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Best Buy to Eliminate Rebates
plover writes "According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune 'In response to customer complaints, Best Buy, the world's largest electronics retailer, promised today to eliminate mail-in rebates within two years.' Can it be that we're finally nearing the end of one of the most hated marketing ploys of all?" Further commentary available at BusinessWeek.
The mail in rebate is also FRAUD, both in advertising and the manufacturer sending the check. I can't count the number of times I looked at a Best Buy advertisment to see some great deal, so I rush to the store to see the price is with a mail in rebate. When I complain, the employee whips out a magnifying glass and tries to show me where in the advertisment is says there is a mail in rebate. And the manufacturers do everything they can to disqualify rebates. They give you short windows of time to send it in. The reason they do this is not so you have less time to send it, but so they can take their time in rejecting you, and then when you want to send it back again, you are out of time.
I hope the states start suing companies over mail in rebates. It is fraud. It is racist. It is evil. It is like what grocery stores are doing. I saw a flyer for the local grocery store that said "Roast Beef.... $1.99". So I ran there, I love roast beef and was going to buy a pound, and then I see a sign in store that says "Roast Beef.... $1.99 per 4 ounce serving". Son of a bitch!!!
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
Rebates are bad for consumers.
Rebates are bad for stupid, illiterate or lazy consumers. I've never had a single problem getting my rebates.
Double taxation? Huh? You paid the sales tax at purchase and then you paid tax...oh wait, you didn't pay tax again.
Since the rebate is performed after taxes, the doubling of the tax occurs on the rebate portion itself, i.e. you are being refunded less then $50 promised in the price of the item.
Are you also upset that when you buy something its not really 10.99, its 12.53 instead? False advertising!! OMG!!
Yes I am because allowing a small thief to get away with something, quickly prompts a larger thief to attempt the same on a larger scale. In the case of the mail "rebate", the vendor is successfully lying about the value of his "discount" to the tune of tens of millions of dollars since a $7.50 times a million units sold is $7.5 million.
Idiot.
One of us allows himself to be fleeced by an assorted crowd of thieves and crooks on what appears a regular basis and, what is more amazing, actively encourages such practice. The other does not. I leave it as a exercise to the reader as to which one of us is an "idiot".
.No, the manufacturers fault is advertising a $50 rebate on his product, a statement which is false.
Um, sorry its not false. You do in fact receive a check for $50. The manufacturer doesn't set sales tax, governments do. Tax is ALWAYS the responsibility of the consumer. You know that your 9.99 item will cost more because of tax. You should know that since sales tax must be paid on the SALE price that it won't be discounted because the rebate occurs after the fact.
Since the rebate is performed after taxes, the doubling of the tax occurs on the rebate portion itself, i.e. you are being refunded less then $50 promised in the price of the item.
The rebate says I get $50 back, and I get $50 back. Sales tax has noting to do with the manufacturer or merchant. ITS ALWAYS THE CONSUMERS RESPONSIBILITY. Unless you're a total moron going to the register (which i'm starting to supsect you are), you KNOW that tax will be charged on the full price, becauseyou're paying full price at the time of sale. Thats how the law works.
Yes I am because allowing a small thief to get away with something, quickly prompts a larger thief to attempt the same on a larger scale. In the case of the mail "rebate", the vendor is successfully lying about the value of his "discount" to the tune of tens of millions of dollars since a $7.50 times a million units sold is $7.5 million.
That $7.5 million goes right to the state, because they're the ones leving the tax. So if you want to call them a thief fine, but they are the ones forcing the 10.99 item to 12.53. and as a consumer you KNOW there is a sales tax.
One of us allows himself to be fleeced by an assorted crowd of thieves and crooks on what appears a regular basis and, what is more amazing, actively encourages such practice. The other does not. I leave it as a exercise to the reader as to which one of us is an "idiot".
Ha, ok. If my $100 purchase now becomes $50 + sales tax, then fine feel free to think I'm the idiot. However I'm not the one claiming double taxation and calling people thiefs for giving me money back. So go ahead pay full price ($106 after tax), and i'll gladly pay only $56 (after tax) for the same thing because I can properly enter my name and address on a form and drop it in the mail.
No, the price/"rebate" advertising states in bold letters that the price of the item is say $100 "after mail-in $50 rebate". Which is a lie because when you do pay, you will pay taxes on $150 and receive $50 back which in effect refunds you less then $50 off the price of the item, i.e. advertised price is innacurate. The true price of the item was $107 (assuming 14% tax, a $7 on $50). The advertised, in bold letters, price was $100. You pay taxes on $150 ergo the real price was $107 before taxes. While one probably can find some sort of disclaimer in fine print on some of the ads, most of them I looked at simply say "Pay $100! *after $50 mail-in rebate" which is simply false. Noone is expecting not to pay tax, but the advertising creates an impression that the $50 is applied to the price of the item before taxes.
This same situation occurs in regular sales. They don't include the taxes either. In all cases you are expected to pay sales tax, and neither manf. or vendor will speak of it (as its assumed, and various greatly region to region).
You must be working for one of these vendors. Noone else would be so pighedeadly blind. Let me spell it out for you: the $7.5 million is the money that the vendor does not have to pay because he is lying about the amount of the refund. If his advertised ("after rebate") price was truly $100, the after-tax refund should have been $57. The consumer here loses by paing more tax then he would if the price was simply $100 as he was lead to believe. The governemt gets more tax then they deserve on this sale and the reason for it is the convoluted "rebate" scheme instigated by the vendor for his benefit.
Listen dumbass, the money for taxes goes to the state. When they must collect is clearly spelt out; AT THE TIME OF SALE. The amount is also; A PERCENTAGE OF THE SALE PRICE. Whether or not you send the rebate in the tax is correct. At the time you bought the item, the price was x, and you paid a percentage. It does not matter that in the future you will get y back from the manufacturer.
And get a clue dumbass...the vendor (or merchant) didn't come up with the rebate scheme, manufacturers did. Excluding BB rebates (which ARE done by the vendor, and a are only a small portion of all rebates) the vendor does nothing different than if there was no rebate offer.
You seem not to comprehend the simple fact that I will simply purchase the same item for $50 with no hassle, no mail and no imbecillic rebate schemes at some other vendor who operates by the old-fashioned rules of the market, one who will not try to get me to do work for him in hopes of getting lucky and increasing the price after the sale. Some for example do an "instant rebate" which enables them to defeat the vendor's scheme for the benefit of the consumer, by simply applying the rebate value to the price and filling all the bullshit paperwork for you (with the name of the store on the forms instead of yours). But go ahead and get busy filling out these rebate forms, if you do enough of them they might hire you to run around BestBuy dressed up as the "Rebate Boy".
You seem to fail to understand that if there's a rebate involved, I will ALWAYS pay less than your lowest price, becuase I can buy at that low price as well, in addition to getting the rebate.
I've sent in at most 2 BB rebates ever, all the other dozens i've done have been manufacturer, and I've never had a problem.
If a store wants to take the rebate for me and reduce the price fine with me, but taking 2 seconds to fill out a simple form is well worth $50 to me.
With your convoluted logic, I can only assume that you're still living with your mom and working at a grocery store. So believe whatever you like, as long as it helps you cope with the fact that you have such low intelligence you can't fill out your name and address.