Have you heard of Matthieu Laurette? From 1993 to 2001, he fed and cleaned himself by buying almost only products with “Satisfied or your money back” or “Money back on first purchase” items, then filing the rebates or writing to the companies and saying he wasn’t satisfied.

Laurette then leveraged being a skinflint into an art project, Produits rembours

s/Money-back Products (1993-2001).

Now that’s thrift for ya! — BEN POPKEN

products [Laurette.net]
Matthieu Laurette [Your Daily Awesome]

UPDATE: To alleviate commenter concern that this post indicates we’re dry-humping Satan…

Companies put satisfaction/money-back guarantees on products, earning good-will feelings and trust from shoppers, yet the makers know an extremely small percentage of people will ever take them up on the offer. While Laurette’s behavior may strike one as fraudulent, it’s intellectually interesting to see someone take these guarantees to the logical extreme and live nearly entirely on rebated products, allegedly in a perpetual state of dissatisfaction, calling into question whether one can truly find “satisfaction” in today’s consumer culture.

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