A Warning about Best Buy, Atlas Peripherals, Rebates and the Like. [Zube (April 11, 1999)] In April of 98, Best Buy was selling an Atlas Peripherals Kifx 56K modem for $69.99 w/ a $30 rebate from Atlas. I bought it, sent in the rebate, and waited. Sometime after the 6-8 weeks, I emailed and called Atlas > 25 times in a two week period. Email was met with canned replies. Phone calls always ended in voice mail, which was promptly ignored. I didn't talk to a live person once. Since then, Atlas, Newcom and Simple Technologies have all merged under the Newcom name. It's now been 1 year, and I still have no rebate. To this day, Atlas still advertises its products as being available exclusively through Best Buy. Predictably, a letter to my local Best Buy has also been ignored. Conclusions: 1) Getting rebates from Atlas is difficult. Don't bet the farm on it. 2) Best Buy doesn't seem to care, even though they are the exclusive outlet for Atlas products. 3) Always compare products without considering the rebate price. With this experience and my reading of other people's experiences regarding rebates (see iomega rebates and CompUSA on dejanews), I will never factor the rebate into my purchasing decisions again. 4) There is evidence to suggest that Atlas Peripherals' products aren't very good anyway. For example, my 56K modem from Atlas leaves much to be desired. To wit: a) In many instances, connections would drop mysteriously or the modem would not connect at all. b) Even with the speaker turned off, the modem still makes connection noises. c) As an X2 modem, the best connection I could ever make (and this was rare) was 37.3K. d) After upgrading to V.90, the best connection I could make fell to 33.6K, with most "good" connections coming in at 31.2K. Many tries were needed to get a "good" connection as 19.2K, 16.6K and 14.4K were my connection speeds most of the time. Now, lest you think that I live in an area with poor phone lines, I recently picked up a US Robotics Sportster X2 and have yet to connect at < 48K. So, in short and IMHO, if you care about quality and good customer service, stay away from Atlas Peripherals, Newcom, and Simple Technologies, and think twice about buying from Best Buy. ------------- Addendum -- Sept 4, 1999 On August 6, 1999, Don (Wedgecap99@aol.com) was kind enough to send me the number of the Best Buy Rebates Hotline (1-800-849-0444). I called, pressed 2 for "check on the status of a rebate" and talked to a very nice person named Sam. I gave him all the information regarding the modem and the rebate (I had enough foresight to make several copies of the rebate form, my register receipt and the proof of purchase). He said that I should get a $30 check within two weeks. We'll see. In other good news, Sam told me that Atlas is out of business. Good riddance. ------------- On September 23 1999, I got my check. I suggest that everyone who has been waiting for a rebate from Atlas call the above number. You might finally see your promised money.