Anyone who knows me is aware that I am cheap enough that I will try to squeeze six pennies out of nickel. I cruise the net for coupons and rebates. This is free money manufacturers give away when you buy their stuff. Basically, it's an admission on the part of the manufacturer that what they are selling is not really worth what they are charging, and they can still make a healthy profit if you're too busy or too lazy to do the paperwork. At my rate of pay the time to do the paperwork costs nothing.
Rebates are processed through huge clearing houses that do nothing but try to find a way to disqualify your submission and delay fulfillment. Some rebate centers even have a policy that part of the process is that you have to contact the rebate center to find out the status of your rebate. They don't include that in the requirements, they just hope that you've forgotten about it or it's not worth the trouble to follow up for the $10 you're waiting for.
Today I realized that something I had seen once or twice in the past is becoming part of the standard rebate process. When you submit the web portion of the rebate requirements you are allowed to choose an "expedited process" that only takes 5-7 days, or you can wait the 8-10 weeks for standard processing. The expedited process is available for a "small transaction fee". For the rebate I submitted today, that meant $2 or the $20 in the rebate. Inflation is not so rampant that the value of the rebate will diminish by 10% in the next couple of months. I can wait.
