...and then I get back some money...eventually.

Lazy? I don't have time for rebates. I don't even have time to read a magazine.

I usually manage to send mine in on the very last qualifying day. At times, i would miss it and take it as a lost. I would say it would be 4/5 times.

@innout3x3:
but you always have time for gizmodo?

I'd rather go for a deal without the rebate (like at Newegg). Before I started shopping online, mail-in rebates were the way to go. The one time I didnt send in for a rebate, it was for $5. The higher the rebate return, the more likely I'll send it in.

If I ever see that rebate money back is another matter.

I'm pretty adamant about getting my rebate, but I hate rebates. I usually try to steer clear if I can.

I usually buy stuff with rebates but then i usually push off sending them in till they are a few months past due.
thats what i did with the "free" printer rebate for my canon XTi.
i still have all the forms right next to me on the floor.

About 3 years ago I tried to use the $50 mail in rebate for an ATI video card. I sent them the rebate and the receipt.

Then they sent it back saying the receipt wasn't included. So I took the receipt back out of the envelope and stapled it to the front of the voucher and send it back.

Then they sent it back saying that only half the receipt was found. The reason being is that they'd cut the whole thing in half when they opened the envelope with a knife. So I took the remainder portion of the receipt and voucher (that was still int the envelope I'd sent originally) taped it back together and sent it back.

They sent that back saying they couldn't accept the receipt because it had been modified and wasn't original. So I took the whole thing back to the store I bought the video card from and they were able to reprint a new receipt. So I sent in a bunch of new paperwork.

ATI sent the whole thing back saying that the voucher was no longer valid because the promotion had expired.

So I really don't bother with mail in rebates anymore. Any company that has "a sale" that involves a mail in rebate to take advantage of the sale doesn't get my money at all.

Main in rebates are the worst thing you could ever have. Ever. EVER.

Why? Half the time you don't get the rebate back but because it takes anywhere between 12 weeks to the end of time, you won't ever know or remember. And in the off chance that you remember, it'll probably be years later when you realize that whatever you bought is useless now and think "hey, mail in rebate..."

Mail in rebates are only useful for stores that supposedly offer them but have a problem, so they just give it to you for the lowered price. But that doesn't happen nearly often enough.

@Totalfixation: Of course! I read giz while I use my "companies dime" while I run my HPLC and report chromatographs. I meant I don't have time outside of work to mail those rebates. I start work at 6 AM end work at 10 PM then go to sleep. That is why I don't have time to mail rebates.

I mail in for all rebates I come across and I get all my checks. You see the thing is, I work at a rebate processing company, so I know how important it is to read the fine print and pay attention to every detail. I'll tell you, in most cases, people screw themselves out of rebates for not following the directions 100%.

horrendous

They're nowhere near as common over here in the UK.
About the only things I've found that use rebates are mobile phone contracts.

But, on the odd occasion that I do purchase something with a rebate, you can be sure that I get my money back.

@diverguy: Why are you such a pushover? I would have paid the extra 500 to fly down their and shove the rebate up their arse.

Realistically, I really would have just written a nasty letter to somebody higher up threatening to never buy their products again... that usually works.

@shamoononon: eek, grammar

Crap, you guys just reminded me I have a rebate to send in.

Looking at the results, I see a slight ordering bias, as if people aren't actually reading the choices!

@diverguy: "Any company that has "a sale" that involves a mail in rebate to take advantage of the sale doesn't get my money at all."

I am SO with you on this one, with a slight variation. I will ONLY make a transaction that involves a rebate IF the rebate is for a minimum of $50.00 (to be worth my time in dealing with it) AND I get a sense that the rebate will be handled fairly (such as there is an online tracking process I can check in with). Yup, that pretty much means I won't accept a deal involving a rebate.

I don't do rebates since Sprint still owes me $100 from 4 years ago. Originally they said they didn't have the info, then it wasn't available until after the contract (2 years). I eventually gave up -I hate wasting life energy on such issues and chalked it up to a life-lesson. I'm now with the Deathstar phone carrier.

Fuck Sprint

@SeattleTed: Same bastards at T-mobile pulled that shit on me too. They said I was too late to send the rebate. I sent it months before the due date. (This is when I had time to send rebates)

rebates are my bitches, as are price matches to other stores/price reductions. sometimes I don't buy a gadget unless I can finagle both into the purchase

I despise rebate forms since the concept stays alive solely based on people who do not submit them, or companies that refuse to honor them. It is also annoyance with the way that companies will advertise the price and then in small letters put 'after mail-in rebate'.

