Before, when I worked, my answer to this question would have been a resounding "no." However, now that I don't work and every penny counts, I find myself jumping through all the necessary hoops to redeem maximum rebate dollars.

Example...we recently bought TurboTax and McAfee Internet Security software. Best Buy was running rebates on the McAfee stuff alone, plus a bundled rebate with the tax software proof of purchase. Both rebates together equal the amount spent on the McAfee software...in essence making the security stuff free if I bothered to send them both in.
Hey, $70 is nothing to sneeze at.

True, rebates are a pain...you must copy this receipt, cut out that UPC, tear off the other inside flap proof of purchase...but how long does it really take? Maybe five minutes of your time plus a postage stamp to send most of these things in. And Best Buy has some in-store rebates now you can go online and fill out while you're doing other stuff and this takes even less time.

Business Week published an article on rebates, rebate redemption rates, and consumer complaints related to rebates. Go read it if you want.

Of course, with any program there will always be some people out there with complaints that want their voices heard. On the retailer side, they run these things hoping and praying there aren't a lot of people out there like me that bother to take the time to actually read the rules and follow them and bother to mail in the stuff to get the cash. They run the things hoping to get on the good side of your money-saving mentality while praying you will not bother to actually redeem the offer.

So there's my take on it. The question is...do you bother to take advantage of these special offers, or are you like many and forget about them and eventually toss them in the trash?

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://almostaverage.com/MT32/mt-tb.cgi/1007

Comments

Posted by: Paula on March 10, 2006 08:01 AM

Post a comment