Black Friday Rebates – Now That Was Easy!

I admit it. I do go out on Black Friday (the Thursday after Thanksgiving for those of us in the US) to get some items that especially good deals.

I just don’t go out at 4am. I happen to like my sleep.

I do pick up the scraps afterwards, usually some time around 10 or 11 am. My philosophy is that if I can’t get it at that time, then I wasn’t meant to get it. Besides, it will likely be on sale again for near that same dollar amount some where on line. I’m not in a rush, and I don’t need the really cheap stuff (can we say “Made In China”) that is going to break in short order all that badly anyhow.

Keeping in line with a lot of people’s thinking as of late, I despise rebates. I do everything I can to avoid the whole rebate fiasco.

Mind you, I have always had good luck with rebates, but that is because I am nearly insane with the way I process and record them. However, as the years have ticket by, I’ve been bitten by a few purchases (most notably, the $100 I am still waiting to get back from Wintergreen Systems for my purchase of a Hanns-G 19″ flat panel computer monitor). All it takes is just a few times to get burned, and, as such, I have gone out of the way to pay a few dollars more in order to avoid having to play the rebate waiting game.

Still, though, I trekked out this past Black Friday and bought a couple of small items from a local Staples that had some rebates on them. Staples has this “easy rebate” thing where they keep track of your order in their computer system which makes it insanely easy for them to actually prove you purchased it. It worked well for me last year, so I really didn’t think too hard about purchasing rebate-related items from them.

This year, however, I was blown away. I submitted the rebate information the next day after I was positive I was going to keep the items. A little over a week later, I received a check in the mail.

Now, that was easy!