In general I've poo-pooed the rebate naysayers in this newsgroup, but a recent experience with "Staples Easy Rebates" has left me with second thoughts about the whole rebate thing. In short, I bought a $50 product from Staples on February 28, 2005. The product was eligible for a $10 cash rebate, which I submitted correctly through www.stapleseasyrebates.com later the same day. Parago, Staples' rebate processing vendor, is refusing to pay me the $10. Their claimed reasons for doing so make no sense and contradict the tracking information about my submission that is visible to me on www.stapleseasyrebates.com. I can't figure out whether their behavior is massively incompetent or purposefully dishonest, but in either case, it's simply not acceptable.
Bob Horvath <bhorvat...@comcast.net> writes: >I had a problem with the easy rebate around Christmas time, and I >called the Staples store, and the manager told me to just bring in the >rejection card, and he issued me an in store rebate card on the spot, >that I was able to use immediately.
Yes, I could do that, but as I told the guy who suggested that I call them on the phone, that's not really the point. The way Parago has handled my rebate submission is simply not acceptable by any definition. I'm no longer fighting with them to get my $10, although to be sure I won't give up until I get it somehow. I'm fighting with them to shine some light on their incompetence and/or dishonesty in an effort to make some progress, however small, toward putting a stop to it.
Frankly, what they *want* you to do is to find some workaround like "call on the phone" or "ask the store manager for a gift card" so that they can keep abusing *most* people into not getting their rebates and only have to pay off the few who make a big stink. If you let them get away with that, you're part of the problem.
"larry moe 'n curly" <larrymoencu...@my-deja.com> writes:
>Did you try phoning them? I've had much better luck by phoning than by >e-mailing. In fact I can't think of a single instance where a rebate >problem of mine was solved through e-mail.
First of all, I've heard plenty of stories of people getting stuck on the phone for an hour or more to get one of these issues resolved. No thanks.
Second, if I call them, I've got no non-repudiable record of what transpired. That's not acceptable, especially given the tendency of the rebate processors to demand proof of everything, sometimes repeatedly, as one of their techniques for avoiding paying out rebates.
Third, this has reached the point where it's no longer only about the $10, it's about taking a stand and not letting Staples and Parago get away with treating people like this. The point is that I was treated badly by e-mail, and that's got to be stood up to whether or not I would have been treated better had I called.
Jonathan Kamens wrote: > I bought a $50 product from Staples on February 28, 2005. > The product was eligible for a $10 cash rebate, which I > submitted correctly through www.stapleseasyrebates.com > later the same day. Parago, Staples' rebate processing > vendor, is refusing to pay me the $10. > I've posted the entire story at > http://www.mit.edu/~jik/staples-story/, which I'm keeping current with > updates as they occur.
Did you try phoning them? I've had much better luck by phoning than by e-mailing. In fact I can't think of a single instance where a rebate problem of mine was solved through e-mail.
Bill <billru...@prodigy.net> writes: >First, you should just tell people here >that the initial issue was that they sent you a check and it >claimed to be cashed and you said you never received it.
Your summary of my story is inaccurate. If it were accurate, I'd be a lot less upset than I am now.
Their Web site claims that they sent me a check which has cleared. In contrast, they've asserted in repeated e-mails to me over several weeks that I the rebate offer to which I responded has as an option the choice of a gift instead of a rebate, and that I chose to receive the gift. So we've got (a) them claiming that the offer to which I responded had an option which in fact it did not, (b) them claiming that I made a choice when submitting my rebate request that not only didn't I make, but I *couldn't* have made since that choice did not exist when I submitted the request, (c) them making claims that are flat-out contradicted by the information that I can see on their Web site, (d) them making these claims over and over again despite the fact that I've pointed out to them over and over again that they're wrong, and (e) them refusing to even acknowledge, let alone address, my assertions that their claims are incorrect.
This goes way beyond a simple lost check. This is monumental incompetence by a number of different people (since a number of different people at Parago have responded to my e-mails and have all made the same mistakes listed above), and/or a corporate policy which prevents them from doing the independent thinking and research necessary to verify that the claims they're making are wrong, and/or intentional dishonesty to avoid paying me the rebate they owe me.
I admit that the later possibility is unlikely, but I'm a lot more likely to believe it now than I was before this fiasco. In any case, even if what's going on does not reflect intentional dishonesty, it's still completely unacceptable, and I'm going to do everything I can to fight against it.
