Posted by Gavin on 11/11/06 08:27

On 10 Nov 2006 01:11:13 -0800, "Damon" <todamon@gmail.com> wrote:

>Heracles Pollux wrote:
>
>> "Cash back" tends to suck as an inducement. If they are so keen in getting
>> one's business, they could include the discount without all the
>> administrative bull-shit in the first place.
>>
>> I tend to ignore these promotions and regard them as "strings attached".
>
>It is like the rebate promotions you see on US sites all the time,
>Instead of charging the customer a lower price, they charge full price
>and then you claim a rebate after so many days.
>Whoever thought of this was genius. they hold onto customers cash earn
>interest on it for 30 days and then give them back the portion of the
>buy price that they could have just discounted at the point of
>purchase.
>
>The only phone cashback offer I tried was where I was to get £50 back
>after 3 months, I chased and chased for this only to eventually find
>out that they had gone bust. Annoying as I had taken 2 phones out.
>
>Never again, if they can afford to give cash back, they can afford to
>reduce the price up front.
>

Not really, usually the cashback is from the commision they get from
signing you up which may not be paid for a few months in case the
customer cancells or defaults. Even if they were paid after 30 days
most companies run on at least a 30 day account cycle so it could be 3
months till the carriers pay the seller if they mananger to just get
the wrong time of the month

In any case as most phones are free to the end user with the cost
hidden anyway, it would be hard to reduce it

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