Talk:Rebate (marketing)

History
I sort of remember that rebates started when Nixon instituted price freezes. Which makes sense, because as inflation increased they'd just lower the rebates.

Nokia N900
One thing I'm wondering about is what constitutes fraud for rebates? Nokia's N900 had a $50 rebate advertised. but one condition was signing up for an app store that did not exist until after the rebate needed to be postmarked. Are there other examples where manufacturer's have advertised rebate programs that they knew could not have been redeemed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.208.128.94 (talk) 01:02, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Price discrimination
A good example of why wikipedia sucks. Whoever wrote the lead sentence had no idea of what they are talking about (clue: it's not a civil rights issue) and puts in their made up idea of what PD is, and casts doubt on the real meaning of the economic term. 68.160.179.201 (talk) 16:54, 7 June 2008 (UTC)
 * hmm...it seems to be written in the same usage as the source (R. Avila and T. Avila "Rebates: An ethical issue?" Ball State University) which doesn't make any reference to any civil rights issue so I'm sure where your "clue" is coming from. I'd probably take your complaint up with the source and/or suggest prose with a different reliable source. AgneCheese/Wine 03:06, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Lead section
It seems a bit cumbersome to me. I'd like to do some work on it to help it conform to WP:LEAD but would like an extra set of ideas on the best way to trim it down. It seems like we could almost craft a new section from it but I'm not sure what to call it. Any other thoughts? AgneCheese/Wine 00:57, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

North American centric?
A very relevant discussion took place in the archive, noting that mail in rebating may be common in the United States and Canada but is virtually absent in other parts of the world (e.g. Germany) and appears in Australia under the name of "cash back offer". See Talk:Rebate (marketing)/Archive 1. Since this doesn't seem to have been dealt with since then, I've tagged the article accordingly. Purgatorio 14:22, 20 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately I could not find any reliable sources commenting on the virtual non-existence of rebates in other parts of the world. (I suppose it falls into the proving a negative trap). If you have any reliable sources in that regard, feel free to add them but it seems a little off to criticize an article for not focusing on the "nothingness" of rebates in other parts of the world. Should the Euro article be tagged as being Euro-centric for not commenting on the lack of use in the United States? AgneCheese/Wine 16:27, 20 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree with the initial poster that the article could be less country-specific. Rebates in general are known elsewhere, just not the specific form of rebate that most space is dedicated to in the article. The claim that 'The mail-in rebate (MIR) is the most common' just does not hold for Germany (where I live), though this sort of rebate is known in the UK (where I grew up). Robin (talk) 13:09, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Are there any reliable source speaking about the use of marketing rebates (in whatever form) outside the US? AgneCheese/Wine 16:19, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Hmmm let's see... Googling German language sites for "mail-in rebate"...
 * Golem (major IT website) news article about the a manufacturer introducing them:
 * "Günstiger Einkaufen mit Mail-in-Rabatten ist in Amerika seit Jahren gang und gäbe. Als einer der ersten PC-Hersteller und -Händler führt Vobis das System hier in Deutschland ein, um Kaufanreize für Kunden zu schaffen." - "Mail-in rebates have been common in the US for years. Vobis is one of the first manufacturers/retailers to introduce this system to Germany." -- dated 2001
 * rather anecdotal evidence of a German customer expressing his bafflement regarding what the heck a 'mail-in rebate' is, more anecdotal evidence
 * website explaining the term, clearly intended for Germans
 * The first one is actually a reliable source and implies that mail-in rebates have been uncommon prior to 2001. Not exactly proof. The other websites clearly show that Germans are unfamiliar with the concept, but that's neither proof nor a reliable source.
 * That's all I could find... feel free to try for yourself, but as noted above: It's the attempt to prove a negative. 84.44.185.172 (talk) 20:03, 1 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Just as I wanted to close the tab I came across this: this appears to be a publication in a legit trade journal, the article's title is "Learning from the Americans" and once again implies that mail-in rebates are uncommon/unknown, even to salespeople.
 * That's all I got... 84.44.185.172 (talk) 20:03, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Rebate cards
A new trend is for rebates to arrive in the form of a bank-issued gift card. I'd like to know more about these cards, as I've read several disturbing things. One is that the cards open up the cardholder to various kinds of fees that one would normally not associate with a gift card, such as a monthly account fee or the ability to overdraft. I'm also guessing that, since this is treated as cash, you're not able to mix a small remaining balance from the card in order to make a larger purchase. So if you have a couple of dollars left in the card, they're probably not going to be used (unless you force yourself to buy a candy bar or something). Ham Pastrami (talk) 03:44, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Sounds like FUD to me. Please cite the sources where you "read several disturbing things". I have redeemed rebates that used these cards and encountered no problems at all. They are not "gift cards"; they are prepaid VISA debit cards. There are no fees and no overdrafts. When the balance reaches zero, the card is deactivated.


