Are Rebates Scandalous?

theodp asks: "Motley Fool offers a dead-on take on the computer mail-in rebate fulfillment process--Once I receive your 'claim,' I will begin to 'process' it. Assuming that you filled out all the information correctly, and assuming nothing is missing, and assuming your claim doesn't get lost somehow, and if you call or write a few times to check on your claim's status, then I will mail your check within 10 to 12 weeks. Maybe. Or maybe it'll be four to six months. Or never." What are your thoughts on rebates, and have any of you noticed who, at least in the computing industry, is more trustworthy with rebates than others? Update by J : Here's the short version of the article.

Good and Bad...

[mgrassi99]

I've had experiences both ways, sometimes with the same company. Bottom line with rebates is don't pay more than you would otherwise counting on a rebate to bring you back. They're gravy, nothing more.

Wonder how much collective interest companies earn by holding that money for 8-12 weeks...

The followup article

[truesaer]

That article is from a while back. The Motley Fool just recently posted an update based on feedback from their online community:

Part II [fool.com]

Some links

[prostoalex]

Rebate tracking [fatwallet.com] - great forum from FatWallet.com, search for company name before you purchase anything that requires a rebate.

I would recommend Dell, Amazon.com and Viking Components for rebate deals - never had problems with either one of those, and just got another $50 Dell Axim rebate in the mail today. The rules are always clear, the fulfillment is on time.

The whole rebate thing does strike me as odd - if they can pay you back the money, why not lower the price right there in the store? You still have to pay state sales tax on the before-rebate price.

Best advice from article ...

[DogIsMyCoprocessor]

Assume you won't receive the rebate when deciding whether to buy a product (just assume you'll pay full price), and then if you get the rebate, consider it a bonus.

Another reason why....

[lateralus_1024]

...they like to hold it in the first place is that the company is actually making money off the interest of it's holdings. That's part of the reason it takes 6 friggin' months for you to get your money back. In that time, the vender(like Viewsonic, where my friend works) will have made some more change off that original $200 rebate of yours that they hold.

Store rebates encourage me to buy via mail order

[Brian Stretch]

Seriously, most of the time, I can buy gear via mail order for about what the store price minus rebate is. I've had enough rebates "lost" to be very, VERY wary of them. Just give me a decent price to begin with and quit wasting my, the post office's, and some minimum wage working stiff at the processing center's time.

I can't help wondering whether these rebate processing companies aren't a variant of the coupon fraud crooks, where criminals gather those grocery store coupons and submit them for credit without anyone actually buying any items. al-Qaeda is/was involved in those. "When big corporations use rebates, they're funding terrorism!" (cue scary music...)

I'll give Best Buy credit for having the best rebate system out there. They print out separate "rebate receipts" and rebate forms at the cash register. I emailed them a complaint about the racks of rebate forms they used to have at their stores so I'd like to think I had something to do with that, even though they didn't quite get the hint that rebates in general are fscking repulsive. I think I've received every rebate since they started their new system though, averaging 2 months turnaround time.

Worst Buy Ad Fraud

[cyberguyd]

I have participated in many rebates. I have had very good success. I have received approximately $500 in rebates. I use those free return address labels from charities on them to save time and ensure clarity. However, I have found some of Best Buy's adverts misleading. For instance, they post a sign in front of the Linksys 10/100 PCI NICs saying 9.95 each when you buy two with multiple rebates. They imply you need to buy two to get the rebates and that they are marketing the fact that you can get 2 for $19.95. They even print you two sets of rebate receipts and forms for each product. The fine print says 1 rebate per household. I still took a chance and the 37 cents for the stamp. DENIED, I got one rebate and none of the seconds. Same thing when they ran the same type of promo for D-Links. Maybe I am missing something but I don't consider myself too dumb.

Be Careful

[Cyno01]

A little less than a year ago i bought a Maxtor 160Gb hard drive that was advertised as like $200, after $30(store) and $40(mftr) rebates. I bought the drive, got both my rebate recipts and the forms, sat down to fill them out, and hey, guess what, BOTH CompUSA and the manufacturer wanted an original UPC, no photocopies. There being only 1 UPC on the box i was SOL on the $30 rebate, kinda sucked.

Best, worst, and the one that screwed me

[Zathras11]

Going by store, because that seems to matter as
much as what company made the product, and some
items have only a store rebate, or both a store
and company rebate:

Rebates sent in from Best Buy are always quick to
arrive. CompUSA is the worst, and I had to make
several phone calls and it took 6 months on the
last one, which will BE the last one. I don't
shop there anymore. Circuit City is slow, but
they have always arrived. OfficeMax is usually
on time, but my father had one rejected and also
one that never arrived (last August for the free
portable CD player).

