Circuit City rebate

[markhere]

I've been lurking in this forum for several months and it resulted in a purchase of an FZ20 from Circuit City in the first week of December. I sent in two rebate forms for an additional battery and carrying case on December 4th. Like many other purchasers, I have not received anything from Panasonic. Today, I spent some quality time on the phone with Circuit City after Panasonic told me they have no knowledge of the promotion, neither have they responded to my email communications. I was finally escalated to CC headquarters who ended up being very helpful -- they have an escalation line directly to a group within Panasonic. They told me that Panasonic will expedite my request for fulfillment.

Anyway, the person at CC HQ determined that I was also eligible for a $60 cash rebate for my purchase of December 3rd and had someone process that rebate while I was on the phone. Maybe some of the rest of you could be eligible for the rebate as well. It provides some solace for those of use who have waited for our rebates for six months! From my point of view, I just received $60 for bothering to call.

Mark

[markhere]

Yesterday I received the Gift Card for $60 from Circuit City. No response from Panasonic in the last few days regardind the battery and case offer items. Tonight I received a followup call from Circuit City HQ regarding the competancy of their staff. I was very complementary of their staff but I still have major issues with Panasonic and they way they handle/honor their rebate obligations.

Mark

[propwash]

I have a feeling that Panasonic didn't know how popular the FZ series was going to be when they offerred that rebate. I bought my camera in October, and I received the case and battery in less than 4 weeks. From what I've been reading here and in other fourms, the cameras have been wildly popular, and I suspect that Panasonic might have been swamped with rebate requests. I'm not trying to make excuses for them, but if anything, I think they might be guilty of underestimating the demand for their cameras. Hang in there, and I think that you will get your merchandise eventually. Good luck.

[shrusha]

Finally today the warehouse supervisor returned my phone call saying that the Rebate items are back in stock and started delivering to the customers. She even gave me the confirmation number and tracking number for my rebate items. Hope the waiting is over for me.

Thanks
Shrusha.

[pschmatz]

I also bought the FZ20 from CC in mid December 04. To my surprise, I got the bag and battery today 5/19/05 from Panasonic, over 5 month later. So, I guess one have to be patient with Panasonic....

I'm not waiting on a Mail-in from CC however.

Cheers
Peter

[eastcoastjoe]

I just got my bag and battery from Circuit City / Panasonic this morning 5-23-05. It arrived via DHL and was shipped on 5-17-05.

The funny thing is, I called CC on 5-17 having gotten no response from Pana. The CS rep called Pana on my behalf and Pana said they had just recieved the bags and batteries and would ship them out shortly; the Pana rep then said they would get back to me that day. The CS rep then gave me a reference number for my call and told me to call CC again if I didn't recieve a response from Pana. I waited two days and called CC again on 5-19. The CC CS rep called pana and tried to get a firm shipping date; on two different calls he got two different responses. The first was a repeat; the bags and batteries are in and awaiting shipping which might take three weeks. The second was what many Pana users have heard up to this point; they didn't have the items and had no idea when they would get or ship them. What a nightmare. I pointed out to both CC and Pana that Pana has the batteries FOR SALE but not to fufill this rebate and that the cases are readily available on e-bay. This didn't bother either of them and I could tell that the CC rep was doing his best to be curtious as I was getting more insistant that they just send me something and work it out between them.

It's a shame that somebody, I guess Pana, doesn't have better record keeping. I would have been very happy on 5-17 to learn that the items had been shipped on 5-17. That would have saved everybody the trouble on both 5-17 AND 5-19. Oh well.

FWIW the case is just what we had seen on ebay. It's not my Tamrac but it is a bit nicer than I expected. It's a little goofy and samall but kind of nice. I could actually see myself carrying it when only bringing the camera along as it won't hold anything else. It does, though, make the Frank (FZ) seem a bit smaller than it really is which is a nice thing.

I'm glad this worked out. It will be a while before I buy something with a rebate but I can now buy from Pana again. I was hoping not to have to be a hard head and not purchase another Pana product; I really like their stuff and their products have been good to me over the years.

Good luck to all still waiting. I wish I could say that raising a little he!! worked but the timing says otherwise.

[markhere]

I left on a long trip on Friday, May 17th. As luck would have it, both rebate items were delivered that afternoon. It was just about 5 1/2 months after I sent in my rebate form. The CC corporate people really came through for me. As far as rebates go...

The battery and case are fine and appreciated but Pana needs to get their internal departments working off the same sources of information.

Good luck to any of you still waiting for the rebate items.

Mark