Mail-In-Rebates are supposedly put in place to promote products sale.
But are they effective? Do consumers respond positively to them? Is it worth the effort to claim the mail in rebate?
Mail-In-Rebates is a marketing tactic which has a certain degree of deception. It gives the impression to the consumers that they are paying less but in reality are paying more than advertised.
If a product has a price of $100 and the mail-in-rebate is $20, we would assume we would be paying $80 plus the taxes. However the taxes are calculated before the mail-in-rebate, which means, the product actually costs us $100 + $14 (assuming 14% taxes) – $20 = $94.
So instead of paying $91.20 we are paying $94. We did save $20 compared to what we would have paid without the mail-in-rebate. However we would have saved more if it was a $20 Instant Rebate. The taxes would have been calculated after the rebate and not before.
To take advantage of today’s mail-in-rebates we need to be technological savy. If we don’t have a computer, a printer and access to the internet, we better forget the whole thing. It is certainly not for grandma or grandpa, unless of course they have been initiated to it.
The amount of time invested on it is also enormous. We might have to spend an hour or more to go on various websites, register ourselves, download the required forms, fill them up and make photocopies of them and the UPC code which we have to cut out, plus the receipts and then get several envelopes for each claim. Finally we have to go to the post office and pay for the postage.
The worst part is that we have to wait 6 to 8 weeks before we get the refund back … if we are lucky.
Why lucky?
Because often times we may never hear from them and we might completely forget about them. After a few weeks we might receive an email informing us that our claim has been denied. We did not mail the claim within the time frame, or we send the wrong UPC code or the receipt was not acceptable.
We got furious when we know we have done everything according to procedures. We certainly do not want to let go the $20. We called the claim center and we spend hours waiting for someone to respond. We may have to call several times before we get through. Finally we explained our problem and the customer representative is unable to help us.
We decide to send an email to the company with the application, receipts and UPC code scanned. We hope that investigation will reveal we are definitely entitled to the mail-in-rebate.
What a hassle! No wonder some companies choose to get rid of mail-in-rebates and to give instant rebates instead. It is certainly a Win-Win situation for both retailers and customers. The retailers do not have to pay the rebate clearing houses for processing those rebates. The customers get the money back immediately.
Another negative aspect of the mail-in-rebate is psychological. When the money comes back in form of a cheque there is not much rejoicing for the $20 refund. The amount is little. After several months we do not feel we got a good deal. It has to be instant! We go to the bank and mechanically cash it in.
Spotshoppingguide recommends avoiding mail-in-rebates as much as possible. Only if the amount is substantiable it is not worth all the trouble involved.
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