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.

Comments

I wouldn't call it a scam

[scenestar]

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.

Re:I wouldn't call it a scam

[asylumx]

Well, I don't know where folks get off expecting a store not to try and make money. Here's how it works:

#1 As the parent stated, not all recipients of the rebate form will actually do the work to apply for the rebate.
#2 Those that do, are not paid for 6-8 weeks. That is 2 months of interest accruing on that money for the retailer.
#3 The rebates also are a way to collect information on customers, so that the company who backs the rebate can then target their advertising more efficiently.
#4 Rebates allow the manufacturer of a product to apply a discount without having to change their contract with the retailer.
#5 Rebates often times are in response to a combined purchase of a mix of products that fit well together, but are from different companies. This relates to #4 where you as a retailer would not want to take this hit yourself because you don't really care what combination you sell.

They aren't a scam at all, in fact I've never sent one in (with the correct information) and not received a check for the amount advertised. I don't like them, personally, so I just ignore the "after rebate" price. If I can find the "no-rebate" price cheaper elsewhere, I get it there. Otherwise, I buy it and send in the rebate. 2 months later it's like I have a little Christmas present in the mail.

Re:I wouldn't call it a scam

[Kadin2048]

I don't think the rebate per se is a scam: what's dishonest is the way prices are advertised.

In many cases, the HUMONGOUS BIG FONT price on the item is the price after the rebate -- not what you actually have to pay to the cashier. This is illegal in some states (as it should be), but when it's not, the retailers love to do it.

Depending on how it's done, rebates can border on a bait-and-switch: you decide to buy the widget because of the 'price after rebate,' but you don't know until you get up to the register and get the rebate form -- in many cases after you pay the inflated price -- exactly what you have to do in order to GET that price.

Also, in many cases there are artificial restrictions on the rebates which keep you from getting the item at that price. (Limit one per family, etc.) So that price that you think you're going to be able to pay is really only good on the first item -- after that, you have to pay the inflated price. Woe onto you if you buy more than one. I understand it's a caveat emptor world, but sometimes the stores have gone too far.

I'm glad to see OfficeMax doing what it's doing, and I hope that other stores will follow suit.

Re:I wouldn't call it a scam

[humphrm]

In my opinion, I've never seen a rebate that wasn't a scam. Even if I got a check. Examples:

- Dell advertises a notebook computer the weekend after Black Friday last year, matching Wal-Mart's in-store price. Mysteriously, after the order is placed, the system that is automatically supposed to give you links to rebate forms says it can't find a qualifying rebate for this product. Instructions: Wait until you get your receipt (2-3 weeks, with shipment of product), send that with the *generic* rebate form (which you have to go dig up yourself), hope that someone bright enough to remember 3 weeks ago recognizes that, indeed, a rebate was offered, and if all the stars align correctly, you'll get a check. Amazingly, I did. Four months later.

- Micro Center offers a rebate if you buy Product X and Product Y together, you buy the stuff on Tuesday and stuff all the receipts and forms into your to-do pile for Saturday, only to find in small print on Saturday that your rebate forms had to be submitted within three business days of the receipt date.

- Compusa offers a rebate on online purchases of a flat=panel monitor; you order it and your order is queued and credit card charged. You download the rebate form and it says you need to include the bar code from the box. The shipment is, naturally delayed due to unforseen circumstances (who knew all these people would want a flat panel monitor at this price????) Then when you get it, the rebate is expired. Spend several months with some anonymous outsourced third party non-english-speaking CSR's and eventually after threats of legal action they begrudgingly send you a check, which still takes six to eight weeks to arrive.

I've got many stories like this, which is why I stopped buying rebate items, usually someone is willing to match the rebate price without a rebate, and they get my business. Now Office Max will be off my black list. Congrats to Office Max.

