The rebate ripoff
Humberto Cruz's column in Monday's Business section was spot on regarding the difficulty of filing for rebates. I naively jumped into rebate hell a couple of years ago while buying a new computer and a lot of software to go with it. What a great deal I was getting with all these rebates, I thought (stupidly!) Some things were virtually free. Whee!
Well, I've never seen such ridiculous requirements. You had to actually get a knife and cut the numbers off the boxes the computers come in! Give me a break! All of them had different requirements and you would not believe the pile of receipts necessary. Then, of course, you want to keep copies of everything just in case something goes awry. And then there are deadlines. It goes on and on. The number of checks I actually got made the whole exercise not worth it. I think the companies are counting on that to make a hidden profit.
I'm a new person now. I will not leave the store without a clerk getting everything prepared to put the rebate in the mail. I bought a phone a few weeks ago and the salesman was touting the rebate. OK, I said, but you'll be working with me to fill out all this information, making my copies, giving me an envelope. I'll not leave this store without everything ready to go into the mailbox for the rebate. At first he bubbled up about that and said he couldn't do that... I was not going to allow that to happen. Excuse me, do you want to sell me this phone or not? You can't use your copy machine for company business? What's that about? Well, on second thought, he checked on that and came back with the copies and a couple of envelopes. With his expertise on filling these out and both of us working on it, it didn't take that long. Thanks. Now I just have to wait for what sounds like, from Humberto's experience, about 20 weeks for that rebate to show up.
I think the stores should give the customers rebates up front. Then they can fool around with the paperwork with the supplier to get reimbursed. They are in communication with those suppliers all the time anyway, plus they have a lot more leverage to get action because of their purchasing power.
Cruz said in his column that there is a store that actually charges to fill out those rebate form. Let's see now, you are enticing buyers with the rebate, then you want to charge them to collect it? Oh, yeah, that makes sense. I wonder if the stores also make the followup calls and write the followup letters five months later to determine why the checks haven't shown up.
I like the store discount idea. I will opt for the store discount if there's an option. That way, you can make a clean getaway. What's your strategy? Anybody have a secret for success?
Comments
I know I've missed out on a lot of rebate money over the years. When you have 2 small children who get into everything, it's hard to keep all the paperwork handy, or to find time to jump through all the hoops. I feel a little better, though, knowing that even financially-savvy people like Mr. Cruz find it a pain.
In the future, I think I'll either use your plan, or just refuse to fall for the rebate-gimmicks. Surely there are stores that sell computers without all the gimmickry, smoke and mirrors? Or am I being naive here?
Posted by: Mike D. | January 31, 2007 12:46 PM
I have also been ripped off by rebate offers. I'm going to mention the store here...Circuit City. I filled out a total of 6 rebates and jumped through all their hoops to get it in exactly the right way at the right time and sent them the original tags from the boxes, etc. I did not receive even ONE of the SIX different rebates I sent in for my computer system! Just my two cents and a lost $250 or so in rebates!
Janet Edwards
Posted by: Janet Edwards | February 3, 2007 6:19 PM