Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 16:50:38 -0500
From: Steven G.
Subject: rebates
I sincerely disagree with your stance on rebates. I feel that it is worth
it depending not only on the amount of the rebate, but also the final price.
In the example you used with the batteries, it is worth it b/c of the final
price. you seem worried that the bank may think you are a weirdo for
dropping off a $9 check to deposit. You do have 90 days, so if you are that
worried about it, accumulate them and submit them together. Now, don't get
me wrong here, I like your site (I used to love it, but the constant Staples
bashing really turned me off), but felt that this comment (along with the
Staples bashing) is off the wall. Have a nice weekend and happy bargaining.
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 17:20:35 -0500 (EST)
From: Hot Deals Maniac
To: Steven G.
Subject: Re: rebates
Thanks for your comments. The amount of time that I will waste by writing
my name & address, cutting out the UPC, and mailing the completed rebate
to their address is definitely not worth my time if the rebate is less
than $10. I have better things to do with my time, such as updating my
websites. :-)
Perhaps I need to hire an intern to submit all my small rebates, and I
could pay the intern in rebate checks.
Also, regarding the "Staples bashing" that you mentioned, we are not
trying to bash anyone! But we will not hold back our positive and
negative comments about a company based on EXPERIENCE and visitor
comments. You will never hear us say "xxx company sucks" because that
does not mean anything. We will warn our visitors about potential
problems they may have if they decide to involve themselves in a deal.
If you feel that any specific comment was "off the wall" bashing rather
than simple public sharing of information, please point it out to me.
Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 11:14:13 -0500
From: Brandon
Subject: Rebates Reprobate
Just to counter "Steven G", I, for one, couldn't agree with you more
about the fruitless pursuit of rebates.
Even if one follows the rules to the letter, even if one sends certified
or even FedEx mail, there is just NO guarantee that one will ever see
that check come back.
Some of the checks come back as postcards that can easily a) be stolen
since the full check face and amount is clearly visible, or b) get
discarded as junk mail.
Personally, I am forever fighting my natural laziness about getting all
the materials together and sent out on time. You're completely right; it
is rarely worth it. Yet I continue to be a sucker for those "amazing"
after-rebate deals from CompUSA et al....
Anyhow, thanks again for the great service you provide.
Best of luck in 2002.
Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 14:06:32 -0800
From: Mike S.
Subject: Rebates ARE worth it.
Regarding your comments on rebates.
I have been actively pursuing rebates now for about a year now and I
have collected two very large storage bins full of stuff that I
constantly buy and turn around to sell. I do rebates VERY frequently and
not a week goes by where I can look in my mailbox and not find 3-5 rebate
checks PER WEEK of varying amounts.
Whenever I think about purchasing something that comes with a rebate,
I ask myself this question: Am I so lazy that I can't clip UPC, address
an envelope, and fill out a simple form, and then simply scan a copy to
my PC? No. I am not that lazy. Rarely is it not worth it to me to make
this extra effort. The whole process takes about 15 minutes of my time.
Calculate the RATE of time/time for yourself to see it is really
worth it to you:
If the rebate is "only" for $10 then figure about 15 minutes of your
time to clip, address, and scan the submission. $10 for 15 minutes of
your work time calculates to a RATE of $40 /hour. Did you know that if
you earn $36,000 /yr you fall into the top 10% money earners in the USA?
>> If I never get the rebate, was the price that I paid worth it?
I never measure if a product is worth it to buy if I don't get the
rebate, because without the rebate the product is NOT worth it to buy.
How could you ALLOW yourself to NOT get a rebate? If you order something
through an online retailer and you don't get it, don't you call them if
you didn't receive it? Simply call the rebate company if you didn't
receive your rebate. It's that simple. You should never be empty handed
from ANY rebate contract or from any purchase contract.
>> if I actually remembered to take time from my busy schedule to fill
out the required forms, cut the UPC from the box, and mail it."
Make a reminder note to do so in your calendar. Simple as that. Write
it down as a "thing to do"
Busy schedule? I go to school full time, work full time, and have a
family of four and I can make time to fill out any rebate offer that I
subscribe to.
Why anyone would DECIDE to BE lazy and NOT fill out a rebate form
that is well worth the money is beyond me. It's FREE money! Why throw any
amount of money away? There are starving people out there just waiting
for willing people to put out a little extra effort to help them. If you
don't want the rebate money then put out the little extra effort and
submit that rebate ANYWAYS and when you get the rebate check, give it to
charity since you weren't PLANNING on obtaining the money. And after the
rebate check arrives don't you dare turn around and say that you're
keeping the rebate check for yourself because YOU did the work, because
previously you claimed that it wasn't WORTH the time to YOU -- that money
IS, however, worth something to someone else out there!
>> Honestly, taking the time to fill out my name & address and lick an
envelope and stamp is not worth the $9. And what will I do with a $9
check that I receive 6-8 weeks later?
Nine dollars can buy 4-5 bags of potato chips, 36 cans of
canned-vegetables, 9 Ragu Spaghetti sauces, 9 bags of chocolate chips, 4
boxes of cereal, or 90 Top Ramen servings .... to give to charity. If you
think $9 is so worthless, calculate how much time it takes you to
complete this process. If the RATE calculates to be more than you
currently earn. Then it is worth your time. If it does not, then it is
not. But it only calculates to be worth your time if you do the RATE
calculation and if you have the desire.
