Computer Rebates Not As Sinister As You Think 468
Lam1969 writes "Robert Mitchell dug up some details about rebates after getting up at 5 a.m. to get a free (with rebates) computer bundle at Circuit City. He had to deal with five separate mail-in rebates to get his money back, and decided to ask an expert about whether rebate come-ons are some sort of attempt to trick consumers. The reply: 'The big lie that the media and attorneys general want you to believe is that all the retailers and manufacturers are crooked and the reason [they] do rebates is breakage, which is people not turning them in.' Furthermore, Mitchell reports that retailers are making the process easier, by printing rebate forms and receipt copies at the register, and letting people track rebates online. His conclusion: The trade-off of having to do a few hours of copying and envelope-stuffing is worth the price of a new computer, so stop whining -- 'suck it up and accept your rebate check like a man.'"
Rebates Suck (Score:5, Informative)
Where does that tax go? (Score:2)
Re:Where does that tax go? (Score:5, Informative)
Impressively cynical, although devoid of understanding of the use tax. Read the fine print on any coupon; "purchaser is responsible for all taxes". If groceries are taxed in your area, check the next time you buy a box of pop tarts with a coupon from the sunday paper. You pay tax on the original amount, not the coupon discounted amount, and yes the store has to pass it on. Same goes for rebates even if it's you who has to send in the coupon to the manufacturer and not the store Think of rebates as just coupons that the consumer, instead of the vendor, remits to the manufacturer.
Re:Where does that tax go? (Score:4, Informative)
Pot, meet kettle.
http://www.ct.gov/drs/cwp/view.asp?a=1477&q=26992
That's for Connecticut, I recently looked up the same for Texas with the same results. From my experience, having lived in 9 other states from one end of the country to the other, that's pretty much the way it works everywhere.
Re:Where does that tax go? (Score:3, Informative)
Special person, meet me.
From my experience, having lived in 9 other states from one end of the country to the other, that's pretty much the way it works everywhere.
Well, you're very special to have lived in 10 states and therefore safely deduce ten are like fifty and call people names.
But maybe all fifty aren't like ten. [state.co.us]:
Because the retailer is reimbursed by the manufacturer for the amount of the reduction, sales tax applies to the full selling price before the deduction for the ma
Re:Rebates Suck (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Rebates Suck (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The other thing to consider.. (Score:4, Insightful)
If you make a purchase where you have to deal with five separate vendors for rebates (as did the person in the article), aside from potentially not getting your refund, you now have FIVE MORE commercial vendors with your name, phone number, and address.
For me peronally, I don't care how much the rebate is...it's just not worth it to prostitute myself like that.
Re:The other thing to consider.. (Score:3, Interesting)
I was at the bank the other day. I walk up to the teller to take care of my transactions and, after she accesses my account, she says,"Oh. You live at such-and-such address? I used to live in that building as well."
WAIT.
How much do I want unprivileged people (bank tellers, rebate processors, anyone) to know where I live? I don't know where they live. Lord only knows who works in those institutions.
Re:Rebates Suck (Score:3, Interesting)
That UPC "send it in" stuff really sucks. I've purchased a bunch of those routers and in the documentation it says that I must have the original UPC for the warrantee to be valid, but on the other hand, I need to give it away (and the warrantee) to get the Best Buy rebate.
It's completely unfair. My Best Buy receipt should be enough for a warrantee. After all, it's not like they can't look up in their da
Re:Tax deductibility is better though (Score:3, Funny)
You're not screwing the government, you're screwing the millions of people that depend on government money to survive. Stop scamming the government, millions of people on welfare depend on taxpayers.
Re:Tax deductibility is better though (Score:3, Interesting)
Welfare is less than 1% of the federal budget.
Though I assume you were just trolling, or you'd post with a username.
Re:Tax deductibility is better though (Score:3, Informative)
You are not paying your fair share! (Score:3, Informative)
More a statement of the US Tax system than anything else.
BTW - you are not screwing the government, you're stealing from your business!