Some people look for the best way to solve the problem for them. I look for the best way to solve the problem for everyone else, so other people don't have to experience the problem I experienced.
Howard <stil...@email.com.> writes: >So basically, you know HOW to get results, you just don't WANT to.
No. I'm not aiming for the results you seem to think I'm aiming for.
Do you really think I'd be devoting this much time to this if it were just about the $10? My time is worth a lot more than that.
As I've said several times already, what I'm trying to do is to stop Staples and Parago from putting other people through what they've put me through. The treatment I've suffered at their hands is unacceptable, and I don't think they should be allowed to continue treating people that way.
Going to the store or calling Parago on the phone to get my rebate is treating the symptoms, not treating the disease.
Since I've made this particular point several times in several different ways now, I'm going to stop wasting my time repeating myself. To those of you who want to keep criticizing me for trying to make the world a better place for other people, hey, knock yourselves out.
> As I've said several times already, what I'm trying to do is > to stop Staples and Parago from putting other people through > what they've put me through. The treatment I've suffered at > their hands is unacceptable, and I don't think they should be > allowed to continue treating people that way.
If you want to do that, then posting here does no good. File your complaints with the FTC and others and hope for the best. What you're describing is rare (I've never heard of a similar complaint, and I have heard of a lot of them) and you already know that emailing them is not resolving the problem.
> In general I've poo-pooed the rebate naysayers in this newsgroup, but a > recent experience with "Staples Easy Rebates" has left me with second > thoughts about the whole rebate thing. In short, I bought a $50 > product from Staples on February 28, 2005. The product was eligible > for a $10 cash rebate, which I submitted correctly through > www.stapleseasyrebates.com later the same day. Parago, Staples' rebate > processing vendor, is refusing to pay me the $10. Their claimed > reasons for doing so make no sense and contradict the tracking > information about my submission that is visible to me on > www.stapleseasyrebates.com. I can't figure out whether their behavior > is massively incompetent or purposefully dishonest, but in either > case, it's simply not acceptable.
Yuck, so much rhetoric. First, you should just tell people here that the initial issue was that they sent you a check and it claimed to be cashed and you said you never received it. Of course, you claim they probably never sent it (very unlikely from my experience) and are trying to rip you off and things have gotten progressively worse from there.
I would suggest a) call Parago. You claim you want proof so you don't want to call but what are you getting in all that crap you've been exchanging with them via email? Certainly no satisfaction. so it should be obvious that you need to try another approach (I do not consider your posting here as qualifying). If that does not work, b) I would just go visit your local Staples store, as someone else recommended. Hopefully the manager will see the problems you've had and will give you the refund, or maybe a gift card for the amount (which, while not as good as cash at least provides somewhat of a resolution.
You could also try c) contact Staples customer service via email but I am not sure how much success you'll have there. There is a Staples Office of the President that is generally good with problems but I don't know that you can email them. You can probably find their number via Google, or if not I know it's on Fatwallet.com.
Bill <billru...@prodigy.net> writes: >If you want to do that, then posting here does no good.
I disagree. Posting here and in other public forums about the problems I've experienced has three beneficial effects:
1) It puts pressure on Staples and Parago to clean up their act. Reputable companies don't like to look bad in public. Parago may be disreputable (it's not entirely clear to me), but I certainly would call Staples a reputable company. They *will* care about Parago's behavior being widely publicized. The more people get treated that way by Parago and publicize it, the more Staples will care. Silence is the enemy of reform.
2) Some people decide not to patronize businesses based on negative information they learn about them. In my research on rebate problems, I've found several instances in which people indicated that they have stopped patronizing a particular business because of its shady rebate practices. Staples uses "Easy Rebates" to attract customers; why shouldn't I do the opposite and thus give them a financial incentive to clean up their act?
3) Lots of people in this newsgroup have taken the position that all the rebate companies are legit and the people who aren't getting their rebates must be doing something wrong. Until recently I mostly believed that as well, but my experience at Parago has convinced me otherwise. I think it is necessary and appropriate to provide documented cases where rebate processors behave inappropriately to rebut the claims that this never happens.
>File >your complaints with the FTC and others and hope for the best.
Already done.
>What you're describing is rare (I've never heard of a similar >complaint, and I have heard of a lot of them)
You really have no way of knowing how rare what happened to me is, since as we've already discussed, most people to whom this happens either give up, call and get it straightened out on the phone, or go to the store and get it straightened out there.
