I recently purchased a Sirius radio at Radio Shack. Sirius was offering a rebate, so I filled out the form properly and mailed in the appropriate copies of the receipt and the UPC code from the box as it was clearly stated to do on the instructions. Well, today I got a postcard from Sirius telling me that they couldn’t send me my rebate check because I’d failed to include the original UPC code.

I have a copy of the instructions and it clearly states that I can send in a copy.

When you buy a camera, television or anything from a store and there is a rebate so they can claim the item is being sold for $50 less than the retail price, why don’t they just give you the discount at the register?

The answer. Because rebates are a scam. They are counting on the fact that most of us will forget to send in the rebate in the first place, or if we do remember, we’ll fail to follow the intructions and they won’t actually be selling us the product at a discount and will get the full retail price. Even if you do follow the instructions, they can still claim later that you didn’t (like in my case) and how do you prove that you did?

I’d like to hear your opinons on this topic so I can include them in my next podcast. Either email them to me at hammer@hammeruncut.com or call my message line (so I can play your audio comments). The number is 407-745-1840.

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