Well, http://www.cyberrebate.com has filed for bankruptcy. For those of you who aren’t familiar with their business model (such as it was), they’d sell you items for inflated prices then promise to send you back your money in 14 weeks.
Well, a search for the site here made it seem safe enough, so I went and bought some stuff, submitted, my rebate forms, and then saw that they filed for bankruptcy. Now, I’m guessing that the rebates are among the debts that they won’t have to pay under the terms of bankruptcy and that I am SOL. On the other hand, if this is not/would not be the case, then I’d feel a lot better to hear it.
No chance of seeing your money. You are what is known as an “unsecured creditor,” which means you’re last in line after all the secured creditors – banks, suppliers, etc. – are paid. While it’s theoretically possible you could get something back, the Devil will probably be playing ice hockey before that happens.
so how much did they take you for?
My mother was very intrested in getting something from them. I talked her out of it when I found the $150 item for $27 on another site.
sigh Don’t suppose a class action suit could save my ass should one pop up, could it?
k2dave, let’s suffice it to say that they took me for entirely too much money. I can afford to pay it, but all things considered I’m feeling like a major fool, and a sucker, and several different kinds of moron, so I’d rather not actually name a figure. It is more than a month’s salary though (hey, it seems like a good idea when you’re supposed to get it back)…
Doubtful. There’s little basis for suing for damages beyond the money they already owe you, which is already in the purview of the federal court-and even if you could, and got a judgement, it would then go to the bankruptcy court to see if you got paid. If you’re lucky, you might get a few cents on the dollar … but I wouldn’t hold my breath. They can’t pay you if they don’t have money to pay you with, eh? If they have any real assets to liquidate, there might be some cash left over for the customers that got screwed. Trouble is, the ‘real assets’ for an e-business tend to be a few pieces of computer equipment and a customer database.
Yesterday, NPR had a report on Cyber-Rebate’s failing. They quoted a few responses to a message board they had been monitoring. One guy said that he was out just over $39,000. Good god man, how the hell do you do that?
So, as much as you’ve lost, I’m guessing it could be worse. Still, that sucks really bad.
1 you pay steeply inflated prices for goods
2 when you get them you fill out a rebate form to get most if not all of your money back and mail it.
3 (Should I, nah) You wait some time
4 You get a check for the money back and you are
it seemed like a good idea… simple time value of money. You pay $250 for a $20 DVD - they take your money and put it in a big “pool” of all the other money, collect enough interest off of it to pay you and make a few bucks profit… they send you the rebate 14 weeks later… so you get your DVD for free and they get a profit - everyone happy. Paypal makes money off of the interest of everyone’s money that is sitting on paypal (actually, now they charge 1% of transfers over 100 bucks which sucks…)
Of course you could invest the money yourself, but we want the DVD NOW - instant gratification is good.
$39,000 - he musta bought a 30" TV or something… sucks.
While I feel sorry for people who lost a lot, I am amazed at how gullible and naive people can be.
I am not familiar with CR, except what I have seen here.
[quote]
You pay $250 for a $20 DVD - they take your money and put it in a big “pool” of all the other money, collect enough interest off of it to pay you and make a few bucks profit… they send you the rebate 14 weeks later… so you get your DVD for free and they get a profit
[quote]
It seemed like a good idea? I don’t think so.
We are combining two operations here: the purchase of a DVD and the investment of capital. Suppose I buy the DVD for $20 straight. Then the proposal is I invest the remaining $230 and get $250 in 14 weeks… that’s comes out roughly at an interest rate of 35% annually. If you think you can invest money with low risk and expect that kind of return you’ll be taken for a ride. Furthermore, to pay investors 35% they have to get an even higher rate of return.
Life is a game of consequences. If you do not do your homework, you will soon be parted with your money. It does not matter if you are mother Theresa, you will lose your money.
I will try to remember to link to this thread whenever the next thread about “Why do we need to study math?” comes up.
i have a lot to say regarding the cyberrebates scam-artists.
and their “customers”, who are no better than the cyberrebates fools.
these people are trying to get their credit card companies to foot the bill for their get-rich-quick hysteria. these people paid 2000 bucks for a palm pilot worth 150, tried to sell the loot on ebay for a fat profit, and when their distributor got hosed, they are now trying to scam their credit card company to foot their bill.
these people basically loaned cyberrebates.com money, a short-term unsecured loan, in return for whatever trinket they chose… maybe a gladiator dvd for a 170 dollar loan, or a dvd player for a 1400 dollar loan.
they transferred their loan to the internet company via a credit card, and are NOW expecting the credit card company to reimburse them for their lousy investment.
bed. made. lie. it continues to amaze me how adult people are unwilling to take responsibility for their actions. sorry for the rant here.