For all you other whiners in this thread - have you declared State "use tax" if applicable to out-of-state purchases (e.g. Internet) which didn't collect your local sales tax? I thought so.
Duh (Score:2)
Re:Duh (Score:5, Interesting)
When you get right down to it, FOUR rebates to mail in is ridiculous. The all went to the same building, as I recall, just to different PO boxes. There's no reason for that as far as I can see. Even if there is, I propose that the retailers ought to tell you when you'll be having to send in more than one rebate form (and how many, in that case).
And there is the reall dirty secret... (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, the stores and manufactures rely on people not submitting the rebates. Yes the stores and manufacturers rely on "loosing" or denying rebates for added profit, but in the end, even in a best case scenerio, you loose the right to return the product. So, when the product does not meet the specs on the box. Too bad. If the product dies three days after you bought it, you have to go through the expense and hassle of returning the product to the m
Re:Duh (Score:5, Informative)
Also I bought a video card that was defective at compusa and it was teh last one in stock. The same exact card was available at circuit city for $60 more. Even with the rebates teh price would only equal the exact one at compusa.
So in other words you are getting no value at all depending on the product with the rebates. This is also assuming that the rebates are not expired. So yes whinning should be appropriate and I believe Circuit City does this to make consumers think they are getting a better deal when they see "BIG SAVINGS" on the price tags of the shelves.
This made me a customer who no longer shops at circuit city as a result. I supposed I could shop at
Re:Duh (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Duh (Score:3, Informative)
Nah, Wal-Mart at least has low prices...
Re:Duh (Score:3, Informative)
You have to go out of your way to track your receipts and follow up on them after the timeout period (usually 2 months later). You'll get your money, but I'd still refuse to buy based on rebate prices. I buy based o
Re:Duh (Score:2, Informative)
Repeated attempts to get it sorted out simply resulted in FileMaker claiming that I couldn't get the rebate twice and then that they had no record of me applying for one. Finally they just told me the rebate h
Rebates are bad (Score:2)
Actually, this is true for at least some people: I was reading a study on rebates, and of the (large) test group, 30% of rebates were never recieved (at least as of six months after sending the rebate in).
However, I think that the real problem is, as you pointed out, that retailers attempt to benefit based on the fact that some people will not send the rebate in.
The point is that there is huge benefit to having clear and accurate information available to
Easier still? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why don't they take it one step further and file it for us as well? Then we can just take the rebate off at the register? I don't mind paying sales tax on the full price.
Re:Easier still? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Easier still? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Easier still? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Easier still? (Score:5, Interesting)
I call shenanigans.
Time was, a manufacturer could put a sale discount on a product, and retailers would get a refund (or future discount) on items sold during the sale period. The retailer was in the position of claiming the refunds, sort of like the AMD vs Intel lawsuit thing going on, but usually without the pressure of screwing over competitors.
I don't know if rebates come out of pressure from the stores, whom obviously would benefit from getting out of this task while still being able to advertise a "sale" price. Or perhaps strategy from the manufacturers, where many claims are not filed, and many others can be denied/delayed/ignored. Perhaps collusion of the two. But it puts the effort of claiming the refunds on the shoulders of the consumer -- with as I mentioned lots of tricks to deny or ignore claims. It is certainly not the only way to put existing items on discount, just "better" for both the vendor and the maker.
Re:Easier still? (Score:5, Insightful)
It is also often used as a way to avoid lowering a price on an item that is currently being sold at above market rates, allowing the business to pretend that they weren't screwing the customer originally. Perfect example would be hard drives at Fry's. As a general rule, if there's no rebate, you're paying way too much. This allows them to raise the price back up to the pre-sale value without the public perception that they are raising the price. They aren't; they're ending a rebate. It's just one of the dirty little tricks that many retailers do when they aren't able to move products due to overpricing.
Re:Easier still? (Score:3, Insightful)
When sales are back up to par, and the items are considered 'moved' then end 'sale' on the item, returning it to full price.
