Mail-In Rebates...... (1 Viewer)

[Jon Martin]

One of the things about rebates, they are handled by third party companies. These companies won't even pay the rebates until the original companies have paid them. So, it isn't until weeks after the purchase that they are even thinking about paying the consumer.

I try to avoid them as much as you can.

Some, especially DVD box sets, are especially annoying. To get the rebate, you have to often send the UPC from the DVD box. Now, is it really worth $5 to have a box set with a hole in the side of the box where the UPC used to be? Or a hole in the outside cover of a DVD. I often don't do it.

I have gotten the postcards too. Didn't even look like a check, but the bank accepts them.

 

[Ray Chuang]

In regards to mail-in rebates: make a photocopy of the original receipt(s), the filled out rebate form and the UPC symbol as soon as possible before sending in the rebate. This ensures you have documentation in case things are lost.

I just got my US$10 rebate check for the USB 2.0 I/O card I bought recently.

 

[MarkHastings]

I don't mind it...what's the difference, a hole or that ugly UPC symbol? Same difference - they're both ugly.

Although I like the way the old WB cases used to have the perforated UPC symbols inside the box.

 

[Dave Simpson]

In my world, any item offered with a rebate=no sale, no exceptions. If the big boxes are selling it that way, chances are good I can get the same item, or acceptably similar, for the same cash price after rebates elsewhere. And my own personal info, and its exclusion from so many marketing databases, is worth waaay more to me than the value of any rebate; it's why I get so little junk-mail and am interrupted by so few tele-marketers. YMMV. Cheers.

DS.

 

[Paul_Sjordal]

Thanks for the heads up on rebate checks disguised as junk mail and/or postcards. In all my years, I have cashed exactly one rebate check. All the others either respond with some gobbleygook about "You forgot to dot the 'i' on form E," or I just flat out didn't get a response. Looking back now, I may have inadvertently thrown a few away.

Whatever the case, whenever I see a rebate offer, I ignore it. If the product looks enticing at the full price, I buy it, otherwise, I look for something else.