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Did you know that forgetting to claim your mail-in rebate has its own name? So does not cashing your rebate cheque. According to an article by Dave Lieber of the Star-Telegram (Texas) , consumers who never file for rebates are considered “breakage” by retailers. while rebate cheques that are not cashed are called “slippage.”

Lieber’s article tels the story about Mike Cooper that bought a $300 camera from Office Depot and was promised $150 in mail-in rebates.

When not receiving his cheque Cooper called the rebate centre, then visited the store and finally wrote Office Depot corporate offices. In most cases he never heard back. It was not until “he called the rebate center and, …, threatened to contact the Better Business Bureau and the state attorney general. He also promised to return the camera and never shop at Office Depot again” that things were taken care of.

Turns out the error was at the rebate processing centre that Office Depot had contracted to do this work. The complexity of trying to provide good customer service in an environment that includes outsourcing shines through. The processor no longer do business with Office Depot.

Reading between the lines we can also see there are larger issues here. While the processor was at fault, Office Depot Corporate Office says the local store should have taken ownership when the problem became clear. The local store has no comment.

Developing good procedures for customer complaint management can be hard. My guess is the local store only followed the policy of “call the rebate centre”. While I agree the local store should have acted earlier, I think it is shameful that Office Depot Corporate Office blames them. Remember that the Corporate Office did not reply to Cooper either? By blaming their local store, even if it really was their fault, Office Depot has only managed to show how little they really care about the customer. Blaming someone is not, at least in my humble opinion, not a good PR strategy. It’s a discussion they should have had internally.

Is your organization prepared to handle customer complaints?

roar at roarweb dot com