HD Sale - Bessey's Excluded?

[Mark & Juanita]

... and the incantation begins... :-)

[B a r r y B u r k e J r .]

Why?

I've always been happy with mail-in rebates. I don't buy things simply because of sales or rebates, but I'll take a rebate any day over full price.

Not to mention the mail-in rebate, as well as the purchase itself, is quite voluntary. Vote with your wallet.

Barry

[B a r r y B u r k e J r .]

My favorite "scam" is this one:

Every year I buy Turbo Tax to do my income taxes. Every year for the last 5, Intuit has offered a mail in rebate on Quicken, when purchased with Turbo Tax. I wait for Staples, Comp USA, etc... to put Turbo Tax on sale in January, which _always_ happens. When it does, I get the latest version of Quicken *free* each year, and never spend more than about $20 for Turbo Tax.

Why does Intuit do this? For my name and address, of course!

Each November and December, I get direct offers from Intuit to purchase both apps for $40-50. I'm sure some folks take advantage of the convenient offer, but I simply wait for this year's sale.

I have to wait for the $20 or $30 rebate check, but that's not a big deal in my book.

Barry

[Mark Jerde]

What bothers me is the unfairness, the "two-faced" attitude towards the money. They can *charge* my account in picoseconds, but to *return* my money involves a lengthy and useless process -- no additional data is collected beyond what could be known at point of sale. Typically the fulfillment house is located in Lake Woebegon, Minnesota, and is apparently accessable only via arthritic USPS burros. And Ole and Lena only work there a couple days a week.

The rebate process is NOT about saving me money, it's a process *calculated* to let the company keep my money. I've been burned on rebates several times. In fact there's a piece of computer kit here by my feet where the company managed to keep my rebate. It was only when I got to the cash register I found out the "Sale Price" wasn't *really* the sale price. It

*should* have been labeled, "Sale Price After Rebate." I wish I'd followed my instincts and left it there at the register. In all probability it is the last item from that manufacturer I'll ever buy. Their sales & marketing guys were happy because I showed up in the "Successfully Avoided Paying Rebate" column, but that's very short-term thinking for them. They're unlikely to ever see anything from me in the sales column ever again. Besides, there's the word of mouth that gets around, like this:

"I own uninterruptable power supplies (UPS) from both APC and Belkin. In the future, if the choice is between APC and Belkin, I'll buy Belkin every time. Belkin works better for me."

:-)

-- Mark

[Mark Jerde]

P.S. This is 100% true. IMO Belkin is a better product. Besides that, the "Sale Price" was the "Sale Price."

[John McCoy]

B a r r y B u r k e J r . wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Well, Mark hit on one aspect, the false advertising (where it's not disclosed the advertised price includes the rebate until you reach the register - CompUSA in particular is egregiously guilty of this one). But to me the damning part is the fact that the fullfillment houses intentionally set things up to avoid paying rebates. In my mind the rebate is a form of contract, in which the fullfillment houses are attempting to conciously avoid meeting their obligation. In essence, that's fraud.

Well, I'm the same way. I send them in if it's more than a couple of bucks, and treat it as a pleasant surprise if something comes back. But when I'm deciding what product to buy, I base it on the register price, not the rebated price. John

[Abe]

In article , Keep_it_in_the_newsgroup [e-mail] says... ...

No, and it's smart, too. These sorts of offers seem very commonly available for software. I always keep antennae up for them.

Abe

[klaatu]

I brought my receipt back to HD today and they gave me two receipts for $200.00 each for the one at $400.00. (numbers are rounded for clarity) Not any problems at all. BTW, the gift card order form must be received by 11/15/03 . They added 10 days to the date on the form.

[Mark & Juanita]

... after Intuit's "product activation" fiasco, my business is going to TaxCut.

[Mark & Juanita]

Good deal. This is probably a lot more like Zelazny's "Amber Series", you just passed the first curve in the Pattern.

[Mapdude]

I was told the Bessey's were considered "speciality tools" as listed on the display board and qualified. They were not listed in the specific exclusions.

B a r r y B u r k e J r . wrote:

[Abe]

In article , [e-mail] says... ...

Mine already did. TaxCut isn't quite as good as TurboTax, but at least you're not *paying* to have spyware surreptitiously installed on your computer. I suspect with the added business TaxCut is now getting, the quality gap will close pretty quickly, and I'm happy to support that convergence. Glad to hear you are too.

Abe

[Abe]

That's what they told me also. Of course now that I've read the fine print I may have to return a couple of the clamps I purchased and trade them for ones that still have UPC codes on them. Grrr...

Abe

[klaatu]

I beat ya! No more UPC's left.

[Abe]

Curses! Foiled again! Actually, I checked earlier and only need one replacement UPC. Might pick up a few more clamps, though, now that I know you can submit more than one of these coupons.

Abe

[john carlson]

My business went to them last year and it isn't going back. Tax Cut's user interface isn't quite as slick as TurboTax, but it does the job, costs less and doesn't install a bunch of unwanted junk all over my system. I was a TurboTax user for many years until last year, but no more.

-- jc Published e-mail address is strictly for spam collection. If e-mailing me, please use jc631 at optonline dot net

[jbacke]

I already own a few Bessey's and a boatload of pipe clamps but I did want some more of those Irwin Quick-Grip clamps so I picked up a couple of every size. I find myself reaching for these clamps first more and more. For holding something together before screwing it these work great, also for testing/aligning big glue ups before throwing on the stronger clamps for final glue up. Just like bar and pipe clamps, ya can't have too many, and I'm thinking of getting some more before this sale ends.

I have no doubts that these clamps are considered hand tools and will qualify. Anytime you can get 40% off clamps, it's a good thing.

Jeff ____________________________________________ You won't notice the splinters in the ladder of success, unless you are sliding down.