I guess I just don't see how the store would lose by filing the rebate itself and giving the custom
Re:Easier still? (Score:4, Insightful)
Companies are in business to make money and are doing this to *drumroll* make money. There are two ways this can make them money:
1) "Breakage" as they call it. People dont send in the rebates. But this often goes further than comsumer's mistakes. Sometimes companies take way longer than they should in sending back your rebate or will send you a letter claiming that your paperwork is incorrect and that you must resubmit that receipt from that product you bought 3 months ago. And we'll get you that $50 rebate in just a couple more months.
2) they can upsell you while you are in the store or upsell you through advertising (if your are looking at that super cheap computer maybe you will look at the product on the next page)
In his indignance he is saying we should be ok with a very anoying practice that distorts advertised prices and, by it's nature, has at least SOME occurance of fraud -- what level, i don't claim to know.
he can go jump in a lake as far as im concerned :)
Re:Easier still? (Score:5, Insightful)
You missed one:
3) it's effectively a forced registration. Customer lists are an important asset for both internal uses and for sale to other companies.
Re:Easier still? (Score:5, Insightful)
Differential pricing (Score:5, Insightful)
Companies want to make as much money as possible. (duh)
Lets say person A is willing to buy a particular hard drive for $20.
Person B is willing to spend $25.
If you set the price at $20, you don't make as much money as you could.
If you set the price at $25, you lose a customer.
Ideally, you get each person to pay the most that they're willing to pay.
Rebates help accomplish this. A person who makes a high salary will be willing to pay more for an item, and they'll value their time more. They won't send in the rebate.
A person who values their time less and makes less money will take the time to fill in the rebate.
To put it another way;
When I lived in China, you had to haggle over the price of most goods. If you sat there and haggled for half an hour, you could get the price down. A person who made more money wouldn't see the value in haggling for half an hour for a few quarters of a price reduction, and would pay a higher price just to get the sale done. Rebates accomplish the same thing, without requiring any inefficiency on the part of the seller.
I'm sure there are other reasons as well, but this would seem to be one use for a (deliberately inconvenient) rebate.
Re:Easier still? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Easier still? (Score:3, Interesting)
Is there money in being an 'address broker' for rebates? That'd be classic...
If they really wanted to make it easy... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:If they really wanted to make it easy... (Score:2)
Re:If they really wanted to make it easy... (Score:2)
That explaination doesn't cut it.
Why? Tell us WHY? (Score:5, Insightful)
The ONLY reason I can think of is that they want to collect the interest on my $40 cheque between the time I've bought the product, and cashed the rebate check. Surely they could not be earning enough interest on that to warrant the expense of maintaining the rebate system.
The only OTHER reason I can think of is so the manufacturer can advertise the 'after rebate' price, but exclude bunches of people from being able to obtain that price (ie, multiple orders, businesses, etc).
Well, okay, I think I just answered my own question
Deliberately complicated (Score:2, Interesting)
Rebate Department 4913
City, State, 12345-4931
Rebate Department 4931
City, State,12345-4913
Those rebate departments and zip codes MUST have been chosen to make it complicated for the consumer filling in both rebates.
Re:Why? Tell us WHY? (Score:5, Interesting)
Just off the top of my head
to screw the share holders, that figures. (Score:3, Interesting)
So you lie to your shareholders about your earnings. Why not? The whole deal is a big FU to the customer and the employee.
I know someone who actually worked at a CompUSA and they hated it. They told me the whole place was all about sucking the maximum amount of money from the customer and that it was a miserable place to work. The work was monotonous and management was as abusive to them as they were told t
Re:Why? Tell us WHY? (Score:5, Interesting)
"We're WallyWorld, and we control 99.867% of the retail market for your product. If you don't offer a rebate, we won't advertise your product, we'll advertise your competitor's product. In fact, we won't even carry your product."
Retailers want rebates because it lets them hold (and advertise the hell out of) a sale without actually having to put anything on sale. The retailer benefits from increased revenue from more selling product at full price to the marks, er, consumers, who think they're getting a deal.
The failure rate for rebates - the percentage never actually paid, even though they're sent in, is also quite high, because manufacturers don't like rebates much at all.
