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rebates
rebates
Staples Recycles Laptop By Cracking Its Screen
By Laura Northrup on December 30, 2011 9:00 AM
34 Comments
When you trade in your old electronic device for "recycling" while buying a new one, does that device have to work? Staples offered a $100 rebate this holiday season to customers who sent in their old computers after purchasing a new one. "Recycling" is in quotes because computers traded in had to be running, and include the charger, so they were bound for re-use rather than recycling. That was no problem for George, though — he traded in a working computer. Only the screen was cracked when it reached the center, and he didn't get the full rebate. More »
Climb In Your Time Machine To Take Advantage Of This Rebate At Lowe's
By Laura Northrup on June 1, 2011 10:30 AM
11 Comments
"Hi STEPHEN," said the e-mail intended for new homeowners that Steve received from Lowe's. "Get settled in with up to $400 cash back on Whirlpool Gold Kitchen Appliances!" How thoughtful of Lowe's to tempt customers with a great rebate offer... that ended two months ago.
Report: Car Dealers May Be Selling Chevy Volts To Each Other To Get Tax Credits
By Phil Villarreal on June 1, 2011 10:15 AM
98 Comments
The government offers tax credits of up to $7,500 to those who purchase hybrid electric vehicles such as the Chevy Volt. Word that demand for the vehicles has far outstripped supply has led some to speculate that dealers may be selling the cars to each other in order to take advantage of the tax break. More »
(smcgee)
After Six Months, Target Mobile Still Hasn't Coughed Up $50 Rebate
By Laura Northrup on June 1, 2011 9:30 AM
19 Comments
Back during last year's Black Friday shopping frenzy, Khoi purchased a new smartphone that cost $50, with a rebate offer of a $50 Target gift card along with it. The rebate card was supposed to show up within two weeks. Six months later, he's still waiting on that gift card, and he hasn't exactly been sitting around twiddling his thumbs and waiting for Target to mail it. Finally, at the 6-month mark, he decided to take his dissatisfaction to the very tippity top, writing to Target's CEO. More »
E-mail To Sprint CEO Gets $400 Rebate Check Re-Issued
By Laura Northrup on May 5, 2011 9:30 AM
17 Comments
Sprint owed Sean and his wife $400 in rebates for their shiny new LG Optimus phones. They tried to be patient, but a few months passed and the rebates were clearly overdue or missing. A few days ago, Sean finally sat down and sent this brief but effective email to CEO Dan Hesse. More »
Costco Sues For Being Forced To Return Rebate Money It Didn't Keep
Costco, based in Washington, thinks that they should get to keep the money, and filed a lawsuit last week defending that right. This should be interesting. Costco, based in Washington, was recently forced to turn over money from its' rebate program that it says it never even kept. More »
By Laura Northrup on March 10, 2011 8:15 AM
71 Comments
What happens when you don't claim a rebate? In Washington State, the retailer from which you didn't claim the cash hands the money over to the state for safekeeping in a program for consumers who later claim the money.
How I Stopped Verizon From Swallowing My $100 Rebate
By Phil Villarreal on December 30, 2010 1:20 PM
48 Comments
The Verizon computer nearly tricked Joshua out of a $100 rebate with some mathematical Three-Card Monte, but he made like a human calculator and stood firm, arguing his way into getting the fair price. More »
Was Our Rejection Two Coincidental Typos, Or Vast Rebate Conspiracy?
