As I've written about a couple of times (most recently here), when I bought my 7900 last October, Epson was offering a rebate of a roll of paper or canvas. I submitted the required documents in the required way in early November. When I checked the Web site they provided to determine the status of my rebate, the information showed it was "in process", with a submission date of 11 November 2011. Months passed. The roll of paper never appeared. I followed up and was told they had no record of my paperwork. I was asked to fax everything, essentially starting the process over. I did as instructed. I was specifically asked to provide a telephone number, at which I'd receive a call within five days indicating my rebate was being processed.
That was on 18 April. If you've guessed that I never received any call, you've guessed correctly.
Today I called, and of course spoke with someone other than the person I talked to last month. I explained the entire story again. I listened to a keyboard's clickety-clicks for a few minutes, and was then told they had no record of receiving the fax. One might conclude these people are wildly incompetent, or perhaps simply determined to not honor the promise made on the rebate form.
Have you guessed that I had to start the process over yet again? You're good. This time, however, I was given the option to email the required documents. I've no idea why that option wasn't offered last month. I was given an email address, but told I couldn't send large attachments. "Large" wasn't defined.
So, I've resent everything via email. The only challenge was completing the rebate form, which is a PDF. I have no dedicated software that can type on a PDF, but this isn't rocket science. As it turns out, LibreOffice can, after a fashion, using its Draw application. A little clunky, but the result was fine. This left me with the invoice (a PDF), the rebate form PDF, and the UPC code from the shipping crate. I'd photographed that with my point-n-shoot, so I could attach that as a small .gif. I sent two emails, a part 1 of 2 and a part 2 of 2, splitting up the attachments in case putting them all in one message would have been "too large".
The good news: I received a reply, apparently from a human, to each of the two emails. In one of those I was told it would be two weeks before I could again check the status. A polite way of saying "don't bother us for a while", but that's fine if, when I DO bother them next, they tell me the thing is on the way.
I don't intend to give up on this. I have followed Epson's rules precisely. I've sent the required documents via US Mail. I've sent the required documents via fax. I've now sent the required documents via email. If I have to send the documents again, I'll have to get in my car and drive the 2000 miles from western Montana to Strongsville, Ohio, and personally deliver them. OK, maybe not. A courier service would be far cheaper.
Stay tuned!
--Jay
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