Re:I wouldn't call it a scam

[keytohwy]

Consumers have become victims of their own avarice behavior and this exemplifies it. Everyone bitches about the bad service at xyz retailer, yet they'd throw that retailer under a bus in 2 seconds to save $1 at abc retailer. Consumers have squeezed margins out of (especially) brick and mortar businesses to the point where those businesses have to find different ways of maintaining margins, and offering a competitive price, lest the customers go elsewhere. As for the poster complaining about having to work with anonymous sources, I hope they don't live in a glass house. You bought the monitor ANONYMOUSLY, online. Imagine, just for a second, that you are a loyal customer, and you typically buy your goods from the same vendor, maybe even the same sales person. Nothing anonymous, just two people doing business. Now if you have a problem, you've got a relationship with a person you can contact to help you resolve your issue. No, your right, it's much better to save that $20, and give you a reason to bring your issues here.

Re:I wouldn't call it a scam

[loraksus]

Tiger Direct, $50 rebate

Well, there's your problem right there.

slow news...

[rickliner]

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

Re:slow news...

[geminidomino]

Please allow 6-8 weeks for rebate stories to be processed.

Horray!

[bblazer]

I think that this is huge step in the right direction. It makes the cost after rebate a real cost, simplifies the process, and will go a long way towards customer satisfaction. I know that if OM has the same merchandise as a competing store, and I get the rebate at the register, I am going there. One more thing, if the rebate is instant, it will stop problems with rebates that are based on purchases of items in certain combinations. "I am sorry sir, but this rebate only applies if you buy x and y. Would you like to get y as well?"

As an ignorant foreigner

[binkzz]

In a country where rebates aren't found in the wild: Why is it hated so much? I can understand the inconvenience, but it seems I'm missing something.

Re:As an ignorant foreigner

[IdleTime]

1. You will make more in interest by putting the rebate money in a savings account
2. You provide the company with verified name, address, phone number etc that they sell to other spam companies.
3. If they REALLY wanted to give you the rebate they would deduct it in the store. With mail-in they know that only a subset of the customers will actually ever receive the rebate, money saved.

I can come up with more, but those are the 3 main ones for me.

Re:As an ignorant foreigner

[nolife]

The companies that handle the rebates for the store and/or product manufactor, has a vested interest in making it as hard as possible to actually get your rebate back. The less they send back, the more they and the company making the product make.
Every bad experience someone has with rebates is because of that as the rebate concept is litered with corruption.
At least 50% of the rebates I have sent in have been rejected by the processing company for one reason or another, incomplete data, some mysterious condition was not met like they recieved it late, they could not read my receipt, etc.. I had a rebate for some software rejected because the company claimed the rebate was only valid in the US and Hawaii was not in the US! When I called to complain, I was told there was nothing they can do because that rebate offer expired. Often times you call the number (if they have one), and you will hear some bogus reason and they need a copy of everything you sent to them faxed in. Suddenly you qualify this time now you just have to wait another 8-12 weeks for that check that is in an envelope that looks like junk mail (which you may throw away) and the check expires in like 14 days.

Rebate can work but the current system is abused too much that consumers are getting screwed.

Re:As an ignorant foreigner

[aussersterne]

It gets ridiculous and difficult to comparison shop without a notepad, thanks to every retailer having multiple rebates that occur in multiple ways. Say you want to buy a PC.

Retailer #1: $499 with $50 in-store rebate, $200 manufacturer's mail-in rebate (paperwork available only from manufacturer), $20 store mail-in rebate, and an additional $75 mail-in rebate if you use this PC to join AOL (rebate only available after you join, contact AOL for details). In order to get the full set of rebates, you will need to make and mail three copies of your receipt, after following up directly with the manufacturer to get their forms, then join AOL and once their paperwork arrives, try to get their customer service operator to understand what promotion you're referring to.

Retailer #2: $399 with $100 mail-in rebate and $100 bonus mail-in rebate if you also buy a PowerSurge[TM] surge protector. In order to get the full set of rebates, you will need to make and mail two copies of your reciept and buy a surge protector whether you need one or not.

