Bought a bunch of gifts this year that had rebates. I'll go out of my way Next Year, to NOT buy anything with a rebate! It takes forever! Did some rebates on line and some only accept mail ins! it sounds like a Good Deal at first, but tying up the money for 2-3 months (maybe more) is ridiculous! Should have known better!

And its like the lottery, waiting to figure out if I dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's! And one little simple mistake could cost me $30 or more? STUPID STUPID Me!!! I just checked one of my PURCHASES and it said it "COULD" take up to 4 months! I'm Stupid!

The seller's way of making their product look like it is selling for less. They count on a large number of folks not bothering with it or losing the paperwork and giving up on sending in the rebate. Then, a few get lost in the process and if YOU did not make copies of it all much less track the timing.........and on and on and on.

I have sent them in and gotten money back but I have forgotten a few, lost the paperwork and one never did come back and I failed to track it.

Then there are places like Menard's where a rebate is not cash back but rather an in-store credit. Just don't lose the slip...

It would be nice if "they" just lowered the price but that ain't the game.

I hate rebates. You pay full price for the item and pay sales tax then. In the case of Menards, you get the in store rebate and can pay sales tax on money you have already paid sales tax on.

Menard's offers 11% rebates often on everything. Our sales tax is 9.15%.
A postage stamp is $.49. All in all it seems like a lesson in futility.

They are a scam, not unlike extended warranties. Different mechanism, but the purpose is the same: fleece the chumps.

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Not in jail.

I hate rebates too, especially after my $70 Visa rebate hack. (I sent a letter to Discount Tire CEO). Maybe won't accomplish anything, but it made me feel better.
Dave

I hate 'em too. They seem to have gotten their start back in the 70's during wage and price controls. Car manufacturers were afraid to cut prices when things were slow, fearing the discounted prices would figure into the regulated price and they wouldn't be able to bump prices back up when things perked back up...so they went to rebates.

Ed, who's daytime job was figuring ways around price controls.

If the item is already priced as low as I can find it elsewhere I'll take the rebate. The only problem I've ever had is forgetting to mail the rebate form. And that's what they count on. Otherwise, the rebate check eventually shows up. Manufacturer rebates are the best.

I avoid them like the plague because you may or may not get the rebate, and if you do it will be months and months. But like one poster said, if it is already the best price anyway even without the rebate, I will do one.

I do not like having to wait for the money.


BUT: I do take advantage of some rebates; if it is a product I would likely buy anyway.

Waiting for the $50 rebate for buying another Remington shotgun during Black Friday sales.

Bekeart

I too will avoid rebates but if my Coworker wants me to go in on an ammo purchase where he does all the paperwork and I just pay him the post rebate price in cash I'll play that game.

My wife used to fill out the paper work and we wait,, still waiting....

Anymore we don't mess with them.

One rebate/jacket offer I did get was a Leather Winchester jacket for buying the new SX2. I had forgot about it and it showed up many months later.

I took the SX2 dove hunting at Busch Conservation area. Fired once and that was it. Figured out the trigger return spring had jumped out on the first shot. Called Winchester/Browning repair at Arnold, MO. they had them in, seeded to be a common problem. Drove over and bought some. Hustled back did surgery on the gun and killed a few doves.

I never trusted it after that. Traded it in on a Benelli SBE. No Jacket with it but I could not be happier with a 12 gauge auto.

A rebate is nothing more than an admission that the item was overpriced in the first place.

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A closed mouth gathers no foot

They occasionally are worthwhile, but as always, let the buyer beware.

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paws for friendship

Depends.

I found a Leupold VX3 on clearance and with the $100 rebate Leupold has going on, It made it impossible for me to turn down. Especially since I was in the market for a new scope.

The only other time I did the rebate thing was on a set of tires for the pickup. Cooper sent me an $80 debit card.

As the old saying goes, "There aint no free lunch". The rebate is priced into the product so if going the rebate route is the only way to get your money back, go for it.

I did the Remington Golden Saber rebate for Black Friday, $10 rebate on each box limit 10 boxes, came out to a little over $2 a box shipped to my door after the rebate. I've done a few others but most are $10 or $20 and kind of a toss up if it's worth waiting on but the $100 rebate from Remington was well worth going through the process.

