Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Halo on February 05, 2005, 06:17:03 PM
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Aren't you getting a little tired of filling out those tedious forms and copying receipts and mutiliating your product boxes to get a few bucks back from main-in rebates?
Why don't retailers just function as a complete point of contact and give instant rebates as reductions in price? What a novel idea -- used to call that "On Sale."
What's next -- clipping off furniture tags and making charcoal prints of automobile serial numbers to get some bucks off?
Am I missing something here? Are rebates good or bad instead of just featuring select items on sale and cutting out all the paperwork crap?
The most pessimistic interpretation is retailers and companies offering rebates 1) to bludgeon store and product identity into consumer brains; 2) to lure customers into purchases knowing that some will not take the trouble to do all the rebate paperwork while others will submit the rebate incorrectly or incompletely and thus receive nothing; 3) snare names and phone numbers for followup advertising or, worse, selling or trading that to other companies.
The most optimistic interpretation is retailers and companies simply wanting to build more customer gratitude and loyalty by brand names. But even that is a major paperwork hassle for the stores, companies, and consumers.
The biggest names are among the biggest rebaters, e.g., Microsoft and Intuit, so they must know sumpthin, they just keep rollin along.
What do you think? Are rebates a good or bad idea? Would it all be better if stores and companies simply went back to putting some things on sale for cheaper purchase right at the cash register without any additional requirements?
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I think that you nailed it. Rebates are typically better for the store and manufacturer for the reasons you mentioned. I love rebates however. I’m poor and they are worth my time. In my machine, have a CD burner, a pack of 100 CDs and 100 jewel cases for the price of $5.00 and 3 stamps. I love Office Max. I think that they stopped giving such great deals though. I don’t see those offers much any more.
eskimo
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yep they make rebates purposely difficult because that way consumers dont get them. You gotta have certain packaging materials or receipts or upcs and oftern there are stipulations such as original or some such other bs. I recently used two for a new monitor.(Samsung 712n) wound up eventually getting both took about 3 months but got 90 bucks back.
Whether they are worth it depends on how much you get back and how much a pain you got to go through to get them.
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I usually base my decision on the money involved. When I got my newest phone their was a 75 dollar rebate so I had no problem going through the trouble for that. But when it comes to the 5-20 dollar rebates its a little less motivating for me.
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I haven't really run into any rebate that was hard yet. Fill out a form, print out an envelope, cut out UPC, stamp, mail.
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i hate mail in rebates, if your going to give me a discount give it to me NOW, not 90 days from now.
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Your lucky if you get it in 6 months
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I have a stack of rebates waiting to be mailed in. New monitor. HD a while back. External Drive, etc. There's at least a half dozen. I suppose I should mail them in.
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Originally posted by Martlet
I have a stack of rebates waiting to be mailed in. New monitor. HD a while back. External Drive, etc. There's at least a half dozen. I suppose I should mail them in.
You're lying, Martlet.
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Originally posted by Nash
You're lying, Martlet.
Of course I am. I'm trying to walk a mile in Clinton's shoes to see what it's like to be a liberal.
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Originally posted by SOB
I haven't really run into any rebate that was hard yet. Fill out a form, print out an envelope, cut out UPC, stamp, mail.
Wait till you get something with two rebates and both want original receipt, upc code whatever.
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I have POS software and make my own receipts. I love rebates.
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Originally posted by Raider179
Wait till you get something with two rebates and both want original receipt, upc code whatever.
Yeah we been there before. :(
Or how about this one: my video card had a $40 or $50 dollar rebate on it. The rebate requested that the "proof of purchase" be mailed in. The problem was, there was NOT a freaking "proof of purchase" on the box! We called and they said, "OK just mail the whole front of the box then". Weeks later, still no money, my wife called about it while I was at work. They told her she couldn't get the rebate because there was no "proof of purchase". She lost it (just been screwed out of $100 on a monitor rebate) and she began fighting with the guy on whether or not there was such a thing on the box. After she told him, "I sent you the whole face of the box, what better 'proof of purchase' do you need??? When you get off work, drive your oscar down to Best Buy and look for yourself", they caved in and finally mailed the check.
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I never quite understood the logic behind the rebates. But the number of people who never bother to mail in the rebates must be large which gives more profit in return.
The large companies also benefit from the additional cash flow even if they do give rebates - it's like getting a free loan from the consumers. A loan that you always don't even have to pay back.
Heck, getting $90 in cash from 500 000 people for basically nothing.. That's real money and value.
In that sense it's a genius idea.
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Originally posted by Siaf__csf
I never quite understood the logic behind the rebates. But the number of people who never bother to mail in the rebates must be large which gives more profit in return.
The large companies also benefit from the additional cash flow even if they do give rebates - it's like getting a free loan from the consumers. A loan that you always don't even have to pay back.
Heck, getting $90 in cash from 500 000 people for basically nothing.. That's real money and value.
In that sense it's a genius idea.
It is, really. The largest rebate I have here is 30 bucks from the Samsung monitor. I bought it a few weeks ago.
Now that I actually look at them all, I'll probably mail them in since I see they are worth over $100 total. But just 30 bucks would sit there for awhile.
It is a good scam.
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Originally posted by Siaf__csf
I never quite understood the logic behind the rebates. But the number of people who never bother to mail in the rebates must be large which gives more profit in return.
The large companies also benefit from the additional cash flow even if they do give rebates - it's like getting a free loan from the consumers. A loan that you always don't even have to pay back.
Heck, getting $90 in cash from 500 000 people for basically nothing.. That's real money and value.
