Slashdot Mirror
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."
In a sense that seems totally reasonable. Capitalism generally doesn't have the benefits of an auction model where the people who really value a product (or have a lot of money/resources) can subsidize the experience for those who don't. So for people who really wish things are cheaper, they can get things for a lower price at the expense of those who are more indifferent and won't go through the hassle of mailing in a coupon for $30.
The idea that Best Buy actually cares about their customers boggles the mind.
This has absolutely nothing to do with that. The fact is, Best Buy is running scared since the FTC recently made CompUSA responsible for the rebates they had offered. They were required to put out a good sum of money to make good on those rebates.
From http://www.twice.com/article/CA6301701.html:
"Best Buy announced in April 2005 that it intended to eliminate mail-in rebates from its portfolio within two years in an effort to improve customers' experience. The announcement also followed a warning from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in March 2005 that retailers will be held accountable for all rebates they advertise, including those sponsored by vendors. The edict came after the FTC ordered CompUSA to make good on hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid rebate claims."
Online rebates really do make the rebate process much much easier. Of all my black friday purchases this year, I only had one that required a mail-in rebate (some batteries from circuit city) and it was the only one I didn't get around to filling in. Just doesn't take nearly as long online. CompUSA had a really cool thing where you just enter in a couple numbers from your receipt and your address, and all three of the things I bought were automatically filled in and ready to go. Staples was really easy too (they had online rebates in 2004 as well), and they sent my rebate checks very quickly.
I *am* the slashdot type, so maybe there are other people who would much rather fill out forms and mail them in. For me, though, the online rebates were done in 5 minutes and completely painless.
P.
free music
Mail-in rebates supposedly help the customer by giving (or creating the impression of) lower prices. They help businesses because people tend to be too lazy/busy/forgetful to fill the things out, and end up paying far too much for a product (I'm guilty of this). Because I have, due to laziness/business/forgetting, not tended to fill rebates out in the past, I no longer bother with mail-in rebate products (I'd rather pay a slightly higher cost and not deal with the hassle). If more people are in the same boat as me, then this system really serves as a temporary solution on the part of the corporation (do it until the lazy consumers learn). I would, however, be willing to fill out the forms online (it's really the whole snail mail process that gets in the way), and have done so in the past (with Best Buy; it worked flawlessly and I had my check within a couple weeks). Because the online rebate forms take so much less time to fill out (they do in my exp.), failure rate due to laziness and being too busy will decrease, thus requiring Best Buy to hope people will just forget about the rebate. Therefore, we'll probably start to see slightly smaller rebates in the future.
They can do that, but then you'll simply see less rebates, because then all rebates would get honored, not just some.
Thanks to mail-in rebates, those of us who aren't too lazy or stupid to fill them out will save more than everyone else.
I can't imagine that anyone about to spend over a thousand dollars on a TV or computer @ Best-buy would turn down a 10%, 15%, or 20% off coupon.
My mother regularly saves 30%~50% on groceries because she clips coupons and uses her frequent shopper card. She saves the reciepts to show me and everytime, I ask her when the supermarkets will just start giving her food for free.
Rebates and coupons have low redemption rates, which is why bargain hunters spend much less on the same things you and I buy every day. If rebates were rung up at the register, the savings offered would drop like a rock as the rate of redemption headed for 100%.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
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."
Bullshit. Filing rebates online eliminates a paper trail, which will allow them to sit back and say, "whoops, you entered a number wrong, you don't get your rebate" or "whoops, you didn't submit on time, sorry, no rebate", or even "whoops, we never got your submission, sorry."
The rebate companies hate the fact that customers keep copies of their rebate submissions - especially if they have delivery confirmation numbers that prove that they are lying.
A copy with a delivery confirmation number is damn near irrefutable evidence in small claims court, even though collecting from some of the clearing houses is nearly impossible because they move around, change their names, etc so much.
This might be a slightly cynical response, but really, how many of the people here haven't had to put up with bullshit (defined as the rebate company lying) when trying to get a rebate in the past?
Of course, the only punishment companies get is a small fine and a "warning" from the FTC. Fraud on such a scale should be punished by jail time of executives, but, of course, that won't happen.
And yes, boys and girls, sending out thousands of postcards stating "sorry, you didn't send your submission by the postmark date" when they know that you did, is fraud. Not paying out the rebate even when you send in proof / give them the tracking number that clearly states that it was mailed and delivered on x dates, is something else.
(I'm looking at you logitech, you fuckers still owe me $20)
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I had an idea once for charities. Here it is:
You know at Christmas time there are people standing around outside of various places with a pot where you can put your change in, get a smile, maybe a wave, and you feel good. Well, why not put a large box outside where people can drop their rebate offers. The person standing there can have a box cutter to get the barcode off of the box and the charity can then send in the rebate coupon.
Unfortunately, in our world today the box cutter guy would be taken for a terrorist and hauled off in handcuffs probably.
