Menards Rebates Are A Scam
Ever wonder how Menards’ rebate program works? It’s an old-fashioned mail-in rebate program that I love. They always have some set of products that are free or deeply discounted after mail-in rebate. Once you understand how the rebate program works, you will enjoy deeply discounted home goods. How Menards Rebate Program Works There is no longer a distinction between types of rebate itemsIt used to be that free-after-rebate items required you to purchase an additional $10 in non-rebated merchandise, whereas items where you paid something out of your pocket didn’t.
Menards Rebates Are A Scam Account
As of January 1, 2011 that policy is no longer in effect. That means you can exclusively buy free-after-rebate merchandise. You have to obtain and mail-in a paper rebate form for each type of item for which you are requesting a rebateAn example will help explain this. If you buy 4 items on rebate, 3 packages of nails and 1 glue stick, then you’ll need 2 rebate forms; you’ll have one for the nails and another for the glue stick. You can submit one rebate for multiples of the same item (1 form for the 3 packages of nails). You get the forms at the Customer Service Desk or the. Be honest with yourself about whether you’ll actually complete and mail-in the form.
If you won’t do it, then this isn’t for you. Don’t sweat it and move on. You need to mail a “rebate receipt” along with the paper formThis prints out at the bottom of your receipt for any items qualifying for rebates.
Each rebate is numbered and that number is printed on the receipt. You’ll use the rebate form that matches that number. What if I return an item that had a rebate?If you return an item that had a rebate available when you purchased it, be prepared to turn over the original cash register receipt and the rebate receipt.
If you don’t have the rebate receipt, then the value of the rebate will be deducted from what’s returned to you, whether you submitted for the rebate or not. Your rebate will come in the form of a Menards store creditIt functions like a gift card, but is a 4 x 6 index card-thing that holds your store credit.
It could easily get wet, wrecked or lost so keep it in a safe place. Mine stays in an extra pocket of my coupon holder, since I guard that thing with my life:) You can use the store credit from one rebate to pay for future rebate items, including “free after rebate” itemsSweet, huh? It takes awhile, 2 months or so, for your store credit to arrive, but when it does you can use it for any future rebates. You can pay for free-after-rebate items with it, or buy anything else your heart desires.To find the great rebate deals I go to their and search for “rebate” to get a list of all the items that are being offered with a rebate.
Weekly we share items whose final price after rebate is at least 75% off their regular price. Other Tidbits About Shopping at MenardsI have also learned a couple other things about shopping at Menards. Menards accepts manufacturer’s couponsBy the nature of what they sell there aren’t lots of matching coupons, but personally I have used battery coupons alongside sale and rebates. Their signage is awesomeI love that they clearly mark where the rebated items are and help make them easy to find. Sometimes I spot additional rebates within the store that weren’t in this week’s ad.
I have also found their Associates to be very helpful in pointing me to the sale and rebate items. Rain checks aren’t always an optionMenards will honor the sale price of an item via rain check, if they are out of stock, but rebates are limited to the stock on hand. In the old days, they’d issue rain checks on items that were free after rebate, but that practice has been discontinued.Their promotions typically run for two weeks, so if they are out of stock, check back a few days later as they may have received more. If you get a rain check they are good for 90 days. How does Menards stack up to the competition?Menards offers some of the best deals on the market, and when incorporating their rebates, offer some of the best deals in the industry. There are some products, however, that Menards does not offer the best deals. Make sure to do your research on competitors, like Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Walmart, when making purchase, to see who is offering the best prices.
Use integrityFinally, use integrity. Some folks go overboard when dealing with rebates by having things mailed to multiple addresses and trying to cheat the system. Cheaters never win. Don’t do it because Menards doesn’t have to offer this to its customers and a few bad apples could spoil it for the rest of us.Your turn: What questions do you have?
What else do you know about the Menards rebate program that I failed to mention? What other stores have rebate programs of some sort?Filed Under:, Tagged With:, About Pocket Your Dollars.
Here's another tip: the Menards rebates all go to the same address. (Some rebates are manufacturer rebates with different addresses and different requirements, such as a UPC symbol, but these are rare.) You can put all your rebates in the same envelope and only pay postage once. I have a supply of 60 cent stamps left over from our wedding invitations.man7.
years ago; I use these stamps to cover the cost of those really good rebate weeks when there are 6 or 8 or even 10 or 12 rebates to send in.Also, we periodically get return address labels sent to us along with a request to donate money to whatevery charity. I keep these labels and use them on my Menards rebate forms. If I run out of labels, I prints some up on address label sheets from Walmart.