In that sense it's a genius idea.
It is, really. The largest rebate I have here is 30 bucks from the Samsung monitor. I bought it a few weeks ago.
Now that I actually look at them all, I'll probably mail them in since I see they are worth over $100 total. But just 30 bucks would sit there for awhile.
It is a good scam.
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if you are too lazy to spend 5 minutes of your time and 37 cents for 20/30/40/50 bucks then you are just too darn rich and/or lazy :)
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Originally posted by Heiliger
Yeah we been there before. :(
Or how about this one: my video card had a $40 or $50 dollar rebate on it. The rebate requested that the "proof of purchase" be mailed in. The problem was, there was NOT a freaking "proof of purchase" on the box! We called and they said, "OK just mail the whole front of the box then". Weeks later, still no money, my wife called about it while I was at work. They told her she couldn't get the rebate because there was no "proof of purchase". She lost it (just been screwed out of $100 on a monitor rebate) and she began fighting with the guy on whether or not there was such a thing on the box. After she told him, "I sent you the whole face of the box, what better 'proof of purchase' do you need??? When you get off work, drive your oscar down to Best Buy and look for yourself", they caved in and finally mailed the check.
Or when they claim they never received it. lol then your are really SOL
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Yeah that happened to us when we bought our first printer...
:(
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Originally posted by Martlet
Of course I am. I'm trying to walk a mile in Clinton's shoes to see what it's like to be a liberal.
Monitor just got the coffee shower.
Karaya
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yeah, they make it a pain in the arse and count on only a certain percentage actually taking advantage of the offer.
but the added sales make up the difference.
how many times have you bought one thing over another brand / type because there was a rebate?
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Rebates are a way for a manufacturer to push a product without screwing the retailer.
Think of it this way. A monitor retails for $300, and the retailer paid $170 for it from the manufacturer. The manufacturer for whatever reason (too much inventory, discontinuing model) wants to push these units out the door. They can't ask the retailer to drop the price, because this would cut into the retailer's profit.
So what the manufacturer does is offers a rebate to the consumer if they buy the product. That way the retailer still makes the same profit, and the manufacturer pushes the additional units.
Of course, just like gift cards/gift certificates, there is always a 40-60% chance that the consumer will never mail in the rebate and the manufacturer justs reaps the rewards.
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Originally posted by Mickey1992
Rebates are a way for a manufacturer to push a product without screwing the retailer.
Think of it this way. A monitor retails for $300, and the retailer paid $170 for it from the manufacturer. The manufacturer for whatever reason (too much inventory, discontinuing model) wants to push these units out the door. They can't ask the retailer to drop the price, because this would cut into the retailer's profit.
So what the manufacturer does is offers a rebate to the consumer if they buy the product. That way the retailer still makes the same profit, and the manufacturer pushes the additional units.
Of course, just like gift cards/gift certificates, there is always a 40-60% chance that the consumer will never mail in the rebate and the manufacturer justs reaps the rewards.
The manufacture also gets that customer name to market additional products to. Something they DONT usually get by selling through retail.
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JB73 what is that avatar from....
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Originally posted by RightF00T
JB73 what is that avatar from....
from nopoop in this thread:
http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=143234
it looks kind of like that chick from the leagally blonde movies i don';t know her name
if you've seen the movie 200 cigarettes it looks like the chick that fell in the dog poo also.
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What annoys me MORE than rebates is places like Best Buy ("Best Rebate") who list all those low low prices...and in fine print "After Rebate".
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Yeah, LePaul, and Best Buy awarding zillions of points like old green stamps to rate an occasional $5 coupon.
So far this year, Norton gave fastest rebates on its SystemWorks 2005.
PNY gave me only half of the $20 I deserved, I guess because I sent in TWO $10 rebates (with all the verification stuff duplicated too) in ONE envelope. The horror!
Still awaiting rebates from HP, Samsung, TurboTax, and Best Buy.
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I hate them. I Still fill them out but I hate them. I figure about 30% actually show up in a check that is cash-able (have had quite a few that took months to get here and showed up with a check that was past the final valid date before the postmark was stamped.
I ignore rebates when comparison shopping and just consider it a nice surprise if it shows up.
another dis-advantage to them (luckily not a problem in Oregon), is that you still pay sales tax on the full purchase price. so if you buy something that is marked at $200 with a $100 rebate you pay twice the tax that would be required if they would just put how much they need to get for their product on the price tag.
it would be simpler for everyone if they would just reduce the price, including the stores, and companies. what is the benefit to them to support a rebate center, with all the postage, expense and man-hours involved in processing them?
it's been my experience that when people make anything unnecessarily confusing or difficult, it's usually to find an angle to take advantage of someone.
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Originally posted by capt. apathy
it's been my experience that when people make anything unnecessarily confusing or difficult, it's usually to find an angle to take advantage of someone.
amen
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Originally posted by Martlet
I have a stack of rebates waiting to be mailed in. New monitor. HD a while back. External Drive, etc. There's at least a half dozen. I suppose I should mail them in.
You'd better check the "instructions" on the rebate. Most rebates, these days, expire within 2 weeks of the purchase date.
This is the second thread this week that has been something I was actually thinking about just a few days before. I just mailed off my Turbo Tax rebate and a rebate for some Kingston memory that I bought when I noticed I wasn't sending the rebate information back to the manufacturer of the product, but back to the store I bought the product from. I'd actually vote for legislation that made it illegal for a retailer to offer rebates. Only manufacturers should be allowed.