What could you do if you duplicated this process a little and
received THREE OR FOUR $9 checks each week? I do rebates so often that
not a week goes by where I can look in my mailbox and not find 3-5 rebate
checks of varying amounts PER WEEK.
>> you will hardly ever see something posted here with such a small
rebate amount.
That's too bad, because you'd see many more visitors on this website
and possibly earn many more referrals if you'd just post more of these
"minuscule" deals for others.
>> the number of after-rebate deals will probably increase heavily this
year.
Doesn't this tell you that there will be a greater "referral"
incentive for you and your website this year since ANY referral order is
better than NO referral order.
>> Also, because most rebates require the buyer to cut-out the UPC symbol
on the product box, the product becomes unreturnable.
But the product does not become unreplaceable if it's defective or
damaged -- any store will replace a damaged or defective product
regardless of how complete you repackaged it. Also, the product is NOT
dismissed as unsaleable just because a UPC is missing. I buy and resell
items all the time and with the UPC removed I still sell them as BRAND
NEW. If the item you bought was FREE after rebate then who cares if it's
returnable or not; just sell the darn thing if you don't want it.
>> Here's some advice: ... Some sites are known to remove rebate forms
before the rebate period expires. If the rebate form disappears off the
site before you get a copy of it, contact that site to inquire about
retreiving the rebate form.
Very good point about the rebate form being removed online before the
rebate form expires. To circumvent this potential problem, I always Save
As an .htm copy of the rebate form before or immediately after my online
order is complete.
>> Because rebates require a cutout of the UPC making the product
unreturnable, make sure you are certain that you actually want to keep
the item or make sure you have a buyer ready if you decide not to keep
the item.
You don't necessarily need to have a buyer and you do not necessarily
need to know whether or not you want to keep the product. You can still
sell stuff even if the UPC has been removed and even if item has been
sitting in your garage for year. I have several keyboards and scanners
with UPC's removed that I'm not planning on keeping and I don't have
buyers lined up at the moment, but I will certainly sell these in the
near future. There's always that college student out somewhere there that
needs a cheap keyboard replacement because pop got spilled on theirs
during last night's party.
>> Chances of you never receiving your rebate will increase as the days
go by, mostly because you may forget or lose interest, or you may lose
the rebate forms or UPC on the box.
Days that "go by" do not determine the less or greater of your
"chances" of receiving a rebate. What does determine your "chances" of
receiving that rebate after you've submitted it is IF the rebate contract
SAYS you will receive the rebate or IF that company goes out of business
suddenly.
If you have forgotten in the first place to submit your rebate, lost
interest, lost your rebate forms, or lost UPC's, then these actions, by
you, have NOTHING to do with your "chances" on receiving a rebate. YOU
have control of these factors. Your chances of receiving a rebate only
begin only after you've submitted the rebate in a timely manner. And even
then, if you don't receive the rebate all you have to do is pick up the
phone and call.
Rebates are easy, rebates are great.
Date: 12 Jan 2002 22:04:09 PST
From: D.Jones
Subject: Rebate Debate
I wanted to 2nd one of the comments Brandon made--even when you do
*everything* right, you may not get your rebate. I recently sent in a Creative
Labs $10 Modem Blaster rebate. My rebate hadn't come so I rang them for info
and they said that there had been no UPC sent w/ the form. I had *stapled* the
UPC to the form, so I asked that a supervisor look at the materials. I was
told that the manager of the department was the one who said there was no UPC.
Since I *knew* the had been sent, I asked to see a copy of the rebate form.
Suddenly, their reason became that they hadn't received *any* rebate materials
from me! So what, exactly, did that 'manager' verify? I offered to send copies
of the materials but was told they wouldn't accept UPC copies and said I could
send the original UPC (yeah, the original that was already sent). Can you say
total scam?
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 22:32:08 -0500
From: C. P.
Subject: rebates
I agree with you - I hate rebates and try to avoid stores that use them.
As much as I say that and am leery of actually getting the money, I only
do rebates when it's a fair amount of money (at least if I have to fight
to get the check, it'll be a big check / worth the effort).
I would love to know, if during a rebate, the store sells x more than the
week before (so you can assume that increase of x was because of the
rebate), what percentage of the checks actually get paid?! I would think
it's very low. And how much are they paying these fulfillment houses to
handle the rebates? Probably more than the amount paid in rebates. (like
tax saver rebates we have in NJ - they print and send a letter, created
an 800 number where you have to call in, enter info, get a confirmation
number then they mail you the check. All that back office work / costs
add how much to the cost of the rebate check? Just let us take it off on
our state tax returns?! NOOOO! The politicians need to award jobs and
contracts to their friends. So what if they send $100 to send you a $120
rebate! Enough soapboxing!
Was it your site that mentioned the talk of the money escheating to the
state, like a dormant bank account? Those checks you don't like to
deposit are small both financially AND physically. How many of these
post card size checks have slipped into a crack on the kitchen counter?
Fallen behind a drawer or something else so that when you find it in 91
days (or 2 years), the vendor has long ago closed the promotion and kept
the money?!!