I could easily make the opposite argument and say that if it happened to me, then given how many millions of rebate submissions Parago processes, it clearly must be happening to other people as well.
Finally, even if it's true that the specific thing that went wrong in my rebate submission is rare, the fact of the matter is that a reputable company needs to have policies and procedures in place to be able to handle in an appropriate fashion whatever rare situations come up. It's clear that Parago doesn't have such policies and procedures; in fact, it appears that their policies and procedures encourage their employees to behave inappropriately. This means that even if the specific lossage that happened to my rebate never happens to anyone else, other rare lossages will happen to other rebates, and those will be handled inappropriately just like mine was.
Jonathan Kamens wrote: > "larry moe 'n curly" <larrymoencu...@my-deja.com> writes: > >Did you try phoning them? I've had much better luck by > >phoning than by >e-mailing. In fact I can't think of a > >single instance where a rebate problem of mine was solved > >through e-mail.
> First of all, I've heard plenty of stories of people getting > stuck on the phone for an hour or more to get one of these > issues resolved. No thanks.
Bad cell plan that makes you pay for toll-free numbers?
Parago has never taken anything close to an hour, but they're busiest on Monday mornings. Middle of the day is usually fastest.
> Second, if I call them, I've got no non-repudiable record of > what transpired. That's not acceptable, especially given the > tendency of the rebate processors to demand proof of > everything, sometimes repeatedly, as one of their techniques > for avoiding paying out rebates.
Tape recorder -- legal in most states, even without the other party's permission or knowledge. Also Parago's weasel factor rating is much lower than TCA Fulfillment's and Best Buy's. You couldn't do worse than you have been with e-mail. E-mail usually results in lots of general answers that don't address my specific case or that ignore what I've already told them (even if it's quoted back in the reply).
> Third, this has reached the point where it's no longer only > about the $10, it's about taking a stand and not letting > Staples and Parago get away with treating people like this. > The point is that I was treated badly by e-mail, and that's > got to be stood up to whether or not I would have been > treated better had I called.
www.bbb.org , www.ftc.gov (complain against Parago, Staples, and the company behind the rebate product), and www.staples.com (tell the latter that you've gotten nowhere by talking directly to Parago).
> "larry moe 'n curly" <larrymoencu...@my-deja.com> writes: > >Did you try phoning them? I've had much better luck by phoning than by > >e-mailing. In fact I can't think of a single instance where a rebate > >problem of mine was solved through e-mail.
> First of all, I've heard plenty of stories of people getting > stuck on the phone for an hour or more to get one of these > issues resolved. No thanks.
> Second, if I call them, I've got no non-repudiable record of > what transpired. That's not acceptable, especially given the > tendency of the rebate processors to demand proof of > everything, sometimes repeatedly, as one of their techniques > for avoiding paying out rebates.
> Third, this has reached the point where it's no longer only > about the $10, it's about taking a stand and not letting > Staples and Parago get away with treating people like this. > The point is that I was treated badly by e-mail, and that's > got to be stood up to whether or not I would have been > treated better had I called.
I'm amazed that you've had time to amass all the email at the web site in only two months. I think that somehow they made a typo entering SOMETHING which dropped you into the wrong hopper. That happened to me once, and the guy on the other the of the telephone figured out the problem and solved it within two minutes. Took another couple of weeks for the check to arrive, but we can't have everything.
Give the phone call a try. You've already spent hours on this project, so why not blow another one on the phone? If that gives no satisfaction, bundle up everything you've got, haul it into the Staples store and insist that the manager (call ahead to find out his name and make sure he's there) pay you the $10.
-- Cheers, Bev ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rule 18: Always tip your hat before striking a lady.
Jonathan Kamens wrote: > You really have no way of knowing how rare what happened to me > is, since as we've already discussed, most people to whom > this happens either give up, call and get it straightened out > on the phone, or go to the store and get it straightened out > there.
Not being a gambler, my sucker bet is a dime. I bet my dime, which I will give to the first beggar I see after your post confirming my supposition, that you are the victim of a typographical error that will HAVE to be solved by a human with eyes and a brain. Bite the bullet, make the phone call, and keep moving up the chain until you encounter a person with a triple-digit IQ.
You are not harming anyone you want to harm, and you are annoying a lot of people who would probably be on your side if you weren't such a strident whiner, albeit well-organized.
> I could easily make the opposite argument and say that if it > happened to me, then given how many millions of rebate > submissions Parago processes, it clearly must be happening to > other people as well.
