U.S. News & World Report hates our inability to redeem rebates. If we only tried harder, they say, we might be able to conquer our “tendency to procrastinate and inability to follow multistep directions.” Yes, that must be the problem.
…research suggests that much of the time it’s not the companies offering rebates that are creating the problem. It’s the customers. Their tendency to procrastinate and inability to follow multistep directions–albeit often explained in tiny print–result in as many as half of all rebates going unfulfilled. “It’s their own inability to have self-control and say, ‘I’m going to get this done,’ ” says Tim Silk, assistant professor of marketing at the University of British Columbia.
Because people tend to believe they will redeem the rebates and then they don’t, they often pay more for items than they expect. “You see something that has a rebate associated with it, and you are overly optimistic that you will do all of what’s required,” says John Gourville, professor of marketing at Harvard Business School.
With rebates, we are anything but optimists. Readers who keep meticulous spreadsheets and take photos of their completed rebate applications are still rejected by crafty rebate processors who rely on a patented process to keep redemption rates artificially low. How low? Let’s ask assistant professor of marketing Tim Salk. According to his research:
…promotion managers informed us that redemption rates tend to be “very low” when the reward is below $10, that rebates of $10 to $20 on a $100 software product range between 10% and 30%, and that redemption rates on consumer electronics average approximately 40%.
Don’t count on rebates when making a purchase. If they come through, great, nice surprise—but rebates should never serve as a deciding factor.
Why Shoppers Love to Hate Rebates [U.S. News & World Report]
Why we buy but fail to redeem? (PDF) [Tim Salk]
Managing Mail-In Rebate Promotions (PDF) [Tim Salk]
PREVIOUSLY: Rebate-Processor Parago Caught In A Lie
HOWTO: Rebate Whore
Redeem Rebates With Hard Work And Luck
(Photo: Mecha Wendy)
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I have some rebates out right now. More than I’ve ever done before. I took meticulous records of my contents of the envelopes. My lawyer and I dare them to not send everything they owe me back!
I wouldn’t have any rebates – but it equated out to paying $10 plus tax for 3 PS3 games and a DS game. I figured that was worth a fight.
Some companies made the process easier. I like Staples web rebates. Easy to fill out and always received them within 4-5 weeks.
However, anything paper, I don’t trust.
I’m with you on Staples. Easiest rebate process I’ve ever experienced. It’s all right on your check, and you can track it online. Here’s a link:
[www.stapleseasyrebates.com]
So many of the rest are hard work, and/or the companies sleazily make it near impossible to turn the thing in right.
I like instant rebates at Fry’s…in fact, those are the only ones I’ve ever really bothered with. But I’m a dirty hippie.
A few useful tips: staple the UPCs to the forms. That way, it’s harder for the UPC to fall out separately and get “lost” or be “not received.” Also, if you have the full version of Adobe Acrobat, it’s helpful to fill out PDF rebate forms using the “typewriter” tool, which allows you to ensure legibility of your forms. {ProfJonathan}
I must be living a charmed life. I recently upgraded my machine with a new motherboard, memory, new graphics card and more hard drive space. I bought everything at MicroCenter, got all of the additional copies of the receipts for the 3 rebates, filled out the forms, copied everything, and forgot to put the receipts in the envelopes.
I got a couple of emails telling me of my mistake, I asked if I could resubmit the rebate and I never heard back. I wrote the rebates off in my mind, even though I wasn’t really counting on them.
Two weeks ago, I got a $40.00 check for the video card and last week I got $50.00 more for the motherboard and memory. It might just be time for another 500GB drive…
My father and I have been avid users of rebates especially for his cheap pc purchases that are $700-900 as a bundle and after all rebates $300-400.
We have never had a rebate declined or “lost in the mail” excluding once where I sent the actual UPC to the one that needed the copy and the copy to the original and they still contacted me and informed me if i sent them the original UPC they’d honor the rebate still but couldn’t at that point since I had put it in the wrong envelope.
Maybe it’d be worth spending the $2 to send rebates certified mail?
I must be lucky — I’ve never had a problem receiving rebates. They’ve all come through. And I’ve filled out a lot of forms over the years. I guess that because of my good experience with them, I do make some purchase decisions based on rebates.
This brings to mind the entire “Gotcha Capitalism” phenomenon.
There is, actually, another problem with rebates, and that is this: When you redeem a rebate, you get the amount of the rebate, but you don’t get the sales tax back.
As an example, if I buy a $100 item that is on sale for $75, it rings up as $81 (8% tax). My net cost is $81.
