whoever thought of that should be hung upside down from a flag pole by their underwear, and pelted with rocks wrapped in steel-wool.

Remember kids, in California if the rebate card has a fee, legally you can demand cash instead.

Lovely, I wonder if this will spell the demise of Black Friday Madness that seems to paralyze the country every thanksgiving.

I quit paying attention to rebates. Too complicated, too much time and too much risk you won't get anything when it is all done.

Just give me a sale price that is good or forget it.

I thought most of the gift cards no longer had dormancy fees, due to the threat of litigation from several states' attorneys general...?

I hate those things.

September 2005, when I got my new cell phone and Bluetooth earpiece, the rebates from Cingular were in the form of Visa gift cards.

Now I'm waiting on a $100 "reward" from Rent.com (we signed a lease with an apartment complex I'd found on Rent.com). First, they went through the whole 6-8 weeks (from move-in date) rigamarole, even though we signed the lease almost 3 months ago. AND they're sending one of these stupid cards. If they send it, that is.

I happen to have one of those right in front of me. It's a Cingular rebate card for a Blackberry I bought in February. I didn't get the card until March and it expires in August so that's less than 6 months from receipt until expiration.

I hate rebates on a gift card because I hate pulling out two forms of payment in line. Also, many places like gas stations will try to hold up more money than necessary which makes it difficult to use fully. Heck, even Amazon puts a $1 charge through when buying their stuff so you can't use the entire gift card/rebate there even if you're buying a gift certificate for the exact amount. Also, many places online will not accept two two credit cards for one purchase.

What I end up doing to extend the time on it is buying a gift certificate from a place where I know the terms are longer, like Buy.com, who does not have an expiration date. I've done this with my last few rebates/gift cards and it's worked out well.

Did I mention that places that do this are evil?

Check your state, as stated above California does not allow this kind of crap, as well as an expiration date on a gift card. In California if it is issued as a gift card the full amount cannot be deducted with non-usage fees or have an expiration date. Which is why stores started to go with cards. However if they issue a VISA/MC or whatever card and don't label it as a gift Card and state that it's a credit then they may be able to get away with it.

In the end it's just one more reason to avoid rebates.

Can't do it in California... Illegal for Cards to lose their value. The only thing that can are those reloadable and one use Visa cards.

You could just live in a state (like Washington) that doesn't allow dormancy fees or allow gift cards to expire.

Side note: In Washington retailers must give you back the remaining amount in cash if it's $5 or less.

@Papa Midnight: @cuyahoga: Actually IIRC monetary exchange is required. Which this does not fall under (it's a limited gift offered by the store, not an exchange of currency from one form to another). So even in California we can probably get reamed with the dormancy charges.

Nice thing about Staples Business Depot is their online rebates. Go onto the interweb thingy, punch in the code at the bottom of the reciept, no forms to fill out, cheque gets mailed within a couple weeks.

The state of Florida does not allow for gift cards like these either. I believe there are about 20 some other states that also do not. Personally, I think rebates should be made illegal and done away with completely. They serve no other purpose than to make things more difficult for consumers. They could accomplish the same task with sale prices instead of rebates. Only one who wouldn't be happy is states since they like their bonus tax revenue.

I wish people would stop considering rebates when comparison shopping. A lot of sites (slickdeals, fatwallet, etc) still consider them as equivalent to a discount in some posts, and it drives me crazy. If people stopped falling for 'em, companies would probably stop favoring them as a marketing device so much.

i also got a cingular gift card as a rebate. i called cingular and bitched up and down for a half hour and all the csr could do was repeat the same sentence "we've always used gift cards for rebates." i used to have at&t and they sent a good old fashioned check, but she didn't care, and she wouldn't reissue me a check and cancel the card. i ended up using the card in full to pay my bill with them that month so i wouldn't let it sit around too long. thanks cingular, way to make your customers feel screwed at every turn!

This is why I always shop without considering the rebate. I still send for the rebate, but consider it an 'extra bonus' if I actually get paid (And 95% of the time I do).

With regards to gift cards, Best Buy just switched from giving gift cards on open box items to giving money off of the purchase price. So that's kinda decent.

@tcp100:

Fatwallet and Slickdeals really aren't so much price comparison sites as aggressive deal hunting sites. You see lots of price matching, coupon use, price mistakes and such. But, they also know how to make sure you get your rebate, so they can definitely improve your odds of getting your money.

at our place we avoid rebate offers......seems like circuit city and best buy are loaded with rebate deals(best buy sucketh)....the ads they put out look good until you read the fine print" after $xx rebate"......

I remember seeing in a Walgreen's circular that the rebate came in the form of a gift card. I also remember the time I was being foolish and shopping at The Great Evil (aka Best Buy) and wanted to buy an open-box microwave. The person helping me tells me that I have to pay full price for the microwave, and then I would get a TGE gift card for the difference.

Such shady rebate practices, I've decided that if a business does their rebates/discounts by way of a gift card or something that ties you to that chain, then I'm not going to buy the item. Give me cash/check, so I can do what I want with my money.

It's also illegal for gift cards to lose value over time in Connecticut, so you can always buy your cards in CT if you don't want to worry about them.

@ikimashokie:

Walgreen's actually gives you an option -- a rebate check or a gift card with a 10% bonus on your rebate (there are a couple that only give you a gift card option, but it's a small percentage of their deals).

@tcp100:
I actually like rebates as long as they can be pre-submitted online and tracked online (most can). Companies would not offer the same "discounts" if they did not account for a failure to submit ("breakage") of at least 50%. If you simply submit the rebate immediately when you get home and read the form in its entirety you'll likely get your money back (after 2-3 months lost interest and the cost of a stamp). Also -- I always send certified mail if the rebate is > $50 (except staples easy rebates!!)

Ooh, and those pre-paid debit card rebates are no fun. I usually use them to buy metrocards.

@hop: The worst are computer ads... Example: HP Pavillion DCLXVI Superpc only $799.95*

*After $100.00 USD Mail in Rebate (Est $120.00CDN), bundle price only with the purchase of HP Colorblur Deskjet Printer and Microsoft Ergoboard. Vista Home Basic version Only, Monitor Sold Seperately. Must purchase extended warranty for rebate (Not included in list price), only available online.

I hate these rebate debit cards as well. Symantec pays most of their rebates via debit cards now.

I just hope that most other rebate processors don't follow suit any time soon.