Today I took $12.13 and threw it in the trash can next to my desk. I am not accustomed to throwing money away, although some may argue that the purchase of my Prada shoes was pretty impractical. But I defend that decision over two years ago to this day as they are still the most amazing shoes EVER. Did I digress? It's OK because it's a Prada digression, so it doesn't count!
Just to prove the foolish thing I did, here is photographic evidence:
It's not my fault!!! You see, when my son's cell phone contract came up for renewal, he was eligible for a free cell phone. Free my ass! It has now cost me $12.13. You see, it would be unthinkable for them to just give it to you free and send you on your way. No, they have to charge you $49.99 and then send you a rebate. Not just any rebate, a credit card. Not a check that you could just deposit in the bank. I didn't think much of it and used it the next time I was purchasing something, leaving a balance of $12.13 on the card.
I kept meaning to use it at Starbucks or somewhere that my balance would be such a small amount, but never got around to it. Then yesterday I decided to use it online only to find out that it expired December 31, 2008. It got me wondering just how much money AT&T is making on unused funds on rebate cards. I'm guessing it's no small amount. It sucks. It's bad customer service...but AT&T is the only company that supports my iPhone and we know we're not going THERE!
I think the reason this struck a cord with me was that this week I took my son to the eye doctor and he got new contacts. We had found that his monthly lenses bothered him when he played baseball, so the doctor suggested getting several sets of dailies that he would wear and dispose of just for baseball. Probably dust and stuff was getting on his contacts during baseball rendering them uncomfortable for the remainder of the month he was supposed to wear them. Sounds logical to me.
As I was leaving, the cashier handed me a rebate form...which I, of course, can't find for the life of me...for $100 back on the dailies!
I paid over $300 for the assorted contacts that we got and went on my way. But why can't they just take $100 off my bill? Why do they have to put me through this BS where I now have to take the ends off my son's contact boxes, fill out a form, mail it in...and probably get another fucking Visa card that I won't use to its fullest!!!
Rebates suck. They suck your money from you. They prey on your lack of motivation to fill the thing out, get the appropriate documentation required, mail it in and then spend the non-cash funds they send you.
Could somebody fix this? Thank you!
Di
I just hated it when I would get one back from Verizon that said I had done it incorrectly on a cell phone. It is as much trouble to do one of them as assembling papers for taxes!
However,with 5 in the family I have now gotten quite good at it and do get a check from all. It took so long for a contact lense rebate once that I forgot what the check was for when it came!!! We got $500 back from Maytag because we bought 4 appliances at Home Depot for our new kitchen. Now that was alot of researach and work to do that one but it was worth it! I got the rebate in 10 days I swear!!!!
I still agree they are a pain!
Posted by: Miz Honey | February 15, 2009 at 10:38 AM