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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.
I'm glad that I'll never have to put up with these tatics from BestBuy again (not that I ever did, I use pricewatch and Fry's for my hardware needs).
"Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
People forget, miss the deadline, etc. Non-return of rebates is critical to the business model. Best Buy just decieded that the dollar value of the customer annoyance was greater than the rebate non-returns.
sulli
RTFJ.
If you don't ship it registered, what's stopping the company from saying it never got there? I've heard of people who have waited over a year and have hassled the company numerous times to finally get their rebate. I got two items with a mail-in rebate on Boxing Day (December 26), I got the $10 cheque, but am still awaiting the $60 cheque.
Some businesses will instead just give you the discount at the till and do the work themselves for the rebate.
The only real major downside to getting rid of rebates is that in reality only a very small (less than 10 per cent) of people fill them out which means that in theory they can offer larger rebates for those who do. Of course, that's only in theory.
It takes 1 minute to fill out the postcard and less than half a dollar to mail it off. I don't understand anyone who doesn't mail it off for their rebate.
Unless you're making $30.00 each minute ($1,800/hr), you're just wasting perfectly good money.
Quit fooling yourself. It does NOT take 1 minute.
1. Fill out rebate form.
2. Make photocopy of receipt and circle purchase.
3. Cut out bar code.
4. Find envelope (every 100 envelopes or so, you'll have to organize to get more).
5. Fill out envelope.
6. Find stamp.
7. Make photocopies of everything you are sending.
8. Mark date on calender on date you are supposed to receive rebate.
[this is where we branch]
[branch #1: several weeks later]
9. Find copies of rebate that is marked as *should be received by now*
10. Find phone number on company that's supposed to have sent you rebate
11. Call phone # to find out why no rebate has been received.
12. Listen to someone giving you the run-around
13. Realize you are fucked
[branch #2: couple of weeks later]
9. Receive email about why rebate was declined. One of:
- UPC code missing.
- purchase not circled.
- unreadable submission.
- that address was already registered.
- other lie.
10. Goto 10 of branch #1
[branch #3: couple of weeks later]
9. receive email about rebate accepted.
10. never receive rebate and forget about it.
Rebates are a SCAM. And they bloody well know it. It's actually a very simple scheme: the majority of people will never send it in. Then the majority of people who get declined, will not follow up. At the end they are left with a very low percentage of actual payouts, many MANY weeks after the original purchase.
I applaud Best Buy and hope many will follow. (Fry's, are you listening?!).
Three words for you boss, computer fair and Internet. I used to shop at Fry's all the time, and grew to hate it just like you. Now if I need anything I'll hit the local computer fair, there is one at the Orange County fairgrounds here in SoCal every other week it seems, and there is a huge one in Pamona every few weeks. Check your local papers, there has to be one in the Seattle area.
Just a bunch of vendors trying to undercut the other guy, if you know how to wheel and deal a little bit you can beat the crap mainstream stores like Fry's and BestBuy any day of the week, even if you were to get your rebate money.
As for the Internet if you can hold your horses for even a day you can find killer deals on the internet, a lot of places have free shipping. Plus if you order from the right places you dont have to pay geschtap^H^H^H^H^Hsales tax.
Phuck Fry's, BestBuy, CompUSA et al. The one last thing I would recommend is your local corner computer shop, those guys are just geeks trying to make a buck, they may not have everything but they'll have most of what you need, plus they can order stuff. Plus he's the guy at the computer fair selling stuff as well, so give him some love, you just might make a friend who can hook you up later on.
(B) + (D) + (B) + (D) = (K) + (&)
I hope it was.
Think of the logic behind this:
I'm Joe Sixpack.
I save up my money to buy a television.
I get there and get the last one in stock because I had to save up my dollar bills.
I get it home, it doesn't work.
I take it back to the store to get a refund.
They tell me that even though I gave them cash, the most liquid form of payment, that I will get a check in the mail.
8 weeks, or 2 months, later I get a check.
The check isn't liquid.
Banks charge $5.00 just to cash it even if it's drawn at that bank.
Liquor stores want 2 to 6% of the check just to cash it.
I'm serious when I say not everyone has a checking account. I can't for various credit reasons, my father couldn't because of a nasty divorce which left him in bankrupcy, with fees it may not be affordable, I may not have enough money to use the checking account.
Remember, there are people out there scraping by. No matter, why should I take a check from you when I gave you cash?
Get your Unix fortune now!
If this isn't an April 1st joke, the 2 year time frame is still a bit of a ways off. I would bet dollars to donuts you'd be hard pressed to find ANYONE below the rank of executive or some high level managers, those directly responsible for getting this off the ground, that know more than the average /. reader right now.
No sig for you!!
but I ignore rebates altogether when I'm shopping for electronics and such. I don't even allow them to be a factor in my buying decision. The amount I'm paying for an item will always be, in my mind, the amount they charge me at the register, regardless of whatever rebate it promises me.
If BestBuy has something for $100 with a $50 MIR, but the guys down the street are selling the same thing for $75, I'm buying it from the guys down the street. I've never found MIRs to be reliable and I have and always will be willing to pay a bit more than the "after-rebate-price" to avoid them. Now, if I do buy something that has a rebate, I'll go ahead and send it in, provided it's a worthwhile amount ($20 or more) and I'm not too concerned about destroying the packaging of the item by cutting the UPC off the box. In this case, I just consider MIR a sort of bonus win (like a lucky lottery ticket) and not part of the amount I'm saving from the store.
Am I just being a stubborn consumer or do others have a similar attitude?
I have yet to see the rebate check for the very laptop I'm typing this post on, and I mailed the claim in the Monday after Thanksgiving.
So, why don't you call the number on the rebate form? You know, the one that you kept a copy of, along with copies of the UPC and receipt?
I've done several thousand dollars of rebates over the last three years and I have never not received them in the end. On a few, I did need to call in when the turnaround date passed without a check. That's why it is really important to keep copies of everything you send in as well as the appropriate due dates for each.
- Tony
Who modded this up? The guy proved his point with research and examples. Then someone mentions a conspiracy theory and gets modded up too? Try addressing the point!
Poster: 1 + 1 = 2.
Reply: I see you used mathematical symbols, which indicates an obvious bias. I'm not saying your wrong, but it's worth being said.