Re:Why? Tell us WHY? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Why? Tell us WHY? (Score:2)
Re:Why? Tell us WHY? (Score:2)
A MUCH easier way to do this is to simply change the price on the invoice, and cut a cheque for the distributor. The distributor COULD just continue selling the product at the
I'm a rebate whore (Score:5, Informative)
Valid rebates (Score:5, Insightful)
I have a guess on this. (Score:5, Insightful)
What I mean is, if you are "SuperComputerManufacturer" and offer a rebate of $10 on 1 million items, you now have a liability of $10M dollars.
I think that companies will then bid on the debt to pay the rebate. In otherwords, they'll bid an asking price of $9M. Therefore the manfacturer gets out of $10M of debt for $9M, and the rebate company makes $???? money by assuing they'll only get x% of the rebates properly cashed. So every rebate they deny is essentially their money.
It really makes perfect sense (although this is pure supposition).
And if this turns out to be viable business model, I own the patent.
Who is this, Joe Isuzu? (Score:5, Informative)
Putting aside the obvious question (who the fuck is The NPD Group? [npd.com] Why, a marketing consultancy!), the guy who talked to the ComputerWorld reporter is full of shit at best ad bald-faced lying at worst.
I should know - I used to manage a service with rebates. (Hence the anon post.) The rebates were only cost effective because of breakage. In fact, we once had to reduce the rebate amount for a particular group of users who had too good a take rate (business users who would send in rebates en masse, for an IT product.) The only way we could tell customers they saved $XXX was because we knew some of them wouldn't turn it in.
If this so-called reporter had asked even one or two sources inside a company that uses rebates, instead of talking to a consultant who probably recommends them for a hefty fee, he would have figured this out.
Re:Who is this, Joe Isuzu? (Score:5, Interesting)
As any first-year MBA knows (and has been mentioned on in a few previous posts here on Slashdot) there are basically three reasons why rebates exist:
1) Breakage. But this reason has been in steady decline and is increasingly unjustifiable. While it used to be that only 40% of rebates were turned in, that number has been steadily climbing for the past ten years -- yet rebates are more popular than ever. Furthermore, quite a few retailers have streamlined the rebate process with the explicit goal of making rebates easier to file. Also -- and this is particularly interesting -- recent studies by marketing academics have shown that there is a practical ceiling on the percentage of sales that can be counted in rebate breakage. Specifically, rebate rules (tear out the UPC) basically prevent people who are buying gifts from filing rebates. It is estimated that 20-30% of all retail sales are gift items; so if only 40% of rebates are turned in (the number nowadays is closer to 60%), that's more than half of the people who could file rebates.
2) Accounting. This has been mentioned on Slashdot before, and it's now probably the #1 reason why retailers -- particularly during the holidays -- have rebates. A regular sale eats into margin AND sales. A rebate "sale" only eats into sales. CEOs look better on paper when all of their "sales" are rebate and not direct-price based. This is actually discussed in some accounting textbooks!
3) Marketing/positioning. For example: Circuit City buys a bunch of Western Digital hard drives. They don't sell well; in fact, they just sit in inventory. WD is concerned that CC won't buy from WD anymore, because their product isn't selling (probably because it is more expensive). So WD issues the rebate (or has CC issue the rebate). In effect, its letting CC put existing inventory "on sale" at no cost to CC -- and CC now has an incentive to put the rebate in its weekly flyer, etc. This reason is why so many rebates are store and not product-specific -- even if they are manufacturers rebates.
Anyway, like I said -- the poster doesn't know what he's talking about. When rebates were first concieved in the 80s, his analysis would be correct. But it isn't, not anymore.
-Shylock
Re:Who is this, Joe Isuzu? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Who is this, Joe Isuzu? (Score:5, Informative)
http://yahoo.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/nov
quote:
" Why the rage for rebates? The industry's open secret is that fully 40% of all rebates never get redeemed because consumers fail to apply for them or their applications are rejected, estimates Peter S. Kastner, a director of consulting firm Vericours. That translates into more than $2 billion of extra revenue for retailers and their suppliers each year. What rebates do is get consumers to focus on the discounted price of a product, then buy it at full price. "
What? (Score:2)
So WHY do they do it then? Get one tenth of a percent interest? Right.
