Actually thats a whole lot longer story than just "Its Gateways doing..."... but its not relevent. You're right in that Gateway didn't offer any of their own mail in rebates on the product, but when retailers picked them up there was nothing in that agreement about not offering their own rebates. This rebate elimination has been in the works for a lot longer than anyone talks about; new product lines like Insignia and Init don't do mail in rebates on their products either.
Oh, and I guess I should add in that they also have managed to get Gateway to do the instant rebate thing with their desktops... so all notebooks and Gateway desktops have all been moved to instant (not online!) rebates already.
BBY has already eliminated the rebates on notebooks / laptops. Instead of having mail in rebates for the sale, the notebooks price is instantly reduced at the register. You only pay tax on the reduced price.
That means no mail in or online submission rebates at all to deal with. Just the discounted price.
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Actually thats a whole lot longer story than just "Its Gateways doing..." ... but its not relevent. You're right in that Gateway didn't offer any of their own mail in rebates on the product, but when retailers picked them up there was nothing in that agreement about not offering their own rebates. This rebate elimination has been in the works for a lot longer than anyone talks about; new product lines like Insignia and Init don't do mail in rebates on their products either.
Oh, and I guess I should add in that they also have managed to get Gateway to do the instant rebate thing with their desktops... so all notebooks and Gateway desktops have all been moved to instant (not online!) rebates already.
BBY has already eliminated the rebates on notebooks / laptops. Instead of having mail in rebates for the sale, the notebooks price is instantly reduced at the register. You only pay tax on the reduced price. That means no mail in or online submission rebates at all to deal with. Just the discounted price.