FZ20 and free case + battery offer

"David J Taylor" wrote in message
...
Bill Rude wrote:
[]
I think Panasonic would have contracted another company
to fulfil the
rebate deal and unfortunately, many of these fulfillment
companies
are not much more than scammers. In the end, Panasonic or
whoever the
original company is gets screwed too, in terms of cost
and customer
satisfaction.

Rebates seem to be a rather American way of encouraging
purchases, at least that's the impression I get. In the
UK many people buy mainly on price or sometimes "free
flight" etc. offers. It is something in the American
character which produces "rebate mentality" or did things
just develop that way?

With all the problems people report, I would have thought
that a lower price up front would have been better for
both vendor and customer!

Cheers,
David

It appears to me that the american retail market is
struggling, and always trying to find ways to drum up
business. The classic mechanism is the "sale" - the one
week sale, one day sale, six hour sale, etc. Rebates are
just another way to spin the "sale" concept that costs the
merchant less because of the percentage of people who don't
bother to redeem the rebates (it's amazing that it actually
costs less when you consider how much overhead the rebate
process must create). If I have a choice to buy a product
with or without a rebate I will go without the rebate
(within reason g). Often you can pay less up front for a
product without a rebate then you can for the same product
with a rebate. You may pay a little less in the long run
going with the rebate, but that assumes that your time
filling out forms, and waiting for your money to come back
is not worth anything g. In the case of the FZ20, at the
time Circuit City was the only retailer selling the camera.
Since I didn't want to mail-order it CC was the only choice.

On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 20:06:03 -0700, Bill Rude wrote:

On Fri, 04 Feb 2005 02:32:41 GMT, "Swingman" wrote:

Rebates are
just another way to spin the "sale" concept that costs the
merchant less

Usually rebates don't cost the merchant at all, usually the manufacturer
supplies the rebate, the merchant gets increased sales and the manufacturer
hopes that few will send in a properly filled out rebate form.
The manufacturer may work the deal on the rebate with a store but the store
doesn't pay off the rebate.
I hate rebates!

I hate manufacturer mail in rebates. In-store "instant" rebates I
don't have a problem with since it will be applied at the time of
purchase. Mail in rebates though feel too much like I'm loaning the
manufacturer money at zero percent interest and in exchange I might
get a check or merchandise later from the company as payoff on the
loan.

What's bad though is when a company on the verge of going out of
business offers attractive mail in rebates on their products to
unsuspecting consumers. Just google "Cendyne rebates" as an example.
Rebate checks that you thought were good can bounce at the bank, and
the stores that sold the products may not agree to cover the
manufacturers rebates and pay the buyers.