Maybe they will soon spin it as some form of corporate social security, all the people who have more time on their hands (students, unemployed, elderly) get discounts.
don't count your chickens before they hatch (Score:5, Interesting)
Rebates as a way to get your personal info (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Rebates as a way to get your personal info (Score:2)
Actually, it's mroe like you get a discount for selling them information.
FYI (Score:2)
from my experience... (Score:2, Interesting)
Rebates ARE worth every penny! (Score:4, Interesting)
As long as I know exactly what I want when I walk in there I usually end up with a nice deal.
Quite a few people complain about Best Buy not honoring rebates for a myriad of reasons but again, I follow the instructions on the rebate form they give me at the time of purchase, send them in and usually have a rebate check within 3 weeks.
Ka - Ching
Re:Rebates ARE worth every penny! (Score:2)
The Lie... (Score:2, Informative)
You know what they say, "Fool me once, shame on you - Fool me twice, shame on me"...
Nothing inherently wrong with rebates (Score:2)
I hate rebates (Score:3, Insightful)
If you want to give me a lower price, give me a lower price. It should be illegal to advertise the price after rebate more prominently than the price before. I've sent those in once or twice, and each time I do it, I get a complaint that I've made some minor error and I get no rebate check. Largely, I just don't send them in.
I've walked out of a few stores after learning that the advertised price is a rebate price and gone somewhere else and paid more than the before-rebate price simply because that store was at least honest.
Re:I hate rebates (Score:2)
When I bought something from Staples that ahd a rebate, All I had to do was go to there web site, enter the number that was on the reciept, put in my address. 10 days later I had my check. It is exactly how they should be done.
Rebates are marketing, no different then a sign, or coupon.
Re:I hate rebates (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly. Is it SO revolutionary of a concept TO JUST GIVE US THE LOWER PRICE???
Rebates only exist as a way to jack up the price and make money off the 70% of people who won't correctly send in the rebate.
For example, let's say an item should cost $49.99.
Best Buy will come up with a brilliant idea. Sell it for $69.99, but offer a rebate that supposedly makes the effective price of the item say $19.99.
BB advertises the price to be $19.99, but with tiny lettering about rebates. Now idiot consumer goes into the store, lured in by the ad, buys the item for $69.99, and forgets to mail in the rebate.
What's the problem here? THE ORIGINAL PRICE OF THE ITEM WAS $49.99. Best Buy not only got people to come in and make purchases with the alluring ad, they were able to use the rebate system as a way to JACK UP the original price of the item.
It's scam written all over it.
If you want to people to come in and ACTUALLY take a loss on a item, then just slash the price for that item to get people in the store. Some of these places do it on Black Friday, but why not for other days?
In Wal*Mart's with a grocery department, Wal*Mart takes a loss on its entire grocery dept (yes, the ENTIRE dept operates at a loss) to get people in the store to buy the stuff they have 300% mark-ups (From their paid price) on. Best Buy can do the same thing, without trying to be greedy in a SCAM sort of way.
Re:I hate rebates (Score:3, Insightful)
First you say, "just give us the lower price". Then you say BestBuy should follow WalMart's example of selling other items at 300% markup. In either case, one sale is subsidizing another sale and, in your example, BestBuy subsidizes the rebate with the same item being marked up.
All of this is a no brainer: just don't buy any random thing and understand that entering a store doesn't require purchasing a product. We're not talking about ess
Is this just a US phenomenon? (Score:4, Insightful)
So is this done anywhere outside of the US? If I suggested this idea to my friends and neighbours they'd probably look at my like I was crazy.
I mean, let's think about the process. The consumer fills in a form, and mails it to the company. The company then has to fill in another form (known as a cheque, or since it is the US I suppose we'd better call it a check), and post it back to the consumer. The consumer then takes the check and posts it to their bank. Their bank then processes, creates additional paperwork and posts it to the company's bank to verify the signature. Presumably at that point the money transfer is done electronically.
