Best Buy to Eliminate Rebates

plover writes "According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune 'In response to customer complaints, Best Buy, the world's largest electronics retailer, promised today to eliminate mail-in rebates within two years.' Can it be that we're finally nearing the end of one of the most hated marketing ploys of all?" Further commentary available at BusinessWeek.

First post!

[Anonymous Coward]

April fools? I think not!

Enough...

[Anonymous Coward]

...with the April Fool's posts!

Re:About

[Anonymous Coward]

The purpose of yesterday's shitty posts was to make today's posts seem great.

LOL

[Infidel666]

You'd think on April 1st the Sun would report something serious for a change.

At least I wasn't fooled this time around. Unlike the article about the Meat Tree.

Re:Geek Squad

[dcstimm]

geek squad what a dumb idea. oh wait...

Re:good riddence to a scam

[toddestan]

A month a go I built a new system from components, which I got at Frys ( too impatient to wait for NewEgg ). 2/3 of the ~20 components had rebates. As i think back, it seems that ~ 1/2 of the things i ever bought at Frys had rebates. they even print the rebates on the cash register reciept for you.

Let me get this straight. You were too impatient for newegg.com, but you are willing to deal with the hassle of trying to collect on 13 to 14 rebates? That just boggles the mind.

Re:Wait...is this serious?

[Anonymous Coward]

Heeeeeey it has been reported by the Star Tribune!

Here in Minnesota, if you tell a lie, they'll throw you to the thin ice, naked. Specially if you are a young woman of scandinavian descent.

No April's fool exception!

In other news, Oleg Daal, a Minnesota resident has reported that he saw two identical snowflakes.

Re:About

[The-Bus]

I don't know if you meant the April Fool's jokes or the rebates, but I agree!!!

No, this is real....

[lilricky]

Best Buy has been talking about doing this for the past few months now in their conference calls. Besides, look at the date, its April 2nd

That's a

[AvatarofVirgo]

hell of a long time to be in a conference call. They're phone bills most be through the roof and in need of a major piss break.

Best Buy to stop paying rebates?

[cgenman]

How is this any different than what they currently do?

Re:Best Buy should change other policies...

[pipingguy]

Still, if I pay cash - why should I wait for a check in the mail? Cashing a check isn't cheap for people who don't have checking accounts...

What are you, some kind of communist?

Re:It's like printing your own money

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, if you set up next to a WalMart or other outlet that rings up their sales wirelessly, you can just grab a whole bunch of rebate forms from the store (stealing those aren't illegal!), buy a thermal printer from ebay, buy/return rebate items (minus bar code) and you could well end up making $1800 an hour.

Re:Geek Squad

[kalidasa]

Fine. He didn't know Perl. Maybe he didn't even know *of* Perl or wasn't sure. Then why did he authoritatively reply?

RadioShack Syndrome. Put someone behind the counter of a retail electronics store and he loses all sense of his own limitations.

Re:That's a

[Anonymous Coward]

Was it a spelling error or a grammatical error? Inquiring minds want to know.

Re:It's like printing your own money

[andrew71]

10. Goto 10 of branch #1

No GOTOs here, please. Clean up your code.

Re:Wait...is this serious?

[Balthisar]

I don't know about your Wal-Marts, but ours have crappy selection, and generally only the very low models of any brand. So obviously I just *can't wait* until it's the only option in town :-(

Re:That's a

[jellybear]

I concur, and also it is spelt "symantec".

Re:No, this is real....

[Deadstick]

OTOH, if the story had added "...and prices will be adjusted downward by the amounts of the former rebates..." THAT would be an April 1st article.

rj

funny phone call to my company

[dealcatcher]

We received a really funny phone call from a drunk Idaho women that thought she was calling Best Buy. She was having some problems with a best buy in-store rebates. Go here to listen: http://forums.dealcatcher.com/m_316229/mpage_1/key _/tm.htm%23316229 [dealcatcher.com]