Cool Phones

Cell Phone Rebates

The Cell Phone Rebates Fiasco

When searching for a new cell phone have you seen the advertisements for free cell phones. There are normal real world physical stores that have the free cell phones available for you to inspect and you also have the option of online stores that usually have a larger and better selection of free cell phones from which to choose. The catch is that the cell phones are not really free since you have to sign a two-year service contract but that’s another story. You normally have to physically pay for the phone up front and then mail-in a rebate form. So it really is the price of the phone that you pay up front – mail-in rebate = the free phone. But the rebate is not guaranteed. Once you mail in the rebate form you must hope that you are one of the lucky ones that actually receive the rebate check in the mail.

I know you are probably asking: “What do you mean by saying one of the lucky ones?” Well the rebates are basically the enticement that creates the illusion that the cell phone is free. It is the rebates that influence your decision to buy the free cell phone. But there is as with most things free usually a catch to getting your money back. You will find that the rebates have their own set of fine print that you need to navigate through. As you read through that fine print, you will learn that you usually have to wait a specified period of time before you are eligible for your rebate. Once the waiting period is over you usually have a limited time in which to mail in the rebate form and the supporting documentation. This waiting period is a ploy in which the companies hope you forget about mailing in the rebate and if you do remember the limited timed window is set in hopes that the window will have expired by time you remember the rebate.

Let us say that you are one of the people that remember to mail in the rebate on time. Now you will find that there are often long delays in the processing of your rebate. This again is yet another ploy that hopes you forget about the rebate over time. If you do remember and re-check the status of your rebate, more time is usually required before you are given an answer. Once again they are hoping you forget. But let’s say you remember and re-check on the rebate status yet again only to receive an answer that you did not include some of many items of information and documentation required by the rebate company. Your reply may be that the information was given when you purchased the phone. However, that does not matter since the rebate company is often a different company from the one in which you actually bought the phone. So you probably get the answer that you are no longer eligible for the rebate.

This rebate fiasco got so bad with one online cell phone provider that the Federal Trade Commission had to actually step in enforce the company  to pay rebates to the many of customers that it had defrauded. So remember that cell phones are not really free regardless for what the promised rebates happen to offer.