Maybe I just need some happy pills and then all will be right with the world. I can sit their clipping rebates and singing in the rain all the way to the mailbox.

Nah. Screw that. Rebates suck.

What it should say is "How lazy and forgetful are the scumbag companies that handle rebates"? Rebates are from the frickin devil...

@Sean: Great poll today. I apologize for the D- grade I gave you yesterday. We are not worthy of this fantastic poll.

@Monty: I am harping on you today, buddy. '... their clipping rebates' ?? Duh. It is '... there clipping rebate', retard. Geez. Go home and hang out with your family why don't you.

I have probably made a couple dozen rebate purchases in my life. I have always sent them in and I have always gotten the money (eventually.) If you can't afford to wait for a rebate, don't use them.

i've gotten rebates from a certain phone company, all on debt/credit like cards. we had like 8 of them, each needing a different pin number with every use, and some places had a minimum charge rule, so the card was basically worthless after you went down to $8. when we called to complain, they had expired. great.

I send in for rebates on everything. 2gb Sandisk SD cards? $8 after rebate. Sony Ericsson cellphone? Free AND I got $10 back after rebate. Why be lazy? It's savings, and who doesn't want savings now that the US is in a recession?

If it came with it, I send it.
If I have to find it online, I sometimes do.
If it was an e-rebate, of course.

what does "other" imply ?

I've sent in a few MIRs, but on the whole, they've proven to be an inconvenience and too much trouble for the time saved. :\

I've had a couple unpleasant experiences (including one with BFG, whose graphics cards I otherwise like) where rebates weren't honored despite having all the proper documentation and being postmarked before the deadline.

I always send them in, and I've gotten all of them except for one worth $5, when the instructions weren't clear about which UPC code to send in (the one from the first item or the one that becomes free after rebate), so I sent them both in. Got a card back saying I didn't send in the correct UPC and was invalid, when I sent the only two it could possibly be.

I don't include MIR values in with cost of the product - a product at $79 with a $20 MIR is not $59. I have gotten burned too many times in the past. I'd say 80% of my rebates come through.

Most recently, I got some Corsair memory from Newegg with a $30 rebate. After two months of waiting I give a call, I find out they "never received" the form, I send them my copies of receipt and UPC and two weeks later I got a letter stating I was ineligible because I submitted copies, not originals. I'm thinking that the original forms were never last in the first place.

I like rebates because they're magic money. I get the mail each day. I get the checks. I cash the checks. My SO never sees the money. Yeah. I'm as pathetic as that sounds.

I mail them in solely because they are offered with the expectation that I won't.

I don't buy much since I'm po' white trash, but when I do buy something with a rebate, I generally send it in. Only got screwed once, but it WAS my fault, by missing the deadline by a day or two. Although I suppose they COULD have honored it anyway.

A long time ago, In a galaxy far, far away...
I used to work for a retail auto parts store. The oil companies were famous for having rebates, or footballs, or hats with logos, with a reciept and upc from the case. Well, we could print out rebate reciepts when the customers bought a case, and take the UPC's off the cases when we broke them down for indivual bottles. The employees would use friends names and addresses so not to have duplicates and split the loot. It felt good to get back at the system. I didn't do it myself of course.

I just turned in a rebate for a $2.39 jar of salsa. I'll take free money wherev I can getit!

Im way too lazy for MIR...i had one for $100 dollars i totally forgot about last year. Yup... $100 buckaroos. Im so lazy i would be willing to pay someone to do the stupid MIR process for me.

I've never been screwed on a mail in rebate. The only times I'd been screwed is when I wasn't ready to send them in by the deadline.

Nowadays I almost never entertain a mail-in-rebate offer unless it's a huge discount, and if/when I do, I send it in immediately. Worked great for my 24in widescreen monitor I got from Office Depot on Black Friday (130 dollar rebate).

@miwahall: but its not free.... its basically the markup on a product thats either being d/c'd or a stock slash to make way for a new model. Retail markups always go away in the forms of clearance, rebates, and closeouts... thats why BIg Lots exists

I have been sending mine in, when I do get the items because of rebate, for more than 15 years and only one company has ever paid and that is OCZ. I find this amazing, I never received a rebate until I left the U.S. and moved to Canada 2 years ago. HHHmmmm!

I hate them with a passion.

All a MIR really is, is an interest free loan to a large corporation. Think about it. You buy something for $500 with a $100 MIR. Even if you remember to send it in, they hold on to your money for three months, which they use to make more money.

I will ALWAYS buy the item with out the MIR, just on principal. I'm sick of getting jacked around by companies and their "deals". If they can sell the item for $400 bucks, then they should do that. Not hose me for an additional $100 and pay me back at their convenience.