Retailer #3: $449 with $75 in-store rebate, $10 instant manufacturer's rebate, $10 repeat buyer rebate for return customers, $150 online rebate from customer survey site (electronically credited only), and $25.99 mail-in rebate for new customers only. In order to maximize rebates, you will need to fill out an extensive survey on a consumer research website, giving away your personal details and also your receipt # and your credit card # so that they can credit you, and you will theoretically either receive one party's rebate if you've never filled out a rebate for this manufacturer (or any of its subsidiaries) in the past or the other party's rebate if you are a repeat customer, but good luck trying to prove either when they say that their database doesn't confirm your status.

This is not an exaggerated set of examples, every year in most "newer" (i.e. heavily suburban) US cities around "back to school" season and again during the winter holidays, virutally every advertisement you see is for "NEW HP PC! $FREE [after rebates]" and "NEW 8 Megapixel Canon Digital Camera! $0.00 [after rebates]" and "Sanyo Jumbo Microwave Oven! $1.00 [after rebates]" and so on. Every mailer that comes around is full of "$0" products, but the problem is, given an entire marketplace full of "deals" like those listed above, how do you know which one is actually the better deal, or more importantly, the better deal for you? As you might expect, the number of people who ultimately do pay $0 is very small, if not nonexistent... and in the meantime, everyone scrambles to jump through hoopes in order to get back what they can after arriving at the store and paying the real price of $399, $449, or $499, on many occasions unknown or unclear until you actually arrive at the retail establishment.

More often than not, it ends up not being worth the time spent calculating and (afterward) filling out and mailing paperwork to get the rebates. Compound this problem with the fact that something like 50 percent of rebates experience difficulty (read: scam) at which time they tell you that you're not "eligible" or you've sent a bad photocopy of your receipt, or you purchased a day before the promotion began, or a day after it ended, or they suspect you of rebate fraud (buying and processing rebates, then re-selling the items on eBay at near full price)... and it becomes a giant farce.

Rebates are, in short, a way for stores and manufacturers to obfuscate real pricing, sell "tie-in" goods, and get your personal information for consumer research purposes at no cost to them, often while being able to duck responsibility even for producing the rebates that they've promised.

Re:As an ignorant foreigner

[honkycat]

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.

Re:As an ignorant foreigner

[Fozzyuw]

Mail-in Rebates are hated because it's one step removed from a scam. They're used and marketed to consumers to make them believe that the price of a product is actaully cheaper than what you will really pay for. It often causes confusion in the shopper which can increase their likely hood of purchasing on impulse. Sure, maybe you didn't want or need that 100 stack of blank CD/DVD's but if it's labeled with huge black letters on yellow poster cards for $4 (normally $40), you just might pick one up.

The three "scam like" parts is that, first, most rebates often have a very very short life span. It's like trying to launch a space shuttle. High winds, rain, or a cat farts and you'll miss your change to get back that $36.

Second, is stores 'use' to market products without notification that the price being presented was AFTER rebate. Sometimes multiple rebates are on a products and some are taken at the register and some are mail-in. And lets be clear, it's the mail-in ones that are the problem. After purchasing my new car and getting over $4,000 in rebates and incentives, I didn't have to do a single thing for paper work to get discounts.

Finally, Stores know that consumers do not always send in the rebates. I just read an article somewhere, I can't remember where, but if someone can help post a link, I'd appreciate it, it showed that if rebates where around $100-$200, it would have a 50% return rate. Rebates for $35 would have around 24% return rate, and rebates of $10

Of course, this is a business world and rebates where never ment to give the consumer a discount. Their purpose, like all things, is to get more consumers into your store and buy more stuff (if they need it or not). Or sometimes stores will make agreements with companies that if their stock is too large and too slow selling they can apply massive rebates to move said stock. This shows that companies use small rebates to attract people into the store and to sell them things they might not necessarly want, because of impulse price/purchasing.

The best advice is when you get your rebate form, the first thing you do when you get home is to process the rebate right away. Take out the reciets, read the rebate requirements, fill out the envelope, add the paperwork you need, and mail it in the same day. Of course, problems might happen if you purchase something on impulse and never use it due to 'waiting' to see if want to keep it or not (maybe it's a gift for a birthday a few weeks away.). This is when problems arrise. Now, you might have lost the reciept, or the rebate has expired. It also takes literrally 14-20 weeks to see a rebate. Most consumers want to buy a products to save money NOW. Not get a check when the snow's melted/arrived.

