• Markets
• Economy
• Federal Reserve
• Housing
• Energy
• Digital Media

Best Buy admits it: "Rebates Suck"

Kudos to Best Buy for ending an inherently dishonest scam: Rebates.

"Our customers are telling us they just hate the process," General Merchandise Manager Ron Boire said during a conference call to discuss the earnings report.

He described that process as "they send it in, they remain aggravated until they get their check."

The rebates have aggravated regulators, too. Wisconsin consumer protection officials last year looked into the rebates after 89 consumers complained, and Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro sued Best Buy in August in part over complaints about rebates.

Boyer said the phase-out would happen over the next two years, as Best Buy shifts its promotional spending to programs like its "Reward Zone," where customers pay an up-front fee but earn points toward future discounts.

We've discussed this in the past, including my own sordid saga. Note also that with this entry, we add the category "Retail."

Hat Tip to: Division of Labour.
http://divisionoflabour.com/archives/000997.php

>

Sources:
Best Buy to End Rebates, Reports Earnings
Joshua Freed 
The Associated Press, Apr 1, 2005 
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBEYLMO07E.html

Best Buy to End Rebates, Reports Earnings
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050401/earns_best_buy.html?.v=9

Wednesday, April 06, 2005 | 06:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (21) | TrackBack (0)
add to de.li.cious | digg this! | add to technorati | email this post

Comments

Thanks for adding the "Retail" category. I'm especially excited about this because I love your blog and I help put out official government statistics for retail trade.

Check out: http://www.census.gov/retail

Interesting that Best Buy is phasing out rebates. From the articles it would seem that they feel that they can capture the price-conscious consumers who would jump at rebates through their "Reward Zone" program. I think that it's a great idea.

Posted by: Tim | Apr 6, 2005 10:11:36 AM