Attn:  Steve Coli, Investor Relations Department

Dear Steve,

I am writing to you this morning because I am hopeful that you will be able to assist in getting my rebate processed.  After all, people buying your products are ultimately investing in your company, correct?  I have been holding off in buying an additional hard drive because I wanted to ensure that I received my $50 rebate back from Seagate before purchasing another drive that also promised a $50 rebate.

I have tried to be a patient customer and give the folks at the “Rebate Hotline” the benefit of the doubt before going elsewhere with this, but after waiting close to four months for my money, my patience is running thin.  Below is a history leading to my frustration:

On November 13^th, 2005, I purchased a 300GB PATA hard drive from Fry’s Electronics that was advertised with a $50.00 mail-in rebate.  After installing the drive and ensuring that it functioned properly after a couple week burn-in period, I filled out the paperwork for the rebate and mailed it off with the UPC from the box on December 05, 2005.

On February 20^th, 2006, I still had not received a check, so I went online to www.rebateshq.com to see if it had been received and was considered valid.  It said that as of 12/17/05, my request was valid and scheduled for final processing (http://www.seagaterebates.com/promocenter/seagate/track_detail.html shows the same details) I then used the online form to ask when my check would be mailed out.

After waiting for several days, I had not heard back regarding my question, so I contacted the rebate department at (800) 753-9823 as indicated on the rebate submission form.  The representative told me that my check was scheduled to be mailed on March 11, 2006.  I assume that this date was based on a number of specific weeks that companies are allowed to keep my money and anything beyond that would not be deemed acceptable by the Better Business Bureau, Consumer Affairs Department, or whoever regulates such things.

Since March 11^th, 2006, I have been checking my mailbox expecting to find my check, but it still had not arrived.

On March 22^nd, 2006, I received the following email in response to the question I posted over a month earlier:

Dear Steven Fuhrman:

Thank you for your rebate inquiry. In order to provide you with accurate information, we need to know the promotion code or rebate offer. The promotion code is located on the rebate form and starts with 03-, 04-, or 05- followed by five numbers. 03-59664 is an example of a promotion code.

Once we receive the promotion code for this offer, we can answer any questions you may have about the rebate.

We appreciate your participation in this promotion. If there is anything else we can do to assist you, please contact us at rebates@parago.com.

Angie

Promotions Customer Service

Although I don’t know why I would be asked to provide this type of information at this stage of the game, after your own website said that the rebate was valid and scheduled for final processing (Not to mention that anyone could look up the information with my first and last name, plus ZIP code), I sent a reply to the message with following response:

Thank you for the reply (even though it took over a month).

If the "Promotion Code" is the same as the "Department Number" that the rebate information was sent to, that number is:  05-38762.

Here is a link to the rebate's tracking:  http://app.parago.com/promocenter/rebateshq/track_detail.html?rebate=173164299

FYI: The information above is also duplicated at:  http://www.seagaterebates.com/promocenter/seagate/track_detail.html

A few days after I left this message online, I called to check the status.  The person on the phone said that the check would be mailed on March 11th, yet the website still shows it as "scheduled for final processing".  What is the deal?  It has been over three months since the rebate has been acknowledged as valid.  I have even held out on buying another drive that had a rebate on it because I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t paying more than advertised if I wasn't going to get this rebate back.

Please send me my money ASAP.

Thank you,

Steven Fuhrman

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Moments after sending this message, I got the following automatic response:

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

  Rebates1@172.16.4.3

    Unrouteable address

After looking at who the “Reply To” address was set to, I decided to then forward the message to rebates@parago.com as listed in the body of the message and it appears to have gone through.  However, I do not know who parago is (although I assume it is the company Seagate has contracted to disperse the rebates) and do not have a lot of faith that it will get acted on or if it has gone into a black-hole since that is not the email address listed for when I hit reply (it has been 10 days since this message went out).

If you could investigate this, I’d appreciate it… I’m sure that many others must be dealing with a similar issue, and at $50.00 per person who is waiting for their own money after more than 4 months, that is a LOT of money the company is denying to its customers who are rightfully owed that money.

Thank you,

Steven Fuhrman
Reseda, CA  91335

 Thank you for helping me get resolution to this issue and allow me to move forward with my future purchases and recommendations to others of Seagate products.