Anyone gotten their rebate yet ???

[Ed Baatz]

REBATES!

I agree completely with you Tim. That's just the way it "is"... Seems like an epidemic of: "Well it's not _my_ fault! Oh heavens no, I'm not responsible..." type of attitude.

It IS exactly like that, but resorting to such devious trickery is at best morally questionable. I suppose that corporations save a LOT of money by such deceits and then they pass those savings on to all of us?

Cool... Other people get screwed; I benefit. What a great philosophy.

It does seem to me like the entire "rebate scheme" is precisely meant to cheat consumers. Why not otherwise just discount the price when the item is purchased? Obviously the rebate process itself is inherently complicted, time consuming and tedious.

Why even bother offering rebates? The companies have to pay to have the rebate program administered. But, these companies BENEFIT from rebates that are never paid, either because you forget to dot your "i"s or cross your "t"s or the check gets lost in the mail or for whatever other reasons...

I propose boycotting ALL rebates and see how long the major players continue to foist that scam off on everyone... Won't ever happen though. Greed wins out. <end of rant>

Ed Baatz
Sarasota, Florida

[Tim Frank]

First of all, I'm Tim...and Seriously...Manufacturer's don't care, because they'd rather draw it out and take as long as they can thinking when you get it in the mail you'll never remember you were even getting a rebate...the better they do this, the more money for them.

[Ed Baatz]

Exactly Tim... Otherwise known as a "SCAM" ???

[Tim Frank]

You can call it whatever you want...whatever floats your boat. I just tell it the way it is.

[Ed Baatz]

Tim,

I guess it all depends upon what your definition of "is" is?

Call it whatever you want, tell it however you want (even: "as it is") --- the bottom line "is" that, in my opinion, it is a ridiculously wide-spread, deceptive business practice with its main intent of insidiously defrauding the customers who are buying the "rebated" products.

If you really believe the main purpose of rebate programs is to simply delay the discount process as you stated --- I disagree.

And I'm just calling it the way I see it, not telling it the way it is... Who knows, I might even be wrong? My boat might not be afloat.

;o)

[Jody Albritton]

I sent my rebate off on december 27 and recieved it on friday march 26. On the rebateshq website it appeared posted around january 25. It was in the final stages of processing for about 2 months and then it changed to your check has been sent and it posted a check number.

The rebate comes in an envelope with a return address of rebates hq. The check inside has Canon as the issuer.

hope this helps

[Jeff Donald]

Rebates are attractive to the retailers. Having owned several small business's and done consulting for major retailers I think I can explain why retailers like rebates. Rebates don't lower their gross sales. If the manufacture just lowered their price the retailer might not show an increase in sales from one year over the next. This is important to small business. Why? When I went to my banker to borrow money etc. he liked to see an increase from one year over the next.

Now having said that, studies show that many consumers don't bother with rebates of less than $50 USD. So, you can think of it as a tax on lazy or ignorant consumers.

Since nothing new is really being added to this thread, and DV Info has nothing to do with the rebates, I'll caution the members to limit the discussion to the original members question.

[Nick Jushchyshyn]

Thanks Jeff.
I agree. I really didn't want to start a debate on the topic of rebates in general. Just wanted to see if anyone was actually getting them.

Back on that topic, for those that receieved their rebates, did the status on the rebate site reflect that the rebate had been sent??
or did it just remain in an "approved" state ??

Thanks again to those that reported on the status of their rebates.

Have fun

[Bryan McCullough]

I got my rebate on Friday.

Status stills says 'approved' on the website.

[Nick Jushchyshyn]

Just to report back on this little blast from the past....

My rebate check just arrived ... YESTERDAY !!!
Sheesh. I bought this camera at the end of November, 2003.
Over six months waiting.

Well, I guess I should just be glad it finally arrived. :)

Have fun.

[Scott Balkum]

I sent mine in 3 weeks ago, got it Saturday.

[Nick Jushchyshyn]

One thing I noted is that the check came in a large priority mail envelope, not as a post card.

Maybe the gave the old rebate company the sack and started sending them out on their own to catch up or something.

Good to hear that yours arrived in a timely manner. Renews my hope to get an even better Canon some day in the future. :)

Have fun.

[Scott Balkum]

Mine arrived as a postcard. I think it is silly the lengths they go through to "accidently lose" rebates..

I would think that a jury would find the rebate company guilty of intentionally trying to have your rebate stolen if they were ever sued in a civil court case.

[Miguel Lombana]

I purchased my GL2's on March 29th and got my rebate checks last week. I had to call the place and explain to them that the terms and conditions were 6 to 8 weeks and it was 8 weeks that day and I had gotten nothing. I was pushy and within a couple of "I have to talk to my supervisor" holds, he advised that it was going to be taken care of and I'd have it in 5 to 7 days, they delivered.

Note: The postcard that everyone talks about, I didn't get that, I got 2 envelopes with 2 checks each for 250 from Canon USA.

Hope this helps...

MIGUEL

[Evan Kubota]

Got my rebate today. They received my information on March 31st, so it took slightly over 2 months. To all those who said I wouldn't get it after buying from US1Camera, you were wrong. I saved quite a bit of money, and can recommend them for buying a GL2.