Why the rebate.

[Craig Tucker]

I see a lot of you guys in the US talk about prices of hardware, and how cheap they are particularly after the rebate. Perhaps someone could explain to me why companies offer rebaits rather than just reducing the price in-store. Rebates is something that does not really happen in the UK. Is it a way for the manufacturers to get you on their mailing list.

[Faustus]

Usually its at least 6 to 8 weeks until a rebate is cashed out.
In the meantime they make money with the intrest on your money... not much but mulitply that by the number of units they sell. Also a good number of people forget to send their rebates in. At least thats what I've always assumed.

Basicly its silly and I myself only take rebates into account if they are $50 or more.

[zodiac]

i dont think its a mailing list thing.ppl forget about the rebate or dont bother with it.
you have to do exactly what the rebate says or it just cost them the price of a post card to tell you that their not going to send you a check.
just recently,i sent in a rebate for some ram which was a good price with it.i did every thing it said.they sent me the post card saying that it was the wrong product(of cource it was)
i sent the card back with a note.i reworded what they told me(basicley told them that i couldn't buy from their company anymore)
i got the check a week later

[Treebeard]

i recently took a marketing class and studies have shown that when a rebate is offered sales increase dramatically, the study also showed that less then 25% actually turned in the rebates.

i use rebates all the time , but i actually send them in and wait my 6 weeks to get my money back.

companies make a killing on rebates b/c people get lazy and you only have a certain time frame to mail off your rebate.

[vcd4me]

Oh and you are so right.
Now about the time thing compusa is famous for only having the timeline to be postmarked within 1 week after the purchase.

Just My 2 cents
VCD4ME

[defense]

Craig, it isn't about mailing lists here in the U.S. It is more about the fact that the manufacturer or the store know that not "everyone" who buys a particular product will actually sit down and take the time to cut off the original bar code, send in a completely filled out rebate receipt and answer other frivilous questions. However, they do know that when they have a sale, "everyone" who buys that particular product, will get it at the sale price. Having those companies know that some people will negligently lose their receipt, or throw out their box with the ORIGINAL Barcode, or just not take the time it takes to fill out the rebate form and send it in with the required info prior to the rebate expiration, allow the companies to advertise a lower price, when in fact, it doesn't always work out that way. As far as the telemarketing goes, almost any company can get your information in a variety of ways. Most companies that you purchase from already have your address as it is, and if they don't, they have a million other ways to get it whether it is listed or not.

[Conquest10]

i haven't really messed with rebates. i tried it once, i had to buy $30 worth of batteries to get a $5 rebate. i said "forget it" and never tried it afterward.

[Craig Tucker]

Thanks for all the replies, seems like they are not really worth the aggrovation. Like I say, we dont get them over here, not quite sure why, but it doesn't look like we are really missing out on much.