If you are waiting for or are filing for a rebate, you may be impacted by this recent bankruptcy.

With Christmas coming on, and with all the need to save money, this hits at a bad time.
http://blog.slickdeals.net/index.php/2008/...may-be-affected

 

Not good for those of us that deal with Newegg and the other parts discounters.
Thanks for the heads up, I was just about to build an HTPC.

 

I hate rebates. It always feels like a scam.
I'd love to see real hard data on how many claims get rejected.

 

Last rebate I was involved in was a tire purchase for the Outback. I suspect the rebate was not handled by Bridgestone directly, because I would be greatly disappointed if anybody working for Bridgestone was that stupid. The whole debate was over the date the tires were purchased, the sales receipt clearly showed the purchase date was within the rebate window, but apparently someone was not aware that March is actually between February and May...

 

yeah but how long did it take to resolve that little debate.
it's all about stalling and keeping the money for as long as possible.

 

I'll bet the employees are paid on the number of rebates they can reject.
If you got screwed by this company, go to the manufacturer. They owe you, not the company they hired to handle the rebates.

 

Instant rebates "yes", mail-in rebates rarely.

 

Rebates are just another marketing ploy. They count on something like only 10% to 20% of purchasers to actually go to the trouble filling them out, cutting out the appropriate UPC code, and supplying a copy of the receipt. Therefore, it becomes a winner for the offering company since they get the benefit of an artificially low price being advertised while knowing pretty closely the impact on their P&L will be minimal.

 

The other aspect of a rebate is it guarantees that you can't return the product since you no longer have a UPC code.

 

I am one of those small minority that does. The last computer I built had about 25-30% returned with rebates. I agree that they are a pain, but if it's the only way to get that discount, I'll fill them out.