By Laura Northrup on October 6, 2010 8:00 AM
55 Comments
Have you recently had an HP rebate cruelly denied even though you followed the instructions flawlessly and included all items asked for? A. tells Consumerist that this happened to two family members in two separate transactions. It may have been a coincidence, but still made A. suspicious. More »
Hyundai Changed My Rebate Terms After I Bought The Car
By Phil Villarreal on July 6, 2010 3:45 PM
95 Comments
Jeremy says Hyundai is trying to pull a fast one on him by making it tougher to get his rebate after he bought a car. He said the company is denying him a $2,400 recent college grad rebate he was assured he'd get when he made the purchase. The reason: He doesn't make enough money. More »
(Torley)
Medicare Donut Hole Checks Being Sent Out This Week
By Chris Walters on June 8, 2010 5:31 PM
16 Comments
Hey people with Medicare, you're about to become a little more attractive to scammers. That's because this week the government will start sending out its one-time tax free rebate checks to those of you who have already hit the donut hole gap in your Medicare coverage. The main thing to know, advises Medicare, is that you don't need to provide any information to anyone to get the rebate—it's automatic. More »
New Jersey Wants To End Mail In Rebates
By Chris Walters on May 10, 2010 10:55 AM
70 Comments
Mail in rebates are a sneaky way to make things look cheaper than they actually are at the point of sale, since many consumers never actually get any cash back. Now New Jersey's state Assembly is considering legislation that would require retailers to charge shoppers the after-rebate price on goods, instead of forcing them to mail in or submit online requests. If the retailer still wants to take advantage of the rebate, that's no problem; he'll just have to mail it in himself. More »
Massachusetts Appliance Rebate Program Lasts 145 Minutes
By Chris Morran on April 22, 2010 6:00 PM
39 Comments
When Massachusetts announced their cash-for-clunker appliance rebate program, Consumerist bet it would last one day before the rebate cash ran dry. We were wrong — it took less than three hours. More »
Don't Count On That Rebate From MSI
By Chris Walters on March 22, 2010 3:04 PM
65 Comments
My advice on mail-in-rebates is to ignore them when you're trying to decide on a purchase. They take too long to receive, during which time you've paid a higher amount on the product. Even worse, it's easy for a company to deny a claim and refuse to cooperate with you, and it's hard for consumers to get misbehaving companies to play fairly. More »
Comcastic Rebate Card Has Catches Attached
By Phil Villarreal on March 19, 2010 10:30 AM
63 Comments
Jonathan says Comcast disappointed him by giving him a rebate in the form of a Comcast-branded Visa debit card pockmarked with a maintenance fee for inactivity. More »
Cheaters Ruin 1-800-Flowers Chocolate Box Promotion For Everyone
By Laura Northrup on February 12, 2010 2:00 PM
55 Comments
The chocolate box/flowers promotion seemed like a great idea. On certain boxes of Harry London candy sold in chain drugstores, there was a peel-off coupon offering up to $20 off an order from 1-800-Flowers. The problem is that some unscrupulous shoppers went into stores, peeled all of the coupons off, sold some codes on the Internet, and ruined the promotion for everyone. Now 1-800-Flowers has put a stop to the promotion, and is canceling already placed flower orders out from under customers. Not cool. More »
Why Is Sears Being So Sneaky On This Dishwasher Rebate?
By Chris Walters on December 4, 2009 3:09 PM
33 Comments
On Black Friday, Sears offered free installation on select Kenmore dishwashers in the form of a rebate coupon. The coupon is pretty simple to understand as far as these things go—buy one of the listed models, and Sears will pay for the installation. According to William, however, the listed model that he wanted remained out of stock only for the duration of the coupon. When he asked Sears to honor it the next day, they agreed to—but then after he bought the dishwasher they told him he had broken a nonexistent rule and therefore had voided the coupon. More »
Are Postcard-Sized Rebate Checks A Conspiracy?
By Laura Northrup on November 7, 2009 11:00 PM
119 Comments
—>So you've fought the mighty rebaterus and won, prying your hard-won mail-in rebate money from its claws. If your rebate isn't in the form of a prepaid debit card, it's probably a postcard-sized check—cheap to mail, simple, easy. For the rebate fulfillment company. For the consumer depositing checks via ATM as banks cut back on their hours, it's not so simple or easy. More »
NY AG: Intel Is An Illegal Monopoly That Uses "Bribery And Coercion"
By Meg Marco on November 4, 2009 5:57 PM
144 Comments
—>Andrew Cuomo, the Attorney General of New York, has filed a lawsuit against Intel, claiming that the company is an illegal monopoly that engages "in a worldwide, systematic campaign of illegal conduct - revealed in e-mails - in order to maintain its monopoly power and prices in the market for microprocessors." More »
HP Refuses To Make Good On $100 Cash Back Promise, Won't Explain Why
By Chris Walters on November 2, 2009 11:27 PM
60 Comments
—>David is trying to reach HP executive customer service. He wants to find out why they reversed the $100 cash back offer they'd originally extended through a promotion with Microsoft's new search engine Bing, and why the only reasons they're giving him are either inapplicable or demonstrably false. More »
Woman Struggles Through Comcast's Outsourced Rebate Maze
By Phil Villarreal on October 14, 2009 2:11 PM
60 Comments
—>Coaxed by the promise of rebates, Rhea took the Comcast high-speed internet plunge, but found it difficult to get her money, since Comcast had outsourced its rebates to a company called OfferWire. More »
