Menards rebate system flaw

Disclaimer: I do not advocate doing this, and personally haven't done this and won't do it. My buddy is finishing his basement and he knows I'm a Fatwalleter... He asked me to help him do it as cheaply as possible. To me, this means basically check the Menards, Home Depot, Lowes deals on 2x4's, drywall, conduit, can lights, conduit, drop ceiling tiles, etc..... He was buying stuff off of Craigslist materials section too. A couple times he bought stuff at Menards before he needed it at his house. He would buy it when it was on sale, but not pick it up before he was at that point in the construction. You don't have to physically pick up the stuff you buy for 3 months at Menards. He asked me to help him load the 2x4's with him one day. We drove to the side of Menards, and he had a sheet that evidenced his purchase, it wasn't a receipt. The guy at the gate scanned it, we went in, loaded up, and on the way out he counted the boards and scanned it again.

Fast forward to the flaw. He purchased a boatload of ceiling tiles that had a Menards mail in rebate. He mails in the rebate. Gets the check. Two months go by. He gets to the ceiling part of his basement. The drywaller says, "hey lets drywall the ceiling, its cheaper than a drop ceiling". My buddy says, ok, sure. They drywall the ceiling. So then he takes his sheet back (his receipt is already mailed in for the rebate) and asks to return the ceiling tile. They gave him the full amount back, without the rebate money taken out. He pocketed like $50. (he didn't even realize till we talked about it)

Hopefully Menards will read this post

timx said:   Disclaimer: I do not advocate doing this, and personally haven't done this and won't do it. My buddy is finishing his basement and he knows I'm a Fatwalleter... He asked me to help him do it as cheaply as possible. To me, this means basically check the Menards, Home Depot, Lowes deals on 2x4's, drywall, conduit, can lights, conduit, drop ceiling tiles, etc..... He was buying stuff off of Craigslist materials section too. A couple times he bought stuff at Menards before he needed it at his house. He would buy it when it was on sale, but not pick it up before he was at that point in the construction. You don't have to physically pick up the stuff you buy for 3 months at Menards. He asked me to help him load the 2x4's with him one day. We drove to the side of Menards, and he had a sheet that evidenced his purchase, it wasn't a receipt. The guy at the gate scanned it, we went in, loaded up, and on the way out he counted the boards and scanned it again.

Fast forward to the flaw. He purchased a boatload of ceiling tiles that had a Menards mail in rebate. He mails in the rebate. Gets the check. Two months go by. He gets to the ceiling part of his basement. The drywaller says, "hey lets drywall the ceiling, its cheaper than a drop ceiling". My buddy says, ok, sure. They drywall the ceiling. So then he takes his sheet back (his receipt is already mailed in for the rebate) and asks to return the ceiling tile. They gave him the full amount back, without the rebate money taken out. He pocketed like $50. (he didn't even realize till we talked about it)

Hopefully Menards will read this post

So they had his money (1000s?) for three months and all he got was 50? Crappy scam with little payout=most theives aren't going to jump on this.

I have done Menards rebates for years and most items are in store credits and very few are for items that OP noted would be rec. from the lumber yard and able to order from the lumber desk.

I suspect that Menards does some kind of validation on rebates to verify materials are not returned. More and more places are tracking returns and plenty of gamers have been told to f'off.

That's not the way it's supposed to work with the standard Menards rebate. I just went through this with leftovers from a project. Got a refund minus the rebate amount. If he actually got a check instead of store credit as a rebate, then it's not a standard Menards rebate.