It makes the rebates so quick and easy, it's a no-brainer. Unless, of course, the receipt gets left in a bag in my husband's car until after the rebates have expired, which has happened a time or two. Lesson learned: don't let husband do the shopping!:-).
After purchasing, I look at all the rebate forms and identify 'mail by dates', locate the earliest date. Fill out all the rebate forms and place them in your envelope with the rebate receipts AND write the earliest date on the upper left corner (above your return address) on the envelope. Now each week I contiune to get more rebates, fill out and place in the same envelope. When the date on the envelope arives, be sure to MAIL All your rebates. Save postage. If you miss the date, mail anyway, they will accept for some time after the 'mail by date'.
Can you please explain what this means: 'Limit ten widgets in any combination total per rebate certificate. Limit one rebate receipt and certificate paid per person and/or address'So if I buy one widget today and buy two tomorrow, I can combine them and send them in with just one rebate certificate? But I bought one today and mailed in the receipt and rebate immediately. Then decided a week later to buy 2 more, I couldn't because it would result in another certificate issue to the same person at the same address (me)?Do I understand this correctly? I just looked at my Menards receipt and have discovered why you should NEVER use your rebates to buy a gift card. It is because when you bought your item – you paid tax on the rebated amount. I always knew that and counted it towards my 'cost' of the item.
What I did NOT know is that when you purchase with the rebate, the taxable total is what is left after the rebate. Meaning, you are credited the tax! For example: I have a $10 rebate that made my item free, so when I bought it, I actually paid $10.1.07125 or $10.71 (and I thought my cost was $0.71). Then I took my rebate and bought a $10 item that was taxable and my out of pocket was $0 – because they deduct the rebate and calculate the tax on the remaining amount of the transaction. If you buy a gift card, they calculate the tax and then deduct the gift card, so for this example, I would have paid another $0.71!
Hi all, sorry to bring up questions so late in the game! I'm familiar with Menards rebates, I've used them several times. But now, doing it habitually, it's getting tricky. Can anyone help?!?.I send in forms in Nov & Dec.
Dec is showing processed, but Nov is nowhere to be found! It hasn't been 6 weeks, so I'm hoping they just processed out of order. Has this happened to anyone else?.The rebate tracking form requires a 24-26 digit number, but menards rebate receipt has a 28 digit number! I can only track with my name/address, and they've entered it three ways so far! I'm wondering if a typo is responsible for my 'missing' Nov submission, but since I can't use the receipt number to track, who knows. (PS, I've emailed the rebate site about this, waiting on a response).Can I use more than one credit check per purchase?.Do I have to use the entire credit check in a purchase?.With the info from the last two Q's, what is your preferable way to submit?
I've simply submitted everything I've purchased at once, when it's to the same PO Box, but I'm afraid I won't be able to use it all at once. I'm also afraid if I break it up I can't use more than one check per purchase.thanks in advance!amy. Warning, don’t ask checkers for advice on rebates and gift cards at check out. Menards in Spencer Iowa was having the last day of the 11% off everything sale 6/14/2014. As I was walking through check out I asked the young girl working if I bought a gift card would I get the 11% rebate credit. She said yes and boom I look at the receipt and no rebate amount was credited for the 1000 dollar gift card. Guess what, you can’t return gift cards.
Pretty slick on her part, now I have a 1000 dollar gift card to myself and the same credit card I bought it on in my pocket. I wish I had a different Menards to deal with, I’ve spent over 20 grand at this store in past 5 years and it’s always one poor customer service experience after another, from messed up orders to flat out wrong advice from their employees.
What can you do when the people working there don’t have a clue? Menards sometimes repeats rebates for the same items several weeks or months later. If Menards reuses the same rebate number then you can’t send in another rebate, but if a different rebate number is used you are free to send another one in. For this reason you should keep a duplicate of your rebate form so you can keep track of the rebate numbers used – the rebate form will also have item sku numbers on it. A simply list of the rebate numbers and the items would also work.2. For larger rebates I print a shipping label via PayPal and send the item via 1st Class Package commercial rates, which is cheaper than what you would pay at the post office.