Is there something wrong with this? Are not a lot of resources being consumed unnecessarily? Why do they persist with this stupidity? Why don't governments simply pass laws to encourage retailers and manufacturers to deal in a more straightforward way with consumers?
Or am I missing something here?
Re:Is this just a US phenomenon? (Score:2, Informative)
Canada does, but they're close enough to the US that the distinction isn't important.
Because that's not how the free market economy works. Don't like rebates? Then don't buy products with rebates. If nobody goes along with it, they'll quit doing it on their own.
Re:Is this just a US phenomenon? (Score:3, Insightful)
Because that's not how the free market economy works.
Actually, that is how a free market works - buyer and seller know the product and the price, money changes hands, buyer owns the product. Among the reasons it works well is that the buyer has full information and can make a well informed choice. This is a case of the retailer trying to make the market less free by maki
Re:Is this just a US phenomenon? (Score:2)
Re:Is this just a US phenomenon? (Score:3, Interesting)
I was wondering why I never saw something like that here at Brazil (and how do you manage to be robbed like that). Well, here it is illegal to anounce a lower price than the selling one (even if you plan to make a rebate).
If a consumer comes to a shop that announced something by R$19.99 with the note "R$119.99 with a R$100 rebate" on small letters, he can pay only the R$19.99 for the item.
Brasilian consumer protection law was based on some european countries, so expect the same from there.
The Joy of Buy.com Wireless Rebates (Score:5, Interesting)
Naturally, I wasn't going to slack when it came to filling out a $200 rebate. Within a couple days of getting the phone I took an hour off to fill out the rebate form. Only one problem. The box they sent me didn't have the required UPC code. But whatever, I'm sure I could call them to straighten that out.
So I filled out the rest of the sheet and had almost everything together, and then I noticed: You had to wait six months before sending in your rebate. And at the six month period, you had to include your most recent cellphone bill.
What absolute stupidity. I mean, why couldn't they accept the rebate right away and say that you won't get paid for six months, when they do a check to make sure your cellphone account is in good standing? And it gets better. At the end of that six month period, you only have a thirty day window to get your rebate in!
How many consumers are this organized to send in a rebate not earlier than six months after purchase, and not later than seven months? Well, lucky for me, I am. I've made a note on iCal. I've also made a mental note: never purchase anything from Buy.com again.
Re:The Joy of Buy.com Wireless Rebates (Score:3, Informative)
Just so more people are aware, Buy.com has subbed out their cellular sales to a thouroughly evil little company called Inphonic. Inphonic is also known as Wirefly. This is not clear at all when initially purchasing the phone that you are dealing with a company other than Buy.com.
The rebate is a scam. In fact, Inphonics business model is to offer extremely generous rebates and not honor then. Check out yaho
Wow (Score:3, Insightful)
1) You send it in
2) They don't reply
3) You call
4) They fix it and send you the rebate.
They make step 3 so simple you don't even notice that you are doing it, and there is always some reasonable excuse (they don't have enough info, or "But we were gunna send it, give us time!"), but if you don't call you get:
1) You send it in
2) They don't reply
5) Profit!
Now, to hear that the media and attorneys general have come to the same conclusion??? Only evidence that this is not some atypical experience but real.
Thanks for confirming my suspicions.
Bloody corporations
What I tell sales people about rebates (Score:2)
So you can get a printer worth $150 for $90 -- good deal, right? Pretty smart, right?
Except the fact that there's a rebate tells me that the vendor knows damn well that the printer is only worth $90. Why else would they be selling it for $90 after rebate?
Further, accepting that the vendor and I both know damn well the pr
I avoid products with rebates... (Score:2)
Call it lazy or what not, but the main goal of rebates is to make money off lazy people who buy it and just can't get the will to mail it in.
So I take this laziness one step further... My mind doesn't want to do the math of the list price vs the retail price so I just look at the products that don't have them.
Rebates are a hassle (Score:2)
The rebate process could be made a lot easier, but I don't think it is in their interest to do that -- their main benefit is being able to advertise a slightly lower price.
