I bought a wireless mouse advertised for $9.99 after rebates so I had to pay $29.99 to get it and then send in 2 different $10 mail in rebates. The first rebate I recieved was 8 weeks later and I’m not positive I even received the second one it took so long I pretty much forgot about it. I will never again buy a product if it has a mail-in rebate cause they’re nothing but a scheme.

Why the hate for instant rebates?

Rebates are popular and with retailers because of accounting rules and proceedures. The rebate makes it possible for them to offer discounts that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to offer because of the accounting rules. But there is no reason they have to require mail-in rebates over instant rebates.

Retailers that only offer mail-in rebates do so because they know many people won’t bother to submit them or submit them correctly and it’s a way for them to keep the money.

A few states have laws in place that only allow instant rebates and I’d really like to see this done nationwide because I don’t mind instant rebates. I do agree completely with your stance on mail-in rebates.

I tend to avoid the mail-in rebates almost altogether unless I’m completely sure I can fully trust the company and I’m sure they’re recable and responsive. Companys like Amazon, Apple, Canon, Costco, Gitzo, Nikon and TiVo have been great but I’ve been burned by Best Buy, Buy.com, Dell, MacMall, NewEgg, Sony, and TigerDirect.

For electronics purchases Best Buy is a great store for this - They stopped using rebates a long time ago. All prices listed are the final price unless you can add something on that makes it cheaper. Its nice because I live close to one and I never have to do that rebate dance from them anymore.

Thanks for the comments.

Jeff - this could explain why Best Buy will survive and Circuit City may not.

Almost missed this thread Ron. I had an experience about 4 years ago with SONY and CompUSA. Bought an expensive (at the time) DVD burner w/mail-in-rebate. Waited, waited waited. Sent SONY a letter and their response was: Sorry, but CompUSA was not a qualifying retailer !! I told them that it was an advertised special with THEIR rebate form, etc. etc. They relented by saying: “we are making an exception blah blah blah”.

Apparently I’m not the only one with a bad experience with SONY, and I’m sure the list goes on with companies doing shady business just to entice a customer into buying their product. I too shy away from mail in rebates. Online shopping is the way to go Ron, as the deals are far better, and companies know that their competition is just a click away!

Hi Don,
Thanks for sharing your experience with us. The point I was trying to make is that I just want to know the price and don’t want to screw with rebates and Instant rebates are BS.

The cost to read this blog is regularly $99.99 but I’m giving you a instant discount of $99.99 so your cost is FREE!

The next time you go to a grocery store that uses one of those discount cards and they tell you that you just saved $22.50 on your bill, say that you want the discount in cash!

Those offering mail-in rebates are regularly sued and investigated by the gov’t for shady practices. Google “tigerdirect rebate” or onrebate, or just ‘rebate’.
Only about 15% of mail-in rebates are paid.