What is UP with all those MIR?!

[SubXO]

I'm sick of looking at all the hot prices and see that STUPID "After MIR" tag after the price! Grrr!! And what pisses me off more is that we have to pay more tax on the price since it's pre-MIR! I wanna shoot the guy who came up with that idea in the foot and sell him a roll of bandage for a hot price* :evil:

*after MIR

[ericyjh85]

haha, MIR is just a scam. MIR wastes people's time and resources. It takes time to fill out those rebate form and it takes money to phone them and to send the mail to them.
If the manufactures truly want to give people discount and money for using their products, they can simply work with the retailers.
IMO, MIR is the stupidiest idea ever and its a scam.

[joeb]

the purpose of mir is to reduce the discount given out

people with high opportunity cost of time will not fill out the rebates, resulting in less discounts

just one of the many economics principles I learnt in business school :lol:

[Kenneth]

^^

Some companies also do it to so that the full selling price (before MIR) is recorded as revenue in the final quarter of the year; giving it a nice boost.

Whereas the MIR is then is taken in as a loss/credit in the first quarter of the following year. Although proper accounting is supposed to fix this scheme; it usually doesn't.

[saskwatcher]

haha, MIR is just a scam. MIR wastes people's time and resources. It takes time to fill out those rebate form and it takes money to phone them and to send the mail to them.
MIR is marketing ploy to move inventory that the manufacturer does not want to see returned to its inventory.
Time is money, so it's your time and/or time. Most rebate centres now have toll free numbers which you can tie up for hours waiting for them to respond. :-)


If the manufactures truly want to give people discount and money for using their products, they can simply work with the retailers.
See above comment. NO - the manufacturer does not want to give you or the retailer a discount. Both the manufacturer and retailer would prefer that you don't send in the rebate.


IMO, MIR is the stupidiest idea ever and its a scam.
From an inventory management point of view, it is a great idea.
It is only a scam if they are deliberately defrauding you. (E.G. Two rebates on one item and both want the original receipt.) You know the rules up front and it's up to you to play or not play the rebate game.

happy shopping!!!
p.s. Over 95% success rate at rebates. ;)

[goden99]

my main worry is the MIRs NEVER comming in.


Anyone know if FS ever sends them ?

[trader08]

I agree with saskwatcher, it's a great marketing scheme and not a scam.

If you think about it, the way they delay the rebate a couple of months, most items tend to drop in price by that much anyways, so it looks good on the books, and they generate up front sale. Besides, not everyone likes following instructions or are too lazy to perform the leg work. I think if you make sure you photocopy everything, you're most likely going to get your rebate, you may have to phone them after 3 months, and wait another 2, but if you are willing to put in the effort, they rarely argue with you. I've had a couple of issues with rebates before but I've always kept a good record of everything and so I've yet to miss any rebates, atleast as far as I can remember.

[akito925]

always always make photo copies, and write down when you mailed it in. send it in via registered mail so they will get it if you want to go into taht much trouble.. etc.. but

mail in rebates really do piss me, all I see on the bb & fs flyer is written all over it! price after rebate! gggrrr I hate it!! why don't just discount that price!!

I'd remeber my local futureshop used to collect peoples rebates, and give them the cash vaule of the rebate when rebates started to come out.. gggrrrr..

[thephenom]

I don't mind MIR, I usually forgeting them, then 6-8 weeks later.....BAM a nice little cheque, I'm happy.

I've done about 3-4 MIR, FS, Gateway, USR, etc, get them everytime.

[Canadianpsycho]

The whole principle of manufacturer rebates is to entice you into buying somebody's product. Then you get lazy, or forget, and they make full value.

3rd party rebates are all about money management. Rebate companies hold onto the money as long as possible to generate interest, and then they turn around and sell your personal info to boot.

[Wildfire]

It is only a scam if they are deliberately defrauding you. (E.G. Two rebates on one item and both want the original receipt.) You know the rules up front and it's up to you to play or not play the rebate game.
Kinda offtopic, but I once bought an Epson All-In-One and it had two separate rebates on it, requiring the original reciept (a 20 and a 30) from Futureshop, I mailed them in and did recieve both cheques back from Epson. Maybe you can clear it up, did they make an error in sending me two cheques? Are two rebates allowed on the same item/receipt?

[Spent]

but what galls me the most is having to pay 15% to our scum sucking
bureaucrats :evil: :twisted: :confused: on the rebate

[cliff]

on the next episode of marketplace/venture they are doing a story on mail in rebates should be interesting

[ericyjh85]

MIR is Evil!

[tet8suo]

The Epson All-in-one that I bought from BestBuy earlier this year actually
came with 2 receipts, one of them was marked as for MIR use only. Another
required item is a copy of the UPC, so I used the machine to photocopy
the UPC.

[technut]

on the next episode of marketplace/venture they are doing a story on mail in rebates should be interestingI'd like to see that! Any idea when it is on?

[ihk]

always always make photo copies, and write down when you mailed it in. send it in via registered mail so they will get it if you want to go into taht much trouble.. etc..

can you send registered mail to a PO box?

[mahjongmaniac]

The whole principle of manufacturer rebates is to entice you into buying somebody's product. Then you get lazy, or forget, and they make full value.

3rd party rebates are all about money management. Rebate companies hold onto the money as long as possible to generate interest, and then they turn around and sell your personal info to boot.
-------------

i agree w/ what Canaianpsycho thinks... a lot of ppl out there are either too lazy to do the MIR or they just 4get about it... and thats how the manufacturers make even MORE profit from consumers...

same: 95% success rates on all my MIRs.... so i'm happy.... and good advice never too lame: ALWAYS keep photocopies of ur rebates... receipts, UPCs, rebate forms... whatever u send in basically.... and writing down the date u sent the rebate form in the postal mail is a definite "DO".... sometimes when the MIR says "4-6 weeks for processing" and u waited the full 6 weeks, u fone in/ email them and they'll tell u that "processing hasnt' finished yet" or somethin like that.....

my 2 cents...

MJM ;)

[tet8suo]

on the next episode of marketplace/venture they are doing a story on mail in rebates should be interesting
I'd like to see that! Any idea when it is on?

http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/
The Bait in Rebates: Marketplace looks at how companies bet against consumers following through on their rebates.

Probably air at the 2nd January.

[ZenOps]

MIR is all about making the product look less expensive than it really is.

You do pay tax on the full amount, you do pay postage, you do screw yourself over with the warranty (cutting off the UPC and sending in a original reciept means you can't return it)

Add to that, you lose a couple months interest at least. Its not a big deal at our end, but for the company that is issuing maybe a hundred thousand of these things, its a thousand or so easy.

And of course there is always the ~15 to 30 percent who fill out the form wrong or forget or are too busy to mail it in time.

[cliff]

From the marketplace website:

Marketplace Sunday (jan 2) at 7:00 p.m. on CBC Television. Repeated Mondays (jan 3) on Newsworld at 8:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. (ET).

It also has a bunch of other timeslots on the various cbc channels throughout the week.