If I buy a $100 item with a $25 rebate, it rings up as $108. Hopefully, if all goes well and the stars are in alignment and the moon is in the right phase, I get a $25 rebate. My net cost is $83, plus I had to go to a bunch of trouble for it, plus I have typically given up the ability to return it, plus I might get rejected by the rebate centre’s draconian rules, plus you never know if the rebate centre is just pitching out the requests.
Just ignore the rebates. Also, tell the salesdroids why you are ignoring the rebates.
I believe in my state (RI) there is now a law that retailers must give consumers the rebate at point-of-sale, i.e., when you pay for an item with an attached rebate. I’ll have to re-check that one.
Best rebate semi-scam I’ve seen is a demand for a copy of the UPC from a video card manufactured by PNY. Sounds standard on the face of it, except this UPC was printed in a recessed area on the video card itself in white – even if one was inclined to put the card on a copier, it wouldn’t have taken. I got the money in the end, but it was more trouble than it was worth.
@discounteggroll: The Staples system is so easy. There is a code number on the receipt so there is no need to mutilate your box for the UPC number. No trip to the post office and you can track the progress online. That is a real rebate system.
@tinmanx: It usually takes long because they’ve built it into the process. Processing company only cuts the checks after they get their money from manufacturer. Manufacturer doesn’t want to pay in advance, so only sends money when submission window has closed. If the manu. drags its feet, no checks go out.
I got a rebate last week 10 days after I mailed it. That’s the way to handle it (I think it was handled in house).
I’ve had pretty good luck with rebates. I can’t remember ever having been denied a rebate that I was eligible for.
And almost all of them have been along the lines of a form + a copy of my receipt (sometimes the original) + a UPC code sent to an address within a certain amount of time. Not too difficult.
I did just submit a rebate for a monitor that I bought from newegg.com (which normally has great customer service btw) where someone, either Newegg or UPS, slapped a shipping label on top of the UPC code that I couldn’t remove without destroying the UPC. We’ll see if that one goes through or not (in 6-8 weeks, of course).
All of my positive experience notwithstanding, I HATE rebates with a passion…they’re a sneaky means of advertising a lower price and getting you to pay a higher one (even if you do eventually get your money back). I tend to avoid places that advertised prices after the mail in rebate.
Again, Newegg has always been great about how they handle them. Their prices are less than you’d find in a bricks and mortar store, even before the rebate, and prices before mail-in rebates are clearly listed and advertised, so the mail-in rebate really is a nice “extra”, not the advertised price.
I remember buying anti-virus software when I bought my computer because Best Buy had a rebate program going. The rebate program had already expired, but I got it in writing from the sales person that the rebate had been extended. Sure enough, sent in the rebate with a copy of the letter stating it had been extended and got the notice back that the rebate had expired, so I called Best Buy and was told that the sales clerk had pulled a fast one and there was nothing that could be done.
I always use my rebates and send them in, but the amount of crap I put up with gets tiring. I’ve had companies say the UPC code was not attached, though I know I had taped it to the form. I’ve had others say a copy of the receipt was not good enough – it had to be the original, though the form never said original it just said send proof of purchase with the date and price circled. My favorite was the company who sent it back after the expiration telling me that the mailing address had to be handwritten and that using a printed mailing label was no acceptable. Again, no where did it say handwritten only.
I compare rebate companies to health insurance companies now. They automatically reject the first time just to get you to eat the additional fee. Only if you fight do they give you your money.
I learned not to count on rebates at an early age (around 13, I think) when I mailed in a rebate coupon (printed by the manufacturer and included in the box) for some L’Oreal hair product only to get it sent back as “addressee unknown”.
Forget all the elaborate rules and hoops for the customer to jump through: just shut down the P.O. box printed on the rebate offer. THAT’s the way to run a proper rebate scam.
I don’t buy stuff just because of a rebate. I figure that they could lower the price if they can afford to cut me a check.
I did switch to DSL and I did get my ATT rebate in the expected period. Now I’m waiting for my 3 months free amount to be credited to my bill.
My wife tracks all of our rebates on a spreadsheet and keeps copies of all the necessary forms, UPC codes, receipts, etc. We get the usual rejection notices, requiring us to send them copies of information they claim they lost. The worst is when they don’t send a rejection notice or check. If they just sit on it without rejecting or accepting it, then it is up to the submitter to remember the details. Fortunately, since my wife tracks the dates as well, we call when the rebates are overdue. Nothing is more irritating then to hear them check the files and say “Yes, we have everything, we’ll mail your rebate immediately.” So basically they only mail them out if you call to check on it. Otherwise, they assume you’ve forgotten about it.
