Gizmodo: rebates

HTC Hero $100 Rebate Is Mercifully Instant at Best Buy

John Herrman — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:18:20 EDT

I had essentially taken this for granted, since Best Buy's instant rebate policy is storewide, but hey, just in case: Whittling the HTC Hero's price down to the advertised $180 will take the redemption of a $50 "instant savings" (don't worry about this) as well as a $100 mail-in rebate, which Best Buy has confirmed they'll take care of, sparing you the endless torment of cutting out a barcode, sticking it in an envelope and driving by the post office.

They've also confirmed that they're the only non-Sprint-store retailer that'll have the Hero. Aaaaand Sprint stores will be handing you a rebate form to take home, so, well, you've got a pretty obvious choice to make here.

Palm Pre's Irritating $100 Rebate Will Be Instant At Best Buy (Update: And Radio Shack!)

John Herrman — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:21:32 EDT

Annoyingly, you won't be able to get a Palm Pre for the advertised $199 without redeeming a $100 mail-in rebate—something Sprint is depending on you not doing. Solution: get yours at Best Buy. UPDATED

A PR rep for the company has confirmed to us that the Pre's $100 rebate, originally announced as a mail-in affair, will be instantly deducted at the register in Best Buy stores. In other words, Best Buy will take care of the rebate process for you. In other other words, just buy your Pre at the Big Blue, and save yourself the pain.

UPDATE: A Radio Shack rep has gotten back to us:

RadioShack will also be honoring the mail-in rebate instantly.

Like Best Buy, processing mail-in rebates immediately is standard practice for them. Good to know, though. [Best Buy]

Dilbert Takes on Cellphone Rebates In Epic Battle With Rebaterus

Jack Loftus — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 12:15:00 EDT

Once again, Dilbert takes on and lampoons infamous gadget demons and memes so you don't have to. Man, do I hate rebates. [Dilbert]

Pentax Rebate Knocks $100 Off Entry-Level K2000 DSLR Kits

Jack Loftus — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 10:00:00 EST

A nice little $100 rebate and a two-year warranty boost are being applied this month to the Pentax K2000 entry-level DSLR and the K20D, respectively. This Dealzmodo expires February 22.

According to a release over at TechCrunch, the rebate is applied across all three K2000 kits:

The K2000 flash kit is dropping down to $600 and that includes the K2000 body, smc DA L 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 AL lens and the AF200FG Auto Flash. A two-lens kit for the K2000 is going for $649.95 and includes the aforementioned 18-55mm lens along with the smc DA L 50-200mm F4-5.6 lens. There's a single lens kit (18-55mm) for $549.95 and the body itself is $499.95.

Crave cameras that look like they were assembled from discarded Stormtrooper parts? This could be the deal you're looking for. Move along! [TechCrunch]

RebateStatus.com Files For Chapter 11, Your Rebate May Be Affected

Sean Fallon — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:02:00 EST

One of the nation's largest rebate processing firms, CPG (RebateStatus.com) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. What does that mean for you? Well, if you happened to mail-in a rebate form with a company that CPG works with, your check may be in limbo because they don't have the money to cash it. At this point, exactly how the situation will be handled is unclear—but there are a few things you can do to get things under control. Dealnews is recommending that anyone who has a rebate check or is expecting one not cash it because it may bounce and result in an NSF fee. Instead, you should hang on to it until more details become available (this goes for rebates that have not been submitted as well). If you are not sure whether or not your rebate is invovled, a partial list of affected companies is available after the break.

Partial list of companies that have dealt with CFG in recent months:

Acronis Software
ACTIVSION
Advance Auto Parts
Antec
AVG
Bed Bath & Beyond
BIC Corporations US - Shaver Division
BFG
Bridgevine
Canon
Citibank
costco
Fujitsu
Home Depot
Logitech
Motorola (Surfboard cable modems)
Natures Earth Products
Nero
Panda Distribution
Pandigital
PC Tools
PriceGrabber
Rosewill (Newegg house brand)
Samsung
Smith Micro Software
Tabletops Unlimited
TrendNET
Westinghouse
XFX
ZeroTherm
Zyxel

Naturally, the best way to tell whether or not you are affected is to head on over to rebatestatus.com and check on your submission. You may also want to try and call any of the numbers listed on your rebate form on the off chance they can provide more information. I would expect an official announcement from CPG (or something from the company you purchased the item from) with details on how to proceed sometime in the next few days. [Dealnews and Fatwallet and Tampa Bay Business Journal Thanks Luis!]

Question of the Day: How Lazy are You With Mail-In Gadget Rebates?

