Rebates

[Gonzo]

I bought a cell phone on a deal. You get a $100 rebate. I knew going in that rebates are a pain in the ass but I needed a phone for work. Over 3 months pass and still no rebate in the mail. So I call and get their message service. I wait for 40 minutes! Then when I get through to a human being they put me on hold again for 10 minutes then transfer me to another call centre because I'm on a pay as you go plan and they only deal with monthly plans.
Why don't they just take the money off the price instead of going through all the hassle of a rebate? Because they hope you'll give up! They want you to forget to fill out your rebate form until it's past the expiry date. Or you can fill it out wrong. Then try getting through to them to get some information on the status of your rebate. I say consumers should boy cot business' that offer rebates! It's not a deal! It's a headache.

 

[humanbeing]

Probably just retailers or manufacturers trying to save money, and/or trying to give people the impression that they are somehow getting a bargain.

...Your time is of little value to them in this sense, so if they can externalize a cost by wasting more of your time, then they just profited more.

This is seen in the industry in a lot of places. When you want to cancel a subsciption or service, or something, back in the day you could talk with a human being and then ideally, that would be the end of it all. Today, you call and give a machine input, which sends you to another machine, which then relays you to someone in India, who then directs you to another department's voice mail, back to a machine, and then hopefully, you've cancelled your subscription or whatever it was...

The business saved a lot of money this way, and you as a consumer shouldered the costs, because again, it is that 'limitless' resource of time that we are talking about. Not something that should be an apparent factor in making purchases, like the amount of cash you are gonna pay.

 

[humanbeing]

Modern technology is supposed to give us all more free time, more leisure time. To a large extent, you might be able to argue this...

I think that recently, more businesses have taken to the idea of minimizing more costs by wasting your time. It might be an interesting trend to look at.

Also, given that today's life is supposed to be about satisfying perceived wants and fashionable consumption (mostly brought on by PR firms and various marketing strategies that you've been exposed to since birth), a good deal of whatever we may have used that leisure time for that might be of value to everyone, ends up used in an endless race for more junk.

 

[#juan]

I tried to buy a phone from Staples a couple months back. The price was clearly marked. When I got to the sales counter I was charged an extra fifty dollars for the phone. When I complained they took me back to the phone shelf and showed me how (in small print) it said the price was with a mail in rebate. I canceled the deal right away but it still took a week and a half to get the charge off my master card..

 

[LittleRunningGag]

One thing to note: many companies are actually trying to get away from the MIR system. Future Shop, for example, wants to be rebate free within the next year.