Mail-in Rebates (revisited)

[oz]

I've never liked fiddling with mail-in rebates but have any of you noticed how lately the entire process seems to be more cumbersome than ever?

To get rebates now, most of them require that you to go online to their rebate center website and register, giving them more personal information than ever before, while also doing the computer entry work that they used to do on their end. After that, you have to print out the rebate form and follow their instructions to the letter before mailing it all in, and of course they include more steps than ever which could easily cause you to make some small error that gives them the right to reject your rebate request.

In addition to all that, many of the rebate amounts are so piddly these days that in many cases it's simply too much work for the puny reward you'll receive if the rebate request is honored. They are also issuing prepaid visa cards rather than paper checks in many cases, so I'm assuming that the visa folks also have full access to all the personal information that you've provided in these cases.

It's all become so irritating that I ordered another hard drive just this morning and went to another merchant spending an extra $20 just because the first merchant's rebate terms angered me so much!

[whych]

Ever since I bought a cell phone with contract in UK and found that I had lost it because I needed to call the cell opwrator to claim it, I have always been wary of rebates.
Why not just give the discount up front when you buy and let the dealer do the paperwork? ... Unless, as you say, it's to get more personal data.

[oz]

Best Buy stopped mail-in rebates a few years ago in their stores. I admire them greatly for doing that and wish all retailers would do the same. Either instant rebates only, or no rebates at all, but just good pricing to take their place would suit me much better.

Against my better judgment, I've turned in 4 different mail-in rebates over the last few weeks, so we'll see how it goes.

[darkrose0510]

one of the consumer electronic chains here offers a discount for cash... I'll always pick them over any mail in nonsense whenever possible.