Rebates, and why I dislike them

When we were ready to move to our mobile home in July, I needed to buy an electric dryer and a portable dishwasher. My sister-in-law, who was moving into our old house, wanted a new electric stove and a portable dishwasher.

We headed to Sears and found a wonderful sale: Purchase one appliance, get a 10 percent rebate; purchase two appliances, receive 20 percent; purchase three or more, the rebate increases to 30 percent. Of course, this all had to be charged on a Sears card.

Between us, we were purchasing four appliances. I agreed to put all those on my Sears charge so we could get 30 percent back. My share would be $189.00 and Rena's would be $309. She paid me cash for her purchases that very day, so there were no problems there.

I read the instructions on the rebate form and sent the receipts in. About a month later, I received a rebate check of $59.99... which was ten percent of the price of my dryer. That's it.

I called the rebate center (obviously stationed in India) and was informed I had only circled one item on the two receipts. I was supposed to circle all items that went toward the rebate.

I won't bore you with the rest of the details, but it involved two faxed letters that had to be written just so, and another month of waiting.

Today I got the remainder of our rebate, so alls well that ends well. But I think I'll avoid rebates from now on.