I have only had one, out of dozens, not arrive
at all, and SHAME ON YOU IMATION for screwing me
out of $10.00!

Overall, I've had good experiences, and gotten
some decent products for cheap because of the
rebates, but they do take some time (for filing
out and the wait).

I just tried OfficeMax's new on-line system and
it is a TOTAL WASTE of time. You still have to
mail them stuff, so you may as well fill out the
rebate form from the book, because typing the
information on the web site only leads to a form
to print. You still have to clip the UPC and
send it with the form and rebate receipt. How
the hell does that save me any time. I can fill
out the form without booting my system up!!!
And yes, they made me enter the receipt number
so they know I bought the product, and that I
didn't return it, so why still make be go through
the other crap? Oh well...enough venting. :^)

Tricks

[WatertonMan]

The trickiest rebate offer I dealt with involved cutting off thick cardboard UPC stickers. Unfortunately the company in question had three different bar code stickers on the box -- all apparently different. Yet only one was acceptable for the rebate. By the time I found out the wrong one had been sent in the rebate was over. Very, very annoying and ended up "costing" several hundred dollars.

How Companies Separate Themselves

[tuxtomas]

I bought a Verizon phone last summer. By signing a 2 year contract I could save fifty bucks on a nice flippy phone. Sweet, so I sign up and got the phone. I sent in a copy, rather than an original of the UPC. The company taking care of the rebate(definitely not Verizon, I forget their name) would not accept that, so they sent me a letter. I needed to respond in letter, with the original UPC, within 7 days of the printing of the letter I received. It arrived on a Saturday, when I was out of town. Saturday was day 5. Statistically, they know they can screw some of us out of our money. And all I have to show for it is this shitty caller-id full of "unavailable" numbers from solicitors and piles of junk mail.

Re:For a company, rebates are wonderful.

[Zathras11]

You should get a medal for such a well written
post. All the points you made are 100% accurate.
But I still do the rebates, because I've had
great luck with them. Try handwriting NO SPAM
on the forms. I do and have noticed no additional
junk since I started rebating... Only Imation
has screwed me by not paying me (you owe me $10
Imation, you rat bastards!)

Lexmark

[ruszka]

Rebates have always seemed a joke to me. They do take weeks and that's only when there aren't any 'problems'. There have been two instances where I haven't been screwed. Once with HP and more recently, once with Lexmark. Lexmark seems to be right on top of things when it comes to sending their customers rebates and free stuff. *hugs her crappy Lexmark printer*

big rebates were ok with HP

[iggymanz]

HP gave me a $150 rebate on my PC, and a $50 one for my inkjet. Had to wait 8-10 weeks, but it did come. I've had good luck with rebates...I do remember to include everything that's asked for and not to scribble illegibly. I'm sure the companies that do them know they'll only pay a percentage of them since people forget to send them in, or don't send all the required stuff.

Rebate Department

[buckminster]

Well around here we actually have a rebate department. Our rebate department handles all rebate request processing and keeps track of any pending requests. If a company fails to send a check in a reasonable period of time, our Rebate Department tracks them down and harrasses them until they send us the money.

Over the past four years this system has worked pretty well. We've only had one rebate deadbeat. Microsoft kept kicking back our request for a $75 rebate on Win2K. It was kind of odd, actually. They'd return the paperwork with a form claiming the request was incomplete and asking for the proof of purchase from the product box (included in our request and in the envelope they repeatedly sent back to our company). After four tries we finally got a check. Somehow I think a lot of people didn't get their $75 rebate. Of course, not everyone has a rebate department.

From the Inside

[Combuchan]

A good friend of mine works for Continental Promotions Group, Inc, a Scottsdale, AZ company that processes rebates for Costco, Dell, and several other large corporations.

Most of the stories I've heard are largely due to the incompetence of the home workers (many of whom do not speak english as a first language) that basically open the envelopes and enter all the relevant data. Their pay? US$0.08 an entry. Not the highest pay around--working dilligently and competently this comes out to about $10/hour.

