Rebates are a bad joke

John Doe wrote:


As far as I can guess, the only reason for a mail-in rebate is for
demographics and because they don't want you to return the product.

That, and they can sell the product at a higher price with the knowledge
that many buyers won't send in all the stuff for the rebate, because they'll
be too busy, or forget, or delay until it's too late, etc. I think I read
somewhere that about one-third of buyers of items sold with rebate never
actually send in for the rebate.

Until someone comes up with a better motive, I will continue
avoiding mail-in rebates like the plague.

They're irksome, but sometimes are worth the bother. In my experience nearly
all sellers (but not all) are honest with them too.

On Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:10:06 -0400, "Neil Harrington"
wrote:

They're irksome, but sometimes are worth the bother. In my experience nearly
all sellers (but not all) are honest with them too.

Keep records, though. I find that sometimes I have to contact them
about a rebate that doesn't show--since this has almost always
produced a rebate check within a week I think it's more than
coincidence.

Loren Pechtel wrote:
On Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:10:06 -0400, "Neil Harrington"
wrote:

They're irksome, but sometimes are worth the bother. In my
experience nearly all sellers (but not all) are honest with them too.

Keep records, though. I find that sometimes I have to contact them
about a rebate that doesn't show--since this has almost always
produced a rebate check within a week I think it's more than
coincidence.

Yep. I keep all the info on Excel worksheets -- when purchased, when rebate
stuff mailed in, when rebate received. That also lets me see at a glance and
a mouse stroke how much money I've gotten back. Over a year or so it can
really add up.

On Oct 14, 12:37 am, "larry moe 'n curly"
wrote:

However rebate processors are known to alter forms after the fact or
have different forms on file than what the customer was given. I
experienced that with Parago (Texas, Florida), and they're considered
one of the best, most honest processing companies, so always keep a
copy of the original form. I hope you didn't have to deal with
another company, like the crappy one in San Diego, Worldwide Rebates,
which charges extra for "rush" processing. Also before submitting,
always e-mail AND phone the rebate company to verify all the terms,
and if it's legal in your state, record the phone conversation.

I think they something of a crack down years ago. I'd filed
complaints where I could, kept copies and etc. About given up when I
got letters from a class action suit and missing rebates [in]directly
paid from the government, as a result of the law suit. There's one
now on Newegg going on, where the rebate is in the form of an American
Express card, approved and issued in the name of person filing for a
rebate, with a credit applied for the amount of the rebate on the
first charge usage. There's an ATI 5450 PCI-E video board they're
offering for $15 on $35. So, what I'm wondering, were I to call
American Express and ask, is it OK if I reserve usage on the American
Express card, to send out for a pre-approved charge once the ATI
purchase clears, on a local escort service for a $20 humjob, hm?

Flasherly wrote:

I think they something of a crack down years ago. I'd filed
complaints where I could, kept copies and etc. About given up when I
got letters from a class action suit and missing rebates [in]directly
paid from the government, as a result of the law suit. There's one
now on Newegg going on, where the rebate is in the form of an American
Express card, approved and issued in the name of person filing for a
rebate, with a credit applied for the amount of the rebate on the
first charge usage. There's an ATI 5450 PCI-E video board they're
offering for $15 on $35. So, what I'm wondering, were I to call
American Express and ask, is it OK if I reserve usage on the American
Express card, to send out for a pre-approved charge once the ATI
purchase clears, on a local escort service for a $20 humjob, hm?

When it comes to professional services, you usually get what you pay
for, and for $20 you'll probably get hepatitis-C, HIV, bed bugs, lice,
fleas, syphillis, or gonorreha. Far better to pay cash for one of
those much classier Craig's List prostitutes.

Neil Harrington wrote:
Loren Pechtel wrote:
"Neil Harrington"

They're irksome, but sometimes are worth the bother. In my
experience nearly all sellers (but not all) are honest with them too.

Knocking on wood. I've never been burned, altho' one time I had to
'interact' a little bit to keep the ball rolling.

Keep records, though. I find that sometimes I have to contact them
about a rebate that doesn't show--since this has almost always
produced a rebate check within a week I think it's more than
coincidence.

There is a wide range of structure that surrounds the rebate process
that I get involved with on computer pieces and parts.

Yep. I keep all the info on Excel worksheets -- when purchased, when rebate
stuff mailed in, when rebate received. That also lets me see at a glance and
a mouse stroke how much money I've gotten back. Over a year or so it can
really add up.

