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?