Sean Fallon — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:30:00 EDT

Rebate sales are everywhere when it comes to consumer electronics. Some of them are shady for sure, but even for the legit ones, you still have to go though a bunch of bs to get your money back. For that reason, I would be willing to bet many of the consumers out there forfeit the savings because they were too lazy or forgetful to fill out forms and cut out UPC codes. So the question is, how lazy/forgetful are you with mail-in gadget rebates?

While you can't dump your $100 in Apple apology...

Matt Buchanan — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 09:30:29 EDT

While you can't dump your $100 in Apple apology moneys directly into your iTunes account or iTunes electronic gift certificates, you can still hit up the Apple Store (online or B&M) to buy iTunes gift cards if you're insistent on blowing your bucks on tuneage. [TUAW]

American Express $200 iPhone Price Rebates Coming In

Jason Chen — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:20:26 EDT

The $200-ish American Express Price Protection for iPhones we told you about a week ago is starting to roll in for a couple readers. American Express is handling this on a case-by-case basis (at least, that's what they've been telling customers), but some people are getting their money back. Couple that with the $100 from Apple that you're getting, early adopters would have essentially purchased an iPhone for $299. Oh, and if you're calling American Express to check in on your claim, don't reference this post. Too much of that and they'll stop this gravy train at sad sack station. [Amex]

How to Claim Your $100 "Early iPhone Owner" Credit

Matt Buchanan — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 10:57:25 EDT

Apple has released the magic three steps it'll take to snag your $100 in store credit, which can be redeemed either at retail locations or the online store. According to our intern Benny, the process actually is as easy as it sounds: Fill in your phone number and your iPhone's serial number; you'll get a text message with an access code; pop in the access code and your phone number again. Bam. You have $100, which you can proceed to give right back to Apple. Update: The fine print says you have to be activated on AT&T, which is why they check your phone number. So if you're planning on jumping countries or carriers via unlocking, get your money first. Update #2: Another look at the fine print shows that the credit can not be applied to an Apple Gift Card, iTunes Store purchase or an iTunes Gift Card. [Apple]

BB Spot mocks iPhone rebates with 20-Year,...

Brian Lam — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 14:44:22 EDT

BB Spot mocks iPhone rebates with 20-Year, $7k Apple Lisa rebate parody. "Sales figures from that year show that if all people who bought the computer claim the refund, Apple could be liable for almost $70,000." LOL! [BBSpot]

Cingular Burns Customers on RAZR Rebates

gizmodo.com — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 11:35:02 EST

Uh-oh. Looks like you won't be getting cold, hard cash back from Cingular when you buy a $99 Moto RAZR. Reader Michael Schwan recently activated two new lines with Cingular and decided to go with the $99 RAZR deal for phones. A few weeks later an envelope came in the mail from Cingular but there was no check inside. Instead Cingular had enclosed a Visa Rewards gift card and that was that. Sorry, Cingular, but I can't deposit a Visa gift card, nor spend it at the corner store. The kicker is that it was never mentioned to him when he went to Cingular to activate his phones. Total suckage, so beware of these sneaky Cingular rebates.

Update From Cingular: "Just wanted to let you know that Cingular has been paying customers on rebates via VISA card for a long, long time now, it's nothing new. And on the rebate form HE filled out and HE sent in, it says cleanly that rebates are paid via VISA card (and has a picture of one for god's sake).

Just thought I'd let you know, as I work for the company, and feel you listing us as a 'scam' really isn't fair at all.

CompUSA Gets Crazy with Laptop Pricing

tgrumet — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 08:52:57 EST

And you thought that $398 laptop at Walmart the day after Thanksgiving was cheap! Fuhgeddaboutit. CompUSA can beat that. On Sunday, the computer company was selling a Toshiba laptop with a 15-inch screen, 1.5GHz Celeron M processor, 256MB of memory and a 60GB hard drive for $150, after $550 in rebates and signing away your life to AOL for one year. It lasted only 16 hours, but even with the AOL thrown in that's a darn good deal. And then, to go one step further, the retailer offered a $99 Compaq desktop with an AMD processor, 17-inch CRT monitor, 256MB of memory, an 80GB hard drive and a CD-RW drive—also after about $480 worth of rebates. Obviously it's a ploy to get warm bodies into the store and spending money. Brian Woods, executive vice president and general merchandising manager of CompUSA, reported the company sold 7500 Toshiba notebooks in just 2 hours, while 7500 desktop bundles were also sold during the day. But don't fret, though the laptops were completely sold out, some of those desktops are still around, so I suggest checking your CompUSA flyer this weekend if you're looking for a deal.

No. It wasn't a typo [news.com]