The Problems with Rebates

Consumer Reports details how many people send in rebates as follows:

• 47% always/often
• 23% sometimes
• 25% never
• 5% N/A

Of the 25% that never send them in, the top reasons are:

• 52% - too many steps
• 46% - amount too small
• 42% - missed deadline
• 32% - feared placement on mailing list
• 30% - lost receipt
• 26% - doubted they'd get the money

I have a love-hate relationship with rebates -- I love to hate them. But when an item is significantly cheaper with a rebate than without, what's a shopper to do? If it's worth the time and hassle, I will buy an item with a rebate. Then I apply my steps to be sure I get the rebate and monitor the process until I do.

I've mentioned in the past that Costco has a great rebate system. It's online and easy to follow -- taking out many of the problems with rebates that people mention above. I recently found another company that does it right as well -- Staples. Their forms are on the web, simple to complete, and I've found that the rebates come faster than expected. I save $10 off a chair for my daughter's desk (which was 1/3 of the total price, btw) and got two reams of paper for free (which got me over a price hurdle so I could use a $5 coupon too, btw) and both rebates worked as advertised and to my satisfaction.

That said, I still hate the rebate process. How about just giving us the rebate in-store, huh? Seems like it sure would save a lot of administration costs on the part of the company offering the rebate. Then again, they wouldn't benefit from the hoards of people that buy because of the rebate and then don't fill them out -- the true reason they offer rebates in the first place (they can advertise the rebate price without actually having all buyers get that value).

Comments

[bubba joe]

I never buy an item with a mail in rebate.
I have been burned too many times.
If the store will not sell it to me for the after rebate price, then I do not buy.

To me the phrase "after mail in rebate"
translates to "do not buy"

[bill]

A few years ago, we got bitten by the stupid black friday bug. We wanted a camera and ended up with a hard drive, camera, new monitor, and printer. They were awesome deals but there were like 9 different rebates attached to make the deals.

We jumped through all the hoops, made copies, and submitted them all. All came back except 2 that basically said if we wnated a prepaid visa, they would send it immediately, but if we wanted a check, we would have to wait 12 weeks. We held out for the checks and like 3 months later, prepaid visas came in the mail.

The kicker was we put the unexpected purchases on a credit card with a big balance and it took us 2 years to finally pay it off and get out of debt.

The only good rebates I have found have been Costco, Staples, and Kitchenaid (2 week turnaround time on 3 different appliances)

Never again- Sears, anything from an electronics store like best buy!

[Brent]

Home Depot's rebate program is pretty cool. I didn't even have to send in anything in the mail. I just specified the store number and checkout lane (both were on the receipt and the web site shows you where to look) and that was it.

I actually like rebates. The check usually comes so late that it almost seems like free money. It's the same psychology as getting a big tax return. I know that I'm just getting back my own money that I loaned out interest free, but it still feels good to get a check in the mail.

[guinness416]

Al of the reasons except for the paranoid mailing list one translate into "too bloody lazy", really.

[Bill]

Just go to a competing store and get them to match the price. No rebate hassles.

[MC]

I ignore rebates when doing price comparisons. You never know if/when you'll ever get the rebate, so it's not like the product is really cheaper at all.

Rebates have all of the teeny-tiny savings rewards of coupon clipping, but without the immediate gratification and with lots of added paperwork hassle!

And you have to try to locate a couple of those antique documents, a first class stamp (and who knows if what you found is current or 2 cents out of date?) and an envelope!

No, thanks.

[Patty]

I've done rebates with Verizon phones for years. It was always great, with a check coming in a timely manner. This year we all got our new phones and ended up getting prepaid Visa's in the mail. I was so steamed!!! What good does a prepaid Visa do to my credit card balance which I used to pay for the phones. Never again. They just lost my business with that crap!

[RobF]

I purchased an appliance through Lowe's that was what I wanted and had a rebate for the delivery charge. The rebate was slow in coming and turned out to be a prepaid card. My issue was that it has an expiration date and a penalty fee for going over the limit. Huh? You can't just say this is what's on it and that's all? I ended up using 90% of it.

I often end up missing a rebate because someone threw out packaging or I misplaced something. Kohl's does occasional 20% cash back coupons that if you miss the date on can be costly. I try not to use rebate pricing as a decision point.

I absolutely hate contact lens rebates because they never are what the optometrist says they are.

The kicker about all this is you pay sales tax on the pre-rebate price.

[ngrk]

I also got the Verizon pre-paid Visa debit card as a phone rebate, which annoyed me - but they mentioned in the letter it came with that I could request that the funds be direct deposited into a bank account instead. I think that process could be done online. Everything went smoothly from that point.

I called them and let them know that the pre-paid card option was useless for me, and they should have just offered the direct deposit upfront. It would have saved them some money and left a much happier customer

[Benjamin Bryan]

I agree with bubba joe and MC. Unless it's an instant rebate I ignore it when comparing prices.... there have been a few times I almost bought something but as soon as I saw there was a rebate I went elsewhere without even looking at the price before the rebate. I've not received rebates before even after writing letters so I just don't have the time to deal with it.

[Craig]

Rebates are annoying to deal with and even though they work, getting money back 6 months down the road is not always convincing.

[Mark]

Rebates are annoyng because companies WANT you to not submit. That's also why they are not in-store and convenient. People who really care about price get the deal they want, and people who don't mind so much get to pay more - it's all marketing!

[Greg yevich]

All of the suggestion above are very valid, however, I run a mail-in rebate expediting company and about 70% of the rebates we receive from consumers are still being submitted improperly. Consumers have been forgetting UPC codes, receipts or not following the tedious directions. We have shifted a majority of our resources to contacting consumers whose rebate submissions are incorrect. We now consider our customer service to be our biggest asset.

The most important task when submitting a mail-in rebate is this...Read the instructions carefully. I cannot preface this enough. Most processing companies will disgard your rebate submission if you have any mistakes or are missing any of the required materials.