Tuesday, September 22, 2009

nothing is easy anymore

When we went back-to-school shopping for our High School Freshman we had to buy a new calculator, which was atrociously expensive, but Staples tried to sweeten the deal by giving a $10 rebate. (I will not even go into the pain in the rear it was to actually register for it!)

I miss the good ol' days when rebates were in the form of a postcard check with no instructions. Everyone knows what to do with a check. Duh! Even better, I remember when prices were low enough that you didn't need to worry about a stinkin' rebate.

Yesterday, a month later, we get the rebate in the form of a Visa debit card. The envelope also contained a whole bunch of small print, legalese paperwork. Reading it gave me a headache.
Here are some of the topic titles:
  • Definitions
  • Authorized Users
  • Using Your Card
  • Returns and Refunds
  • Receipts, Confidentiality
  • Our Liability for Failure to Complete Transactions
  • Amendment and Cancellation
  • Information About Your Right to Dispute Errors
  • Privacy and Data Protection (they are tracking where I will use this pittance!!)
  • Arbitration Disclosure
  • Arbitration Provision.

It's ten dollars, people!

I wonder how much money they had to pay the lawyers to come up with said legalese for my ten dollar Visa rebate card? Or the extra postage to get it here in a nicely-printed window-style envelope?


Wanna know the irony in all of this? click here.

5 comments:

Maria (also Bia) said...

we almost got nicholas' calculator there because of the rebate...but joe said no way because we have been burned too many times with mail-in rebates. a week later, the silver edition of that calculator was on sale at target...we got nicholas the last blue one.

mail-in rebates...ick.

Perryn said...

looking at it from a transatlantic perspective, i don't get this whole rebates thing. wouldn't it be simpler (and less expensive) just to take $10 off the regular retail price?

Sandy said...

Then you have to worry about them even sending it to you. I have been burned on many a rebate.

su said...

yuck!!! so not worth the 10 bucks...but grrr..isn't that what they're hoping we'll think???

Anita said...

Maybe the federal government should take over rebates...now imagine the form. JK!:)