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Forged From Freedom

Yup. Just keep copies of everything you send in - including the addressed and stamped envelope. If the rebate doesn't show up on time a call and a copy of everything submitted usually gets pretty quick action.

I take them when they are available, on items I'm buying anyway.
Recently Got a $50 card from Discount Tire,
I'm now waiting for $50 from Best Buy.
I just charged a total of $2000 on a credit card which will credit me another $50 later in Jan.
Just don't buy anything that you wouldn't buy anyway!

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

Doesn't always work. I got burned by a third party that Cannon used to administer their rebates. I kept copies and everything was done exactly as they specified.

Received a letter stating that I missed a step. BS!! I sent in copies and it was still denied because they did not accept copies.

There were many complaints. Well over a thousand. Cannon knew about it and did nothing. So no more rebates and Cannon can kiss my backside.

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Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

Mail in rebates are meaningless to me. Knock the price down at the register and you'll get my interest...

For savvy consumers like yourself who combine a retailer discounted sales price with a manufacturers rebate, the savings can be significant. For others who just go out and buy a lot of stuff for Christmas with a rebate attached.... maybe not so much. And those are the folks rebates are aimed at.

I'll bet only half of the gift cards to specific places never get used. Often when we go out we've said, "We should have brought the gift card." I've had gift cards not work when they were used because the cashier didn't 'activate' them on checkout. You can get it fixed, if you don't mind the hassle.

Anytime anyone is offering money it's just a big come on.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

For a great gift- It's really hard to beat good old green money !

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

There was an earlier Remington ammo rebate. I bought two boxes at clearance price. Just got the check. Remington paid me to take the ammo home after all was considered.

Sometimes they work.

Bought a set of Cooper tires recently. They had a $60 debit card rebate just ending, and I was planning on buying tires anyway. The card came through in about a month, which as these things go, wasn't too bad. Promptly blew the whole amount on reloading supplies to get rid of it asap.

Normally I avoid them like the plague.

I'm too cheap to look for rebates on items. If it needs a rebate it usually means I can't afford it.

Don't like 'em. Had one as a debit card that could only be used for the full amount of the card, could not be combined with cash or credit cards. If you bought something for less than the full on the card, you were out the difference. I don't mess with them any more.

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"Your other right........."

I just read about a scam with rebate debit cards. These pre-paid debit cards are given to the customer at the time of purchase and have a specific amount loaded on to them. When the customer try to use the cards, they find there is usually less then a dollar on them.

I seems the employees are "borrowing" the cards, using them to buy items and putting the cards back into the companies files to be given to customers. There is no easy way to try to track the purchases made on these rebate debit cards.

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Bill

I don't like them but I value a dollar so I use them. Menard's and Rural King are the stores that I usually shop and they both often offer rebates.

Menard's is a pain requiring postage and USPS efficiency in both directions.

Rural King has an online rebate submission where you enter your register receipt # online. They will either snail mail you an RK rebate voucher in 4-6 weeks or you can get your rebate online and print it out. Both must be spent at RK but the online version gets you your rebate a couple weeks faster.

I'm a big fan of both stores but much prefer RK's rebate system.

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God spelled backwards is dog.

The talking head on the news a couple days ago said that $2,000,000,000 a year in gift cards go unused. I've often gotten cards to restaurants that I have no interest in eating at. Particularly if the card would not cover the entire bill.

Rebate is an unenforceable promise. They know it is not worth your effort to get them to pay a rebate, so they only pay some of the rebates for those who try to qualify, most as mentioned above, myself including, no longer bother.

FINALLY got the rebate check April 23rd. (almost FIVE months)

Received a Browning rebate check in about one month.

Bekeart

I've always gotten my rebates back. If you can't afford to pay for it and wait for the rebates (they take their time) ,then it's not a good deal.

But yeah I like rebates. Rebates = money.

Every time I have tried to collect a rebate, it was declined for whatever reason trendy at the time.

Scam IMO.

I had a friend in the retail jewelry business. He was retiring and selling the business, he still had unclaimed gift certificates accumulated over 25 years of over $15,000. He had fully expected to honor those if and when they were ever turned in. I believe he allowed for it in the sale price when he did sell his business. (Somehow I doubt if the new owners will ever honor one).

