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Best Buy Working Towards Ending Mail-in Rebates
chibbie writes "Best Buy is finally working towards ending mail-in rebates by 2007. Rebates will still be around, but you will be able to file them online, and receive your check much quicker.
I guess this means Best Buy doesn't hate their customers after all."
Why assume that Best Buy is trying to help out the customer? Maybe they're trying to make it more efficient for themselves to eat your money.
Has anyone else had any experience with the online rebate firm onrebate.com? They ate my rebate claiming insufficient documentation (which I know is wrong...), but the worst part is they will not even allow me to resubmit anything to them. After waiting on hold for 30 minutes, the nice customer service representative explained how their decision was final, with no option for recourse whatsoever. Then she even transferred me to her manager, a filled-up voicemail box. Emails have gone unanswered for a month. Apparently they're affiliated with tigerdirect.com, which I understand has equally craptastic customer service. At this point, I'm gonna go to Fry's and try to get them to fulfill the rebate they promised me, as the rebate firm is effectively impossible to contact.
Personally, I think it's safe to assume that Best Buy is no different, and unless they prove otherwise, I'll assume that they "hate their customers after all."
The best part is that it's opt-in.
When you file a rebate, you opt-in!
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Think about it. You buy a $1000 item for $800, but you are taxed on $1000. I hate rebates and will pay extra to avoid them. The only rebates are the ones on stuff thats being thrown out for next to nothing. Sometimes you can actually make money on those :0
It really pisses me off that he groups those together, like people who bought a discounted computer are just as bad as those who are getting rebate checks from items they've already returned to the store.
Absolutely. The head of Best Buy has an "interesting viewpoint" on the people who support his stores.
I won't mince words, he goes on batshit insane rants about his customers pretty often, and seems to think that he is entitled to make profit (and as such, anyone who costs him profit by using a coupon, pricematching, etc is stealing directly from him), but that really isn't the issue.
I have no problem with them validating rebates and punishing people who submit rebates and then return a product. Shit, if it becomes a pattern, take them to court or even have the DA file charges, but as you said, there is a difference between someone who engages in fraud and someone who wants to get a good deal and uses a pricematch and a coupon on an item that also has a rebate.
Speaking of which - they already have a computerized validation system for rebates that apparently takes data from their POS system, if you return something, your rebate submission will be rejected. The 2 year timeline is completely unrealistic and is, quite frankly bullshit (many others have pointed this out)
It also pisses me off that they are angry that some customers are forcing them to really honor the terms THEY MADE UP about price matching...
Oh. My. FSM.
Pricematching at Best Buy is like dealing with a schizophrenic. You never know what is allowed and what isn't. Sometimes you can use a coupon with a pricematch, sometimes you can't, sometimes the coupon price is subtracted from the pricematch, sometimes the after rebate price is used - it goes on and on and is really annoying.
Even the stuff on the "pricematching sign" can be completely ignored by the managers. Managers will just shrug their shoulders when you read the sign to them and say something like "Well, that's how it is" as if you are in an episode of the Sopranos.
To their credit, they have been cementing their position on several issues, although virtually every single policy change that they have set in stone has been hostile to their customers. Many of their rebates now specifically state that the rebate is not valid if a pricematch is performed on the item (terms like this were on the WD HDD rebate I filed about 6 months ago) and there are other examples.
I really don't care, their prices aren't competitive on the items that I purchase (techie stuff) and the hassle isn't worth it either. To say nothing of the fact that a lot of items that they have good prices on are on perpetual backorder or are cancelled with no explanation given (During the black friday weekend, they cancelled several of my orders - a laptop, a Radeon X700 and something else, but they charged my card as soon as I placed the order, and didn't refund it until several days later)
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Wow, maybe they can streamline it more in the future. I'm thinking of a system like this (just an idea; don't attack me if I've oversimplified it):
I think you're being just a little bit unfair to Best Buy here. Staples has had "Easy Rebates" for awhile now and they really are a hell of a lot easier. Go to their website, type in the number on your receipt, and receive your rebate check two weeks later. Simple. If you can't type in a stupid number on a receipt then something is really wrong with you. I'd rather check a number a few times on a receipt than home some minimum wage monkey can read my chicken scratch when I hand-write a rebate onto those little receipt rebate forms.