This shipping label includes a tracking number so you can prove it got to the rebate center. For extra large rebates of several hundred dollars add signature confirmation and/or insurance.3. I keep track of my rebates in a accounting ledger and physically place them on a dry erase board with a copy of the rebate form stapled to the receipt. They are numbered and cross referenced to the ledger. Once I get a rebate I place a checkmark on the receipt and in the book next to the rebate’s entry and then remove the rebate from the board.4. I never open any of the free items until I get the rebate in case I never receive the rebate – so I can take the items back if they cannot demonstrate that they sent one out.5. I don’t just buy anything at Menards to fulfill the $10 of additional purchases, I look at items that I am normally going to buy at say the grocery store and buy them at Menards instead, thus its like like buying my regular groceries and getting free items.
Watch the food area in Menards as they need to move food items off the shelves as they get older and will discount them further. If food items are priced the same or close to my local Walmart I buy them at Menards instead because they pay their people more than Walmart. I purchased over 1500 sq ft of carpet and padding 1 1/2 weeks ago during the “carpet padding.25 cent rebate” event. I purchased it online – big mistake. If I had purchased it at the store (which I wasn’t able to do), I would’ve received a “rebate receipt” at the bottom.
But I purchased it online and there wasn’t ANYTHING said about the rebate on the confirmation email that I received. Menards had told me BEFORE I ordered that I would be eligible for the rebate and that I would receive a rebate form in my email. I printed the rebate form from Menards.com and it very clearly states “Only the Original Rebate Receipt will be honored.” So I called the store, again. This time they said I should come into the store and print a duplicate receipt and mail my confirmation email AND the receipt copy and I should be good. The duplicate receipt I printed today says “Not valid for rebate submissions.” We’re talking about a rebate of almost $500 – ugh!
So I inquire at the customer service desk – she says there was a link on the website WHEN I ORDERED that I should’ve printed the “online” rebate form from. I didn’t see a link, I wasn’t told about a special form for “online” rebate purchases, and it’s no longer on the site because the sale ended a week ago.
She said to call Rebates International and ask – they don’t list a phone # on their site. Have I just been screwed out of a $500 rebate?
Anybody else have the same experience? I’m so frustrated right now! Morrow,I work at Menards and have had a few complaints about the rebate link not coming in the email. Just print out the confirmation email, and if you can still find the rebate number go to menards.com and print off the rebate form (if you can’t, go to the store and ask the service desk if they can find the rebate that ended on whatever date it ended. They can find it easier than trying to search the website). All of the rebates are through Rebates International and they unfortunately don’t have a phone number, but you can email them asking what you should do or if it’s okay to send in the copy.
Their website where you can email them is or just go to rebatesinternational.com and click the customer service tab. What we usually do is using the copy of your receipt, we may be able to print a new original receipt, if not, you can send in your email confirmation, the copy of your receipt (or the original if we can look it up), the rebate form, and a letter with an explanation to your situation.
I would try to contact Rebates International first through email, but sending the above items in usually works. They usually respond to emails within a day or 2. It shouldn’t take too long. I am sorry for your frustrating experience and I hope it works out for you. I wish it was easier than that and I hope they fix that flaw soon (the ordering online is fairly new, so I guess it might take awhile to work out all the bugs). Well, I have gone back and forth with Rebates International, to no avail.
They said I should’ve received the rebate receipt in my email confirmation. They said they would NOT accept anything other than the rebate receipt that was sent in the confirmation email. Soooo, since I absolutely DID NOT receive the right receipt, my next stop is Menards.com customer service. Our local Menards said that if I didn’t get this resolved with them, we’d have to involve the local General Manager. This is really a Menards problem and I’m hoping they finally step up and take ownership.
I know my reps at Home Depot would’ve taken care of this a lot sooner – not impressed with Menards so far:(. I have been using Menard rebates for years. However, I have made a blunder. For each rebate, I photocopy the certificate and receipt for mailing the orginals. In August I made a large purchase, taking advantage of the 11% rebate promotion.
I photocopied, and then I mailed. The next day when I went back to the photocopier I found the certificate still on the glass.
It seems I mailed only the rebate receipt w/o a certificate. I did email Rebate International, but to date I have not gotten any confirmation they have this original receipt. I sent them a copy of my photocopies, but still nothing. Over $3,500 in rebate money possibly out-the-window. Be aware that if you return anything off the receipt you are expecting an 11% rebate for, even if it is because the item rang up higher than the shelf price, there is a good chance you won’t get your rebate.
This has happened to me twice. The last time I emailed them, they said I didn’t give them enough information, that I should send a copy of the email they sent me, a copy of the original receipt, the return receipt, and the rebate receipt. It cost me 71 cents to mail it at the post office to Jordyn Becker. When I didn’t hear anything I contacted her again and she said she never got the info in the mail from me. This was sent the beginning of September. Nothing but a run-around SCAM.