The reason it takes 10 - 12 weeks is that CPG will usually invoice the company they're contracted with at the end of the month and there's considerable turnaround time. Costco, on the other hand, directly wires the rebate money to CPG--I got my $2 Dove soap rebate a couple of weeks after I mailed it in. Another reason to shop at Costco. :)

My friend works the phones at CPG and basically the problems that he handles with regards to Dell are data entry errors. From this I derive that it's best to type your application ... go into some office machine store and just feed the rebate form into a typewriter or whatever. At least make damn sure that the claim is clearly written... if you're a's look like o's you're bound for trouble. Assume that the person who will be processing your rebate is completely incompetent and natively reads Sanskrit.

Also, he sees a lot of situations in which the rebate didn't apply to the customer for whatever reason because a pushy uninformed Dell phonemonkey just wanted to get off the line and close the sale. Make sure that the product you're getting actually has an applicable rebate. Just another reason to not listen to salespeople and by your stuff online.

I didn't tell you this, but most rebates can be reissued for $20 and under cashed or not because it's too much trouble for CPG and their clients to work the specifics out of actually sending out a STOP payment. Get double the rebate simply by calling them and inventing some story.

The average rebate takes ten or so weeks to process, so mark that window on your calendar and a halfway point to remind yourself in a month to call up and check on the status of the rebate by calling up the 800 number.

Most of what the article bitches about is largely just symptomatic of lazy people forgetting receipts and the rebate itself. If the money is important to you, don't forget stuff. Don't throw anything away until you have confirmation that the rebate is on its way or you actually have the check in hand. It's not that difficult to stow a box in the garage.

Keep on top of things and you should have no problem... I got dicked by Ericsson for a hundred bucks because of some missing paper and by the time I called the window expired--this is what you get when you expect the rebate to come without problems! They of course said they sent a letter in response, I never got it. Buyer beware.

Re:Tricks

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's how you differentiate a UPC from something else, so you don't make that mistake again. UPCs have this format: X XXXXX XXXXX X. One digit on the outside of the barcode on both the left and right (the "system indicative" and the "check digit", respectively), and then two sets of 5 on the inside (the manufacturer code, and the item number). Alternatively they are like this: X XXXXX X. That's called a zero-suppressed UPC and only has one set of 5.

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle!

Rebates are fraudulent.

[rice_burners_suck]

I'm glad this is finally appearing online. Sony and Intuit are NOTORIOUS for this.

I bought TurboTax for the past few years and sent in the $40 (approximately) rebate with ALL of the information filled out correctly. I swear I spent at least 30 minutes putting together each rebate package, copying the contents in their entirety and mailing them on time from the post office. Out of $140 (approximately) that they owe me in rebates for YEARS now, I received only about ten bucks for a state rebate. I assure you that everything was done correctly.

Then, my mother bought a Sony laptop. There was a $100 rebate. I spent over an hour putting together the entire rebate package, going over the rebate checklist several times, and I *know* for a *fact* that I did it correctly. I also sent it in ahead of the deadline by nearly a month. A couple of months later, my dad (who checked my email) said that I got an email from Sony stating that there was some error in my preparation of the rebate papers. I got so pissed off at that point that I decided no longer to buy products that offer a rebate of any kind.

Yes, this story is absolutely true. Rebates are fraudulent and these companies get away with it because they know that most people consider it too much trouble to go after them for a rebate and the rest will call in a few times, so when lawsuit threats come, the company can shut them up by mailing the check then. Sony can go to hell. Intuit can as well.

COMPANIES, WHAT YOU SHOULD DO: Make the stores handle the rebate process. The store should charge me the price AFTER rebate and then deal with the distributor for the money, the same way as coupons are handled at the grocery store.

Connecticut's Rebate Law - Check It!

[TheMayor]

Connecticut has a Rebate Advertising law requiring retailers who advertise the net price of an item after deduction of a manufacturer's rebate to pay consumers the amount of that rebate when they buy the item. If the retailers don't wish to do this, they cannot advertise the after-rebate price as the final price to be paid by the consumer. Thus, there should be no confusion about the amount the customer must pay at the cash register.

Here is the law:

Sec. 42-110b-19. Advertising "free," "reduced," "discount," "below cost," or a rebate

It shall be an unfair or deceptive act or practice to:

(a) Advertise any merchandise or service as free by the use of the word "free" or any other terms of similar import when the merchandise or service is not, in fact, free (see (d) below). Failure to disclose any and all terms, conditions and obligations required of the consumer shall be a violation of these regulations.

(b) Advertise the price of merchandise or service as a reduced or sale price, or compare the price to a previous price unless the advertised price is lower than the actual, bona fide price for which the merchandise or service was offered to the public on a regular basis by the advertiser, for a reasonably substantial period of time prior to the advertisement or as a discount price, unless the advertised price is lower than the price being charged for the same merchandise or service by other sellers in the area; provided, however, in the case of a new product, if the advertised price is less than the price which the advertiser, in good faith, expects to charge after termination of the introductory sale, there is no violation of this subsection. The actual price after the sale shall be evidence of the advertiser's good faith expectations.

