December 12th, 2009 
Vijaianand Alright, Blackfriday is come and gone. It is time to send in the Mail-In Rebate forms(MIR). I am sure many of you bought items on sale especially with Mail-In Rebates(MIR) hoping to get your money back and prove yourself that you really saved some money by getting up early and waiting in line for hours.
In order to be successful in getting your MIR’s, you need apply properly. I always had 100% redemption rate in my Mail-In rebate claims because of proper planning and applying without giving chance for any errors
Mail In Rebate Facts
According to wikipedia.com report, PMA, a marketing firm, estimated that in 2005 $486.5 million worth of rebates were redeemed. The redemption rates averaged only 21.1% when calculated as a percentage of total sales, and 67.6% when calculated as a percentage of incremental sales. That is not an encouraging news but MIR system has come a long way since 2005. Now you have option to apply your MIR either by mail or online to get your money faster.
Most rebates are handled under contract by rebate clearinghouses that specialize in processing rebates and contest applications. The source of their fees is not readily discernible with conflicting reports from different sides. There is always a concern about rebates being rejected and invalidated by these clearinghouses to show more savings to the company to earn more fees.
Young America, a rebate clearinghouse claims that “Young America receives the same fees whether a submission is valid or invalid,” giving them no incentive to unfairly invalidate customer rebates. Whether it is true or not, we cannot verify but if you do your part right and apply correctly, they can never reject or invalidate your claim. Let’s work towards that goal.
How MailIin Rebates works?
Lets say the item usually costs $100. Retailers put a tag on it for $75 with $25 Mail-in Rebate. You will pay the full $100 at time of check out and apply MIR to get back $50 via mail. In most cases, you need to apply for the rebate via mail with all the required things like original reciept and purchase proof(UPC). Nowadays you can also apply online to get it faster with any retailers like bestbuy, staples, officemax etc., It takes 4-8 weeks to process and you will eventually get your money back.
Retailers and Manufacturers play with the psychology of the buyers and try to gain by taking advantage of lazy people who forget to send rebates or don’t send the required proofs. Also the retailers use this opportunity to get rid of the items which doesn’t sell well as freebies and change them to money.
Tips and Tricks for Quick Rebate Redemption
-
Before leaving the store, check whether you got all the mail-in rebate forms and seperate original reciepts to send with those forms. Some stores would give seperate reciepts but others you need to either send copy or original reciept. Check the requirement.
-
Unpack the item and save the package materials. Check and make sure whether the item works as expected. If not you have the option to return the material with the original package. Try it out for few days and if it is all good, then cut out the UPC code required for rebate and trash the package material. The reason, you cannot return the material without UPC code. You need the original package with the UPC to return it. If you cut it out and sent the Mail in rebate and want to return it, you will have tough time doing so.
-
Now sort out the reciepts to seperate out the rebate form and rebate reciept for each item which is on rebate. Read the requirements carefuly and try to do one item at a time. Some rebate might require you to send the original UPC Bar code and some don’t. They will all specify a time frame for the rebate to reach their office. If you can submit online which saves postage and time, just do it. It will also help to track the status. If not, you might have to do via mail.
-
Collect all the requirements for each item and put them in a envelope. Don’t paste it yet. Do rebates in batches instead of doing all together to avoid any confusion.
-
Use address labels on the envelopes for clarity and save time instead of writing.
-
Once you are done with all the items to send, don’t forget to make copies or scan (save paper) of all your documents for each rebate which is CRUCIAL! It will come handy when companies disqualify rebates for missing document. You can always reapply with the copy. So, make sure you copy everything including UPC code.
-
Next save the scanned copy in proper computer folder with right naming to identify later. If you copied, file them in your cabinet folder for future purpose. Also make an entry in text file or journal about the rebates like product, date rebate sent and how much is expected for future reference.
-
Finally, put all the document back in the envelope after cross checking the requirement last time and apply proper postage (first class) and mail it out. That completes the applying process.
-
Once you sent it out, you need wait patiently for minimum 4 weeks and see whether you hear any feedback from them via email. Nowadays many companies send out email status or directions via email to check your status online. If not you can visit the retailers website and check the status using rebate code. Track them periodically and if they are having problem, call them up and resend any proof needed.
Hope these points will help you to make the rebate process bit easier. They work almost all the time. Final word, don’t give up if they reject or disqualify your rebate. You can always reapply with your rebate copy and don’t forget it is your money and you better try to get it back.
If you have other tips to add, please don’t hesitate to share it.
Photo source: wikipedia.com
Posted in 
Tags: 
As many of you know, video games have come a long way from Pac man to PS3. If you’re a gamer, you’re spoiled for choice when it comes to Black Friday s neat deals at many stores. If you’re looking to pick up a cheap console next Friday, there are actually 5 good options starting from PS3 slim for $299 to Nintendo DS for less $100. Many stores plan to carry bundles of them bundled with exotic games. You can check out the 
GPS has emerged in the consumer market few years ago. The market has matured and evolved remarkably in the last couple of years. Portable navigation device or GPS, today has more features than ever to help you get from point A to point B quickly and safely–features such as audible driving directions with text-to-speech (TTS), spoken street names, real-time traffic updates, Internet connectivity for points-of-interest search, and large easy-to-read screens, to name a few. It has also become cheaper to afford starting from $50 which has all the basic things to direct your route. You can check 
Keeping tabs on the latest cell phone models can be a full-time job, especially given the number of cell phones announced by Apple, Palm, Nokia, and HTC (including, most recently, the BlackBerry-like T-Mobile Dash) over the past few months. Nothing beats a stylus and a touch screen for true on-the-go productivity. Check 
It made news all over the nation and sold out in few days. It is out of stock in Toyrus website but Toysrus is promising for the first 100 shoppers in line at each store on Black friday will receive a ticket for the opportunity to purchase one of the season’s hottest toys – the Zhu Zhu Pets Hamster. The $10 toys are out of stock on the retailer’s Web site. But the company says thousands of additional Zhu Zhu Pets will become available in stores throughout Friday, with regular new arrivals through December.
Hot Gadgets #2 : BluRay DVD Players
several years, so this is not a decision to rush into! Big discounts on these expensive sets can tempt you into a quick purchase, but do your homework beforehand and you’ll wind up with a great TV for a great price. Check out the buyers guide from 
Black Friday deals on laptops are usually among the best values a shopper is likely to find. If you’re in the market for a laptop this year, you’ll probably see a lot of great offers on netbooks in particular. Not to be confused with a notebook, which is just another name for full-sized laptops, a netbook is basically the compact car of the laptop world. It’s smaller, it’s lighter, and it can get you where you want to go for a lot less money. The trade off is that netbooks generally pack less power and fewer features than their full-sized counterparts 
Digital cameras just took over the photography from still cameras long time, almost 5 years now. It has become so common to see digital cameras in everybody’s hands mainly because of easiness, flexibility and more capabilities.