🚀 go-pugleaf

Philip J. Koenig wrote:

> [trimmed misc.forsale.computers.memory from newsgroups, added misc.consumers]

You actually missed misc.consumers, I have added it.

> In article <6ojsbk$2o7$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>, ablang@post1.com writes...
> > Here is the story Teri Aitkins was working on to expose the evil CompUSA
> > mail-in rebate program:
> >
> > Hi all...

> >         Okay, it finally made air!  The CompUSA story we've been working
> > on for months now, has finally been show on the SF Bay Area NBC station!
> >(snip)
> >                                         Teri Aitkins
> >                                         Producer, KRON-TV
> >                                         1001 Van Ness Avenue
> >                                         San Francisco, CA  94109
> >                                         aitkins @ kron.com
>
> [script snipped]
>
> Reading over that piece, there were 2 things that bothered me.
>



> (snip - I didn't want to, but my news server didn't like all the old stuff)
>
> The idea that the manufacturers "don't plan on how many responses"
> they're going to get is pretty ridiculous too.  They know d*mn
> well how many units they sell, don't they?  If they're so
> pathetically useless at making a simple estimate such as that,
> I'd find it amazing that they'd have a fraction of the skill
> necessary to manufacture a computer item in the first place.
> And such is life with a rebate program - unlike a simple
> wholesale price reduction, you never really know who's going
> to take advantage of it.  But of course, if you don't provide
> for full usage, it's like a bank that doesn't have enough cash
> on hand to cash checks.

They really should have sent a crew down to CPG, the people in Arizona who handle
the vast majority of these rebate programs, to see exactly where the delays are.
Find out why it takes 16 weeks to get a rebate advertised as 8-10. Find out why the
same company CAN deliver rebates faster for some companies. Could it be that the
companies whose rebates are paid slowly have paid a lower amount per rebate claim
that is processed than the ones whose rebates are paid promptly? I find it hard to
believe that a company so obviously large as CPG can't just hire a few dozen more
temps when the return rate on a rebate turns out to be much higher than expected.

Bill