Re-baits
February 18th, 2006 | by mbhunter |MoneyCentral brings to light some more nasty rebate tricks that companies can employ:
Don’t get ripped off by a rebate ‘deal’
It’s not new news that rebates are a winning proposition for companies because only a fraction of them are redeemed. Short turn-around times, 20-digit numbers to copy into little boxes, and non-payment for the tiniest of miscues mean that your rebate goes bye-bye.
But I hadn’t heard that sometimes the checks can’t be cashed! So you don’t get the rebate AND you have to pay the bank for the bad check! Ouch! Or not receiving your check because you lived in an apartment building? Come on!
It is encouraging to see that some of the deceptive aspects of rebates are being addressed. Best Buy, for example, is moving toward eliminating mail-in rebates. Rebate fulfillment companies like Young America are starting to refuse to do business with companies that have hard-to-fulfill rebate policies.
I’m not the kind of person that always follows through with rebates. Though I mean to, things slip through the cracks. So having instant savings, or a competitive price without rebates, is a plus for me. It was the deciding factor in buying TaxCut for my taxes this year rather than TurboTax — TaxCut didn’t have any rebates to send in, while TurboTax had two separate rebates. I may have paid a little bit more for the same capability than if I had bought TurboTax and gotten all of the rebates, but it’s one less thing for me to worry about.
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