Rebates
September 28, 2007
When I bought my Hp Z3100, the pricing included a $1000 rebate.
I hate rebates. I hate them to pieces.
Here’s what I hate about rebates. All manufacturers, for reasons that I frankly don’t understand, refuse to send rebates to post office boxes. No doubt their motivation has something to do with some stupid blather about preventing fraud and all that crap. I don’t know, and I don’t care.
What pisses me off most intensely is that I have no alternative that’s simple. It’s not like I can give them a street address, BECAUSE I LIVE AT THE END OF 2.5 MILES OF GRAVEL ROAD AND THE POST OFFICE DOES NOT DELIVER MAIL TO MY STREET ADDRESS. I know this is hard for mindless dweebs who have never driven on a gravel road to understand, but there are actually residences in the USA where the post office does not deliver. And, amazingly, people who live in such places get their mail delivered to PO boxes at the local post office. All of this is perfectly normal and perfectly legal.
I’m tired of the implication that if I get my mail at a PO box I’m a crook. I hope the person responsible for this has something really unpleasant happen to them today. And tomorrow, and the day after that. I hope all their mail gets misdirected to Chicken, Alaska, especially their paychecks. In perpetuity.
So I’ve sent in the form to HP, listing BOTH my street address and my PO Box, and giving the nine-digit zip code that corresponds to my PO box. (Yes, actually, all those people who insist that a nine digit zip code isn’t enough to identify someone - you’re wrong. My nine digit zip code narrows down to exactly four people, all in my family). I’ll just have to hope that when the rebate check arrives at my local post office, the postal clerk who handles it will figure out which PO box to put it in.
Oh, and here’s the kicker. The address I have to send the rebate materials to?
It’s a frickin’ PO box. Apparently, HP feel that this isn’t a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
To say that this diminishes my respect for HP as a company is to vastly understate the situation.
September 28, 2007 at 2:53 pm
I have a related problem with my university address - the real address is just the building name, the city, state and Zip, since the campus processes the mail, we do not use street addresses. But try to order anything without either a street address or a PO Box.
I just use various dummy street names.
September 28, 2007 at 2:56 pm
I dislike the whole rebate scheme, myself. No gravel road for me, though.
From what I understand, they intentionally make it a bit difficult to get the rebate, which is why it’s so restrictive. Perhaps this is just another conspiracy theory, but it seems that a lot of people either forget, wait to long, or do something slightly wrong.
They do have services that give you what looks like a street address, but is really a PO box. It just look like you live in an apartment.
I just sent for a $100 rebate myself from Epson.
September 28, 2007 at 4:23 pm
My Z3100 rebate check arrived in the mail today. Whew! I’m always a bit amazed when a rebate is successfully processed. Why do I feel like they’ve done me a favor, or something?
September 28, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Well, of course, the whole point of a rebate is to extract lots of information, while making a product seem less expensive, and then later effectively raise the price by just stopping the rebate.
One might argue that refusal to send a rebate to a legit P.O. box was an abuse of commerce law. (Bait and switch or failed promise.) That is, maybe your friendly lawyer could write them a letter that would persuade them to change their mind….
October 13, 2007 at 7:42 pm
I believe manufacturers use rebates with the expectation that a significant segment of the buyers will forget to claim the rebate on time; fill out the form incorrectly; or, throw out the UPC code before they fill out the forms (my mistake recently). Gift certificates work the same way. Just another way to make a buck.