Bargain Hunter Beware

This week's Newsweek has a great article about the maddeningly complex system of product rebates. I had often wondered why it was that companies were so generous as to knock $40 off a digital camera. But that was before I bought my flat screen computer monitor last fall. The requirements for the rebate were not only ridiculous (I had to cut out a chunk of the box that had the UPC code and price sticker) but hard to find. Best Buy gave me this receipt that was about two feet long and hidden in the fine print were the myriad of instructions I needed to follow. Plus I had to wait several weeks for my check.

I now understand that rebates are not free gifts, but rewards that can only be earned with a significant amount of effort on the buyer's part. Manufacturers know that the average consumer either won't bother to jump through all of the hoops or won't jump them correctly. When company profits are concerned there is no such thing as generosity.