I agree that there needs to be a systematization of the process from the
beginning to the end. When it is orderly and well documented as if in
preparation for a failure, the problem of failed (or forgotten and
failed) rebate can be entirely avoided.

The rebate process for my purchases has evolved over the years. A
merchant like Fry's now provides a special 'extra' receipt for a rebate
related purchase. That receipt has link information to an online graphic
of the rebate form which contains all of the rebate's rules.

The online graphic (or .pdf) can be completed 'digitally' if the right
kind of software is used and then printed out. The other type of rebate
evolution is that some other online rebate forms are designed to be
completed online and submitted or printed from that online process and
the online process itself may be extended to a mechanism for checking on
the status of the rebate with a link.

Personally, when it comes to the physical form completion business, I
think it is an advantage to have a 'digitally completed' ie printed
mechanically completed rebate form because it sends a message to the
rebate redemption company that the rebate sender is well prepared for
any snags, as opposed to the manually - pen and ink - completed rebate
form which the rebate redeemer outfit might suspect has not been
photocopied in preparation for a 'lost' rebate submission.

The rebates typically require the original UPC attached to the completed
rebate form. I make a scancopy of that digitally completed and UPC
attached form in anticipation of the 'lost rebate submission' gambit.


--
Mike Easter

On Oct 16, 1:43 am, "larry moe 'n curly"
wrote:

When it comes to professional services, you usually get what you pay
for, and for $20 you'll probably get hepatitis-C, HIV, bed bugs, lice,
fleas, syphillis, or gonorreha. Far better to pay cash for one of
those much classier Craig's List prostitutes.

The topic is rebates are a bad joke, LMC. My modus operandi. So,
wasn't it a good bad joke or just a bad bad joke?

Damn, and I feel so fresh out of bad jokes today, but . . . I do know
one about Craig's List and local law enforcement. They busted the
hell out of it sometime slightly past last year. The particulars went
far beyond any of the above-mentioned, as extremes virtually at both
end of boundaries may define themselves. People were being hurt,
corporeally murdered after tawdry "setups" of similar ilk. Actually
wasn't an it, he's a man and the owner of Craig's List, and that is
who was called to bear the onus for that case.

Closest I've come to any of this stuff is realtime online chats over a
worldwide arena. Talked to one guy, seems a Walmart manager who
explained how he had met his last three wives online while chatting,
an eye opener, although I'd have characterize my defining moment as
one when I met a British woman who wished to come for a visit. That
was awhile ago, at least for me, although I've noticed online dating
continues to advance in leaps and bounds. Now the recommended
procedure is to set the date first through a live feed, through Skypes
and such. Happy, happy, smiley people for looking over one another,
how big respectively when the teeth are revealed.

On Sun, 16 Oct 2011 06:39:37 -0700, Mike Easter
wrote:

The rebates typically require the original UPC attached to the completed
rebate form. I make a scancopy of that digitally completed and UPC
attached form in anticipation of the 'lost rebate submission' gambit.

Yeah, I've taken to scanning copies of everything I submit. They're
much easier to keep track of than paper copies and they don't cost ink
to make.

Loren Pechtel wrote:
On Sun, 16 Oct 2011 06:39:37 -0700, Mike Easter
wrote:

The rebates typically require the original UPC attached to the
completed rebate form. I make a scancopy of that digitally completed
and UPC attached form in anticipation of the 'lost rebate
submission' gambit.

Yeah, I've taken to scanning copies of everything I submit. They're
much easier to keep track of than paper copies and they don't cost ink
to make.

Sometimes I scan 'em, more often I just grab a shot of the important parts
(form filled in and signed if necessary, SKU/SN label taped in place, etc.)
with a small digicam I keep on my desk for that and similar purposes. I
don't expect to ever need to resend anything anyway -- I can't remember ever
having had to, in the years I've bought stuff with rebates. And that's been
an awful lot of rebates.

On Oct 12, 7:26*pm, Davej wrote:
Just got a card from Patriot Memory about a couple USB thumbdrives I
had bought from NewEgg a few months ago. Apparently the rebate was
only good for a limit of one unit, even though that was not clearly
stated on the rebate form, so they sent me a postcard saying that my
rebate request was invalid because it was a "duplicate" (I guess this
means because it mentioned two units and included two UPCs).

Oddly enough I received the rejection postcard several days before
this post, but now five days later I have received a rebate for one of
the two units and the rebate form did seem to have a stated limit of
one unit. Why send both a vague rejection postcard and a rebate
postcard?