Ya, that stinks.
I have seen a number of sleazy mail-in rebate examples. Their art of finding excuses to not pay the rebate is getting better. Meanwhile, they will no doubt collect and sell your address and other info if they can. I had one where I mailed in the UPC symbol as requested and they rejected it saying I hadn't sent in the UPC symbol. They are not just playing the old game of "most people won't bother to actually do the rebate". Some are trying to expand into "if we drag our heels and offer B.S. reasons for rejection, many more people will not bother to dispute it".
Another borderline example: I bought a monitor from CompUSA (die, CompUSA!) which had a rebate. Wife tosses out the cardboard box the next day, and recycling carts it away
... yep, the rebate requires the UPC on the box. I go back to CompUSA, and they are zero help. Although I prove to them with my receipt that I bought the monitor from them, they refuse to communicate with the company to validate the sale so I can get the rebate. The rebate company rep eventually gets me to do some nonsense where I get CompUSA to sign something saying I did buy the monitor from me, but then later the rebate company denies having said that, and that it would never be accepted.
It's basically customer abuse. Bait and switch. Promise something and then do whatever disservice it takes to minimize the number of actual payouts, while collecting as much information as possible.
I think I've just about reached my limit - no more expecting to actually receive any rebates, and chosing non-mail-in-rebate products over others, even if they're more expensive.
PvK