Yes, but unless you want to go to law school and sue the bastards yourself, you aren't doing anything at all toward halting these nefarious rebate schemes.
> Finally, even if it's true that the specific thing that went > wrong in my rebate submission is rare, the fact of the matter > is that a reputable company needs to have policies and > procedures in place to be able to handle in an appropriate > fashion whatever rare situations come up. It's clear that > Parago doesn't have such policies and procedures; in fact, it > appears that their policies and procedures encourage their > employees to behave inappropriately. This means that even if > the specific lossage that happened to my rebate never happens > to anyone else, other rare lossages will happen to other > rebates, and those will be handled inappropriately just like > mine was.
See above.
-- Cheers, Bev ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rule 18: Always tip your hat before striking a lady.
> ,,,If that does not work, b) I would just go visit > your local Staples store, as someone else recommended. Hopefully > the manager will see the problems you've had and will give you > the refund, or maybe a gift card for the amount (which, while > not as good as cash at least provides somewhat of a resolution.
After several trips to the store, the Office Max manager gave me a $5 gift certificate for my improperly-rejected $5 rebate (I had shown him proof). I told him I'd take it if he'd buy it back from me on the spot for cash. He agreed.
Several months later the rebate check arrived, perhaps 6 months after submission. I cashed it. One for our side.
-- Cheers, Bev ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rule 18: Always tip your hat before striking a lady.
don't dimiss rebate horror stories... as you're finding, they're true.
count me in the "purposefully dishonest" camp.. both my father and i recently had Seagate rebates denied for no valid reason. When each of us called to complain, the CSR validated them but refused to say why they had been invalidated. I think it is because they are now invalidating large numbers of rebates and only paying those of consumers who complain and have photocopies of everything that can prove they followed the instructions. I even use a postage meter and photocopy the stamped envelope I use to take every excuse away.
i'm sure it's just crazy me, & that Parago is a wonderfully upstanding, ethical company. But a lot of others are coming up with this crazy shit... take a look at fatwallet.com forums. I'm not the only one who thinks what I do. I don't think it's a matter of typos, no way. When I called about the Seagate rebate, everything they had was correct -- and refused to say why it was invalid??? Come on..
fwiw, i've found letters copied to attorneys general and/or the FTC CC'd to the involved companies' CEOs to be pretty effective. Most large companies have a presidential escalations dept. where the people have the power to get things done. I imagine with the recent CompUSA FTC ruling, rebate issues get even higher priority.
And write to Eliot Spitzer of NY even if you don't live there. You think any CEO wants Spitzer to come knocking? no way! Whatever you think of the guy, he's one of the few nowadays standing up for the consumer... he can and will bring down the hammer.
> In general I've poo-pooed the rebate naysayers in this newsgroup, but a > recent experience with "Staples Easy Rebates" has left me with second > thoughts about the whole rebate thing. In short, I bought a $50 > product from Staples on February 28, 2005. The product was eligible > for a $10 cash rebate, which I submitted correctly through > www.stapleseasyrebates.com later the same day. Parago, Staples' rebate > processing vendor, is refusing to pay me the $10. Their claimed > reasons for doing so make no sense and contradict the tracking > information about my submission that is visible to me on > www.stapleseasyrebates.com. I can't figure out whether their behavior > is massively incompetent or purposefully dishonest, but in either > case, it's simply not acceptable.
Jonathan Kamens wrote: > Their Web site claims that they sent me a check which has > cleared. In contrast, they've asserted in repeated e-mails to > me over several weeks that I the rebate offer to which I > responded has as an option the choice of a gift instead of a > rebate, and that I chose to receive the gift.
Phone Parago while their office in Texas is open, and try to speak with somebody located there rather than in India, where employees are allowed little discretion. Mention:
1)You never received a check or a prize;
2)you requested a cash rebate rather than a prize;
3)it makes no sense for their records to show both that your check cleared AND that you received a prize when consumers are allowed only one of those choices.
I believe Parago has you mixed up with 1-2 other customers.
misc.consumers appears to have little impact on consumers and is filled mostly with messages from people who always take the side of the merchant or who argue about politics or discrimination against fat people. You'll have a wider audience at www.fatwallet.com, along with better advice about rebates (forum dedicated to them).
Howard <stil...@email.com.> writes: >> 1) It puts pressure on Staples and Parago to clean up their >> act. Reputable companies don't like to look bad in public.