It was not that much of a hassle to get the rebate, so I just figured it was worth 15 minutes and 37 cents to do it.
The Office Supply Depot... (Score:3, Insightful)
I know that we've also been moving toward an online system where rebates can be redeemed directly from our website [onlinerebates.ca], so that the customer doesn't even need to send anything in (took long enough though). From what I can tell, it is a pain sending them in but you almost ALWAYS get your check back in the mail. People love telling people about how they got jipped because they charged them money that they promised back and it never got returned to them. This is why you always here these stories about rebates never coming back. However, people don't usually say, "Hey I got my rebate check, it was really fast and everything."
From my experience rebates are made for the customers, and the sellers. It gets people into the store, they save money they'd normally have to spend, and usually the store picks up the lost money on items added on (ie. Extended Warranty, mice, keyboards, cables, mouse pads, webcams, the list goes on and on). But this move to an online system makes me think that the mail-in will soon be on the way out.
$0.02
Re:The Office Supply Depot... (Score:3, Interesting)
The system you are talking about, where people are attracted to a sale because the price is low, and then the store makes it tempting to add on extras with a higher profit margin, can be done with old-fa
Did this... (Score:2)
The problem I have, and pointed out last time, is that if the price is due to drop or simply not making units move then the price should be lowered. Years ago when rebates were few and far between I got a nice, unexpected rebate for a Zip drive I bought a month before. The reason: units were moving and the price was due to be discounted because more units were on the way. That is what a rebate used to be about. The price drop couldn't be
The only good thing about Best Buy (Score:2)
Sour grapes for the state's Attornies-General (Score:2)
Boo Rebates! (Score:2, Insightful)
1) You have to pay out more upfront, and pay tax on that amount. You don't get back that tax.
2) You might make an error on the form, and not get your money back at all.
3) Since sometimes it takes up to 90 days to get your money back, that's 3 months that you could have been earning intrest on that money.
4) The time spent trying to get your money is annoying.
5) The forms are often SO TINY it's hard to write legibly on them.
Think of all the
This is how they make their money (Score:2, Interesting)
1) Breakage. Folks forget to mail it in. They win.
2) Bendage. Folks mail it in, then forgot that they mailed it in. Slight problem and,
3) Bondage. You didn't follow fine print item #12. Rebate rejected. They win.
4) Recharacterization. You comply, get rebate. They keep extra markup from sales tax they don't have to report. They win.
No whining... (Score:2)
Not sure what the problem is (Score:2)
I prefer to get a free accessory, though, and preferably selected from a list. For example, my Powerbook came with a free HP color printer, and I needed a new color printer at the time. The HP works great, *AND* I got a big rebate on the 'book on top of that (end of model clearout that I was lying in wai
Rebate Ripoffs at Fry's (Score:3, Informative)
1) The cashier will give you the wrong rebate form. This was notorious when they had 8 rebates for Seagate drives. The cashier would grab the first one they found. Result. Rebate refused. Note: Fry's now prints the rebates with your receipt, so this happens less.
2) The rebate will require that you include some part of the package that doesn't exist. This is true with memory modules. Read the fine print, and it says to clip the logo and the UPC. Trouble is they gave you a package without the logo or missing the UPC (memory comes from the cage, and may not have a UPC).
3) They refuse your rebate, saying it was late. Now I got copies of everything, including the envelope. How can I prove when I mailed it? Stand in line at the PO and send it registered mail? WTF?
4) The form says to include the original receipt. The cashier says it is OK to send the Rebate Receipt. Wrong.. Rebate receipt is not acceptable, must include the original! Refused.
All of the above have happened, more than once. Worst are the memory rebates. They lie like dogs. They trick you. Anything but play fair.
I agree. I avoid the rebates whenever I can.
marketing information. (Score:2, Informative)
From the article re: prepaid gift cards (Score:4, Interesting)
Even in California, where it is illegal for a gift card/certificate to expire, these cards are good money makers and in some way take advantage of the customers.
Jack In The Box sees so much revenue potential in the card that they are giving customers 2 free tacos for getting a gift card with $10 or more.
