Rebates and the like

[freddie]

I'm sure some of you have seen in websites and review sites about offers from companies (usually the states) about rebates and voucher discounts. These can be for big brand companies like Dell etc. Do we have similar things here? If so where can we find it?

[Funkstar]

Rebates are big in the US, but not so much here. If there is a discount, it is usually on actual purchase price.

I think it is due to differing advertising and pricing laws.

[UltraMagnus]

we very rarely get them in this country, i am not sure why, perhaps they are illigel?

[kalniel]

We occasionally get them - I had one for MS flight sim pro a while back.

[Mike Fishcake]

Toshiba do quite a few - my mum bought a laptop a few months ago, and you filled in a couple of online forms, then got a cheque back for £50.

[Bazzlad]

Mate - if it's to do with mobile phones avoid them like the plague remember the old saying:
If it sounds too good to be true
It probably is.

[freddie]

no just about computers, or componant or for individual companies. there must be a reason, maybe because its a hastle or as funkstar states maybe differing laws.

just good to clarify tha up, i wasnt sure if i was ignorant to offers!

to mike-fishcake was that through a normal purchase with an offer, or did you get the offer some other means for use? like a money off voucher?

[med2003]

Canon are doing some as well at the minute on a lot of their higher end digi cams and lenses.

[schmunk]

Mate - if it's to do with mobile phones avoid them like the plague remember the old saying:
If it sounds too good to be true
It probably is.

Rubbish - Both my father and brother have been operating 'free' contract mobiles for the last couple of years without any problems, and I've a friend who has 3 or 4 on the go at once (she's not even a drug dealer...).

Inertia is the only reason I haven't bothered to sign up - I'm on PAYG and spend very little anyway.

[Bazzlad]

Rubbish - Both my father and brother have been operating 'free' contract mobiles for the last couple of years without any problems, and I've a friend who has 3 or 4 on the go at once (she's not even a drug dealer...).

Inertia is the only reason I haven't bothered to sign up - I'm on PAYG and spend very little anyway.

Rubbish? With all due respect I suggest you learn about the industry - the companies who do this - one very large one in Birmingham (who are under investigation and the owners have disappeared on a long holiday) work on a 40% rebate scheme - IE they only make profit if 40% of people claim the "cash back" or to look at it another way if 60% DON'T.

They start putting harsh rules down, and the second you break one once, you lose any cash back - it's gotten so bad that offtel are looking to intervene with a view to banning it completely.

The vast majority of these people do NOT get the cash back/bills paid.

I have, in one of my databases a list of 8,000 people who bought their phones from a well known high street grammatically challenged phone shop.

All on 18monthers - all promised "free cashback" - all of them furious they didn't get it.

And that was just the "sample" data.

[Dareos]

would this be a phone shop with an incredibly annoying adverts involving several ugly and stupid people and one flash git in a suit?

[Bazzlad]

It may well be. It includes numbers in the name.

[Lucio]

I think rebates are unpopular over here because people here are a lot more likely to send in coupons and vouchers for money back in the States, it takes away the profit margin of actually running them compared to simply cutting the price a bit.

[moogle]

Rubbish? With all due respect I suggest you learn about the industry - the companies who do this - one very large one in Birmingham (who are under investigation and the owners have disappeared on a long holiday) work on a 40% rebate scheme - IE they only make profit if 40% of people claim the "cash back" or to look at it another way if 60% DON'T.

They start putting harsh rules down, and the second you break one once, you lose any cash back - it's gotten so bad that offtel are looking to intervene with a view to banning it completely.

The vast majority of these people do NOT get the cash back/bills paid.

I have, in one of my databases a list of 8,000 people who bought their phones from a well known high street grammatically challenged phone shop.

All on 18monthers - all promised "free cashback" - all of them furious they didn't get it.

And that was just the "sample" data.

Yep, I was reading a newpaper the other day and saw something like this. Great phone deals through cashback, company went bust and owners ran off and now all those people are paying like £75 a month for their phones. I wouldn't chance it.

[Bazzlad]

I love being right

Cashback summit in Parliament

The meeting will kick off with a proposal to tear up customer airtime contracts from the collapsed high-profile Birmingham cashback retailer Dialamobile.

Midlands MP Roger Godsiff has called the meeting in response to large numbers of his constituents in some cases being owed thousands from cashback retailers. He will demand that operators bear some financial responsibility if one of their dealers goes out of business.

Administrators estimate that as much as £12m in cashback payments is owed to Dialamobile customers.

[freddie]

ok so there are bad situations of cash-back or rebates, ie mobiles!

but considering it's fairly common in the states, i was wondering if their legislation allowed it to be more straightforward.

oh well, i guess that avenue really isnt available to us for the time being, maybe thats a good thing!