Money-off deals often sway the balance when you are deciding to make a major purchase. So it's not surprising that last summer readers Tim Shipman and Nigel Floyd were attracted by a special promotion that Dell was running.

If they bought from a designated range of PCs they would be entitled to a £75 rebate, as long as they posted off their proof of purchase before the end of September.

Both men bought the PCs and made sure that they fulfilled their side of the bargain. Unfortunately Dell has not been so quick to return the favour, and five months later both are still waiting for the promised rebate.

"In August 2002 I was looking into purchasing a notebook and was drawn to the Dell website offering a £75 mail-in rebate if you ordered an Inspiron before 2 September 2002. I duly did this as the £75 off made the offer attractive," said Mr Shipman.

"To receive the rebate you had to print off a form from the website, fill it in and post it back with the proof of packaging. I duly did this and stapled the two pieces of paper together and returned them on 23 September 2002.

"The promotion said that payment would take place within eight to 10 weeks. As you can guess, I'm still waiting five months later, even though Dell has acknowledged I have a valid claim," he said.

Mr Floyd has a similar tale of woe, having ordered a computer in August and submitted his claim in early September.

"So far I have been fobbed off with promises that my cheque would be sent 'when the promotion has completed processing'," he said.

Mr Floyd managed to track down the company handling the promotion for Dell but even this investigative zeal hasn't helped him.

Five months is an awfully long time to wait for a rebate. I sent Dell the details of both these customers and asked if it would investigate and find out what had happened to their money.

About five days later Mr Shipman wrote again and told me that Dell had called him but he had missed the call. And the phone number left by customer sales wasn't much use: when he rang it nobody answered.

But before I could call Dell, Mr Shipman rang me and said that the company had contacted him again, and told him that it was "reviewing the situation".

Then Dell called him again. At least this time his repeated requests for information were not going unheeded, and it seemed like a resolution had at last been reached: Dell has promised him his refund and a small extra payment as compensation.

"They apologised and said I had got lost in the system," Mr Shipman said.

The only trouble is that now I seem to have got 'lost' in the Dell system as well!

When I called Dell to verify that the situation was being sorted, I was told that the matter was still "live". As Computeractive went to press I have been unable to find out if or when Mr Shipman will get his rebate, and if Dell really is going to splash out on a little extra as an apology.

But I can't blame Dell for not being able to sort out Mr Floyd's rebate. Both the company and I have been unable to track him down, as he seems to be away until the end of January. So I have left a message on his phone asking him to contact me when he returns.

As soon as I find out if the problem of the missing rebates has been sorted out, I will be sure to let you know. And if any other reader is in the same boat with Dell over this offer, please write to Consumeractive and let me know.

Update on eBay story: It's good to talk
Well it certainly was for Mrs Di Marco, whose case I discussed in a recent Consumeractive.

She rang and told me that Charles Peter of Easy Computers had finally got around to contacting her regarding the problems she was experiencing with her PC, and to make arrangements for the return of a monitor his company had delivered to her by mistake.

However, by this time she was so unhappy with the situation that rather then send it back, she wanted a refund. She told me Mr Peter agreed to this on the proviso that she paid for the return of the monitor delivered by mistake and the PC.

Mr Peter confirmed this agreement with me, and Mrs Di Marco wrote a few days later to say that as good as his word, he had sent the cheque, which has cleared. Mrs Di Marco is now parcelling up the PC and monitor to return them.