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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."
guess this means Best Buy doesn't hate their customers after all.
Sure they do.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Why not just deduct the rebate at the cash register? We all know that's doable. No, their dream is to extract from each customer the maximum personal price. Those willing to pay full price do, and those only willing to pay a lower price get it. Willingness to do senseless work determines who falls in what camp--it's just like coupon clipping.
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."
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.
My guess is, the vast majority of Best Buy customers aren't really the net-savvy types (i.e., everyone I know buys computer equipment at Newegg, not best buy or the like). So this is merely an effort to combat the increasing amounts of people redeeming these rebates by mail.
This is the cynic in me talking, yes.
Push Button, Receive Bacon
They just want our email addresses now so they can sell to every spam company in existance, that is all. I mean, its a great plan. They know for a fact that everyone has access to mail, but not everyone has access to the web. I think the only real good thing about this now is that we will no longer need to send in the UPC code which may get "lost" and deny you the rebate.
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
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."
I worked as a contractor to establish this system for Best Buy. The end goal is that eventually they'll be able to submit rebate information directly at checkout and skip the process of mail-in forms or going online.
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
There is a way to get your rebates from Best Buy even faster...shop somewhere else.
I have a simple policy. If I'm going to buy something from your store, you're going to give me your best price right there. If I have to deal with a rebate, that removes the incentive to shop locally, and I'll just go mail order. 99 times out of a hundred the mail order price, thanks to sites like pricewatch, is going to be less than the Best Buy price even less the rebate...and that takes in to account the shipping charges.
Best Buy and places like that use rebates for one simple reason...us stupid consumers put up with it and still buy their products. If everyone would simply quit doing that, rebate crap would disappear next week.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
"Brrrrrr, It's kinda chilly today..."
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 guess this means Best Buy doesn't hate their customers after all."
No, it means they can harvest (and sell) your address and contact info without having to pay for the envelope opener and data-entry team. That, and the cookies (oh, the cookies).
Staples has been doing the online rebate thing for a really long time. They call it 'Easy Rebate', and it really is easy. And it is going to take BestBuy 2 years to implement it? Give me a break. They are just trying to appease the FTC.
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!
Why do people say that so often? It's obvious that nobody understands what it means.
It doesn't mean the customer can do no wrong, or that they should get whatever they want. It means you don't make an issue out of something that really doesn't matter. When they say they want a better pair of speakers for their Panasony stereo surround-sound system, you don't tell them the speakers that came with it are as good at it gets, you don't tell them that they've confused the brand name, and you don't tell them that stereo isn't surround-sound. You just let them go right along being right, and sell them the fancy looking expensive speakers. THAT is what "the customer is always right" really means.
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. 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... if you don't like it, change your policy. Either way, accept the consequences of your own terms and shut up. Hell, the customers are forced to accept the terms even if they don't want to, why shouldn't Best Buy?
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
> Besides, the customer tracking is completely unacceptable.
Actually, I wouldn't be so against it if they made my information available to me too. I would very much value the record of what I buy when, and to have it categorized nicely and in a format I can use in some financial s/w would be awesome for making future budgets.
If one store did this, it would pretty much guarantee I bought as much from that store as possible. It's in their interest too as far as I can tell.
Max.
I really don't want to be pointing this out, but Zonk posted an article on this back in April when Best Buy announced this. See:http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/02/06 17234
And other annoyances, and expenses, etc.
- once you cut that UPC thing off the box, you can forget about bring it back for a refund.
- you paid sales tax on the $40 you never got, that's another $3, or so.
- Figure 30 minutes of your time filling out forms, cutting out UPCs, making photo copies, etc. If you earn $25 an hour, that $12.50 right there.
- postage, envelopes, photo-copies.
- even if you got your refund, that 10 weeks without your money.
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?