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Rebate or Rip-Off?

Software and hardware vendors lure customers with gaudy rebate offers. But will you ever see any cash back? Not necessarily.

  

Air Force captain Johnny Reed thought he'd found a winner. Avatar Peripherals' Shark 250, a portable storage system for notebooks, was selling at Computer City for $199 with a $50 rebate. He mentally adjusted the price down to $150--a deal by anyone's standards--and headed for the cash register. Never mind that he was actually paying $200. He just had to fill out the paperwork and wait a few weeks for his check.

At least that's what Reed thought when he bought the Shark back in September 1997. But after eight months, his $50 rebate check still hadn't arrived, and Reed had a different impression of Avatar's seemingly great deal and of rebates in general. "I love the product," he says, "but the rebates are a bigger hassle than they're worth."

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