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OfficeMax Drops Mail-in Rebates
DrEldarion writes "Looks like OfficeMax is dropping mail-in rebates. 'Rebates were the #1 customer complaint we were getting,' said Ryan Vero, OfficeMax's chief merchandising officer. Hopefully other retailers will realize what a good idea this is and follow suit." The best part is that the discount is applied now at the register, so those of us who always thought that the rebates were a scam (or were too lazy to mail in the card) finally get some savings.
This might have been news, sort of, back on June 30... http://news.com.com/OfficeMax+bids+farewell+to+mai l-in+rebates/2100-1047_3-6090290.html
Better to
Ah, marketing at its finest. This isn't even really news. Most major retailers have been very quietly phasing out mail in rebates for months, if not years. It's in the freaking article, if you read it. People are saying " should do this too", and if you look, they probably already have.
As it says, Best Buy did this over a year ago, they just don't have all the manufacturers on board yet. If you look in their computer department, most laptops have discontinued mail in rebates, and are either instant or normal price. Circuit City has the same thing, in almost the same way. Many of their home office electronics manufacturers are instant-rebate only now.
If you read the article, it just states that "Beginning this Weekend" they'll start to phase the rebates out. It doesn't specify when they'll end, or exactly what will be phased out first. Best Buy made this exact same announcement in 2005.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for it, but people should try actually reading what's posted now and then. Then again, this is Slashdot, so what am I thinking?
Part of the whole reason for rebates was that many people never sent them in (I've seen numbers in the 90's showing about 5% of people would send them in). This allowed retailers to put a really low price on the shelf, but in fact make far more money for the item. Disregarding the outright fraudulent rebate scams, this practice wasn't fraudulent but it was obvious that the retailers are simply hoping that few people will actually send the documentation in to get the rebate.
With rebates taken at the register, expect them to be far more in line with a standard sale discount.
Do you have ESP?
http://promomagazine.com/incentives/best-buy_04130 5/index.html (Karma whore link)
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It worked. Despite what you say about how hated they were, they made companies money. The real question is how stupid does a company have to be to stop using it?
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
Paperwork requirements? All you have to do is throw the UPC and the rebate receipt into an envolope and mail it on its way. The only complaint I have is that it takes forever to get your money in the mail.
What pisses me off is having to pay the full sales tax on the artificially inflated price, not the true (or "rebate") price.
"Look, its $200.00, but they have a $50.00 instant rebate, plus $100.00 mail-in rebate ... " but you're still taxed on $200.00, for what is in reality a $50.00 purchase.
Honestly, I don't understand the hatred that people have for these things. I have probably sent in rebates for 5-10 products per year for the last few years and every single one has been issued in a timely fashion. People claim that their submissions are ignored or denied because they failed to comply with the requirements, but that doesn't match my experience at all. I do have very neat handwriting, which I'm sure doesn't hurt. I used to painstakingly photocopy all the materials I sent and keep them in case there was a problem, but it came to seem pointless so now I only do that for higher value ones if at all.
That said, I'd be happy to see them done away with. They are inconvenient, especially for the lower value ones (I don't mind 10 minutes of paperwork for $50, but when it's for $10 or less, it seems kind of silly). An in-store rebate is much nicer for the customer.
I've had fairly good luck in getting my rebates filled in the past, having redeemed maybe a dozen mail-in rebates for various things. I did run into a problem on the last one, a hard drive at Tiger Direct, $50 rebate on a seagate 250. It was one of those things where they say to mail in the original bar code, yet the bar code exists in only one place, on the label on the hard drive. Not wanting to peel the label off my HD, I included a scan of it. They also said that the rebate form MUST match the name on the invoice AND the credit card. My full name is on my card, and my short common name is on the receipt. And they always wait as long as possible before replying to your rebate, the usual scam is "expect 8-12 weeks for your rebate" and "unfilled rebates must be counter-claimed within 14 weeks of purchase". They give you as small of a window of appeal as possible between the last possible day you might receive the check and the very last day they will accept an appeal due to your not receiving said check. And to help this process along they mail out your check at the last possible moment if at all. I have never seen anyone receive their rebate check earlier than one week before the last possible day it might arrive.