 * Using up the entire balance is not difficult. When I get one of these cards, I just use its entire value to make a payment on my mobile phone bill, then shred the card. Pat Berry (talk) 00:25, 14 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Its not hard to use it up. Tell the cashier that you have a VISA gift that you want to use, and only want to charge x amount (e.g. whatever you have left on it).  Then pay the balance by some other means.99.156.193.137 (talk) 11:34, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

What are instant rebates for then?
The last section discusses instant rebates, which are I suppose, offered by the manufacturer to immediately lower the price of the item. But this could use some clarification, as to why they would do this, since obviously the advantages of the mail-in-rebate are lost. If everyone gets the same discount immediately, they can't hold on to the money during processing, there is no forgetting of rebate forms, etc. that are essentially free money for the manufacturer. What is the purpose of an instant rebate then, aside from being another way to say the price has been lowered? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.137.237.185 (talk) 16:00, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Hoover Offer
I removed the Hoover offer reference: In 1992, mail in rebates were not usual in the UK, the so called 'Hoover Free Flights' perhaps giving evidence of its pitfalls.

This is because this is not a rebate but an offer for free flights that were worth more than the cost of the product. Therefore it is not relevant in this context as a pitfall or a reason why the UK does not use rebates. 207.145.86.2 (talk) 02:20, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Beer rebates
I think Beer rebates should be merged into this article. It is only an example of this general phenomenon. Lady of  Shalott  15:15, 27 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Seems to me as that topic is unsourceable and even a brief mention would be UNDUE. Bongo  matic  20:07, 27 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Bah. Just redirect it then. Lady  of  Shalott  03:28, 28 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Respectfully I don't concur. See rationale at AfD discussion. Bongo  matic  07:21, 28 October 2011 (UTC)

Cashback/Rebate Websites?
The more I read this article the more I think that either Cashback Websites should be merged into it or have at least have a link to the wiki article, they are becoming major forces in the UK which should help balance the article a little Rickb (talk) 15:27, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

Unsourced content
I've removed two points from the "Rationale" section. Both have been around since this article was started back in September 2005, still have no sources to back them up, and strike me as very dubious. First:


 * Extended warranties and other price-dependent factors always use the initial purchase price, not the price after the rebate. This is normally because if the company has to refund the customer the "replacement value", it would be the before rebate "in-store" price.

This is true, but it is not clear why a retailer would see this as an advantage. In fact, it seems to plainly be a disadvantage, since it reduces sales on extended warranties. A handful of customers would pay $10 for an extended warranty on a $50 product, but pretty much no one's going to pay $10 for an extended warranty on an item whose price after rebate is $10!


 * Once the UPC has been removed from the box, retailers can refuse to accept a return of the item.

This point originally appeared in the (since-removed) "Caveats" section; it was only later that an apparently paranoid editor decided that this is an intended benefit of rebates. Anyone who has worked in retail knows that the prime goal is to make the customer happy so that they come again, make more purchases, and don't eat up employee hours with long complaints; the idea that a retailer would deliberately piss off customers by setting them up to get caught on a technicality of the return policy is beyond absurd.

I also removed one line from the following bullet point: 'Rebate processing companies even pride themselves for "returning the least amount of money".' This is WP: Unverifiable, since the source of the quote is not clearly identified.--Martin IIIa (talk) 14:11, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

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