Still, it could mean millions for charities and no one would have to shell out a dime since these are rebates.
Someone put a black hole in my pocket and now I'm broke.
Didn't think so. As much as I can recall, all their rebates are applied when you check out. Why do it any other way? Costco has to be one of the most stress free places to shop: they pay and treat their employees well, they sell high quality products at low prices and they have sane, consumer friendly policies.
I used to work in electronics retail, home of the never-to-be-seen-again-mail-in-rebate. I know from my experience there that the only ones really pushing for rebates are the retailers since the cost of rebate is born by the manufacturer and the retailer can advertise the rebated price and still sell the product at full price. Yes, there are some retailer initiated rebates but they're pretty rare. The pressure from retailers pushing for rebates seems to have lead to manufacturers farming out their rebates to fulfilment centres with the intent on honoring as few as possible.
I wish the Competition Bureau in Canada had the balls that the FTC has and made retailers responsible for rebates who would then pursue the rebate from the manufacturer in case of unfulfilment. Score one for the USA!
All stores lie to their customers to PRETEND they're getting a discount.
The other day I was in a store and saw a sign for Levi's 501s for $38, MSRP $42. Then I went to the store next door and saw a similar sign: Levi's 501s for $34, MSRP $38. There isn't any way to reconcile this, other than realizing that stores are lying through their teeth.
Back to the point, I also saw a documentary a few months ago about shopping clubs. They went to a city with two supermarkets with shopping clubs and bought a good list of various items with their club cards. Then they went to a neighboring city, bought the same items from a similar supermarket with no shopping club, and the non-discounted items without a card were a LOT cheaper.
The moral of this story... Stores are lying to you. Shopping clubs only pretend to save you money. You have to compare not to the non-discounted price at the same store, but to the normal price at a non-shopping club store. Club cards are only useful if you can't chose to shop elsewhere.
Besides, the customer tracking is completely unacceptable. It only serves to find out how to squeeze more money out of you. Just think about it, they can find out what products are selling in aggregate without tracking each buyer. They only need per-buyer info to figure out how to make their store less attractive to customers who aren't making them much money. Club cards don't magically make it cheaper for the supermarket to buy that head of lettuce, or can of soup.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
You have to compare not to the non-discounted price at the same store, but to the normal price at a non-shopping club store
With rebates often it works out that the rebates are cheaper though. I've seen some rebated stuff at stores that are far cheaper than any online price. They tend to be small things (a spindle of CD-Rs or similar), but occasionally you see a jackpot. I saw a 120 GB hard drive for I think around $50. Pricewatch puts a similar drive at $55. A similar drive from Segate (which was the sale item) is $67. The cheapest such item that has "retail" in the description is $98. Rebates on a 19" LCD put the price on par with online. (Both of these were during the discounts shortly after Christmas.) In both cases you don't have to worry about the product getting damaged in shipment, waiting for it to arrive, giving out CC number over the internet, etc.
Club cards are only useful if you can't chose to shop elsewhere.
Which often is the case. There are I think four places to do grocery shopping around here: Giant, Weis, Wegman's, and Wal-Mart. The first three are all shoppers' club stores, and there's no way I'd do more shopping at Wal-Mart than I have to.
I work at a company that processes mail-in rebates for various companies. I can tell you that at least from my POV that if you follow all the instructions on the form and meet all the terms exactly you will get your rebate: i.e. they're not being deliberately disqualified, thrown in the trash, etc. However the companies we work for can ratchet up or down how forgiving we can be about mistakes and resubmissions: e.g. some vendors don't want to give their consumers any trouble, while others are clearly looking to disqualify people on technicalities. If you use common sense you can probably guess which are which.
I doubt online submission will get you your rebate any more often: you'll just know whether you've been qualified or disqualified faster. If they want to hold you to some technicality they will either way.
Besides, the customer tracking is completely unacceptable.
Start a card-swapping club at work or with a few friends. Every week, all of you throw your cards into a hat and draw them at random. You won't get targeted coupons that way, though, because "your" buying history is pretty much gibberish after a while.
Lost: Sig, white with black letters. No collar. Reward if found!
I have also always received my rebate... eventually, but I have never taken advantage of a rebate without feeling taken advantage of.
Let me get this strait. You want me to buy something at a marked up price, then spend the time and energy (time is money) to send in proof that i bought your product. Then, months later, after you have earned interest off of my money, i get some of it back, only to have saved a few dollars anyway?
Oh yes... lets not forget about all those poor souls who didnt follow your directions properly, or forgot to send it in on time, or god forbid decided not to bother!
Somehow this whole process disturbs me. It is a backassward coupon scheme, and i refuse to ever buy a product with a rebate (unless the pre-rebate cost is low already). I am almost always able to find the same product for only a few dollars more somewhere else without a rebate, and to me that is worth it.
Anyone care to enlighten me on how rebates benefit me?