The RRC Editor’s Blog

I received the following e-mail from a representative of TRENDnet and have only just now had time to post it. I have not tried to verify whether this letter is accurate, but I have no reason to believe otherwise. Here it is:

from Zak Wood
to RebateReportCard@gmail.com
date Mon, Dec 8, 2008 at 8:28 PM
subject James Barger: Message from TRENDnet

Dear Mr. Barger,

I am contacting you from TRENDnet, a networking hardware brand based near Los Angeles. Recently, a mail-in-rebate provider that we were using (and many other brands) went bankrupt and reneged on payments related to a batch of mail-in-rebate checks. TRENDnet has taken immediate action to correct this issue.

I was wondering where would be the appropriate place to post a message to TRENDnet customers on your site.

Sincerely,
Zak Wood
Senior Marketing Manager
TRENDnet

And, a note to TRENDnet customers and employees… I apologize for the delay it posting this. Law school and work and family are keeping me insanely busy.

There’s a new website called Rebate Remedy where you can sell your rebate and get paid right away, instead of waiting around for the manufacturer or retailer to send you a check. Of course, you have to sacrifice a percentage of the original rebate offer amount, but you get peace of mind and immediate satisfaction.

Here’s how it seems to work… Let’s say you bought a new computer or HDTV that came with a $100 rebate offer from the manufacturer. You take home the computer or HDTV, with the receipt and rebate paperwork. Now, you have a choice. You could fill out the forms and mail in whatever the small print in the rebate offer says you need to send, then wait around for the check to arrive. Or, you could go to Rebate Remedy and sell your rebate to them for (nearly) immediate payment of 75% of the rebate’s face value.

So, how do you decide what to do? You come back here, to Rebate Report Card, and do a quick search for Acme Electronics, or whatever the manufacturer name is, and see what grades they have and what people have said about their ability to pay their rebates quickly.

Maybe you’ll find that dozens of people have waited an average of 8 months for their checks to arrive. Perhaps 5 or 6 people never got their rebate at all, because the company didn’t like the way they filled out their forms. Maybe after reading these reports, you decide you’d prefer to have a guaranteed, quick $75 instead of maybe getting $100 in eight months or maybe getting nothing.

If you decide the latter, you could go to Rebate Remedy and sell them your troubles and wash your hands of the whole mess. They get to try to collect the $100 from the manufacturer. If they fail, you still keep your $100. If they succeed, they’ve made a profit.

The guys at Rebate Remedy asked me to take a look at their website and read about their service. It sounds like a good idea to me. I hope it works out well for everyone. This sounds like a good example of capitalism leading to compromises in which everyone gets a good deal.