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geekhack Marketplace => Great Finds => Topic started by: saturnotaku on Sun, 13 October 2013, 12:18:37
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Newegg Shell Shocker deal today is the Blue switch version of the CM Storm QF Stealth. Not a bad deal if you're able to get the rebate and not have it arbitrarily declined as they so often can be.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823129017
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In my experience, more than half of all rebates are declined for whatever bureaucratic reason.
I only bothered to file a complaint with the better business bureau once, because the rebate was $200 on a laptop. I got my money back damn fast.
The rest of the time, I think these companies are just waiting for you to take legal action or something. If you don't, they pretend you failed to cross a t or dot an i.
Newegg Shell Shocker deal today is the Blue switch version of the CM Storm QF Stealth. Not a bad deal if you're able to get the rebate and not have it arbitrarily declined as they so often can be.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823129017
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Pretty sure the majority of the reason why people get their rebates rejected is because they can't read the rebate instructions and are missing something/send in the wrong thing.
I've gone through many rebates over the past several months and I've gotten every single one back. I did accidentally send in the wrong thing for one of the rebates, but rectified it in time by sending in the right document and received the rebate card after. You should also always take pictures of the documents that you send in for the rebates just in case though.
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Personally, I've only never received one rebate, and that's because the fulfillment house the company used went out of business. I probably could have pursued it more, but it would have been too much trouble. Some rebates I've received have taken much longer than others. I know of one particular place where the "allow 10-12 weeks to receive your rebate" was completely accurate, as in the 11th hour on the 12th week. Others, though, have come back in as few as 2-3 weeks.
No matter what, though, always make copies of the documentation. For larger rebates ($100 or more), I would even consider spending the extra money to send them certified mail with a return receipt.
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I've received every rebate I've ever sent in for. Just photocopy everything you send in so you have confirmation and, if you're really worried, send it with delivery confirmation. If they refuse it and you did it correctly, take them to small claims and you'll get the rebate money, the filing fee, and sometimes a little bit more out of the company.
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I've received most rebates I've filed for -- the rest by the time I realize I haven't gotten anything, it's six months later. That's partly because about half the rebates don't at all come to me in 12 weeks, but closer to twice that.
It obviously infuriates companies when you file for money back just because they promised it to you, but that doesn't seem to obligate them all to actually pay it to according to their agreement. So don't buy a thing because of the rebate price alone ... you might have to float a loan for that company a long time ...
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I hate rebates.
I feel like CM should just make the deal to discount the boards with Newegg if they really wanted to give a discount.
I'm not sure how these rebates work though. I assume they don't come from CM.
There is probably a middle man hoping you don't cash that rebate.
If the product is generally 60 dollars (with some 50 dollar sales here and there) and you include a 20 dollar rebate, the seller is banking on half or more buyers forgetting to cash in the rebate. Then technically, the original seller is probably still making an average of 55 dollars per item sold since only some of the people file for the rebate.
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I'm not sure how these rebates work though. I assume they don't come from CM.
There is probably a middle man hoping you don't cash that rebate.
That's pretty much exactly how it works. The company offering the rebate will contract with an outside firm to handle the processing and mailing. The hope is that few people will actually follow through on submitting everything. Interestingly, there's been a shift lately to giving out pre-paid debit cards rather than cutting checks. Makes me wonder if the companies collect some additional revenue from Visa or MasterCard on that.
I really wish they would give you the option to have the money sent to your PayPal account. There was one rebate a long time ago that did that. For a small "convenience fee" that came off the top (want to say it was $2), you could have the money sent to your PayPal account within a couple weeks of them receiving and processing the paperwork. It worked superbly and took far less time than a traditional rebate.
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Well like you said, they are advertising the AR price but they actually hope that people forget sending it in, miss some required docs, late, the mail get lost, or not depositing the check in time etc.
Also the rebate visa/master is a way to make it difficult to claim the full amount (how often do you have a bill of exactly $20 after tax?)
There are easy ways to work around that though, for example you can fill up $20 worth of gas, or use it to pay your utility /phone bill (they allow multiple payments of different amounts)