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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.
Slashdot seems to have weird flops when it posts stories, sometimes really late:
2003-04-11 04:37:21 Are Mail-In Rebates All A Scam? (articles,money) (rejected)
This was on MSNBC over a week ago.
Human nature is the same everywhere; the modes only are different. -- Earl of Chesterfield
i rather be a moron than just have half a brain!
Live in farm country, no high speed available other than satellite. Go to Computer City to get Satellite Internet Dish DirectTV/PC combo.
Spend $450 for TV/Satellite 1-way Internet combo dish. This includes "free" installation, which later turns out to be a fradulent claim. Note: TV-only dish was $70 at the time. I print out at the store a $50 Computer City rebate (note: not DirecTV rebate) for sending in with UPC, etc. when I get home, which I do.
So I buy the satellite dish with high speed 1-way (high speed download thru satellite, slow upload through phone line.) Installer cannot align dish properly for computer (TV alignment is fine). Installer forgets equipment to test for Internet alignment. Internet install package doesn't install, so can't test that way, either.
Installer charges $115 for "free" installation. See, it appears he had to travel from East Lansing all the way to Ann Arbor to install it, a trip of 90 miles. "Free" installation is only 50 miles or less or something. Hence fraud in the claims by Computer City.
Even though I have Win 98, second edition (which is the minimum OS on the installer), the AOL installer (7.0.something) chokes, and it crashes and tries to install two copies of the USB Satellite Receiver adapter and two copies of the TCP/IP->USB Satellite Receiver. Several phone conversations have no clue. One tells me Hughs (maker of the system) will contact me, which they never do.
As a programmer, I delve in head first, and try various combinations to merge the two versions of the install, deleting one, then the other, trying to see which ones had which correct half of the installation. After several days, finally get a combo that works.
Dish, not properly aligned for Satellite, I have to adjust myself, which is very difficult. Success.
I have to push the dish with a pole from time to time because it is sensitively aligned. Installer never comes back out in spite of his promise and several calls, which he tells me he will do when he is "in the neighborhood", which he is from time to time for other installs.
After a number of months, my computer goes haywire, so I have to reinstall Win 98 second edition. This time, no matter what I try, I cannot get the AOL install to work properly. The double install of the adapter and the TCP/IP->adapter occur again, but no combination (including the one that worked previously) of merging and deleting works. The USB light on the satellite modem keeps blinking, meaning no USB network lock. This is strange since the AOL install triggers a hardware detection that successfully detects the device. Then AOL install crashes and it refuses to go any further. I cannot use AOL 8.0 because that doesn't work with satellite internet, yet I only have AOL as an option for satellite internet. The last and final release of AOL 7.0.x is the one I use, and it crashes on satellite install.
After a month, I get a letter from Computer City saying I missed something or other when sending in the rebate. NO $50 FOR YOU! I double check the stuff I sent in, having made a photocopy of it for just this reason, and I have properly sent in everything.
So, to sum up, I got about 8 months of flakey service and heartache out of a $400 system that actually cost me $400 + $50 (NO REBATE 4U!) + $115 ("free" installation) = $565.
A TV-only dish was $70, giving me an overpayment of $495. Given I also paid about $50/mo for the AOL satellite service, that comes to $50/mo + ($495 / 8 = $62) = $110/month average bill for that 8 month period for flakey high speed service.
Needless to say, after three damned months without the service, I cancelled it. AOL graciously gave me 2 free months of "BYOA" access to compensate, a $23 value! (or $20 or $28, I can never be sure.)
If anyone knows what could be going wrong (yes, AOL's crashing installer is inexcusable) then please let me know. I have no soul and would crawl back, but they just don't want my money that badly, I guess.
"Has [being a kidnapped teenage girl, raped repeatedly for months] changed you?" - Katie Couric to Elizabeth Smart
Wow and you are a sore loser.
--- Hindsight is 20/20, but walking backwards is not the answer.