Last friday I've ordered my new wide zoom lens, a brand new Canon 17-40mm L USM, from Amazon.co.uk, and today after only 3 working days it's arrived and I already put in my backpack. I ordered on Amazon 'cause I kinda trust that site, they had the best price and I know that I could claim the Canon Spring Cashback, as indicated on the Canon site, which it supposed to give me back 100 euro from my purchase. I said "supposed", as I just got an email from Canon saying that, they regret, but they cannot approve my claim as I bought the lens from a third party.
Yes, when you buy a good on Amazon, most of the times you are not buying a good from Amazon, but from an affiliate of Amazon, the little name you see under the stock quantity. Most of you probably never noticed, but you better start to do it.
Apparently, Canon say that you can claim the cashback only if you by a Canon product sold directly by Amazon. Obviusly they don't state this clearly on the canon site but you supposed to read the less read document on the internet called "Terms & Conditions".
Oooh Canon, thank you very much to tell me that only after my purchase, thank you very much. But lets state a couple of points:

• If you buy the lens in a actual shop, the price is is essentially the online price + the cashback, so what's the advantage of the cashback? To pay a good for the same price you can find it online?
• Amazon.co.uk doesn't sell directly the lens above, you have to buy from a third party (and I've been checking the price for weeks), so Canon is saying that you can claim the cashback from an item that essentially cannot be bought.

So, after these two points, it's clear that the Canon Cashback is clearly a fraud, made only to tempt its costumers to buy one of their products, letting them believe that it's a "good deal" when is definitely not.

Dear Canon, I've been your costumer for years, my next step was to buy a new DSLR, a Canon 6D or a Canon 5D Mk III, thinking to do a good deal by buying in the next month using the cashback, but now I just feel fooled from a brand I used to love.
So, I'll probably buy a new camera, as I don't have any alternative unless I switch to Nikon, which I think is a pretty stupid move for me, but next lens? Sigma or Tamron, as they are both making some great lenses with reasonable prices, and they probably treat their costumers better than you do, dear Canon.

Best Regards