So, that is a simple, but probably badly explained, example of why Rebate are hated. 1) they often have very short turn over time 2) because they're (still) marketed (with small print) to appear as the register price, but are not 3) They're specifically marketed to and used by stores with the fact that consumers don't like to use them given a specific price point. Just recently, I bought a box of cereal for $2.00 on sale and could have gotten a $2.00 rebate for the same box. I never sent it in, because $2.00 wasn't worth the effort for me. Did I buy the cereal for the rebate? No, it's normally $3.50 and a delicous 'healthy' cereal of brand flacks and yogurt. I suspect that the $2.00 rebate is used less than 5% of the time. It probably costed more to design and print the rebate forms than the cost of all the rebates given.

I'm starting to ramble. I better go.
Cheers, Fozzy

Re:As an ignorant foreigner

[YrWrstNtmr]

Honestly, I don't understand the hatred that people have for these things.

It just feels sneaky. Not even counting the rebates that you fail to get back for one reason or another, but why should I, an individual, loan a billion dollar company $50 for a couple of months? So that they can gain the aggregate interest on $50 x 10,000? Screw that.
Just sell me the item, and lose the rebate.

Re:As an ignorant foreigner

[B5_geek]

I will give you an example of what I have found.
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, ...blah blah...company policy ...blah blah...

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.

Re:As an ignorant foreigner

[Paul Slocum]

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

Re:As an ignorant foreigner

[Civil_Disobedient]

The way rebates work is that you buy the item for the full price, then have to jump through a number of obstacles in order to actually get the rebate. These obstacles are deliberately designed to dissuade the customer from ever collecting their rebate.

For example, a common scam/rebate offer is where you have to mail the company the original bar code from the package, but you have to mail it to two separate places. How do you do this? You can cut it in half (it can still be read with a bar code scanner), but many times the company will say, "This isn't the original bar code... this is half the bar code!"

Another common scam is they require the originl reciept you recieve when you purchased the item. OK, no big deal, right? Except, if you purchase ten things, then send your original reciept to the company, and then suddenly discover that one of the things you purchased doesn't work, you can't take that item back to the store. Because... you don't have the original reciept.

I read an expose' on the rebate scam a couple of years ago, and one of the interesting things they mentioned was that almost all rebates, no matter where the company is based (usually a large city), will issue their checks from a small bank in the Middle of Nowhere, USA. Why? Because some towns are so small that it takes mail a week to get to the location.

Rebates are a win/win deal for the company. Most of the time, people buy something thinking, "What a great price!" but once they get home they can't be bothered to download and fill out all the paperwork. Thus, the company got you to buy their product over a competing brand, so that's a win. For those consumers who actually do go through the effort of filling out all the forms and mailing them in on time (most rebates have extremely short lifespans), the company can do what's called a float.

What that means is, let's say you purchased a $1000 item with a $200 rebate. The company takes two months (no exaggeration: two months is the standard amount of time it takes if nothing goes wrong, and you'd be surprised how often things are "lost"). You initially have to pay the full price; the company keeps your $200 until all the paperwork is processed. If they put that money into even the most basic bank account, that's 5% interest over two months they can make off your money.

So while you are getting $200 back, it's actually only costing the company $190.

I'd love to meet the person who came up with these scams so I can kick him in the nuts. Hard.

Old News?

[Keiran Halcyon]

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?

Expect rebates to be lower

[Trailer Trash]

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.

OfficeMax isn't the only one. Best buy IS dropping

[Mewtwo]

...in favor of instant rebates, RewardZone perks, and financing offers.

http://promomagazine.com/incentives/best-buy_04130 5/index.html (Karma whore link)

Re:SMART DECISION

[Anonymous Coward]

Thaw your punctuation and it will spread more easily and not bunch up in one place that way.

