Aug 01, 2003
Rebates, Rebates, and More Rebates
By Timothy R Butler | Posted at 12:56 AM
Yikes! I had a stack of rebates that had been waiting on my desk to be filled out for several weeks. sigh It ended up taking me thirty minutes to get through the stack, although fortunately with the new technique of printing the rebates on the receipts themselves, it makes things easier. Still, I just don't like doing rebates for some reason… at least I don't have to think about it any more.
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RE: Rebates, Rebates, and More Rebates
Well the nice things is, that stack of rebate forms will turn into a stack of rebate checks. Am I right?
RE: Rebates, Rebates, and More Rebates
Recently I read a big discussion of this on Slashdot. As expected, there was no consensus of opinion. Near as I can tell, rebates are just marketing hype. If you pay up front, even if the rebate equals your purchase price, the businesses got your money for a while, and will indeed profit from that. Further, you are out the cash for awhile, and have to invest some of your time (albeit small) to reclaim that money.
In Economics, we note that the value of your time is roughly equal what you get paid for it. If a CEO considers building his own home, he’d save money hiring a construction company; his time is too valuable in dollars. But if he really enjoys it as a hobby, who can say what it’s worth? People pay big money for leisure activities. If playing with rebates is okay to you, it’s worth the hassle. If, like me, you hate the silly games, you are likely to purchase differently, other things being equal. Of course, being technically unemployed, my time is worth precious few dollars, but I place a high personal value on not having to mess with them.
RE: Rebates, Rebates, and More Rebates
I don’t base a purchase on a rebate. At the POS, all I care about is how much cash trades hands when I buy the item. That said, if I have a $30 rebate just sitting there, it’s well worth the 5 minutes it takes to fill it out and stick it in the mail.
RE: Rebates, Rebates, and More Rebates
You are right, Christopher… hopefully numerous checks.
Ed: You are, of course, right about the ability of companies to profit from having your money for “six to eight weeks,” as the rebates usually cheerfully put it. I suspect they further count on many people failing to get the rebates in on time.
Kevin: Actually I do sometimes base my purchase decision on rebates. When you are talking an eventual saving of $30 or more dollars for a particular product, it often makes that product substantially cheaper than another product. That’s enough to change my mind if the cheaper (thanks to the rebate) product meets my needs/wants. I’m less anxious, for the obvious reasons, to deal with rebates that only save a few bucks…
-Tim