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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.
I just don't shop at places that have mail-in rebates. Period.
I've always recieved my rebates. Officemax, Staples, Newegg, anonymous motherboard manufacturers that went out of business. The people who have problems with rebates are either incompetent to fully provide all rebate information in the correct way the company states, or they're impatient and don't follow up if a rebate didn't go through - giving up like they want you to.
I bought a motherboard from Newegg that came with some pretty hefty rebates. Filled out everything correctly and mailed them in. A few months went by and I followed up by emailing and phoning the motherboard manufacturer to check the status and remind them that they owed me money. Waited another couple months while they supposedly remailed the check, but I never got it. Six months or so after the purchase date, I phoned up Newegg to harang them about the rebates I never recieved from the manufacturer that went belly up. They refunded the total of the mail in rebate value directly to my banking account.
It's not like I was pining on getting that money from the manufacturer everyday and getting insanely angry about it. I just went slightly out of my way to contact people a few times to insure that I got my check back. I bet most "normal" people just send them in and forget them, which is what the rebate people want to happen so they don't have to pay you.
Never had a problem with Officemax rebates having bought plenty of rebated DVDs and peripherals over the years.
The concept of mail-in rebates isn't a bad one. It works both in favor of businesses and in favor of more savvy/dilligent customers.
The real problem is that there are inadequate consumer protection laws (and enforcement) surrounding rebates. Stores and ads should never be able to put the after-rebate price in huge print, disguising the before-rebate price in tiny print in an effort to confuse consumers. And if a consumer mails in all the required pieces (UPC code, etc) to get the rebate, and the company either neglects to send the rebate check by their own deadline or erroneously claims the stuff the consumer sent in was wrong/incomplete, then the consumer should be able to contact some enforcement agency that will go kick the company's ass for lying.
Quote:
but a scheme.
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.
Because not everyone will ask for their rebate retailers are able to squeeze more cash out of their customers.
End quote.
The problem with your analysis is you completely overlook all the people (myself included) who diligently mail in their rebates and never receive payment.
I've started taking digital photos of all my packaging, UPCs, rebate forms, and envelopes addressed to the rebate people. I would say that literally the majority of the time I send in a rebate form, I never get the rebate. After about 2 months with no check, I print and mail the digital photos of my rebate stuff, throw in a hint of legal action, and my rebates magically arrive within about 5 business days.
I recently found a new rebate 'scam' when I bought an LCD monitor from Tiger Direct. To process the rebate, you go to onrebate.com. There I was given this choice: "Check By Mail," you receive your rebate check via 1st class mail within 8 to 10 weeks, or "No-Wait Rebate By Check." Here's the description of the no-wait: "OnRebate guarantees we will mail your rebate check via 1st class mail within 3 to 5 business days from receipt of all of your rebate documentation and approval of your claim for a small fee of $5.50 which will be deducted from your rebate check."
... on a $70 rebate, they'll cut 9 weeks off delivering the check for an 8% cut of the rebate.
Yes, that's right
As they say "We'll move your rebate to the front of the line! It's called the "No-Wait Rebate."
Pfffft!
Since we're on the subject of going overboard with mail-in rebates, have any of you guys had the displeasure of looking through a Circuit City newspaper ad lately? The damned things are almost entirely just mail-in rebate catalogs. Let's hope they get a clue soon and drop these things.
;)
Not to mention my complaint about the flyer's usability problems, with the portrait-layout cover, causing the thing to disintegrate into pieces when you mistakenly unfold it and try to page through it from the "left"...
On the other side of the coin, Staples at least lets you file for the rebates entirely online. No mailing, nothing. It's not any quicker to get the stuff back in the mail, but at least it's significantly less of a pain in the ass to file for the things. And no, I'm not a corporate shill for Staples. Honest.
I will give you an example of what I have found.
...blah blah...company policy ...blah blah...
I was out buying a new office chair, and I saw a 'sale-bin' of 100 spindle DVDR's with a BIG price next to them that said: 100 pack Maxell DVDR $4.99 and in very tiny print under that on a different sign: $24.99 before rebates, $20.00 mail-in rebate.
The second sign was very hard to see and not obvious that it was with the DVD's for $4.99.
I brought my 4 spindles + chair to the register, the total cost was almost $100.00 MORE then it should have been. I mentioned that they used the wrong price for the DVD's, and they said, "No Sir, that is the correct price." I made a fuss, the manager came out, showed me the sign.
I told them what I thought of their false advertising tatics, and threatened to NOT buy the $400 chair, if I didn't get the disks for the Posted $4.99.