Good-bye free products

[jasonditz]

I used to go to Office Max some weeks, leave with $100 worth of products and $100 worth of rebate forms. I pretty much always got every single one back, so for the hassle of filling out a few forms I was getting all sorts of free items (CD burners, surge protectors, mice, canned air, blank CDs, jewel cases, phones).

Now because of everyone else's bitching, those days are over. I don't know how the saving on other things are going to be affected by the end of the mail in rebate, but I know for damned sure they're never going to have an instant savings that leaves a dozen items in their store free for the taking.

Re:Good-bye free products

[jasonditz]

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.

Re:My solution

[tomhudson]

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.

Re:My solution

[hackstraw]

What pisses me off is having to pay the full sales tax on the artificially inflated price, not the true (or "rebate") price.

Well, I'm glad you stop getting pissed off there.

For the life of me, I cannot figure out why my $15.00 phone bill costs me $30.00 (round numbers accurate to less than +-$1.00).

I'm wanting to go to a completely grey/black/p2p market, and not do "normal" business with abnormal businesses.

Everything I pay for on the "white" market is between 10-100% more than the "price". When I buy things "on the street", the price is the price, and its usually round numbers, not $99.99 + mystery funds so that my $100 bill does not work any more.

Between the inflated prices at "legitimate" businesses, and then the taxes that get taken out of my pay check before I even get paid -- yes, I know I could manipulate this, but I'm tired and lazy of having to fight for every penny of the money that I make. In fact, I'm sick and tired of it, to the point that I've just succumbed to giving all of my money away, and just not caring anymore. What do I need it for? I can't take it with me when I die, and its also practically illegal to own cash that is not even backed by hard currency either, so what is the point?

Yeah, I'm fairly ambiently pissed off at the time because I'm in the process of downsizing myself at the request of the federal government, inflation, and some financial mistakes that I have made. I'll be alright, I mean I'm still above American average and supposedly way above the average in the world or whatever, but I'm not happy about being chronically pickpocketed with no legal recourse. I mean, even civil litigation against a corporation is _very_ timely, and _very_ expensive to the point that the gamble just does not seem worth the effort when its all said and done. I've been involved with civil cases against companies where they are clearly at fault, and if it were up to me to take care of it the old fashioned way, I would just break their kneecaps and call it even. But instead, the lawyers get their subsidies and play good lawyer/bad lawyer against each other, while they are actually for each other because the more they pretend to fight each other, the more money they make for doing nothing.

Yeah, I need a chill pill, but I ran out. I guess I just have to get used to living in a 3rd world country, but I was kinda getting accustomed to the middle class in the 1st world country, but that is disappearing as I type this. I know a number of people that feel the same way, and have settled up or avoided their debts and have simply dropped out of the American dream just to live their own. I openly ask people around the world where is a good place to live, and you know what? There is no definitive answer. So, I guess we just need to all take a dose of the opiate for the masses, and find a free/cheap religion. /rant -- I almost feel better :)

I'm ignorant...

[l3v1]

...but I never could understood why american folks never raised hell about this whole rebate system. I mean come on, if I go in a store, I want to see 1). the exact total gross price which I have to pay for the thing when I get to the register, and 2). I don't want to see some fictional price displayed which has nothing to do with the amount of money you have to shell out at the register, but some hypothetical price you might arrive to after you sign yourself up into some company databases by filling and mailing in some paperwork. Like these companies would be some aiding organizations with no lurking motives, never using your data for ads, etc. If they'd be willing to give you the stuff cheaper, they'd give it cheaper. But they know exactly that most people will probably not send in the paperwork, so they don't have to pay you back that hypothetical difference.

This is just stupid. Deeply stupid. Yes, I've read all those opinions about how this is so good since they can get oh so many stuff for "free"... now come on, there's a joke I've known for a long time, sounds like this: "- How old are you, young prince ? - I'm 21. - Wow, and you still believe in fairytales ?".

Re:This isn't much of a relief for me

[One Louder]

I recently did a Staples "Easy Rebate" on an HP printer, filling out all the information correctly and even getting a confirmation that everything had been verified by Staples, only to get a rejection from HP due to "insufficient information".

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.