Pet Peeves Rant of the Week
Peeve Meister here from Pet Peeves.
Mail-in rebates seem to be offered on these days on everything from cars to chewing gum. But have you ever tried to redeem a mail-in rebate? Sure you have. Good luck.
I spent nearly an hour and nearly worked up a sweat the other day trying to meet the elaborate requirements necessary to submit a lousy rebate offer for redemption: Fill out a lengthy form in triplicate. Attach copies of the receipt (which I had misplaced), circle items. Try to cut the label from the box (which I had innocently already thrown in the garbage), without drawing blood. Make copies of everything (doesn’t everyone have a copier at home?). Address an envelope to hold everything. Put a stamp (maybe two) on the envelope. (Is it really worth a $.39 stamp - for a $2 rebate?). Go and mail the stupid thing. Take a deep breath.
Then wait months - and hope that you don’t forget about it, when in many cases it never shows up. And then if the rebate does finally arrive, you find out that it’s not in the form of a check but instead some stupid credit card-like thing that you have to call to activate - and then you realize that you have two weeks left to use the damn thing before it expires. What s scam! It takes less work to file my tax returns.
It’s obvious to me that these companies are simply trying to make it as difficult as possible (without violating the law) for us to redeem these rebates. And in fact it seems to be working. I read that on average 40% of all rebates are never redeemed - either because it’s too much trouble, the box/receipts are lost, people just forget to send it in, or they send it in and it never arrives.
I know I’m not alone on this. Have you been hit by the rebate plague? Tell us your story. Or, if I’m wrong, please explain this consumer tragedy to me.
(via MyPetPeeves.com)
3 years ago