>Neither company is here. Neither company gives a damn about Usenet.
You're right, neither Staples nor Parago reads misc.consumers. They do, however, know that the Internet, blogs, discussion groups, etc. are., and they also know that I'm posting about their escapades widely in as many appropriate Internet forums as I can find, because I've told them.
You're quite a ways behind the times if you doubt that companies nowadays take word-of-mouth campaigns (both positive and negative) seriously. There's a whole segment of the PR industry dedicated to figuring out how to do effective word-of-mouth campaigns. You should see the great New Balance ads that have been posted around Boston recently (I don't know if that campaign has been running in other towns, since Boston is New Balance's HQ).
In my experience, threatening to publish bad behavior on the Internet, a threat that I employ only when the company I'm dealing with is clearly in the wrong and they know it and yet don't wish to admit, has always succeeded in convincing them to see the error of their ways.
>> 2) Some people decide not to patronize businesses based on >> negative information they learn about them. In my research on
>I know I fully intend to make a >$10 purchase at Staples as soon as >possible, based on your posts alone.
>> 3) Lots of people in this newsgroup have taken the position >> that all the rebate companies are legit and the people who
>Lying is going to improve your case. Certainly.
>I challenge you to name ONE person (other than, as you have admitted, >yourself) who thinks ALL rebate companies are legit.
You're quite good at selectively quoting other people's postings, taking small bits of them out of context to distort the overall point to which you're responding so that you can attack your straw man rather than the actual point that was being made.
I don't know, maybe you're right, maybe there isn't anyone here who has ever said outright that every rebate company is legit. So I misspoke. My point, however, which still stands, is that there are people here who regularly dismiss out of hand the claims posted by others that rebates are a scam and the rebate companies are out to reject valid claims more often than not.
In any case, you've convinced me that you're more interested in pedantic nit-picking than in serious reasoned discussion. Since the latter is what I'm interested in, I see no reason for us to continue interact with each other.... *plonk*
> In general I've poo-pooed the rebate naysayers in this newsgroup, but a > recent experience with "Staples Easy Rebates" has left me with second > thoughts about the whole rebate thing. In short, I bought a $50 > product from Staples on February 28, 2005. The product was eligible > for a $10 cash rebate, which I submitted correctly through > www.stapleseasyrebates.com later the same day. Parago, Staples' rebate > processing vendor, is refusing to pay me the $10. Their claimed > reasons for doing so make no sense and contradict the tracking > information about my submission that is visible to me on > www.stapleseasyrebates.com. I can't figure out whether their behavior > is massively incompetent or purposefully dishonest, but in either > case, it's simply not acceptable.
I've bought 5 -6 rebate items from staples.com and submitted the rebate information online and always received a check as promised. This includes 3 rebates for Turbotax.
> Howard <stil...@email.com.> writes: > >> 1) It puts pressure on Staples and Parago to clean up their > >> act. Reputable companies don't like to look bad in public.
> >Neither company is here. Neither company gives a damn about Usenet.
> You're right, neither Staples nor Parago reads misc.consumers. They > do, however, know that the Internet, blogs, discussion groups, etc. > are., and they also know that I'm posting about their escapades widely > in as many appropriate Internet forums as I can find, because I've > told them.
You know what? They (ESPECIALLY the retailers) know about Fatwallet even more than these newsgroups. And you'll reach more people interested in rebates there, too. What you may also get that you don't want is more knowledgeable people who tell you that the way you're going about this is bullshit and that your best approach is to contact people who can fix your problem. You won't get people who say "all rebates suck" or "I'll never shop at Staples again because of this!"
Scott en Aztlán wrote: > On 11 Apr 2005 14:13:04 -0700, "larry moe 'n curly" > <larrymoencu...@my-deja.com> wrote: > >Parago has never taken anything close to an hour
> Uh huh. And I bet they've never screwed up a rebate, either. ;)
Parago has screwed up plenty of my rebates, but they've been better than most companies at fixing their mistakes, and usually all I've had to do was phone them and possibly read the UPC code. In contrast, out of 5-6 rebates I've sent to TCA Fulfillment (New Rochelle, NY), only one was processed without problems.
> When are you people going to wake up to the fact that rebates > are a SCAM?
I'll learn when the monitor I'm using right now burns out. It was better than free, thanks to two rebates and a coupon.
