I know there’s other products that use rebates as a marketing gimmick of sorts. Mail-in rebates can occasionally be found with grocery products, although it’s not that common. With computers and peripherals, though, it’s a different story; look through a flyer from Best Buy or Comp USA, and it seems like half of the products have pricing that is subject to a rebate. Go into a brick-and-mortar store, and it seems like one in ten products have a rebate program of some sort, compared to … oh, one in 500 for a grocery store. (These are just WAGs.)
Why are rebates so prevalent for computers and related products compared to other consumer goods?
Plus, even if you do send them in, it’s an interest-free loan from the time your check clears to when their checks clear.
Also, if you get a computer package at Best Buy, for example, you basically get a free printer. The printer’s worth about $80, but in the lifetime of the printer you will go through hundreds of dollars worth of ink cartridges…
I’m not sure, but they may amount to a customer incentive to put themselves on a mailing list. After all, if the rebate cheque arrives, then they have your mailing address to send you other stuff.
The entire rebate process is a scam, intended to cheat consumers. If the maker really wanted to gain customers by giving a good deal, they would just reduce the price or offer coupons redeemable at the cash register like on groceries.
The whole rebate thing depends on many (most?) customers never actually getting the rebate, and the process is designed to support this. Thus the requirements for sending in lots of stuff, and the increasingly short deadlines for sending them in.
Fulfillment companies (the ones who actually process most rebates) actually write into their contracts guarantees that only a certain percentage of rebates will actually be paid, and guarantee that they will cover the payments if this is exceeded. So there is an obvious incentive for the processing company to say that ‘you did not include theUPC symbol’ or that ‘your request arrived late’ or ‘we have no record of receiving a rebate request from you’.
There are all kinds of sites on the Internet that complain about problems with rebates. See http://www.computergripes.com/Rebates.html for just one example, specifically related to Computer Products.
The solution adopted by many people is not to buy products with rebates unless you are willing to pay the non-rebated price for them.
I read somewhere (perhaps on here) that another reason manufacturers do this is so they can control the “discount” given to consumers, rather than having retail stores apply the discount at their own whim.
This has been discussed a few times before:
The whole thing seems like a scam to me. I hope there’s a class action some day.
Part of the origins for rebate madness for computer/tech items is the price dropping nature of the merchandise. The maker sells the disk drive to the retailer at $100 each and 6 months later they are worth $70 each. How does the maker get the product off the shelves and make room for the new stuff? If the retailer was just paid the difference for “unsold stock”, guess how much unsold stock each retailer would suddenly claim? So the maker can set up rebates for items sold during a certain range of dates.
However, it’s gotten way beyond the need for such price dropping. Way, way beyond.
Best Buy claimed a while back they were going to go “rebate-less” sometime this fall, but I’ve seen no followup to it. I might actually start buying stuff from them again if they did.
I don’t seem to get either email or snailmail spam from doing rebates. I don’t give out my phone number on the forms though.
I agree that they’re a scam. Several months ago, I ordered a set of tires over the internet with two $75 mail-in rebates and a hard drive with two $30 mail-in rebates. I mailed them within days of receipt, but so far, I’ve only received one $75 rebate. They said to give it up to 10 weeks but it’s probably been 3 or 4 months. That’s the last time I purchase items with mail-in rebates.
Virtually all the more expensive computer related items I purchase are with rebates attached. I have easily received over $ 30,000 in cash back rebates (just rebates) over the past 5-6 years across dozens and dozens of purchases.
With the exception one one hard drive rebate of $ 50, 5 years ago where they say the UPC was not attached, every_ single_ rebate_ I have sent in has been honored and paid.
Rebates are not a scam, but they are a bit of a statistical game, and rely on some people’s inability to follow simple instructions. Almost all the the rebates I submit have clear instructions and 800#'s to call if there are any questions. Typical submission time limits are usually several weeks to 1-2 months after purchase.
It’s not rocket science. Clearly fill out the blank sections, attach the UPC and receipt to the rebate form with a staple, print out an addressed envelope, double check the address and required items, seal, stamp and mail. 4-8 weeks alter you get a check. Forgetfulness and sloppiness will cost you in doing this.
In cases where I have made an error (wrong receiving address in one instance ) , the rebate submission firms have bent over backwards to get my check to me.
With rebates I’ve gotten some terrific brick and mortar deals that are substantially less than the lowest price I could buy a similar unit for online, anywhere. So the deal is there you just have to be willing to play the game to get it. Personally, I do find it to be alsmot beyond comprehension that people would sit on, and “forget about”, $25, $50, 100, and 300 rebates until it was too late.
That actually seems to make sense. You would think retailers would buy less of a product so they don’t have to deal with the rebate process, but considering how unpredictable technology advances can be, I guess it’s to be expected.
OK, assuming you accept rebates as a scam (which I do), and want to take your business elsewhere, where can you buy computer products without rebates? I recently shopped Best Buy for a gift computer and found some required sending in as many as 7 different rebates - there’s almost zero chance of getting all 7 without spending more of my time than the rebate’s worth. And the last Dell I bought, I couldn’t find any info about how to process the rebate, and spent more time than it was worth looking for it. Time before that, I had to write back and forth to Dell several times, which cost more than the rebate eventually gave me.
I want to vote with my dollars - what candidates don’t have rebates???
Some rebate fulfillers have been scammers. They fulfill only a fraction of the requests and deny most on grounds such as “we never got it”, “you didn’t include the UPC” etc. One company was so notorious that people were sending them with return receipt requested and still were told “we never got it.”
I have lost hundreds of dollars over the years on “lost” rebates. Note that most rebate fulfillers are not part of the store or manufacturers operations so complaining to the latter has no effect.
A couple of times, a couple years later, I would get a notice about a class action lawsuit that has resolved a given rebate scam. The “settlement” was always ridiculous, something like: “Get $10 off you next purchase of $300 or more at Best Buy.”
Hey, just give me my $10 you jerks.
Consumer Advisor Clark Howard recommends that you always base your decision solely on the pre-rebate price.
And, if you want to buy computers for cheap without rebate worries, go to the little independent “white box” stores. You can get a better deal on a better product if you do it right.