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

They're scams, based on the premise that if you make it difficult enough most people won't bother or get around to filing for it, and if you take long enough to process it many of the people who actually filed correctly will forget about and not check up on it when you fail to pay. Instant rebates off the price are another matter and becoming more common. They're silly too, like grocery store loyalty cards.

Speak of grocery store loyalty Cards-
I refused to give them information which was almost the same as refinancing your home -
so a nice lady finally gave in
And issued me an anonymous card .
So you can tell me señor anonymous .

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

I like the idea of someone somewhere tracking my purchases to market whatever flavor of the month they need to push at that moment. When they find that all I buy at that store is charcoal, beer and meat they think caveman and leave me alone.

I've had several over the years and have always been able to go to a website to check the balance. I can't think of any that the company gave me at the time of purchase, except for a Wal-Mart gift card given by a PR firm for participating in a focus group about our local utility provider. Without doing any research, I'm gonna guess that the article with the "scam" you read about was another scam.

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

It's money back. They don't have to do it. But it is money. Back to you. I like getting money in the mail. Menards rebates, on the other hand, are not money back.

20 year old water heater sprang a leak yesterday. Paid an extra $140 for an energy star model @ HD. Pacific gas & electric will issue me a $200 rebate. Took me 10 minutes online to apply. I'll take the saved $60 and buy powder. Also, over time will save energy. That sure beats the last deal a $30 Minnkota rebate that was a PIA. Rebates don't typically influence my buying decisions.

I wanted a new scope for a cheap 22 rifle that the kids plink with.
Near Christmas,, there was a $39.95 3x9 scope for sale with a $30 rebate,,,

I had to bite!!

So, the rifle now has a $9.95 scope on it,, last week, I saw the scope price at Gander Mtn is now back up to $49.95.

The check was here in 60 days,,, the wife and I went by the bank, cashed the check, and went out to dinner,,, (the rebate covered most of the bill)

No one has mentioned the $30 (or more) rebate on S&W guns,,, YET!!

I have two I will be sending in,,, (limit 3) Hmmmmmm,,,,,,,

Rebates are a scam that should be outlawed and California came close to banning them.... until the big money lobbyists bribed the government to kill the law.

Data here shows that about 75% of rebates offered go unpaid for many reasons: people file too late, don't give the "proof of purchase", or the rebates just don't get paid. Companies hire sub contractor companies that handle paying rebates so they can claim they didn't commit fraud. The whole thing is slimy it's just a scam to allow sellers to advertise very low prices without having to actually sell at that price.

Using the subcontractor is how the companies avoid getting charged with fraud by the state. They know the rebates aren't getting paid, that's the point.

I just had one declined because the item was not offered for rebate. I called them and pointed out: not only was there a rebate, the exact same item is still for sale with the exact same rebate (I offered to send them the web address). After a hassle, I got my $10. What morons.

I think it's CVS pharmacy that advertises low prices on the shelf and then when you pay, you are charged FULL price and they give you a coupon for $1 off deodorant that's only valid for two days in the middle of next month. It's so bogus that many people have complained but the state won't crack down on it.

I've got two words for you: Ripoff!

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But then, what do I know?

We got some rebate cards from Verizon when we bought our grown kids some phones...took the card immediately to the store and used them against the service...then threw the cards away once posted. Somewhere, there is a landfill with these cards, AOL discs, and eight track cassettes...and maybe some Beta cassettes...and about 10 million VHS copies of Star Wars not on Blue-ray. We are a fickle species. I still have Grease on VHS...so I am an anachronism...sue me!

I just bought a set of 4 Continental tires from Discount Tire, and had the $70 rebate debit card in my hands 2 weeks later from Continental. The online registration said it may take up to 2 weeks for approval (It took 3 days) and the card may take 8 to 10 weeks, as I mentioned I had it in 2 weeks. Rare, but it does happen.

I sent in 4 identical rebates to Remington under 4 different addresses for $12 each. Took 2 months and 2 came back right, and 2 came back for only $2. Each upc was for $2, enclosed the proper amount of upc with receipt and even wrote out number of upc x $2 = $12.....still got $2. Called and luckily kept copy of info and it was sent back through and will be another 4-6 weeks. Now I'm really concerned as I bought 20 boxes of .38spl HTP with a $10/ box rebate so I hope I get the correct $200 rebate. Couldn't pass up the deal, $16.99/ box so $6.99/ box if the rebate is handle correct.

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Keep on Chooglin'