(c) Advertise the price of any merchandise as below cost, unless the price is, in fact, below the cost for which the merchandise was purchased and prepared for sale by the advertiser.

(d) Advertise merchandise or service as free or the price of merchandise or a service as a discount, reduced, or sale price if receipt of such merchandise or service is contingent upon the purchase of other merchandise or service at a price which is higher than the actual, bona fide price at which the merchandise or service was offered to the public on a regular basis by the advertiser for a reasonably substantial period of time prior to the advertisement, or at a price which is substantially higher than the price being charged for the same merchandise or service by other sellers in the area; provided, however, in the case of a new product, if the advertised price is less than the price which the advertiser, in good faith, expects to charge after termination of the introductory sale, there is no violation of this subsection. The actual price after the sale shall be evidence of the advertiser's good faith expectations.

(e) Advertise the availability of a manufacturer's rebate by displaying the net price of the advertised item in the advertisement, unless the amount of the manufacturer's rebate is provided to the consumer by the retailer at the time of purchase of the advertised item. A retailer will not be required to provide the purchaser of an advertised item with the amount of the manufacturer's rebate if the rebate advertises that a manufacturer's rebate is available without stating the net price of the item. For the purpose of this subsection, "net price" means the ultimate price paid by a consumer after he redeems the manufacturer's rebate offered for the advertised item.

rebates don't float

[Anonymous Coward]

A marketing friend at my former company told me that the company doesn't really benefit from the float on the money to be rebated. They contract with a company that processes rebate and they have to pay in advance. Money left in the account gets refunded after the program ends. Thus the fullfillment companies get the benefit of the float, not the vendor. The company I worked for offered rebates primarily to build customer lists.

Re:rebates are a total waste of time

[kesuki]

Just a comment on the 'obscure' bank in minnesota thing. Several rebate fufilment centers are actually located in minnesota. Why would they use a bank in another city, to write the check than the one that happens to be in the same place as the fufilment center?
You might be wondering "why are the fufilment centers located in minneosta?" they could find cheap, reasonably reliable labor up here, when they decided to build a rebate fufilment center. Or maybe they got a tax break from the state to locate here, or some other reason.
It's not just because they could find a small bank up here. You can find small banks in any part of the country.

Re:rebates are a total waste of time

[kesuki]

2. I agree -- they need to be required by law to accept computer or pre-printed address labels. Instead of 'rejecting' them based on not being 'handwritten' This is a Rebate, not a contest.

3. Then why have I seen 'open items' at 'best buy' with no UPC? Either A. an employee did it on mistake, or b. did it to pocket the mail-in rebate for themselves.

5. The government.
Remember that E-rebate company? the one that claimed to get you stuff for free after rebates and crap? Government shut those fuckers down, siezed thier assets, and did thier best to give the money they could back to victimized consumers.

Basically, if you're running a scam you've got about 6 months-1 year to try to get the money and run. All things considered rebate scams aren't the best scam option available. If you're crafty enough to design and run a rebate scam there are a plethora of more lucrative scams where you can rip off each victim for thousands instead of tens of dollars.

6.
It is against the law for them to refuse to honor the check within the first 90 days, and in some states that law is 6 months or even a full year.
It is against the law to 'pre-date' checks.
If they're 'holding' checks up from being mailed intentionally then they are again breaking the law.
Basically they're required to disclose how long thier check processing process takes, and if they're routinely holding checks longer than that, or have an obsurdly long process that causes checks to bet mailed way below the 90 day requirement then they're gonna get in trouble with someone -- if a disgruntled employee decides to rat them out.

7.
I've lost one $5 'rebate coupon' (store credit only, stupid menards) and one $10 check.
The former I knew about but I didn't have a need to go to menards, and the one time I did before it expired I didn't think about it until I got home and saw it sitting there. The latter got mixed up in junk mail, and when I finally found it was 6 months expired.

Excellent rebate programs are at

[nsushkin]

Costco -- the rebate form is printed on the register receipt. You only need to fill in your address and mail the rebate form. You can check the rebate status online. [costco.com]

Verizon Wireless -- pretty decent too, check if and when they sent you a check. [verizonwir...ebates.com]

I am sure other vendors will follow the lead.

ps. I've received a check for every rebate I sent out.