Just like the title says, Fuckin’ Rebates. Hate 'em. I don’t care if I pay full price - I just don’t want the stress of having that rebate monkey on my back for the next year while it sits on my desk glaring at me, laughing, knowing I’ll never send it in.
How To Get Your Rebate:
Print rebate slip from our internet site. Be sure to use our rebate “Enigma” machine to get the correct rebate code for your product.
Ask your friend/relative for the box to the present you gave them so you can cut off the bar code whilst letting them know you were too cheap to buy a full-priced present.
Photocopy the receipt and place in envelope with bar code, rebate code, place of purchase, salesperson’s name and phone number along with “processing” fee equal to amount of rebate.
Mail to :
Blackhole Rebates
666 Not Even Light Can Escape Lane
Center of Milky Way, Universe
Wait 8-12 years for non-descript check you assume is some marketing gimmick and throw in trash.
Quit Job if necessary to find time to complete steps 1-4.
Never again will I ever be tempted by a “rebate.” Not unless they give it to me in cash money before I leave the store.
Every single time I’ve stepped into that trap, they ask me to fill out a little form and send it in along with the receipt.
I do so.
Six months later, they thank me for having bought the product, and announce they cannot process my rebate without the receipt. I contact them and state that I sent the receipt along with the form. They reply that I may well have, but when that envelope reached THEM, there was NO receipt in it.
But they’ll be happy to process my rebate, as soon as I somehow obtain another receipt and send it to them. No photocopies, no scanned copies, no photographs, ORIGINAL receipts only, please.
God, I agree. I’d rather pay $5.00 for a product than $4.00, with a $2.00 off rebate.
Yeah, it’s irrational. But as KidC said, I don’t want to have to deal with the Rebate Monkey. I KNOW I won’t send it in.
Besides, the whole system is annoying. What, we’re both going to spend $.37 on postage so that they can send me that important $1.00 check? Then I carry it around in my wallet until I have to make a bank deposit, and spend the time needed to make the deposit happen? I don’t mean to sound self-important and self absorbed (I leave that for my ex-girlfriend), but my time is worth something. If you’re gonna give me a discount, GIVE ME A DISCOUNT. Don’t make make jump through hoops and waste time and money.
Depends on what you are buying. I bought a computer for my gramp from CCity and sent in a whopping total 5 fucking rebate forms to various companies for the basic package. BUT…The rebates came to a whopping total of $450!!! Even a diehard rebate-hater like myself couldn’t NOT send that much in. Thats a fucking car payment and a half.
My dad, despite a very well-paying federal job as an electrical engineer, is always money-conscious. For virtually every major purchase he’s makes (and some not-so-major ones), he looks for a rebate. Since he’s busy much of the time, the task of actually picking up the necessary paperwork often falls to me.
One actual experience. Wanted to get a rebate on a VCR. Asked for the receipt. Gave it to him. It was a garbage night, so I tossed the box. Bad move…he forgot to tell me that he needed the UPC code as well.
Okay, let’s get this straight…he has the receipt. The store has a record of the sale. The manufacturer can look up the exact item we purchased like nothing. Why do we even need the barcode?? Sheesh, why not ask for a blood sample while you’re at it?
Recent experience. Bought a mah jong program that advertised a full rebate. For some reason, he only got $20 back. Went to CompUSA customer service asking for an explanation. The rep picks up an advertising insert and leafs through it, then tells me he’s found nothing. Lemme run that by you again…the place WHICH SOLD THE FREAKING GAME could not explain to me why it didn’t come with a full rebate. (It’s always mystified me as to how a nationwide computer chain with the most advanced application software in the world can’t even give themselves a decent database system.) Thankfully, I was able to get store credit, and I was relieve they’d give me that much.
Oh yeah…mailed in rebates for three different programs. First one (NASCAR 2), they said I wasn’t eligible because of this and that and whatever garbage; got nothing. Second time (one of the Links games), did EVERYTHING they asked. Nothing. Third time (some translation program), finally got something.
Sheesh. One out of three. That’s ridiculous. I’m with you all…you want to refund my money, refund my damn money, don’t put me through this idiotic song and dance which doens’t even get me my money most of the time.
I’ve had no problem with the $100 and $50 ones from Compaq, Sony, Circuit City and Best Buy, but try to get the $30 ones for CD-R’s. I’ve been ripped off on two of those in the past year. Fuckin’ Office Depot. :mad:
And don’t ever make the mistake (as I have) of buying two items during a single store visit, each of which offers a rebate. Coming up with two original receipts is quite a trick when both items are on the same little piece of paper.
Had I thought about it in advance, of course, I’d have put my two items on the belt, but I’d have made sure they got rung up in two completely separate transactions. But who thinks that clearly in a zoo-like discount place?
Journalism majors will tell you that fewer than ten percent of any coupon ever issued for ANYTHING is ever actually redeemed.
The “Rebate Mentality” plugs into that. It’s an on-site incentive to buy a given product, right?
…but statistically, fewer than ten percent of the people will ever get around to sending in the paperwork.
…and of that ten percent, how many will do much of anything if you stall them somehow? Particularly for some dippy $20 rebate? It’s a no-brainer money saver for the company.
Admittedly, they have ruined that gimmick forever as far as some of us are concerned – as previously stated, I will never fall for it again, unless Best Buy or whoever hands me the money AT THE TIME OF PURCHASE – so, all you future generations of salesmen, despair…
Best Buy apparently decided to make it nice for their rebate-needing customers - they now print out additional original receipts for the rebate items only, labeled clearly “Rebate Receipt” and listing all of the needed items for the rebate on an attached slip of paper. They do this for the rebates that are actually items that you need to mail in for; my leather case for my PDA (“free” with mail-in “rebate” form) should be arriving soon.
I missed out on a $20 rebate this summer; as I was unemployed at the time and didn’t drive often (my husband uses our car to get to work), I didn’t get to a bank to drop off the rebate check before it expired. And I’m betting that they count on this happening to forgetful/etc. folks, too.
Sheesh, I don’t know what you guys are doing wrong but I always get all of my rebates back. Hell, rebates paid for Christams this year. Sure I have to wait anywhere between 4 to 12 weeks for them bet hey it is worth it. As a matter of fact, I just got a $30 rebate for a CD/RW I bought way back in the August on the 24th. Yeah it was a 4 - 5 month wait but $30 is $30.
I have 3 rebates from dell. $200 system, $70 Warranty, and $50 for buying it on their credit card. I have a $10 for some cd-r’s and another for a compact flash card. Like I said, I’ll have to quit my fricking job.
Take all of your receipts and forms and do it while you’re at work. You have access to copiers, envelopes and free postage, so it’s the perfect time to get these mundane tasks done.
Oh, sorry, I just assumed that everyone is as bored at work as I am. hee hee.
Some day in the future I will run for office and my platform shall consist of only one proposal: Stores shall be obligated to make the mail-in rebate effective on the spot, and then they can collect from the manufacturer on your behalf. That would be the end of the mail-in rebates and the start of real, honest to goodness, on the spot, rebates. The world would be a better place.
I got burned recently by an expiration date. I bought a Microsoft Optical mouse from CompUSA for $15 with a $5 rebate (more or less the same mouse I paid $50 for a couple years ago, but that’s another rant). How they got me was that the rebate form had to be mailed within DAYS of me buying the damn thing. This was the quickest I’d ever seen on a rebate. Normally you get a couple of weeks or even months.
But in the end it was $5 and I felt like I got a deal even at $15.