Rebates have become increasingly popular in the last few years on a lot of items and certainly on electronic items and computers. Rebates of $20, $50 or $100 are not uncommon. I’ve even seen items advertised as “free after rebateâ€. Do these rebates come under the heading of “too good to be trueâ€? Some of them do and there are “catches†to watch out for but if you are careful, rebates can help you get some really good deals. The way a rebate works is that you pay the listed price for an item then mail in a form and the bar code to the manufacturer and they send you a refund thus reducing the price of what you paid for the item except with a time delay of several weeks. Rule #1. Rebates from reputable companies are usually just fine.a You can be pretty sure you will get the promised rebate from Best Buy, Amazon or Dell but you should probably not count on getting one from a company you’ve never heard of. If you really want the product and are OK with paying the price listed then buy it but don’t count on actually getting the refund. Rule #2. Check rebate expiration dates. Many times products will stay on the shelf of a retailer after the date for sending in the rebate offer has expired so check that date carefully. Rule #3. Rule #4. Continue reading on Rebates – Reward or Rip Off?
Rebates are almost never processed by the Manufacturer. 3ed parties do this and in some cases, like what happened last year Rebate company CPC http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2008/...s-out-of-business-takes-your-rebates-with-th/ Sorry, that was the fastest link I could find about them. So just because it comes from a big company does not mean it will be honored. Just as big companies were represented by that company. Also the rebates were still advertised in stores for quite a bit of time after they went under, so people bought the products expecting a rebate that they had 0 chance of getting.