honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, April 24, 2003

Rebates give you 'real bang for the buck' if you can handle hassle

By Margaret Webb Pressler
Washington Post

I am terrible at clipping coupons. I often dismiss them as not worth my time, and if I clip one out, I usually forget I have it.

But as bad as I am at coupons, I'd never even attempted to get a rebate, a marketing gimmick that always seemed to take the inconvenience factor of a coupon to a new level. Last fall, though, I tried for the first time, submitting a $10 rebate request to the Rite Aid drugstore chain for an already inexpensive cordless telephone.

That was in November, and I still haven't gotten my money. But the wait has certainly fed my curiosity about such promotions.

There are plenty of people who "rebate" regularly, as they say, who insist rebates can be a great deal. There are Web sites devoted to the sharing of rebates and other discount offers, like FatWallet.com and RefundleBundle.com. On these sites, people reveal rebate and discount offers they've found and come up with ways to "stack" offers together to get the absolute lowest possible price — the Holy Grail, of course, being products that end up free.

What people who frequent these sites understand, and accept, is that rebates, at their core, are a hassle.

Getting your $1, $3, $10 or even $150 back requires doing something, usually sending in a receipt and/or a proof of purchase. It also requires patience, because it typically takes up to six weeks to get your money back.

The work, argue some consumers, is worth it. "What you get back from a rebate is much better than what you're going to get back from a coupon," said Susan Samtur, founder of the Refundle Bundle magazine and Web site. "It's where you get your real bang for the buck."

Samtur researches, organizes, stacks and catalogs her deals like a pro, and her industry knowledge is backed up by her real-world examples — such as the Glade candles she recently bought on sale, two for $3. She had coupons for 50 cents off each candle and a dollar rebate on each one, reducing the cost to zero.

"People typically like it because now they're involved in the process," said Tom Holliday, president of the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association (RAMA). "The process becomes kind of fulfilling."

For others, that process is more frustrating — and these are the customers whom retailers and manufacturers really like.

About 15 percent of all rebates are not redeemed, giving the issuer of the rebate a financial cushion while still boosting sales. "They hate people like me," said Samtur of Refundle Bundle.

That helps to explain why more retailers are joining manufacturers these days and issuing rebates.

What's unclear is how far the effort to make a profit goes. Ellen Moore of the retail consulting firm Carton Donofrio Partners in Baltimore, who works on improving customer experiences, says the hassles with most programs are so great, she says, she wonders sometimes if they're deliberate. What makes her especially suspicious is how often consumers don't get rebates they've filed for, or don't get them in the time frame specified.

"If you're not a proactive consumer, these things can just fall through the cracks," she said. Even if it's just sloppiness and not deliberate deception, she said, "it's certainly a way the manufacturer wins."

Moore and her husband file for rebates frequently and keep organized records of what they've filed and when money should be coming in. Thirty to 40 percent of the time, she says, six weeks pass and they don't get their money, necessitating follow-up phone calls.