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Clark Howard's Tips

Beware rebated cell phones online

June 12, 2006

Rebates are something people both love and hate. Rebate prices are great, but filling out all the paperwork is never fun.

As a result, Best Buy has been selling laptops at an instant rebate price. The company is going to phase out the regular rebate program and just offer instant rebates.

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In addition, BJ's and Costco allow you to file your rebates electronically, so it's very easy. Clark filed one recently that took 72 seconds.

Many people still have trouble with rebates, especially when buying cell phones online. One company, Inphonic, has received thousands of complaints for making it impossible for consumers to get the phone. One deal required that the phone be at least 120 days old, but the information had to be mailed in before that. So, it was mathematically impossible to do.

One of the affiliate shopping sites was Firefly, which Clark had on our Web site for a while. We took it down because it was so difficult to get the rebates.

In total, the BBB has received 2,210 complaints against this company, which is huge.

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