We have had a similar experience with a recent printer purchase to that outlined below in an article from the American Association of Retired Persons. In our case the rebater also wanted all of our personal bank account details, which we declined to provide. Be warned... Last August, Sharon Dirlam of Santa Barbara, Calif., finally received her promised $300 rebate for buying a new computer.

All it took was 29 e-mails, three phone calls, several letters and five months of my time," Dirlam says. "I had to resend everything two, three times, and still I didn't get all the money. It's clear to me they wanted me to quit, but getting my rebate became a personal quest—one of the most exhausting experiences of my life."

Retired bank employee Larry Vansickel of Altoona, Pa., is just as tired—but not as lucky—from trying to claim a $100 rebate for a swimming pool cleaner purchased in July 2005.

He had to send the store receipt, original UPC bar code, personal information and copies of his driver's license and electric bills—all by registered mail that cost him $8, Vansickel, 62, says. After that, he says, he fulfilled a requirement to resubmit everything one year from the purchase date. A few months later his rebate request was rejected. The reason: "I missed the deadline on that second submission by 10 days," he says.

Sound familiar? Rebate gripes have soared nearly 400 percent since 2002, says Steve Cox of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. Rebate fulfillment companies—businesses hired by manufacturers or retailers to handle such promotions—now rank 35th among 3,900 industries and services in the generation of complaints.

Rebates are offered to boost product sales, with an estimated $6 billion distributed to Americans each year. Still, most rebates go unclaimed. One reason: Rules are so complicated or vague that customers don't even bother, says Matthew Gold, an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission.

The biggest complaints of customers who do bother are for "late delivery, unclear terms or just not receiving the rebate when the buyer meets the requirements," Gold says. "The problem is huge."

Ed note.  We have taken this matter up with  Victoria's Consumer Affairs and Channel Nines, A Current Affair)