Mail-in Rebates: the new scam

MIR's (Mail-in Rebate) are a such a joke. It appears that companies outsource their MIR's to other company's who specialize in scrutinizing your rebate submission and finding any error they can to void your rebate. One such example: I bought a phone with a $100 MIR from T-Mobile last August. The kid in the store assured me that the phone was covered by the rebate. So I bought the phone and sent in the rebate the following day. About 2 months later I get a letter in the mail telling me that my rebate submission was declined and that my phone was not covered in the rebate. I called the number on the letter and spoke with a CSR who realized that my phone was indeed covered in the rebate and she resubmitted my form. I thought everything was ok, I was very wrong. I received the exact same letter the next month - I went through the process of calling and speaking with another CSR who came to the same conclusion as the first one and ended up resubmitting the rebate. The next month I received yet another letter exactly the same as the first and second. This happened each consecutive month until finally the rebate had expired. The last time (which turned out to be about 8 months later) I was told that the rebate was no longer existing and that I was out of luck. So I called T-Mobile up and ripped the CSR who spoke to me a new one. He told me that there was nothing he could do about the rebate because they were handled by an 'outside' company. I told him "well it looks like they did their job then because they successfully screwed me over on my rebate". He told me he didn't know what I was talking about, but I know he did. We finally came to the conclusion that T-Mobile would credit my account $100. That was 2 months ago and I'm still waiting to see that credit take place... In short, don't trust the MIR's.