MIRs are the devil...

[Aeson]

Expenses:

- 15 sheets of paper printed out.
- 20 minutes of filling out forms and cutting stuff up.
- 4 useful boxes destroyed. (1 had the UPC/SN on an insert! Are they forming a soul?)
- Forfeiting the right of return (at newegg) if the parts fail within the timeframe they are covered. (~$700 in parts at risk here for 30-60 days.)
- 5 envelopes and stamps.

Potential "gains":

MIRs of 30, 30, 20, 20, and 10 if everything has been handled correctly and they don't just throw it away and pretend it never got there.

-----------------------------

Are there any advocacy groups to end MIRs? Is there any valid reason why MIRs need to exist? All this waste of time and resources just to reserve the right to screw people over... There are plenty of ways to screw people out of money without requiring chopping down trees and adding to fossil fuel consumption dammit!

Save the planet! Death to MIRs!

[notyoueither]

They can sell your name and address as part of their mailing lists.

They get to sell you product at a higher sticker price than you would pay and they can sit on the funds for 90 to 180 days (or longer) except they don't sit on it, they make money with it.

They discourage you from or eliminate your options for returning products to a dealer that has rights to return to them for any reason whatsoever. Sometimes it is worth $10 to make sure the product stays sold.

You could help end MIRs by not biting on them. Keep shopping, you'll generally find better deals.

[Kuciwalker]

They should be illegal.

[Aeson]

Originally posted by notyoueither
They can sell your name and address as part of their mailing lists.

They get to sell you product at a higher sticker price than you would pay and they can sit on the funds for 90 to 180 days (or longer) except they don't sit on it, they make money with it.

They discourage you from or eliminate your options for returning products to a dealer that has rights to return to them for any reason whatsoever. Sometimes it is worth $10 to make sure the product stays sold.

Yah... the bastards...

You could help end MIRs by not biting on them. Keep shopping, you'll generally find better deals.

I know... but without some form of advocacy group my own actions are virtually irrelevent. Not to mention that every manufacturer does it. I am personally blacklisting manufacturers who outright cheat on MIRs (Samsung), but short of avoiding computer products altogether there's not much hope of avoiding manufacturers who don't use MIRs. If there was (or is) a list of manufacturers who don't use MIRs at all, that would be something to consider.

As for the items... the MB was already the cheapest with it's feature-set and I likely would have bought it anyways. The video card was already the cheapest 8800GTX and is actually the best performing one... so would have bought it anyways. The PSU I definitely would have bought anyways. (Already bought 1 when it was $10 more expensive and without the MIR in fact.) The DVD Burner is... well a DVD Burner... and it was either the ASUS or the Samsung. I would have bought the ASUS even if it didn't have a MIR.

Part of me is cheering knowing that the manufacturers got less money out of me than they could have. But I know in the end they still "win" because of all the people who will pay more for the MIR and either screw up the horribly overcomplicated process, or be screwed over outright even if they don't make a mistake.

The RAM is the only one I bought because of the MIR while there were actual alternatives. But again, all the manufacturers are part of the problem, even if they don't have a MIR on that particular product I buy at the time, they still use them.

I guess what I'm saying is I wouldn't mind paying a higher price to get rid of these things. But while they're there, I can't very well just throw $110 in the trash. Odds are I come out ahead sending them in, though I have been screwed in the past.

It's all the waste that bothers me. Wasted time. Wasted materials. It's not $110 worth of waste, which is why I'm sending them in... but it's unnecessary waste all the same.

[Aeson]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
They should be illegal.

[notyoueither]

I'd be surprised if smaller, local dealers didn't have better prices on most of the stuff you mentioned. Of course, things could be different in different regions.

[Aeson]

In Cali the only ones who would have better prices would be selling hot items out of the back of a van... A practice I find almost as detestible as MIRs.

Even the large retailers never have that good of selection, and shopping around involves transportation costs as well as a lot of time. Plus I don't own a car. I really don't want to ride around on a bus with $1500 worth of computer components.

I just feel like whining about **** today.

[Aeson]

http://www.news.com/OfficeMax-bids-farewell-to-mail-in-rebates/2100-1047_3-6090290.html

OfficeMax

[Jon Miller]

Are you talking about Mail in Rebates?

I hate those, never do them, and don't include them what I consider the price to be.

JM

[Elok]

There's been a second MIR? Damned cunning Russkies...we never should have let them into space in the first place.

[LordShiva]

MIRs

Companies have lost thousands of dollars to me thanks to them. It's teh lazy and incompetent people who can't read instructions/don't bother to follow them who keep teh game going

[BeBMan]

What's a MIR (aside from the space station Elok meant) /stupid kraut

[Apocalypse]

Back in the day you could go into Best Buy and basically get unlimited free RAM due to MIRs.

[asleepathewheel]

I've been waiting on 200$ from Sprint since mid-august. Apparently scheduled to receive on or before Oct 29.

Enjoy the interest on my 200$ sprint.





I know one of Fry's sub contractors had a scandal recently where thousands of rebates were found in the dumpster.

[Provost Harrison]

I'm with BeBro...What are MIRs? Looks like Yank speak to me...