I always send them in but no longer bother searching for them. I have gotten to where if the rebate is the only thing that make a "bargain" a bargain I'll take a pass.

If the rebate's the only reason I buy something (rare) then I always send it in.

If it's not back in two months, and there's no apparent reason for it, then that's the last product I buy from that company with a MIR.

If something has a rebate I follow it to the letter and keep copies.
I don't go looking for them but I'll do it if it's necessary.

I got burned by Palm on my wife's M130 PDA and didn't have a copy of the original UPC they said I didn't send in.

After that I vowed that I'd cover my ass on that stuff.

Mail in rebates are designed NOT to be sent in. Tons of rules, steps to take, waiting time, all that jazz. Companies hope that you won't send in the rebate.....that way they get you into the store for the sale, but don't ever actually have to give you the sale price.

Staples here has a better way of doing it, the rebate is processed right at the store, you just mail in a second copy of your receipt. You can even scan and email it if you choose.

That said, I don't go looking for rebates, but you can be assured I send mine in every time.

The departments that take care of rebates are mean, and forgetful, or at least have been in my experience.
If any, they should make them completely online. Mailing things stinks.

I always send mine in.

Except that I got dicked over by sears once n a 'free delivery' rebate because I thought I needed to send something (like a serial number or something) from my fridge when it was actually delivered.

My back ordered fridge.

My backordered fridge that didn't get delivered until two days after the end of the rebate period.

The rebate that I could have sent in the same day that I had put in the fridge order.

The rebate that they wouldn't honor, even though the end of one rebate period was the start of another rebate period with the EXACT same terms (but a different rebate number).

/wants my $69 back, not that $69 is a lot of money to me. But it's the principle of the thing (plus an xbox 360 game).

To everyone who says that the company refused your receipt&rebate.

A) Make copies of your UPC, receipt, the stamped envelope, and rebate all together. Simple as that. It's your "proof" that you sent it in.

B) Make a video of you mailing the goddamned thing.

C) MAKE COPIES!

I have never had any problems getting any rebates. $5 or $100. A-Okay. And if the rebate center starts beef with me, I would just wave my copies at them.

People are just too lazy to read the rebate carefully and then more than 1x. If they did all that and followed proper instructions and got it out ontime then the rebate follows through.

You can get a ton of free stuff and save hundreds.

I got a free Canon Color Copier/Scanner/Printer with a rebate. Saved me $100. Sure you have to wait 6-8weeks. But in 6-8 weeks, you'll have your $100 back and a free printer. Then spend that $100 towards something you really want like a PSP, PS3, 360, Wii or whatnot.

Lets not forget that they charge you sales tax on the full price, not the sale price. Bastards! "The only way to win is not to play".

I have to say that OCZ has never gone wrong for me. 8+ Ram kits $25-35 back each time. Can't beat 2GB DDR2 for $30+25%tax.

@CutePuppyz: Yup, copy all the documentation that you have when sending in a rebate as well as have Delivery Confirmation added to the envelope. In my most recent case, Newegg, conversations with them led to a direct address in Tempe, AZ. where I sent copies, and everything was rejected because it wasn't an original UPC.

Don't be so arrogant to think that "the rebate follows through" everytime, or the customer is at fault. I can name three times I have not gotten a rebate, most from distributor based rebates (as opposed to manufacturer). One rather large one from 4 tires for my car was a nightmare.

I fill out every rebate form I get...it's like free money, if it comes.

I think the problem is that mail-in rebates just take so damn long and customers fail to read the fine print. I worked at Canada's largest electronics chain for about half a year and the problem was that most of our "sale" items were a mail-in rebate and not an instant savings. We would always get complaints about customers never receiving their money and that it was somehow our fault and not the manufacturer. The head honchos finally got so fed up of this nuisance that the company itself decided to outlaw mail-in rebates completely and have everything instant in-store savings. Mail-in rebates are a pain in the ass for the consumer, which is why companies still issue them. There are always going to be that 5-10% that are just too lazy to do anything about it, which in turn saves the company money. And the "hardcores" that send them in either a) don't receive the money half the time or b) by the time they do get it, said product is already obsolete and they are already looking at purchasing an upgrade which itself probably has a mail-in rebate as well.

I always try to avoid rebate at all cost. But it's a stellar deal or i product I have to buy, i always send in the form and always get my money back. maybe i'm lucky

I always send them in, and keep copies just in case. Never had a problem getting the dough back. Must have sent in about a dozen over the years.