam isn’t operating here. Jus’ sayin’.

Ooooooooh ... good point, thank you!

I would be very surprised (shocked, actually!) if the rebate group that handles the process for Federal turned out to be sleazy.

They are slo-o-o-o-ow ... but, in my experience, they have all always exhibited performance that is rather glacial.

 

[berettaprofessor]

But they are making money on my money for several months. That too is a scam.

Given the interest rates on bank accounts these days are rising but they're still miniscule. I'm still not concerned about interest I'm losing or paying someone else for a few months.

 

[CopperFouling]

"Back In The Day" ... it seemed that Rebate Offers were pretty straight-forward: fill out the form, attach PoP, mail it in and they send you what they advertised.

In the past couple of decades I have come across increasing numbers of Rebate Offers that turned out to be dodgy, to varying degrees.

This one wasn't "dodgy," per se, but it was a bit of a pain to fill out the rebate form manually with information from the receipt, upload a receipt, upload pictures of the UPCs, and still have to upload a picture of the front of the box and another of the side of the box. (Those last two seemed a little excessive.) I'm not going to worry about it as long as I get the right rebate amount. I think the Mini Mags are going to be about four cents a round when that rebate arrives, which is a darn good price on them.

 

[GBExpat]

A few weeks ago when I went to the online site, as directed, to complete my Load Your Handgun and Your Wallet Federal Rebate I encountered, for the first time (as I recall), an option (like the OP describes) to upload images of the UPCs++.

I opted to quickly & carefully slice off each of the 20 UPCs from my 147gr 9x19 boxes and complete the Rebate request by mail.

While I am quite comfortable with computers/internet/digital imaging, I don't enjoy being a Beta Tester and, therefore, decided to hold off on the "new" UPCs digital image upload scheme until I read about how this worked out for those who decided to go that route. I am glad that I did.

In future, if the folks in charge of the Rebate Rules decide that we can upload one clear, well-lit digipic of stacks of boxes that clearly show both UPCs and product ID, I will happily jump on the Upload Images bandwagon.

O'course, I realize that part of their job is to NOT make the process too easy lest everyone apply for the advertised Rebates.

 

[pkid]

I have dealt with, forgotten about, and allowed to expire, a lot of shoddy rebates in my life, but this one doesn't upset me. I submitted about $100 worth of rebates for Federal and Speer ammo with this current round of rebates. I can see the reasoning behind the extra photos of UPCs and front/side of ammo boxes - these rebates had HUGE maximums and there were many going at once, and they wanted to be sure that people actually purchased the product. Just the .223/5.56 bulk rebate from Federal maxed out at $400. An unscrupulous person using a stolen credit card to place an order for ammo (that is later denied as fraud by the dealer) that was able to simply submit a copy of their receipt from the dealer, and a picture of a UPC code downloaded off the internet, could have taken Federal/CCI/Speer for a decent amount of money on these rebates. I think they are looking at the background details in the ammo box photos to make sure they are from truly-delivered product and not just culled from the internet or shared around groups of buyers.

(First post, cheers all!)

 

[GBExpat]

Welcome to THR, pkid!

 

[Elkins45]

I hope that's the case, but at the end of the process, the website said that I was getting back $6. I'm sure that customer service will make it right, but I do not like losing part of my lunch break calling companies. Oh well.

So what probably happened there is you only entered the cost of the number of boxes that were eligible to be refunded in that “amount of refunded purchase” box. I did that a first and it said $10 rather than the $49.90 I was expecting. Once I changed that box to the full cost of all 10 boxes (as opposed to the two eligible for refund) the correct amount showed up.

I scanned the UPC from an individual 500 box but the photos I sent were of the 5000 case, including one with the box open showing all 10 bricks. Time will tell if that’s enough.

 

[the Real Alpo]

Pkid - An unscrupulous person using a stolen credit card to place an order for ammo (that is later denied as fraud by the dealer) that was able to simply submit a copy of their receipt from the dealer, and a picture of a UPC code downloaded off the internet, could have taken Federal/CCI/Speer for a decent amount of money on these rebates.

I'm not following.

With everything I've ever bought online, the receipt arrives with the merchandise. If I use a stolen credit card to buy ammo, unless the ammo is actually shipped to me, I don't have a receipt to send a copy of for the rebate. If the ammo was actually sent to me, I now have a copy of the receipt, but I also have the ammo. Why would I need to take a picture of the ammo off the internet?

 

[pkid]

I'm not following.

With everything I've ever bought online, the receipt arrives with the merchandise. If I use a stolen credit card to buy ammo, unless the ammo is actually shipped to me, I don't have a receipt to send a copy of for the rebate. If the ammo was actually sent to me, I now have a copy of the receipt, but I also have the ammo. Why would I need to take a picture of the ammo off the internet?

When I ordered ammo eligible for this promo online, I received a receipt by email minutes after submitting my order. The packing slips that arrived in the boxes with the merchandise listed the contents, but did not list the price I paid. Maybe I am reading too much into it based on the receipt practices of the specific dealer I bought from. The idea I was getting at was someone ordering online, receiving a receipt as I did, then not taking delivery for whatever reason, and so they have never made any payment. A dealer could be backordered, a buyer could be underage, an incorrect delivery address could be provided followed by a buyer doing a chargeback on their credit card. I had a receipt printed out well before any product made it to my hands.

 

[the Real Alpo]

Recently, someone here suggested to me the ANSWER to this Rebate Debit Card (IMO) blight: Use the Rebate Debit Card to buy Amazon eGift Cards for the full amount ... and then the money is parked in your Amazon account until you are ready to use it ... and you are done hassling with the silly things

Thank you. I finished reading your post and went to Amazon. Excellent suggestion.