proposition against rebates

[krisoto]

Give me your opinion on this rebate proposition, I want you to be the first one to hear it and if this maybe heard by a lawmaker, thank god for him and let?s make this a law. I?ve been frustrated on rebate so many times that I forgot who to blame first. Diskettes rebate of $10.00, zip drive $50.00,mp3 player $30.00 and games ranging from $2.00 to $10.00 and ever so more that I forgot the rest.
Here?s my proposal;

1) NO MORE REBATES!! ? set it as is straight up so we can?t get confuse, mislead or forgetfulness. People like you and i have better things to do than keeping track of rebate?s waiting game. They (the manufacturer) make money out of this rebate instead of losing because They will find the excuse to say ?oh, there?s to many rebates being sent in we can?t keep up, this will take more than 6 to 8 weeks maybe a year?. And keeps the money until you forgot to call them.

2) Retailers take the rebates not the CONSUMERS ? yeah, why not. Beside they?re(the OD,OM,STPLE and the likes) the who want your business and to satisfy you with TEMPTING rebates. Let?s say, there?s a $20.00 rebate on this item and instead of giving the rebate form, they?ll just hand you the item with $20.00 already off with orig. receipt and the retailer will handle the rebates to themselves for the manufactures. It?s easier for the manufacturer because at least they won?t be wasting of how many stamps to lick and papers, just to sent us the check(s) and this way they?ll just sent it to the retailer?s corporate office the money ( of course the retailer must commit to the deadline given by the manufacturer) and they divide and send the checks to the branch offices for their pleasure, OOPS I mean purpose.

3) Additional ?items? instead of rebates ? Ala MSN rebate offer. But you get any items in the store so long it?s not exceeding what?s on the rebate or else you pay for it. And not Internet. who need an ISP when you already have one. It?s crazy but it could work if the salesperson have the patient enough to go through the scanning and calculating all of this. Plus, no form to apply , request or commitment. ex: buy an items worth $50.00 with $20.00 rebate and instead, use that $20.00 right away to get another items. The manufacturer for sure have to pay the retailer what the consumer bought in order to recover the cost.

nobody is the loser here because The more specific you brought from a certain specific store the more chances we?ll be happy, if we want to or not, plus the manufacturer will get their wares to be (advertise or) reliable and become common and return for more even after the rebates are gone or expires <- make sense?

Maybe I?m wrong but if you have a any suggestion pls. Comply, comment or add any thing I wrote and vote which one you like or not. Thank you

 

[AndrewR]

It's fine and dandy to say that someone else should bear the burden for a rebate, but the fact of the matter is that if you want to be reimbursed for the money spent, then you have to do some legwork. &quot;There's no such thing as a free lunch&quot;, or free hardware and software.

It's not very difficult to make a file for your rebates and mark dates on a calendar for a call-in to the rebate company. They have actually been doing better lately that I've seen though they are far from perfect.

The rebate game is an organized gamble on the part of the manufacturer offering the promotion (or the store, if it's one organized by CompUSA for example). They gamble that more people will buy the product and fail to pursue the rebate than will people actually redeem the rebate. If the law forces all rebates to be redeemed, it's very easy to see what will happen: NO MORE REBATES. Businesses will not tolerate a sure loss with the only benefit being that people will come to their store (but usually those people are ONLY looking for rebates -- you know the ones with their entire cart filled with &quot;free after rebate&quot; products and nothing else).

If you want money, work for it. I understand the frustration, but since it's well known how these promotions work, then you undertake the responsibility when you buy the product. I would, however, support liability on the part of the retailers, but they usually do accept responsibility if a rebate does not go through if you make it very clear to them that you mean business. Consumer protection laws would force them to pay up if there were no other recourse.

Simple solution: If you don't like the rebate process, don't buy products with rebates. I personally don't mind the challenge, and 99% of my rebates have been paid. I'd like to keep that opportunity open.