So the $50 rebate disappeared into the Rebate Black Hole and I had to send them another claim. A full two months later I actually did get a check, but that was what, almost half a year after I bought the drive. I wonder how much interest they made on my $50 check over the course of 5 months, multiplied by how many thousands of customers?
I don't know the exact details of how they handle rebates, but many companies simply sell them to rebate centers, as obligations. So my $50 rebate was sold to this rebate center for maybe $-45. (they received $45 to accept the obligation of the rebate) Then if they have to cut you a check, they lose $5. But if you fail to ask for the rebate, they clear $45. So it is to their advantage to make you jump through lots of hoops, give you numerous opportunities to submit an invalid or incomplete request, and under no circumstances do they tell you if your submission was rejected.
I would imagine that out of say, 100 initial rebate requests that are rejected, only 5 of the customers actually catch it in time and resubmit to get their rebate. The rest forget about it by the time the deadline has arrived for them to receive their check, and by the time they realize they never got a check, it's too late to resubmit. I would be very interested to know what their statistics are... does anyone have any hard numbers for any of the rebate centers?
- percentage of rebate submissions initially rejected (guessing 40%)
- percentage of rejected submissions where the consumer received notice of rejection (guessing 0%)
- percentage of initial rejections that were followed up by a resubmission from the customer, in time (guessing 10%)
- percentage of resubmissions that were not fulfilled for any reason (guessing 20%)
- percentage of submitted rebates that resulted in a check (guessing 60%)
If I'm anywhere near accurate in my guestimates, they are filling up big lawn and leaf bags with our cash. But it seems that if you are dilligent, you have very good chances of getting your money, albeit with a fight. They are just making it soooo easy for you to NOT get your rebate that they can rake in the cash at our expense.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Look, from someone in the business, you have it all wrong.
1) Retailers are rarely the rebate providers. It's the manufacturers most of the time. So no, Best Buy has probably never scammed you on a rebate.
2) The reason you have to turn in an original UPC, a copy of the receipt, etc, is to prevent fraud. Fraud still happens all of the time, but this stuff is simply in place because if not, people will manufacture a ton of fraudulent submissions. And even with that, over half of our clients elect the "just pay if they call" philosophy, where if someone has bothered to call about their rebate, they will be given it.
3) If it were up to the people fulfilling the rebates, they'd validate everything sent in. Not only is there is a higher charge for valids compared to invalids, most of the time a fulfillment house is negotiating a contract, the first X customer service calls per month are free, so making the customer happy = less customer service calls = more savings for the fulfillment house.
4) Rebates give about 3 to 6 times as much reward as a simple discount does. Not only do a lot of people not bother to turn in a rebate form, it produces more sales, and it gives the manufacturer more demographic reports to do specialized advertising. Their marketing departments use the budget given to them that would be used for the simple discount to then use it for this other stuff.
If you don't want to fill out the rebate form and fill it in, fine; but it's not as if you're going to be saving anywhere near as much anyway. Really, you're talking about a $100 item being repriced at $95 instead of getting a rebate for $20. How much is that extra $5 off going to make for people deciding whether to buy or not?
Now how many people would if it were $80 after rebate?
Here's what really sucks aside from the hassle and deceptive pricing: If I buy something for my company with a rebate, I have to fill out an expense form and get reimbursed for the price AFTER the rebate because the rebate check will come to me. So the rebate money comes out of MY pocket until the I get the rebate check. And if something screws up with the rebate, I'm screwed.
I usually go to Comp USA for computer stuff for our office, but I will definitely be heading to Office Max whenever possible from now on.
-paul
Staples subsequently disavowed the rebate ("we don't process them") and it finally took a couple of emails back and forth to HP to get the matter "resolved". However, I just got *another* rejection from HP in the mail. So now I have an email from HP saying the rebate has finally been accepted and a physical letter that saying it hasn't. Meanwhile, the deadline is looming.
About two-thirds of the rebates I've done have been "rejected" only to be "resolved" after contacting the fulfillment company pointing out that they already have all the information they claim they don't. I've even received rejection letters claiming that they haven't received a serial number - with the serial number printed on the letter. It seems like it's just one more barrier they erect to avoid or delay paying, hoping you'll drop the matter.