It all goes thru rebatesinternational.com there is no phone number. You have to email them. The store cannot do nothing about it as it all goes thru them. As a menards employee i can tell you it has always been this way. However if you go to menarda website up at the top there is a link for rebate center. Then scroll all the way down to step 4. Thats a track my rebate now button.
Then you have to enter 4 pieces of info in. Which are the 1st letter of your 1st name.
Menards Rebates Are A Scam Alert
Your last name. Your house number. And finally your zip code. And your processed rebates will pop up for you to view. Giving you a date of when it was issued. If its not there and it has been 6 weeks. You can email them and they will research it for you.
Again the store will direct you to rebatesinternational.com. I recently submitted an order to the local Menards (Salina Ks) for items to be delivered. When the items were delivered it was not by a Menards truck but a local trucking firm. I helped the driver unload the items and ask him for a receipt. He said he doesn’t work for Menards and didn’t have a receipt Or a check list of items. Since I had paid by credit card when I got to the store they told me to get my receipt from the kiosk. The kiosk receipt did not have a rebate ticket to send in for my rebate.
I asked the store manager and he checked with the trucking firm but still not original receipt. This was a substantial order and I would like to get this rebate The amount of the order was $ 1857.18. I have had some returns on this order as well. One for $170.28 +tax and one for $268.92. How can I get my rebate without the original receipt. What to do if you lost, or forgot to pickup a the check-out counter, your receipt/rebate receipt slip at Menards.Your options are limited, and you can only do this while the sale is ongoing. Most sales last over a 3 day weekend, or from Sunday through Saturday.1) If you used cash, you may be mostly out of luck unless you want to return the rebatable item(s) for a refund and then go into the store to buy them again.2) If you used a debit or CC card, it is much easier.
No need to bring in the items at all. Just print-out a copy of the receipt at the kiosk using your debit/credit card. The kiosk doesn’t print receipts good for rebates, though.Take the receipt the kiosk printed out over to the Returns counter. They will process a return for everything on the receipt, and then sell it all back to you immediately.
You’ll then get a new numbered receipt with the rebate receipt at the bottom. I went online and purchased cushions for our outside chairs, $66 worth. I paid from them at the time they were ordered for store pickup. Our local Menards did not have any left of the ones I wanted so I ordered from another Menards one hour away. I drove the hour picked them up, went through the line and showed the gal my online receipt.
Now I do not have an original store receipt and just the one that I printed off the computer. Will that receipt work for the 11%? I asked the young lady that was at the counter and was told “I don’t know” Everyone she called to the front did not know either.
As an employee at menards. Rebates used to work that way. The computer would promt the cashier telling them that this item was on rebate and to deduct the rebate amount if the rebate wasnt attached. That was in the past. It doesnt matter if you have the rebate receipt or not. If you dont have it because you hve already sent it in then the computer system knows if that rebate was processed or not.
So even if you have sent it in but it wasnt processed yet you will get the full refund that you paid at the register on the day of purchase. However if the rebate was processed you will get a refund less the rebate amount. That means that you might not have the rebate in hand yet as it might be in the mail.
Pretty cool system as it means no more figuring out anything anymore its all done by the computer. I am first timer to use 11% rebates. I mailed out rebates on January 17th and waited waited waited Today is April 1st. I gave up and looked online and found a way to track the rebates.
I entered my name and my address. It said Issued on March 1st. Ummm that’s exactly a month ago I haven’t gotten it I emailed them and still waiting for their reply.
I am looking so forward to go overboard with gardening and I need to start now so it can be fully bloomed by my oldest son’s graduation party. I already waited too long and losing patiences. I purchased a washer & dryer on 9/10/17 under the 11% rebate program. If not for the 11% rebate, Menards’ price was not better than other competitors. I mailed the Rebate receipt and other documents on 9/18/17. It’s now 01/09/18. No rebate received yet.
I checked the status online and found the rebate was recorded on 10/26/17. The rebate is still pending as of 01/09/18. This is completely unacceptable! What does it take to process this and cut a rebate certificate, and mail it to me? I had to buy a toilet the past weekend. I bought it at Menards. My rebate would have covered the cost of the toilet.
Big box retail is looking for ways to increase customer service as a means to keep and attract customers. I’d suggest Menards start by speeding up the turn-around time on your 11% Rebate program. This is the 21st Century.let’s get with the program!!!