Mickey D's is giving free $1 gift cards with certain purchases, to show off their new gift card system.
Although gift cards are not as bad as rebates, retailers honestly don't have them for our benefit. They have them because market research shows some certain amount of money is never used, meaning easy profit for the store.
Even if more gift cards were redeemed, if you've ever had a business class, you know everything revolves around cash flow, and gift cards are the epitome of cash flow.
more FUD (Score:3, Informative)
BS or as the french say leBullshit (Score:5, Insightful)
You just know he wanted to say
"The big lie that the LIBERAL media and TRIAL attorneys..." I'm a
Rebates are the tool of the devil. The put them out full well knowing that something like only 40% of rebates are returned. If they actully gave a shit about their customers they would give the break at the register and not put us through this dance.
Oh and interesting how one of the two times I've done rebates in that past Bestbuy screwed me saying I hadn't included something. I can't tell you how many times I've heard of people having the same thing happen to them. I avoid them at all costs.
IMHO they should be 100% illegal. Give us the price at the register or don't advertise it. Or how about this? Say its $100 with a $50 rebate. I'll pay $25 and promise to send you that extra $25 within 4 to 8 weeks.
Re:BS or as the french say leBullshit (Score:3, Interesting)
AFAIK, In most countries, they do count as illegal. This topic, without mentioning it, pretty much only applies to the US.
The put them out full well knowing that something like only 40% of rebates are returned.
You forgot to mention the 90% of those rebates that customers do file for, which the company conveniently ignores (aka "rejects without notification"). Okay, I made that number up, but back when I still naively believed "Oh golly gee, lookit that, I can get t
Rebates...best and worst case (Score:3, Interesting)
On the flip side, against my better judgement my brother bought a stack of CD-Rs on a Boxing Day sale with a $20 rebate (or around there). Months later he still did not receive his rebate so he called and called and went to store and called again. After a months of this and several "told you it would happen" from me I joking mentioned he should take the company to small claims court. Long story short he filed a claim, paid the $100 filing fee and had the company (which luckily was based in the province we lived in otherwise he would not have been able to file a claim to begin with) served with the statement of claim (or whatever they call it in small claims terms). He received a call a few days later from the company which was all apologetic and a cheque for the rebate and the $100 filing fee. All this for $20, but I guess he made his point.
So it can go both ways.
I call shenanigans! (Score:3, Insightful)
Rebates work because of breakage and interest made on the delay - they are generally a pain in the ass and are a perversion of the common free market practice of purchasing goods. Sure, if the deal is sweet enough I will succumb, but I (once more) feel like the kid who has to do a little dance to get his stolen lunch back from the bully.
I'll take the bait (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't like rebates? Here's what you do... (Score:3, Insightful)
Go to the store and take the flyer showing the rebated price in big letters (and the real price in teeny letters) with you, pick the item up off the shelf and take it to the counter. When the sales-droid rings up your purchase and tells you the price tell them they're wrong and show them the ad. When they point out the fine print, point out the big print and tell them that's what you're going to pay. Argue with them for a bit. When they won't give you the advertised price call the manager over. Argue with him for a bit. When he won't give you the advertised price leave the item on the counter and walk out.
The retailer will hate this, you've caused a scene in their store, delayed the cashier from ringing through purchases, annoyed other customers and they've lost a sale. If just a couple of people did this per store per day rebates would end in no time.
If you're really keen, after this file a complaint with the consumer protection department of your local government (don't bother with the BBB) claiming "bait and switch", unethical business practices and deceptive advertising.
"Very few are rejected"? Bullshit. (Score:3, Informative)
Oh, and how about that absurd multi-month processing delay? It seems calculated to be just long enough to make you forget that you ever sent anything in. What really gets me is this typical* email from Parago: "Please allow 8 weeks from the postmark date of your submission for processing your rebate." This is four days after I sent it in. They already entered my email address and name, at least, correctly into their database. So what do they need the other seven and a half weeks for?
* I say "typical", but of course it's even more typical to hear nothing until the check arrives, if it ever does.
Re:They work (Score:3, Insightful)