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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 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
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!
"Brrrrrr, It's kinda chilly today..."
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.
I'm still waiting on my rebate from my Voodoo3 2000 card. Yeah, I'm lazy and stupid. Or, I was lied to. Since I don't have my rebate cheque, despite filling in and mailing the form, you decide.
- nk
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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It's funny - I always hear these stories about people never getting their rebate, but I've probably done 50 of them over the last 8 years and have always received the rebate. Large or small amount, it doesn't matter who the vendor was, etc. I've always gotten them.
:)
The one time I had a problem was a free computer game offer, but even that arrived eventually (it might've been 6 months, but I did eventually receive it, and when I called to check on it after waiting 6-8 weeks, they explained the delay and gave me a new expected ship date).
Personally I don't have a major problem with Best Buy. I generally don't go to them for computer hardware, though; I've got a Microcenter nearby for that.
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.
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?