Scott en Aztlán wrote: > On 12 Apr 2005 00:07:38 -0700, "larry moe 'n curly" > <larrymoencu...@my-deja.com> wrote: > When are you people going to wake up to the fact that rebates > are a SCAM?
> >I'll learn when the monitor I'm using right now burns out. It was > >better than free, thanks to two rebates and a coupon.
> Hey, it's your time; go ahead and waste it if you want.
How is it a waste of time to get a monitor for free plus pocket $30?
120GB hard drive: $30 Small microwave oven: $0.00 NEC DVD writer: $10 Good case & power supply: $25 (some paid just $5 for this) UPS: $0.00 External 80GB hard drive: $30
> On 13 Apr 2005 20:38:22 -0700, "larry moe 'n curly" > <larrymoencu...@my-deja.com> wrote:
> >How is it a waste of time to get a monitor for free plus pocket $30?
> If it costs you 2 hours of your time to chase it down, and you're a > consultant making $200/hour, that "free" monitor just cost you $400.
> Now, if your time is only worth minimum wage, then I guess you made > out like a bandit. :)
It's a pretty wild assumption that the average person sitting around at home could bill an otherwise unused hour, not to mention at anything remotely approaching $200. But hey, it helps your fantasy of justifying why rebates are evil, so go with it. The rest of us just laugh at it, anyway.
> On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 00:51:34 GMT, Bill <billru...@prodigy.net> wrote:
> >> >How is it a waste of time to get a monitor for free plus pocket $30?
> >> If it costs you 2 hours of your time to chase it down, and you're a > >> consultant making $200/hour, that "free" monitor just cost you $400.
> >> Now, if your time is only worth minimum wage, then I guess you made > >> out like a bandit. :)
> >It's a pretty wild assumption that the average person sitting > >around at home could bill an otherwise unused hour, not to > >mention at anything remotely approaching $200.
> Feel free to subsititute your own hourly wage and calculate the > break-even point for yourself. Most rebates are for relatively small > amounts; is it worth spending 2 hours and $1.75 in toll charges to > chase down a $5 rebate?
But your assumption is that the time I sit around at home has any resellable value. If so, you could just as easily make the case that watching TV costs money.
> >The rest of us just laugh at it, anyway.
> Instead of laughing, how about becoming part of the solution? Do you > actually ENJOY playing these silly rebate games? Filling out stupid > forms with spaces that are too small for any human being to legibly > write in? Do you ENJOY giving away your personal information for junk > mail lists? Wouldn't you rather just get a lower price at the cash > register and be done with it?
Except that I know that they're not going to give me deals like I am getting in the store without rebates. I'm not going to get wireless routers for free (or better). Maybe they will be $20 or 30 without the rebate. For the rebate-phobic, that could be a great deal. For me it's not.
Scott en Aztlán wrote: > On 13 Apr 2005 20:38:22 -0700, "larry moe 'n curly" > <larrymoencu...@my-deja.com> wrote: > >How is it a waste of time to get a monitor for free plus pocket $30?
> If it costs you 2 hours of your time to chase it down, and you're a > consultant making $200/hour, that "free" monitor just cost you $400.
> Now, if your time is only worth minimum wage, then I guess you made > out like a bandit. :)
If you weren't spending two hours over rebate, would you be paid $400 for it?
Donald Trump said that if he sees a penny on the ground, he picks it up. so if 2 seconds is worth a penny to someone as wealthy as him, then 10 minutes to submit a rebate is certainly worth $5-50 to me.
>>> >How is it a waste of time to get a monitor for free plus pocket $30?
>>> If it costs you 2 hours of your time to chase it down, and you're a >>> consultant making $200/hour, that "free" monitor just cost you $400.
>>> Now, if your time is only worth minimum wage, then I guess you made >>> out like a bandit. :)
>>If you weren't spending two hours over rebate, would you be paid $400 >>for it?
>So you think that time has no value unless you can bill someone for >it?
>For most people, "free" time is the most valuable time of all. There >are an almost infinite number of things I would rather be doing with >my spare time than jumping through asinine hoops in order to get a $10 >rebate. OTOH, if filling out forms and calling rebate fulfillment >houses on the phone is the most exciting thing you can find to do, >then more power to ya. ;)
Funny - it seems like you can't find anything better to do with your time than to attempt to discourage others from doing what they choose. I'd be interested to leasrn how you can earn more by advising others not to submit rebates. One way would be for you to be a shill for the rebate industry - the fewer submissions recieved, the more money for your masters.
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