What is UP with all those MIR?!

[technut]

on the next episode of marketplace/venture they are doing a story on mail in rebates should be interesting

I'd like to see that! Any idea when it is on?

[ihk]

always always make photo copies, and write down when you mailed it in. send it in via registered mail so they will get it if you want to go into taht much trouble.. etc..

can you send registered mail to a PO box?

[mahjongmaniac]

The whole principle of manufacturer rebates is to entice you into buying somebody's product. Then you get lazy, or forget, and they make full value.

3rd party rebates are all about money management. Rebate companies hold onto the money as long as possible to generate interest, and then they turn around and sell your personal info to boot.

-------------

i agree w/ what Canaianpsycho thinks... a lot of ppl out there are either too lazy to do the MIR or they just 4get about it... and thats how the manufacturers make even MORE profit from consumers...

same: 95% success rates on all my MIRs.... so i'm happy.... and good advice never too lame: ALWAYS keep photocopies of ur rebates... receipts, UPCs, rebate forms... whatever u send in basically.... and writing down the date u sent the rebate form in the postal mail is a definite "DO".... sometimes when the MIR says "4-6 weeks for processing" and u waited the full 6 weeks, u fone in/ email them and they'll tell u that "processing hasnt' finished yet" or somethin like that.....

my 2 cents...

MJM

[tet8suo]

on the next episode of marketplace/venture they are doing a story on mail in rebates should be interesting

I'd like to see that! Any idea when it is on?

http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/
The Bait in Rebates: Marketplace looks at how companies bet against consumers following through on their rebates.

Probably air at the 2nd January.

[ZenOps]

MIR is all about making the product look less expensive than it really is.

You do pay tax on the full amount, you do pay postage, you do screw yourself over with the warranty (cutting off the UPC and sending in a original reciept means you can't return it)

Add to that, you lose a couple months interest at least. Its not a big deal at our end, but for the company that is issuing maybe a hundred thousand of these things, its a thousand or so easy.

And of course there is always the ~15 to 30 percent who fill out the form wrong or forget or are too busy to mail it in time.

[cliff]

From the marketplace website:

Marketplace Sunday (jan 2) at 7:00 p.m. on CBC Television. Repeated Mondays (jan 3) on Newsworld at 8:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. (ET).

It also has a bunch of other timeslots on the various cbc channels throughout the week.