Ive bitched about rebates before.
Half the time I don’t receive the rebates at all, the other half it takes 6 fucking months-to-a year. get it. No kidding. I bought a 12 pack of Boris beer (it sucks. I gave it a rude, scathing review here.)
Mailed in the $5 rebate on October 25th 2004. I received it yesterday! Almost 6 months later!! I figured I wouldn’t get it, like half the rebates I send in. So whats the deal? Why the fuck is getting a rebate so troublesome? Do they think consumers aren’t going to mail these in? And then when we do they act like they’re doing us a favor? I know it’s only $5 (THIS time) but last time it was a hundred bucks! First they make you jump through hoops (mail in the recipt, circle the purchase price, include the UPC, include the serial #, fill out this form, touch your toes to your ears, etc.), then they don’t send the check, or take forever to do so!
Why are rebates such a fucking pain in the ass?
Just a side note: The other day I saw a bottle of motor oil (I don’t recall which brand) that had a form on it for a 50 cent mail in rebate, LIMIT ONE! What, with the cost of stamp, envelope, and time, would be the customers total profit from this rebate? 2 cents? Totally insane!
While rebates are of questionable merit, a more compelling concern may be this… what on God’s green Earth compelled you to buy something called Boris beer?
Because I’m will to try almost anything…once. I should have known better. I don’t recall seeing this beer even once the couple times I’ve been to Europe. Even the Frenchies don’t seem to drink this slop, and they make it!
I’ve never had any trouble with rebates, although sometimes they do take a while to arrive. My WAG is that they may not mail out rebates as they receive the applications; maybe they wait until the deadline and send them all out as a mass mailing. Last year I bought an Audio-Technica microphone that had a $25 rebate. I got my application in just before the offer ended, and I got the check immediately.
Just forget about rebates once you send them off. By the time you get a check, you’ll have forgotten about it completely, and it will feel like a gift of free money. Photocopy everything before you send it off, and be sure to follow up on any sizeable amounts if too much time passes and you don’t receive your check. Or just don’t buy goods with mail-in rebates. The companies are doing you a favor by offering the rebate to begin with, so you just have to follow some directions and be patient. If you don’t like that, then buy a different product at full price.
Oh by all means chalk me up as a rebate hater !!! :mad:
Rebates suck rhino !!!
Oh yes you have to follow everything VERY precisely. Example - if you don’t have the UPC from the carton - you’re screwed !!!
Sometimes even if the rebate application was rejected for one reason or another, it can be useful to have sent it in. For instance, where I work, I have a computer application I can run to provide me with all of the information on a rebate application, whether it was valid or not, including the purchase date on the receipt. Dozens of times it has enabled me to confirm that the customer’s unit was purchased when and where he claims, and he is eligible for his warranty.
I got screwed on some rebates and haven’t purchased anything with one since. I called them once month for eight months. Each time, they’d tell me that the problem had been resolved and that I should wait 30 days to receive my rebate. Thirty days and then I’d call again. Lather, rinse …
I’m getting tempted again, but I think this thread may have cured me.
Perhaps if I talk to the rebate people before I actually buy the product I can be ahead of the game.
WTF?! How the hell are the companies doing you a favor? They want the advantage of advertising at a lower cost, with the hope that they can still sell at the higher cost to people who don’t bother with rebates. If they advertise at the lower cost, they must provide at the lower cost. Anything else sounds like fraud to me. A rebate check is money that is owed to me, not something a company will provide out of the kindness of their heart.
My guess is, they think it will entice people to buy, and then most people will forget to send in the rebate, or fail to notice one of the conditions in small print, so that they can deny it. I bought a pot recently that had a ten dollar rebate. I almost sent it off, before I noticed that in the itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny fine print, it called for a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope (AND you had to send it in no later than 15 days after you bought it). I bet that all of the people who actually send the rebate in, the vast majority of them didn’t notice one or both of these clauses. I actually did end up getting my $10, only because I was totally anal about it. I better go deposit the check, because the check also has an unusually short date until it expires-- another way they try to weasel out of it.
I always check. The Boris rebate did come with the S.A.S.E. I sent in (bastards had both my money & envelope for half a year! :mad: )
About 2 years ago I missed the fine print about the SASE on a rebate for a car wash. They sent all my stuff back (application, receipt, etc.) with a letter claiming they couldn’t process it because I failed to send the SASE. WHAT THE FUCK? They could spend postage to send all that crap back but not to send the check? What kind of fuzznuts operate these outfits?
I keep records. If the stated 8-10 week waiting period passes with no check, I start writing to the company. I write the BB concerning both the HQ and the branch store that’s stiffing me. I write the CEO. I generally raise hell. Even big stores like Best Buy generally want to stay on the BBB’s good side.
Mail-in rebates were the biggest thorn in my side as a manager for BBY.
Placing myself as the middle-man between the consumer and these companies with rebates was my definition of hell. So many “circumstances” came up that had no knowable solution by these vendors or our head offices.
Examples:
Vendor offers $200 rebate on E-Machine computer. Offer only good if purchased on 4th, 5th, and 6th of May. Vendor never ships units. I give out rainchecks. We get units in, call customers to come in and buy them. But now their receipts say May 9th. Vendor rejects all rebates because they weren’t bought on the right dates even though we send an explanation of why along with the rebate coupon.
Customer buys PC with $200 rebate. They mail in rebates and UPC codes. The PC breaks. I’d offer them an exchange but that model was only available for 5 days and they are all gone. Customer wants refund. I offer refund sans $200.
Customer returns 2 months later saying they never got rebate. Now it becomes my problem.
Vendor offers rebate on PC package but you must buy PC A, Monitor B, and Printer C. Vendor never sends enough of Monitor B to fill demand. Company tells us to substitute with Monitor M. They don’t tell you however how to deal with the fact that rebate is not valid unless you have the A,B,C combo. A,M,C doesn’t qualify.
Customer buys Maytag washer and dryer with rebate. Doesn’t want it delivered till next month. Rebate needs to be mailed in with UPC by the end of the month to qualify. How is this supposed to work? Again it now becomes my problem.
I should have known better. I don’t recall seeing this beer even once the couple times I’ve been to Europe. Even the Frenchies don’t seem to drink this slop, and they make it!