Re: T-Mobile Rebate Scam
- From: "Carl Rossman" <Carl.Rossman@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 12 Mar 2007 13:20:04 -0700
On Mar 8, 9:18 pm, larry <n...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
Paul Pluzhnikov wrote:
Scott en Aztlán <scottenazt...@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
Because if you don't get the rebate (which is likely) you will have
paid $109 for the HD at CompUSA.
Yes, but from my past experience I *do* get the rebate 49 out of
50 times. So thinking rationaly, I *should* go for the lowest price
with rebate (all else being equal).
Of course, your example is a bad one,
as I would rather pay $109 for an HD from CompUSA than $99 for the
exact same HD at Fry's - the one from Fry's is most likely a customer
return that Fry's has re-shrink-wrapped and placed back out on the
shelf. Even if the Fry's HD is factory fresh, I will waste more than
$10 worth of my time standing in a long line at the checkout, and
another long line at the exit while some Nazi with a yellow
highlighter pen roots through my property.
Burbank Fry's doesn't appear to exhibit any of the problems you cite:
I've never spent more than 10 minutes total for the whole "wait in
line, pay, exit" process.
Yes, rebates somethimes get lost. Still, over the last 10 years,
I missed $59 in (2) rebates, out of about $1000 in (about a 50)
received rebates.
You leave out a lot of details. Of the ones you ultimately received,
how many did you have to badger the rebator with phone calls, letters,
None. I received all rebates that I've ever sent, except 1.
The second rebate that I "missed" I never actually sent, because upon
reading the fine print, I realized that I wasn't eligible. Which did
make mad at Fry's -- their ad made it look like I *was* eligible
for it. So I was out $50 on a $400 purchase. Oh well, the price
was still quite good, just not as good as the ad made it look.
This may be specific to computer hardware, though I also received
rebates for cell phones (including one from T-Mobile and one
from AT&T).
Where is exactly the scam
The scam is quite simple: the system is designed to MINIMIZE the
number of rebates that are actually paid.
My experience is certainly is nowhere near what you described.
Was I lucky?
Cheers,
YES, your lucky days are numbered ;-) I gave up on rebates
a year ago on computer stuff, fail to pay is rising fast!
Frys/ Comp USA/ Micro center are getting wise and doing more
"no rebate hassle" specials every week.
-larry / dallas
Problem is it's almost impossible to buy anything on "sale" without a
rebate. If I could avoid rebates and go back to the good old days when
items were just marked down at the store to motivate buyers to buy, I
would. If someone want to standardize sale pricing and rebates, the
world would probably be a better place. Prices would drop overall
since we compensate for "sale" and rebate pricing by paying higher
standard retail prices. And we wouldn't have to comparison price shop
and drive across town to "take advantage" of sale prices.
.
- References:
- T-Mobile Rebate Scam
- From: Carl Rossman
- Re: T-Mobile Rebate Scam
- From: Paul Pluzhnikov
- Re: T-Mobile Rebate Scam
- From: Paul Pluzhnikov
- Re: T-Mobile Rebate Scam
- From: larry
- T-Mobile Rebate Scam
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