They didn't care,
So, I left that store empty handed and have never returned.
My point; too many times they post the "After Rebate" price, over/above and bigger then the actual price. It is deceptive. Too many online retailers are doing this too. Sony DVDRW-DL $25.00* you only see the Actual Price in the checkout.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
Sure glad I don't have a choice in the matter anymore now that I can see you guys understand the value of my leisure time so much better than I do.
My personal information is being bought and sold by a million other people too, and they didn't give me free shit for my trouble.
You're obviously very young or have a very short memory. Government rarely adjusts taxes to meet its needs except when government itself predicts a revenue shortfall. Corruption, war, economic imbalance, social disasters ... these things don't matter at all, except to raise taxation rates. It takes a truly thick-skinned, courageous politician/leader to adjust government seizures downward because they're no longer necessary: there are always bureaucrats who'll swear they need more, segments of society who want to dismantle the "rich", and groups with similar motives. Gutless leaders simply leave taxes as they are, or raise them instead of ordering bureaucrats to do with what they have.
What matters is the government's propensity to seize property: if they see fit to do so, they will. Whether politicians call it "progressive" or "regressive" is mere rhetoric. At the end of the day, they've still taken your property. If you can succeed in getting them to seize someone else's property instead of yours, then your 'side' has won the political skirmish of the day.
The power to tax is the power to destroy. Government just about always exercises its powers, often just because it can. There is no such thing as a 'temporary' tax.
Founding member: He-Man Windoze Hater Club
You might have better luck at CompUSA now. They were nailed with an FTC order because of just such abuses, and had to implement a streamlined rebate procedure. You just go to their website, type in a number from your purchase receipt, and it's automatic from there; no forms to fill out, no clipping of UPCs, nothing to mail. Of course, "Allow 6-8 weeks for processing" still means you get your check in 7 weeks and 6 days, but you get it.
I believe one or two of the other big-box retailers got the same order.
rj
made your clothes, your house, your car, and your computer, and virtually everything else you own or consume.
:)
I buy my clothes used from the thrift store at a very low price compared to the retail stores. Its almost cheaper to throw them away than to wash them. My car is used, I paid cash, so I don't have to give the title to the loan place _AND_ pay higher taxes and higher insurance rates for full coverage that costs more than a cheap car does like mine. My computer I bought new from Apple with a discount, no hidden fees, in fact they gave me a deal on some software that I wanted as well.
The moral here is that to escape the bait and switching, hidden fees, fees on returning defective equipment from manufacturers that failed to ship working versions of their products for the past _2_ revisions of their product (true story!), and all of this crap, I do have to "drop out" to some degree and find more unconventional and more honest and upfront means of doing commerce.
And to me, that is sad.
Extra taxes and fees at hotels? Gone, I will pay a flat, upfront fee at a campground that is lower and more honest and upfront, and well, at least a different experience than the luxury of having the ability to pay an exorbitant fee for room service. In fact, most campgrounds will just take cash put in an envelope (about $10/night). They don't also ask your life history and sell it to someone either. Why they need life history to rent a room for one night is only benefiting someone I don't know, and hurting my right to privacy.
Its not that I can't pay these extra fees, that is the whole reason that they charge them. Because they can.
Why am I protesting, and saving my hard earned money for me and the people I love?
Because I can _and_ I want to do that vs pay extra for nothing to someone I don't know and don't care about.
Its also common for me to get tickets to sold out rock concerts from people _minus_ the Tickemaster tax for the privilege of them selling a ticket. They typically get 30+% of the face value of the ticket and have the balls to charge the buyer _EXTRA_ to print the ticket on their own paper with their own ink vs mailing it to the customer for only the included extortion fees.
Legitimate businesses are making the mafia look like pussies. Any inquiry at the local "Payday loan" place will convince you that loan sharking by the mafia is a better deal. (No refund on your kneecaps though
I didn't like waiting to get my money back and occasionally having to make a phone call or even two. ... ...so now I'm glad that no one else is getting the deal either
Except, we are getting the deals. Online. Brick-and-mortar stores used rebates to try and compete with the low-overhead of online dealers like Amazon or NewEgg. Those $0.00 price tags were on items that made the company no money anyway... they're just to get you into the store, with hopes that you'll see something else you like and buy it as well.
If the brick-and-mortar stores are getting rid of rebates, they're going to have a very hard time competing with their online rivals unless they start having clowns and free hot-dog days. Or dropping prices. Frankly, I couldn't care one way or the other. I haven't bought an electronics item from a "real" store since 1995.