For those who’ve ever messed with rebates the best ones are the hassle free, online ones that never require anything to be mailed in. But on the whole I never let the rebate price persuade me on a purchase.
My first bad rebate experience was on some language software. The cost was $49 but they offered a $40 rebate. I bought the package, and took it home only to find that their rebate form was the tiny round, half-dollar sized sticker stuck to the side of the box. It was printed on glossy paper and the instructions said that they would not give rebates unless all of your information was placed on the form. Thankfully I had a Fisher Space Pen (can write on grease) and filled in the form. Got my $40 but vowed never to let rebates be a deciding factor ever again. (Oh, and the software was crappy too.)
@mell: I think skyblue’s point is that most of us have failed to receive rebates, even in cases where we went through the whole spreadsheets/polaroids exercise. Personally, I have only ever received 3 rebates out of at least 10 that I recall applying form, so based on my personal experience, I would argue that most folks get screwed on rebates.
Well, geez, if you leave it to your cat to fill out the forms, no WONDER you later find all the requirements haven’t been met… Unless the rebate is in the form of plump, lazy mice, of course.
My last attempt at a rebate was for some Security Software. A big sticker on the box offered a $40.00 upgrade rebate for users of competing products, which I was, with “details inside box”. I opened the box to find that to qualify for the rebate I had to not only provide a copy of the previous software disk or manual cover, but also a copy of the receipt showing purchase of the previous software. Who the heck keeps receipts for a $50 piece of software for 2 years? Total scam. I wrote the company and they told me to stuff it. Since then I have never made a purchase based upon any sort of promised mail-in rebate. To be honest, it’s a lot less hassle to not even worry about rebates. I often end up buying products that don’t have a rebate because their up-front price is cheaper than the pre-rebate price of their competition.
For all of the bashing of Best Buy that happens here, at least they have gotten out of the mail-in rebate business, which I find refreshing.
One other gotcha, and why I always waited to send in rebates (as mentioned as an issue in the article). Most stores won’t accept returns if the UPC is missing from the packaging. I always wanted to make sure whatever I bought worked well before cutting off the UPC and eliminating any chance of a successful return if the product was defective.
@catskyfire: lol. of course not. they’d never do such a thing.
love to have your rebate reform pass!
@trai_dep: Or unless they “lose” the damn check which they claimed to have “mailed”. And then they tell you they’ll reissue you a new check and when you call back they deny you another check even though they can check the status of the check and tell that it’s not been cashed.
How bout that? Not everyone who don’t get their rebates messed up in the application process. Sometimes the companies use phrases like the check was mailed out and got “lost” in the way somehow.
Never had a rebate fail for me, and I’ve submitted at least a dozen over the past 6-8 years or whatever.
I must be lucky. I’ve done at least 20 rebates in the past couple of years and not one has been rejected. I even had a $100 rebate come in and I know I had mailed it in too late.
I guess that makes me a master rebater.
oh wait….
I’ve had a 100% redemption rate for a while, with only a few that I had to follow up on… until recently.
A current $65 Kaspersky/Amazon rebate being serviced by Young America has taken 3 submissions (once by mail, twice by fax) and 7 phone calls over 5 months to make it into their system. Supposedly the check’s in the mail, but this experience shows that even the most conscientious rebater can have no end of problems redeeming their fully legitimate properly submitted rebate. It doesn’t have to be a small player like Vastech… Even the big fulfillment companies throw out rebate applications. (Threw mine out twice!)
i noticed a few people mention Young America. funny company. as a former YA employee however – Chatham, ontario, canada call centre – i’d note that it is 100% at the client’s discretion how easy or difficult it is to get a rebate. which is to say, the company ‘offering’ the rebate. and it’s not all just companies out to screw customers, although there’s certainly a decent amount of that. while there, I worked for two companies, Nokia and Circuit City. CC’s rebate system was excellent, all computerized receipts and everything so if there was a problem with a customer’s rebate I could process a cheque right away. Nokia by contrast demanded that the customer resend everything, which naturally most of the people calling didn’t have. It was pretty clear that they just made the submission process as difficult and problem-ridden as possible to lower fulfilment rates. Either way, it’s up to the company, not some decision on the part of a fulfilment centre… some companies do everything up to and including flagrantly messing up rebates to hassle the customers into not getting their funds, others go out of their way to make it easy to process. If I was a US customer, I wouldn’t think twice about getting a CC rebate, but I’d never touch a Nokia rebate!