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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.
...with the April Fool's posts!
The Associated Press doesn't pull April Fools jokes, methinks.
I had but a simple dream, to destroy all humans.
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.
I think not. They have to have thought up something better.
Only my extreme tenaciousness allowed me to get my rebate for a router. I had a photocopy of the reciept they lost TWICE, claiming I never sent it in. On the third time they tried to pull the old "no facsimilies" routine, but I kept at them and they relented and gave up the 30 bucks.
A richer man would have just given up. That is part of thier plan.
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.
SerialEx13 is right on the money. I put in for a $50 rebate on a HDD. Bought the thing September '04. The rebate form, reciept copy, and bottom panel of the box went into the mail the same day. It's now April '05 and three calls and 1 fax to Best Buy have given me nothing but one long distance fax charge and no rebate yet.
Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups. -- 0 1 My two bits
recently I started shopping at Fry's in Renton WA. I live north of seattle so it is a bit of a drive. Often one of my buddies will go with me which usually results in a bunch of stupid purchases we weren't planning on, but makes for a fun (although expensive) afternoon.
We wander around the huge store eventually losing track of each other. We are now only slightly embarrassed by having to call each others cell phones to find each other (although this took some getting used to). They have some really good deals especially considering the rebates. I started wondering if something was up a few months ago however when I bought an item, and a few days later when I went to mail the rebate in I noticed some fine print that said I should have mailed it sooner and it was no longer good.
now I have grown to hate fry's. yes I still shop there, but I am so frustrated when I have to wait 5 minutes while the cashier has to collect the stack of rebate forms for all the items I bought. Often these rebates are not even marked on a sign in the store so I am usually unaware they are even available.
I did all my christmas shopping there and was horrified at the stack of paperwork it generated. A seperate set of photo copies, forms to fill out, file folders to label and store in a "safe place" and stamped/addressed envelopes to buy, lick and stick. Some of the rebates were impossible to collect as I realized that I had given the UPC codes on some items away with the gift. The giftee's had usually thrown them away (of course) by the time I figured out which reciept went with which gift.
After cooling off for a couple months I found myself at fry's making a purchase again. Again there was a nice rebate available. This time I was absolutely determined to get my money. As I read the fine print I found another disturbing detail. On this particular rebate (and probably most) sending the required stuff to get the rebate meant that you could no longer make a warranty claim. The warranty of the item required the original UPC, and so did the rebate. So you were given the choice of $x back -OR- the warranty for the product.
what a world. my fingers are tired of typing. if you skipped the rest of my message I will sum it up for you: rebates suck, frys sucks, best buy sucks, and so do you, and everything else around us.
goodnight
Obama is a twitter sock puppet
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?!).
The Federal Trade Commission recently ruled that retailers are liable when rebates aren't paid by the manufacturer. So, now that they can't pass the buck on rebates, retailers want out of them.
I work for Staples. The Staples online EasyRebate system has all but eliminated mail-in rebates. Rebates can be submitted at https://www.stapleseasyrebates.com/
Customers seem to love this option.
~DF
Their rebate policy was flawed, but so are their other "policies". I will no longer shop at Bust Buy because "policy" always trumps the customer.
Take for instance their refund policy. If you buy a computer, and pay cash, and that computer doesn't work when you get home - you must wait for a check if you want to return it for a full refund. I advised my mother on going there because of the good prices. She paid cash and got a good deal. The PC was fried and they didn't have another to exchange.
Apparently another policy is that Bust Buy doesn't ship items from store to store or order replacement items if they are out of stock. Her options were: Wait 1 month for them to fix the computer, for free; wait 6 to 8 weeks for a refund; or pay the manufacturer to ship a replacement (and pay to take the broken machine).
After their sales staff insulted her in the store (only for wanting what was due), she decided to get the refund and buy a machine elsewhere.
Still, if I pay cash - why should I wait for a check in the mail? Cashing a check isn't cheap for people who don't have checking accounts, not everyone does have one too. Hell, they discourage the use of checks as it is.
Someone should also look into the fact that they never honor their rewards program. In one visit we bought $300 in DVD's and was supposed to get a $25 store credit in the mail (after paying another $10 to join the "club"). The credit never came and they don't even have us on file. Worst part is that we bought more, expensive, items there hoping we'd get a reward!
Scam!
Get your Unix fortune now!
Rebates do make it seem like you are getting a deal, but you can go to one of Best Buy's competitors and buy the same item for Best Buy's price minus the rebate.
Even better, order the item online - you might wait a few days for the item but it will be cheaper, even with shipping. No matter it's a scam because the reason they, or the manufacturer, offer a rebate is because there was a price break.
There once was a time, you might just remember, when rebates were offered after you bought your item. Like the original "Zip" drive. I paid $200 for it when it came out, the same week it came out. Then after a few months they started offering rebates but they made it retroactive. That is what a rebate should be like.
Using rebates to sucker in customers isn't always going to work. It's not that they are bad always, my current computer was a huge deal because of the rebate. Then again, it dropped in price the same amount two weeks later.
Waiting two weeks would have kept the money in my pocket and I wouldn't have had to loan the computer company $250 for 2 months.
Get your Unix fortune now!
How is this any different than what they currently do?
The ______ Agenda
No, people. Even most people who you'd consider dumb, tend to be somewhat sensible with their money. People check out the weekly circulars for Circuit City, Best Buy, Staples, Tweeter, Office Max, whoever, and go where the deals are. Most of the time these deals involve rebates.
As for being cheaper online, at random, I looked up a hard drive from BestBuy.com (It's in their ad this week in the circular). Seagate Barracuda 120.0GB model number ST3120026A
Best Buy's Price: $99.99 - $50 MIR = $49.99
The Best Froogle could do wiht that same model number? $70 for a refurbished white box.
Best Pricewatch could do for that drive? $62 (This was a diffrent model number, but to be fair, as far as I could tell, same specs. The same model number was $74)
Best Pricewatch could do on ANY 120GB Drive? $53 for 5200RPM Drives.
It's just one example picked at random. I'm sure if we wanted to get into a pissing contest, you could find plenty of stuff that's cheaper online than what BBY sells it for after rebates. Point is, they're not all just horrible ripoffs designed to fuck you in the ass. Get overyourself and take off the tinfoil hat.
Touch everywhere, even when inappropriate.
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!
I actually work for company who processes rebates (#2 in this business). We all work incredibly hard to get people their rebates and process (many) millions of them every year.
If you have to mail your forms and the forms are received and they are valid, you will get your rebate, there is nobody intentionally holding on to your money. If there is a problem, you will be notified and you can always contact our customer support to get it resolved. I can guarantee you that we have VERY dedicated people trying to resolve such issues, and I know it since I work side by side with them every day.
If you are tired of sending mail, you can just go to shop to (for examples) Staples. You don't have to send anything by mail anymore if you shop there. Just come to their easy rebates website, submit your name and address and you will get the check and soon even direct deposit as Staples announced this week.
The reason why the rebate process takes so long is actually not technical, one of the mai reasons is policy of manufacturer and retailers. Often the retailers need to protect themself from people who try to commit fraud, buy products, apply for rebates and return them. Mostly due to this reason you have to wait to get it.
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?
10. Goto 10 of branch #1
No GOTOs here, please. Clean up your code.
13-4=54/6
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.