Myrna Barron followed the directions to a T on a mail-in rebate for a L’Oreal hair-coloring kit. She even made photocopies of the UPC code, receipt and all the documents she mailed.

Then she waited. And waited. Eight to 10 weeks later, the Huntington Beach, Calif., resident was still waiting, so she mailed copies of everything again, along with a letter asking what happened to her rebate.

This time she got a response. “Rebate submission refused due to: not originals.” Barron no longer buys L’Oreal products.

It could have been worse. Because of rebates, Ed Meadows lost his whole company.

CenDyne Inc. of Santa Ana, Calif., which Meadows co-founded in 1999, offered rebates galore. That helped make it one of the nation’s top sellers of optical drives, with $50 million in revenue last year. But shelling out at least $5 million worth of rebates in a year caused financial problems for CenDyne. In August, its largest investor sued, partly because, it said, the company offered too many rebates. The investor won the lawsuit, seized control of the company and shut it down.

Meadows is now tied up in court, and the CenDyne customers who sent in rebate forms are out of luck, though some retailers, such as Staples, honored the rebates on CenDyne products purchased at its stores.

Frustration can mount

Every consumer seems to have a rebate horror story, and it’s no mystery why. Only about 40 percent of buyers actually get the rebates they qualify for, according to The Aberdeen Group, a Boston-based market research firm.

Aberdeen estimates that 40 percent of rebate forms never get mailed in. In addition, 20 percent more of the forms are disqualified, such as those that arrive without all the required documents.

Paul Houle, of Costa Mesa, Calif., is shown with some of the rebate items he purchased. He estimates he received more than ,200 in rebates during the past 18 months.

Michael Parham of Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., was in that category. He missed out on a $30 rebate on a Sony DVD drive because he didn’t read the fine print, which required that he send in the serial number — on top of the usual receipt, rebate form and UPC code.

“The bottom line is, they want to frustrate you so you just forget about your rebate,” Parham said.

Because only two of five consumers get the rebates they’re entitled to, you might think most people hate rebates, but you’d be wrong.

Consumers take to offers

Mail-in rebate offers are on the rise, especially for computer products.

The Beyen Corp., a research firm that monitors newspaper advertising, reports that 51 percent of PC products advertised this year included a rebate, up from 44 percent last year. And they’re no longer just piddling dollar-off offers from makers of toothpaste or car wax. For example, Lake Forest, Calif.’s Western Digital Corp. recently offered a $100 rebate on a $250 hard drive at Fry’s Electronics.

Such offers have enticed consumers like Paul Houle of Costa Mesa, Calif., to make rebating a hobby. He’s collected $2,245 on 114 rebates in the past 18 months. Even as a pseudo-professional rebater, Houle says, it hasn’t been easy.

“Oftentimes the rebate forms … are missing, or the form they give you is wrong or has already expired,” he said. You’ve got to have the right forms and documents, no matter what the sales clerk says, Houle said.

“They’ll say, “‘Oh, don’t worry, they’ll still honor it,’ Yeah, sure.”

It’s a love-hate relationship. Consumers like the discounts that rebates offer. Retailers and manufacturers like the sales boost. Nobody likes the paperwork. And retailers hate being blamed when a manufacturer’s rebate goes sour.

For manufacturers, rebates can be a headache they’re unable to avoid. Some retailers won’t put a manufacturer’s product in an ad or on the shelves unless rebates are part of the offer.

“It’s all part of the negotiation process with the retailer,” said Bradley Morse, vice president of marketing at D-Link Systems Inc. in Irvine, Calif.